Origins of the Castle

Tour of Pontefract Castle, part 6

William the ConquerorThree years after the battle of Hastings, William the Conqueror was ruthless in putting down a revolt in York. Moving north along the Great North Road he was held up by floods at Castleford. Here he saw the outcrop of Magnesian Limestone at Pontefract as an ideal site for a castle.

His men destroyed towns and villages, put men, women and children to the sword and initiated a famine by burning crops and slaughtering cattle.
The Harrying of the North
Simeon of Durham describes it;

“there was such hunger that men ate the flesh of their own kind, of horses and dogs and cats. Others sold themselves into perpetual slavery that they might be able to sustain their miserable lives. It was horrible to look into the ruined farmyards and houses and see the human corpses dissolved into corruption, for there were none to bury them for all were gone either in flight, or cut down by the sword and famine. None dwelt there and travellers passed in great fear of wild beasts and savage robbers.”
Hastings, 1066Few villages in this part of Yorkshire escaped the Harrying of the North. Most were still waste at the time of the Domesday survey 20 years later however, thanks to its commanding position, Pontefract made a gradual recovery.

Link

A website which gives a brief introduction to the history of the Castle.

Richard Bell,
wildlife illustrator

E-mail; 'richard@daelnet.co.uk'

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