En un regard
Le château en bref
Driffield Castle, known locally as Moot Hill, is a Norman motte. It stands in the north of the town of Driffield, in the East Riding of Yorkshire. Historic England protects both the motte-and-bailey castle and the site of a medieval moated manor. The surviving mound is up to 4.5 m high and about 40 m in diameter, and is partly surrounded by a ditch some 15 m wide. It was originally larger, as gravel quarrying removed part of it in 1856-1858.
The site has a long history. Excavations carried out in 1975 uncovered fourth-century Roman occupation beneath the motte. Tradition also places here the palace of the Northumbrian king Aldfrith, who died at Driffield in 705 according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. The manor belonged to the royal demesne in 1086, and a document of 1208 mentions the castle's bailey. From the eleventh to the fifteenth century, the estate passed between the Crown and its successive grantees. In 1893, drainage works revealed a chalk foundation and a moat up to 3 m deep on the west side.
The antiquarian J. R. Mortimer first took the mound for a Bronze Age barrow, then for an Anglo-Saxon moot mound. The 1975 excavations confirmed that it is a Norman motte. The monument remains in fairly good condition, but it is surrounded by modern buildings and the bailey has almost disappeared.