Sheriff Hutton Ringwork

Heritage listing

Details The monument includes the substantial remains of a ringwork, a Norman earthwork castle, sited immediately to the south of the Church of St Helen and Holy Cross. It also includes part of the associated bailey to the west, together with earthworks relating to the later use of the area to the south and east. The date of the castle is not known for certain. There is documentary evidence for a castle built at `Hoton' by Bertram de Bulman as a threat to Ripon c.1140. This was attributed to Sheriff Hutton, which is 11km from Ripon, but the reference is now thought to refer to Hutton Conyers, which is only 1.2km distant. Most ringworks were built immediately after the Norman Conquest or during the civil war between Stephen and Matilda (1138-1153). The earthwork castle at Sheriff Hutton was replaced by the stone built quadrangular castle, 500m to the west, begun by John Lord Neville of Raby in 1382. The castle has a small inner ward or courtyard about 20m square, surrounded by substantial earthwork ramparts with a deep ditch beyond. The external face of the ramparts forms a rectangle in plan, 50m east-west and 40m north-south. The eastern rampart is broader than either the north or south sides and has a slight terrace stepping down into the inner ward. The western side of the rampart is cut through to provide the entrance to the ward, with a causeway crossing the ditch at this point. The ramparts are at their highest either side of this west entrance. The ditch is `U' shaped in both cross section and plan, and extends around just the north, west and south sides of the ramparts. There is no earthwork evidence of an infilled eastern ditch to complete the circuit, nor that the ditch had an external bank. To the west of the inner ward, across the causeway over the ditch, the

From the Historic England List Entry under OGL v3.