239 



days travelled al)Out a good deal, and held their courts in many- 

 parts of the country, and administered justice, etc., and this is one 

 of the chief of the petty castles at the west end of the valley leading 

 from the A'ale of York to Mnlgrave Castle, along a line of Baronial 

 Castles. The large crescent shaped earthwork North of the Church 

 is a puzzle, and may not have been connected with the Norman 

 fortress at all, but a Saxon one, as they were of large area to 

 protect numbers of people ; the Burghs built by the Saxons seem 

 never to have had moats, and to have been simply enclosures, 

 differing from the moated mounds of the 9th and 10th centuries. 



The present remains of the Castle consist of a very fine 

 Gateway-tower, with the Arms of Meinell, D'Arcy and Gray, and 

 Graves thinks the Castle was erected or repaired about the latter 

 part of Richard II. ; this was probably the case, and the architecture 

 is 14lh century. 



The walls are enormously thick and have within theni stone 

 stairs and ])assages — there was a double portcullis and a beautifully 

 groined passage between them 10 feet wide, and a guard room on 

 either side, with rooms over them containing lire places ; this 

 groining was pulled down some years ago, — a great piece of 

 vandalism — there was a draw bridge over the moat and the mound 

 was walled all round, some of the foundations remaining. When 

 the new Church M-as built a quarter of a century ago, the foundation 

 of the buildings inside the base-court were dug up for the 



