The Gatehouse website record for Castle Steads, Rowley Farm, Esh Winning

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as; Castlesteads; Lanchester; Hamsteels

In the civil parish of Cornsay. In the historic county of Durham; County Palatinate of (Modern Authority of Durham, 1974 county of County Durham).

Series of three ditched and banked enclosures running east-west. The most westerly contains no obvious features, the central enclosure appears to have been a chapel sitewhilst the most easterly contains notable earthworks most probably of a manorial residence. Adey, Harvey and Haselgrove, describe the site as being granted to one William de Howden, an important diocesan clerk, by Bishop Pudsey in the late C12. By 1350 the site appears to have belonged to one William de Raw, upon whose death the estate of Cornsay passed to the Neville family, Earls of Westmoreland. There may have been a number of subsequent tenants and owners following which the site appears to have been abandoned in the mid C17.

The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is NZ17924276

Sources of information, references and further reading

This site's English Heritage (PastScape) Defra or Monument number is 22412
This site's County Historic Environment Record (formerly Sites and Monuments Record) number is D1840 '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.

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The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of English Heritage and other individuals and organisations. All the sources given should be consulted to identify the original copyright holder and permission obtained from them before use of the information on this site for commercial purposes. I do not receive any income from this site and I fund it myself.
The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.

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