Listing
Search the List

What is Listing?

Listing Guidance

Apply for Listing

Missing Pieces Project

Blue Plaque Scheme
Listing

Find out about listed buildings and other protected sites, and search the National Heritage List for England (NHLE).

Find out about listing

Terracotta tiles on the roof of Saintoft Lodge, Newton-on-Rawcliffe, Ryedale, North Yorkshire. Grade II listed © Historic England Archive DP371715
Advice
Climate Change

Heritage at Risk

Your Home

Technical Guidance

Planning

Caring for Heritage

Constructive Conservation
Advice

See our extensive range of expert advice to help you care for and protect historic places.

Get our advice

A contractor cutting bricks for the wall of the partially-restored wild and natural walled garden at Warley Place, Brentwood. Explore our technical advice section © Historic England Archive DP313199
Research
Our Research Strategy and Agenda

Research Governance

Latest Research

Research Methods

Current Research

Research Results

Support & Collaboration

Inclusive Heritage

Heritage Counts
Research

Discover and use our high-quality applied research to support the protection and management of the historic environment.

Discover our research

Archaeologist Dr David Neal discussing his illustration of the mosaic being excavated at Rutland Roman Villa with members of the University of Leicester Archaeological Services team View image DP264265 © Historic England
Images & Books
Find Photos

Search All Publications

Buy Books

The Historic England Archive
Images & Books

Historic England holds an extensive range of publications and historic collections in its public archive covering the historic environment.

Browse our collections

Children play with a doll and a pram on the cobbled Church Path in Queen Camel, Somerset, in April 1953. At the far end of the path is the tower of the Church of St Barnabas, which dates to the 14th century. Photographer: John Gay Image reference: AA091596 © Historic England Archive
Services & Skills
Education

Grants

Our Planning Services

Training & Skills

Archive Services

Heritage Action Zones

Levelling Up Places Service
Services & Skills

Find out about services offered by Historic England for funding, planning, education and research, as well as training and skill development.

Learn about our services

Heritage Apprentices in a training session on the Researching The Historic Environment module and training in Architectural Photography. Find out more about Heritage Apprenticeships © Historic England Archive DP347660
What's New
News

In Your Area

Historic England Blog

Latest Research

Heritage Online Debate

Statements

Stay up to Date
What's New

Read about our current news, projects and campaigns nationally and in your area.

Catch up with what's new

Two horsemen reading The Sportsman, 30 Oct 1902, Farnborough, Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire. Part of the Alfred Newton and Sons collection. Source Historic England Archive. BB98/02592
About Us
What We Do

Who We Are

How We Are Funded

Contact Us

Careers

Volunteer with Historic England
About Us

Historic England is the public body that helps people care for, enjoy and celebrate England's spectacular historic environment.

Find out more

Mountbatten House (formerly Gateway House), Basing View, Basingstoke, the former headquarters for the paper merchants Wiggins Teape by Arup Associates. Listed at Grade II. © Historic England
Sign in
Manage my account

Sign out

Medieval moated site and later fortified manor house known as Bury Castle 100m west of the parish church

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1015128
Date first listed:: 27-Jan-1976

User submitted image — Uploaded by Paul Adams This photo may not represent the current condition of the site
View all

Location

Location of this list entry and nearby places that are also listed. Use our map search to find more listed places.

This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale.

What is the National Heritage List for England?

The National Heritage List for England is a unique register of our country's most significant historic buildings and sites. The places on the list are protected by law and most are not open to the public.

The list includes:

🏠 Buildings
🏰 Scheduled monuments
🌳 Parks and gardens
⚔️ Battlefields
⚓ Shipwrecks

Find out more about listing

Historic England Archive

Search over 1 million photographs and drawings from the 1850s to the present day using our images archive.

Find Photos

Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1015128
Date first listed:: 27-Jan-1976
Date of most recent amendment:: 02-Jan-1997

Location

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

District:: Bury (Metropolitan Authority)
Parish:: Non Civil Parish
National Grid Reference:: SD 80345 10850

Reasons for Designation

Around 6,000 moated sites are known in England. They consist of wide ditches, often or seasonally water-filled, partly or completely enclosing one or more islands of dry ground on which stood domestic or religious buildings. In some cases the islands were used for horticulture. The majority of moated sites served as prestigious aristocratic and seigneurial residences with the provision of a moat intended as a status symbol rather than a practical military defence. The peak period during which moated sites were built was between about 1250 and 1350 and by far the greatest concentration lies in central and eastern parts of England. However, moated sites were built throughout the medieval period, are widely scattered throughout England and exhibit a high level of diversity in their forms and sizes. They form a significant class of medieval monument and are important for the understanding of the distribution of wealth and status in the countryside. Many examples provide conditions favourable to the survival of organic remains.

The moated manor house was superseded by a fortified house on the moated platform. Fortified houses contain a mixture of domestic and military elements. The nature of the defences in this case include a curtain wall inside the moat, a gatehouse and possibly other towers and probably crenellated parapets to the walls. There would have been a hall and kitchens, storage and service areas within the walls. There may have been other buildings outside the moat in which granaries, stables and barns were located. The fortified house is a rare monument type with fewer than 200 identified in England. All examples exhibiting significant surviving archaeological remains are considered to be of national importance. The moated manor and subsequent fortified house at Bury survive as well preserved buried features on the site. Excavations in the 1970s have revealed the extent of the features and their state of preservation. The survival of the type of fortified manor is rare in the region and this one may be compared with the example at Radcliffe not far away. The protected area will contain much important information about the fortifications and the domestic and military regimes within the extent of the walls. The moat will contain more information about the surrounding environment at the time of occupation and later years. This will also enhance our knowledge of the settlement of the town in this period.

Details

The monument includes the buried remains of a medieval moated manor house which was fortified after a licence was granted by Edward IV in 1469. It became known as Bury Castle. The castle belonged to the Pilkington family between 1350 to 1489. It passed to the Stanley family by forfeiture to the Crown and from that date the buildings were allowed to fall into decay. The remains were finally destroyed during the Civil War after Royalists, having taken shelter in the ruins, surrendered following the Battle of Ribblesdale. The original platform for the moated manor house measured 47m by 41m with a moat 6m wide and 1.5m deep. The platform was constructed of clay and gravel supported by large pebbles. On this the original house was built in stone with walls 2m thick. This measured 25m by 20m. This building forms the bulk of the later fortified dwelling. At the time of fortification the moat was cleaned and widened and the platform reduced by 6m on average on the southern side. The vertical inside slope was revetted in stone providing a foundation for a buttressed curtain wall around the platform and a small tower on the south side. On the east side a bridge was constructed in stone. Subsequent developments on the site included the dismantling of the available stonework for other buildings and the erection of stock fences and digging of rubbish pits on the platform. The moat became filled with refuse. Parts of the site were excavated between 1972 and 1977 and revealed the sequences of occupation on the site and showed that substantial parts of the buttressed curtain wall survive in foundations on the site where later buildings with cellars have not destroyed the remains. All road surfaces are excluded from the scheduling, although the ground beneath them is included.

MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract. It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features, considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:: 27595
Legacy System:: RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Tindall, A, The Moated House, (1985), 57-72
Other
Tyson, N, Excavations at the Site of Bury Castle, (1986)
Tyson, N, Excavations at the Site of Bury Castle, (1986)

Legal

This monument is scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 as amended as it appears to the Secretary of State to be of national importance. This entry is a copy, the original is held by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.