Skipsea Castle

Iron Age The mound which Skipsea Castle was built upon a much earlier Iron Age structure of comparable construction to Silbury Hill in Wiltshire. Internal examination in 2016, through core sample drilling revealed seeds and other organic matter dating the period of construction to around 400 BC. 11th – 12th centuries Skipsea Castle was built around 1086 by Drogo de Beavriere, a Flemish mercenary and the first Lord of Holderness, following the Norman Conquest of England and the subsequent Harrying of the North. The region was on the frontier of Norman power and the lordship was intended to protect central Yorkshire against potential Danish raids across the North Sea. Skipsea formed the administrative centre of Drogo's huge estates, which stretched from the Humber to Bridlington, as well as serving as his caput, or principal residence. ; B and C – castle motte and bailey; D – Skipsea Brough The name "Skipsea" has Scandinavian roots and meant a lake that was navigable by ships. In the medieval period the site was an inland harbour, connected via a navigable channel to the North Sea, which in the 21st century is only around away. The surrounding region was referred to as an "island" during this period, due to the surrounding estuary and flood plains. The site of the castle was strategically important, as it lay on the main trading route through the marshes and was accessible by the sea; the castle had military and economic functions, being designed both to control the newly conquered Norman lands and to manage trade in and out of the inland harbour. The castle took the form of a motte and bailey design, and a dam was probably constructed to turn the surrounding marshy, low-lying land into an artificial lake, called Skipsea Mere, in turn connected the channel leading to the sea. The complex had its own private harbour, and probably a boat yard and a fresh-water fishery. By the end of the 11th century a church had been built to the east of the castle across the mere, and the village of Skipsea soon grew up alongside the church. After the suspicious death of his wife Drogo fled England, and the castle was reassigned by William the Conqueror to Odo, the Count of Aumale. The town was intended to bring in valuable revenue to the earls, but would also have helped to defend the castle on its most vulnerable, overlooked side. The castle-guard system lapsed, with the surrounding estates paying their rents in cash instead. In January 1220 William de Forz, the Count of Aumale by marriage, rebelled against Henry III; part of their dispute involved the ownership of the estate of Driffield, away from Skipsea Castle, which Henry had seized the previous year, but William had been in disagreement with Henry's policies for several years before. William was promptly excommunicated and Henry moved quickly to suppress the revolt. The barons in the north were ordered to besiege William's castles, including Skipsea, and William shortly surrendered himself to the King and was ultimately pardoned. Following the rebellion, Henry ordered Skipsea Castle to be destroyed, although it is uncertain to what extent this order was actually carried out. William passed on the castle to his own son, another William, but on the death of his son's widow, Isabella, it passed to the Crown in 1293. Skipsea Mere was drained in the second half of the 14th century and by 1397 the castle was considered worthless: the of land around it became used for pasturing animals. The counts of Aumale used the manor house at nearby Cleeton when they visited the area. There were only three burgesses in the town paying rent in 1260, and by the late 14th century the town was largely abandoned; in 1377 there were only 95 people registered for the poll tax in the two settlements of Skipsea and Skipsea Brough combined. In 1911 the castle was placed into the guardianship of the Commissioners of Works and Public Buildings, later passing into the control of the government heritage agency English Heritage. Only a handful of buildings survive in the castle's planned town of Skipsea Brough. ==Architecture and landscape==

Skipsea Castle was a motte and bailey design, with the two parts of the fortification divided by Skipsea Mere. A curved channel, approximately in size and ultimately leading to the North Sea, flowed around down the south-west side of the motte, giving boats access to wharves along the inside of the bailey, and concluded in a possible boat yard at the eastern end of the channel. view of Skipsea Castle, Dringhoe manor house and deserted medieval village. The motte, constructed from sand and gravel, was deliberately built on a natural glacial mound, making it appear unusually large. It is in diameter and high, with a of space on the top, protected around the base by a high bank and a ditch up to wide, although when first built these would have been taller and deeper than today. There was a timber keep on the motte, and possibly a stone gatehouse at the south-east corner, leading onto the earthwork causeway that crossed the mere south to link the motte with the bailey. The eastern causeway linked the motte with the church in Skipsea village. The bailey was approximately , covering an area of around , curving around the west and south side of the castle. Its earthworks were built from clay, with a rampart up to high, protected by a wide ditch, originally up to deep. The main entrance to the bailey was positioned on the southern side, and was known as Bail Gate and guarded by a gatehouse, with a subsidiary entrance on the north side, linked by a path. A break in the earthworks, now called Scotch Gap, was cut out during the 13th-century destruction of the castle, and the bank has been damaged in other ways from the installation of drainage works. ==See also==