A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



the vale below. The top of the mount is truncated and nearly circular, 

 measuring about 80 ft. in diameter, and is at least 22 ft. higher than the 

 north end of the bailey. It is surrounded by a wall upon every side except 

 the south, where the bailey abuts upon it. This wall, which is i 2 ft. high 

 inside and 6 ft. thick, is very rudely built of limestone rubble, and has every 

 appearance of having formed the first defence erected upon the rock. On 

 the southern half of the summit area a square tower has been built inside the 

 wall ; this tower is also of early workmanship, but is apparently of later date 

 than the above-named hastily constructed wall, as it contains lintels, &c., of 

 dressed sandstone. The bailey (B) lies to the south of the mount at a lower 

 level ; it is now cut up by modern terracing, and is so altered by this and by 

 the erection of the steward's residence that it is difficult to identify its 

 original limits ; as far as we can judge by Buck's view of the castle as it 

 appeared a.d. 1727, and by the present condition of the site, both it and the 

 mount together probably covered only about three-quarters of an acre. This 

 bailey is also in part encircled by a thick wall of limestone. Possibly there 

 was also an outer court (C) at a still lower level, which extended some 260 ft. 

 south of the mount. No fosses are now visible about the bailey, though they 

 once existed, as shown by documents mentioning the ' castle ditches ' and 

 ' moats ' as early as i 304. About ' a furlong to the south of the castle and 

 much lower down,' Clark alludes to a straight bank of earth with an exterior 

 ditch ; this he thought was very likely an outwork. The ancient entrance 

 to the castle was apparently on the east side, where the present steep road 

 from the town leads up to the modern residence ; the approach on the west 

 side seems to be of more recent date. 



As far back as 1 102 a grant by Robert de Lacy includes ' houses which 

 formerly belonged to Orme the Englishman,' situated both within and below 

 ' le Bailie * of the castle. Supposing this word ' formerly ' to refer to but very 

 few years prior to 1 102, there is great probability in the suggestion that the 

 mount and court castle of Clitheroe was originally constructed by the great 

 Roger the Poitevin, and that it was the castle referred to (though not by 

 name) in Domesday Book, where Barnoldswick and Colton are described 

 about 1086 as in castellatu (the castelry or honour) Rogerii pictavensis. 



The castle at Clitheroe is specially interesting for two reasons. First, 

 because it is an undoubted example of a mount and court fortress whose 

 defences were from the first, owing to local circumstances, of stonework 

 instead of the usual earthwork and timber. Secondly, because we are able to 

 date its origin as above very closely, certainly within fifteen years.' 



H ALTON (2 J miles north-east of Lancaster). — A hundred yards to the 

 north-east of the parish church, upon the top of a lofty clifFon the other side of 

 the little beck, towers a circular artificial mound of earth, which bears the 

 name of the ' Castle Hill.' This and some adjacent earthworks are the 

 remains of a small mount and court castle, which is very strikingly situated. 



The site is nearly 200 yds. away from the present banks of the Lune, 

 which runs through the flat meadows below. It is at an altitude of 100 ft. 

 above the sea and 90 ft. above the river. It is situated at the extreme corner 



' Dom. Bk. fol. 332 ; Clark, Mil. and Med. Arch, i, 397, 402 ; Farrer, Lams. Pipe Rolls, 385 ; Armitage, 

 Engl. Hist. Rev. xix, 225-7 i Baines, Hist. Lanes, (ed. 1868), ii, I 5 ; Buck, Antiquities (ed. 177+) ; Ord. Surv. 

 .-in. 68, old 92 SW. ; 6-in. 47 SW. ; 25-in, 47, 14. 



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