{"id":926,"date":"2020-04-26T16:52:47","date_gmt":"2020-04-26T15:52:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/castlestudiestrust.org\/blog\/?p=926"},"modified":"2020-06-29T11:38:20","modified_gmt":"2020-06-29T10:38:20","slug":"hornby-castle-project-from-pre-conquest-to-war-of-the-roses-and-beyond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/castlestudiestrust.org\/blog\/2020\/04\/26\/hornby-castle-project-from-pre-conquest-to-war-of-the-roses-and-beyond\/","title":{"rendered":"Hornby Castle Project \u2013 from Pre-Conquest to War of the Roses and beyond"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Castle Studies Trust\u2019s expert grant assessor Erik Matthews reveals the findings of the 10 years (and counting) excavation he has been directing of Hornby Castle in Wensleydale North Yorkshire.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

  A programme of\narchaeological fieldwork involving excavation with some building recording has\nbeen in progress since 2010 with the new season due to commence as soon as\nconditions will allow. It has focussed on the site of a moated hunting lodge of\nthe Dukes of Brittany referred to in a Charter dated to 1115. It was\nsubsequently used as a \u201cpleasaunce\u201d for first the Nevilles of Redbourne in\nLincolnshire and later the Conyers \nbefore its destruction in a military attack at the end of the Wars of\nthe Roses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pre-conquest origins<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

  Recent work has focussed on the kitchen where\noven structures have been recovered with traces of a wooden tank for holding\nlive fish prior to their cooking. A stone sink with a wooden drain leading into\nthe moat to the north has been found with a cherry stone recovered from it. There\nwas also traces of a fireplace which collapsed with the remainder of the\nbuilding sending a plume of ash into the room. Following the discovery of\nresidual artefacts of Pre-Conquest date from the kitchen floor including a\ncarved walrus ivory handle, a sherd of Pre Conquest glazed pottery made in\nNorthern Germany and piece of  fine\nworked bone casket, it was decided to section the floor to find evidence of an\nearlier structure beneath. Evidence of a wooden floored, stave walled structure\nwas found which may be associated with the immediate Pre-Conquest tenant\nArnekill who was of noble birth and related to the Earls of Northumbria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

   Examination of the remains of the kitchen front wall yielded evidence of the ferocity of the destruction of the complex with the recovery of a large stone cannon ball (below)from a heavy calibre cannon which had become embedded in it. Close by a carved Nidderdale marble capital was found which has been dated to the 12th<\/sup> Century and which may have come from a chapel in nearby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Stone canon ball found in the kitchen front wall (copyright Erik Matthews)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Great Tower \u2013 post medieval survival?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 2019 season focussed on a section of the moat which\nlocated traces of a stone bridge abutment and wooden foot bridge surviving in\nthe moat silts heading towards an earthwork in an adjacent field.  The main discovery has however been evidence\nof an ashlar clad stone Great Tower. Two wall foundations 2.8 metres wide sunk\ninto a rock clad mortar embankment rising some 1.2 metres have been located to\nthe north and west. The north wall includes the remains of a robbed out spiral\nstair. Internal features include an internal chamber with very thick walls\nwhich may have been a strong room, also a corridor from the floor of which an\niron knife was recovered blade down! Evidence of an external doorway heading to\nthe north towards the area of the most bank has been recovered and a small\nsection of roofing lead together with lime slurry suggests an impressive\nstructure. The close proximity of the foundations to the modern ground surface\nsuggest tantalisingly that the structure may have survived as a ruin into the\nrelatively recent past. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information about the excavation please contact\nErik Matthews on rubyna dot matthews at btinternet dot com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Castle Studies Trust\u2019s expert grant assessor Erik Matthews reveals the findings of the 10 years (and counting) excavation he has been directing of Hornby Castle in Wensleydale North Yorkshire.   A programme of archaeological fieldwork involving excavation with some building recording has been in progress since 2010 with the new season due to commence as … Continue reading Hornby Castle Project \u2013 from Pre-Conquest to War of the Roses and beyond<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":928,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[163,178,177,176,174,175,179,173],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/castlestudiestrust.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/castlestudiestrust.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/castlestudiestrust.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/castlestudiestrust.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/castlestudiestrust.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=926"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/castlestudiestrust.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1073,"href":"https:\/\/castlestudiestrust.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926\/revisions\/1073"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/castlestudiestrust.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/castlestudiestrust.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/castlestudiestrust.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/castlestudiestrust.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}