There is some evidence to support the theory, so we sent our medieval structures correspondent Angus Young to have a poke around.
Roughly a mile from the edge of Bransholme and just over two miles from the village of Swine, a tree-covered mound overlooks pancake-flat fields. Mystery surrounds exactly when this man-made raised earthwork was first constructed. Some say it might have been a small Roman outpost, others point to the similarity with the much larger site of Skipsea Castle which is now thought to date back 2,500 to the Iron Age.
What is known through historical documentation is that a castle is first recorded as standing on the oval mound in 1292. However, it wouldn’t have been a huge castle with ramparts, high stone walls and turrets. Instead, the main building would have almost certainly been made from timber and was probably no larger than a modern day detached house.
The mound would also have featured a cluster of adjoining smaller timber buildings including stables, stores, workshops and a small chapel along with accommodation for the servants of whoever lived there. Circled by a timber fence, the mound was also protected by a moat or ditch which can still be traced today on aerial images of the site. The surrounding land was not drained until the later Medieval period so the castle would have sat on an island overlooking marshland.
Its location was no accident either as it lies next to Holderness Drain. Although the drain itself was built in the late 18th century, it replaced a more natural watercourse which provided a key transport route through the swampland – the ancient equivalent of the A63.
A digital reconstruction of how the castle may have looked in this period can now be seen on a new information board installed at the site courtesy of Benedict Dyson, a masters student in digital archaeology at York University who was recently commissioned by the Environment Agency as part of a major flood alleviation project on the surrounding land. The same project has added extra protection in the form of metal kissing gates aimed at restricting access to motorbikes.
Unusually for a Scheduled Ancient Monument, no archaeological excavation has ever been carried out there although amateur treasure hunters have reported numerous finds in nearby fields over the years. The first recorded castle resident is Sir John de Sutton who in 1352 was charged with having built “a castle, crenelated and battlemented at Bransholme, in which (the) castle and houses are one and the same tenement”. The charge was the equivalent of building something today without planning permission but, after some lobbying and the payment of a fine, a licence was granted by King Edward III along with a Royal pardon. It’s likely Sir John’s castle was built as a status symbol rather than for any military or defensive purpose, replacing the previous timber structures with something more robust.
What happened to the castle is not really known. Ownership passed down the family line for a few generations but references to it dry up in local history books to the point where the site eventually becomes known as Mansion Hill, suggesting a large country residence rather than a castle. Even the date when it was last used for human habitation is not known. There’s no surviving stonework above ground, just an overgrown hill and a few trees.
Even so, it’s worth a walk along Castlehill Road out into the open countryside just to soak up the atmosphere of an ancient site right on the city’s doorstep and imagine a time when someone actually called it home.