Kirby Hill Information including Gayles and Dalton

Oral Tradition 1848 James Coates, an old resident at Kirkby Ravensworth, "can remember having heard his father say, that he assisted, when young, to lead stones from the heap called Stone Man, to make the fences at the time of the enclosure of the commons.

"That in so doing, the skeleton of a man was found; and that Mr. Wycliffe, who then lived at Gayles Hall, ordered that the bones should be replaced, and gave a man of the name of Porter half-a-crown to build up the stones in the form they assume at the present time." He further says, that "his father found another skeleton in a stone coffin on a neighbouring hill, between Stone Man and the farm house called Feldom Rig Farm ; the height is on the south of the road, and is called Springs Hill.

"His father was quarrying stones at the time when he broke into the place; and in the square coffin was a cael pot, but what was in it is unknown, though it was said at the time that his father had found money in it [Oral Tradition 1848]

[See below for more information on the skeletons found.]

CASTLE STEADS Is the name of a camp above Dalton, iii the parish of Kirkby Ravensworth ; it is in good preservation, though immersed in plantations, and difficult to survey. See the accompanying Plan.

It stands on an elevated promontory, being about 800 feet above the sea, and at the junction of a small brook with the Dalton Beck.

The sides of the hill have been scarped down, apparently to strengthen the position, originally strong by nature, and, to give room for a large force, the terre pleine has been extended towards the south 300 yards, so as to join the higher parts of the brook by a strong entrenchment running from the small stream to the Beck, a distance of about
270 yards.

In this rampart, towards the east end, is a gateway, to which there is an inflexion of the line of defence. The area of the whole is about 30 acres.

No remains have been found to aid our conjectures as to the origin of this camp ; but, as great care appears to have been taken to make the irregular line of the ground conform to a general curve, particularly on the east side, where, to preserve the line of the ditch, a sort of counterscarp and short glacis have been formed at each end, the construction is probably not British, or, if British, more recent additions, the work of Saxons or Danes, have been made to it.

It much resembles one of those promontory camps on the coast of Cornwall, which, according to Borlase, were made more as a defence against the inhabitants by the sea kings, than for the defence of the people themselves.

Though there have not been found any remains in the entrenchment, there are tumuli in the neighbourhood, which have been accidentally opened, and skeletons found therein.

The stone pillar, called Stone Man, which is about a mile south west of Castle Steads, was a stone tumulus, which, being destroyed to form the fences at the general enclosure of the moors, was found to cover a skeleton ; the resident proprietor at Gayles Hall (Mr. Wyclifle) had the bones replaced, and the present irregular structure raised over
them.

Another tumulus, according to the same tradition, was on a height three quarters of a mile south-east of Stone Man, and a quarter of a mile south of Feldom Rig ; this is said to have contained a stone chest, or coffin, and by the side of it a cad pot, containing coins, but the discovery of the coins is disputed.

There is also a round hill with fir trees on it, on the road from Gayles, over the moors, a little south of a cottage called Paces House, which has much the appearance of an ancient tumulus. It seems placed as a guide to mark the turn towards the entrance to the camp along the line of approach from the eastward, which is probably an ancient road.

S. Felix, B., A.D. 650. A monk, brought over from France by King Sigebert, who had been converted while in exile there, to preach Christianity to the East Angles; he landed on the Suffolk coast and
resided at the village still called Felixstowe after him. He is called the Apostle, and was the first Bishop of East Anglia, fixing his see at Dunwich, and governing it with much piety and prudence for seventeen years; he was interred in a monastery which he founded at Soham, Cambridgeshire. He is commemorated in the old English calendar on
March 8th. The Churches of Philley, Cornwall, Babingley, Norfolk, and Feliskirk, Yorkshire, are named in his sole honour, and Kirkby Ravensworth, Yorkshire, conjointly to SS. John Evangelist and Felix.

April 1855 Obituary: At Helwith House, Kirby Ravensworth, aged 74, James Hutchinson,esq.

1832 Byers Robert, Gayles Hall, Gayles, nr. Richmond, farmer, shareholder in DARLINGTON DISTRICT JOINT STOCK BANKING COMPANY.

Page updated on: 25/10/2008