Kirkbymoorside, Neville Castle

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as; Kirkby Moorside; Manor Garth; Castle Wall

In the civil parish of Kirkbymoorside. In the historic county of Yorkshire North Riding (Modern Authority of North Yorkshire, 1974 county of North Yorkshire).

The buried and standing remains of a late medieval hunting lodge. Neville Castle is believed to have replaced the moated manor house on Vivier's Hill, 500m to the south east, as the main seat of the manor of Kirbymoorside which was held by the Neville family from the beginning of C15 until 1569, when it was forfeited to the Crown. In 1570 Neville Castle was described as a C16 hunting lodge set in a park with a boundary circuit of 2.5 miles. Excavations in the early 1960s and in 1974 uncovered a complex sequence of buildings and modifications to buildings on the site, starting with a timber crick framed hall which was occupied until the end of C15, when it was replaced by a larger, more grandiose set of stone buildings arranged around a courtyard. Most of the remains of Nevilles Castle survive as buried deposit, but there are at least four sections of exposed masonry. King writes appears not to be genuinely fortified.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is SE694869

Air Photo from Air Photo and general mapping	1st edition OS Map from Mid to late 19th century maps
Modern Map from Landscape form and features	Modern Map from General location and route planning
Geograph British Isles occasionally has photos of the site and will usually give an idea of the surrounding landscape.

Sources of information, references and further reading

This site's English Heritage (PastScape) Defra or Monument number is 58668
This site's County Historic Environment Record (formerly Sites and Monuments Record) number is MNY1218 'grey' literature, such as watching brief reports, held by H.E.R.s is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded in this website.

• Books
  • Salter, Mike, 2001, The Castles and Tower Houses of Yorkshire (Malvern) p53
    Jackson, M.J., 2001, Castles of North Yorkshire (Carlise) p38
    King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol2 p520 [reject]
    Le Patourel, H.E. Jean, 1973, The Moated Sites of Yorkshire (The Society for Medieval Archaeology Monograph Series 5) p119-20 [Where description seems to half apply to Stutville Castle]
    Illingworth, J.L., 1938 (republished 1970), Yorkshire's Ruined Castles (Wakefield)
    Page, Wm (ed), 1914, VCH York, North Riding Vol1 p511-14 http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=64794
    Whellan T, 1859, History and Topography of the City of York and the North Riding of Yorkshire Vol2 p235, 238
• Journal Articles
  • Dennison, Ed and Richardson, Shaun with contributions by Erik Matthews, 2007-8, 'Recent Work on some North Yorkshire Castles' Castle Studies Group Journal Vol21 p157-166
    Williams, R., 1977, 'An Excavation at Neville Castle, Kirkbymoorside, North Yorkshire, 1974' Yorkshire Archaeological Journal Vol49 p87-96
    Dornier, A., 1970, 'Neville Castle, Kirkbymoorside: Excavations 1963 and 1965' Yorkshire Archaeological Journal Vol42 p87-96
    1966, Medieval Archaeology Vol10 p205 [downloadable via http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/resources.html?medarch]
    1964, Medieval Archaeology Vol8 p274-5 [downloadable via http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/resources.html?medarch]
• Other sources, 'grey' literature, unpublished works, etc. (Theses, in-house reports and other such)
  • Richardson, S. and Dennison, E., 2007, Neville Castle, Kirkbymoorside: Photographic Survey and Archaeological Observations (unpublished EDAS report 2004/247.R01 for English Heritage)