More information : [NY 86127680] (3) Moat Hill represents the remains of a motte and bailey probably dating from the first half of the 12th century. Raised on a flat-topped, natural hill, the motte stood in the N.W. corner. Its site is now occupied by modern farm buildings, but two fragments of bank are still visible, one on the north side against the wall surrounding the stockyard, and the other at the S.E. corner of the hill-top. The ditch between motte and bailey can also be traced as a shallow depression crossing the farmyard. The pele of Wark is mentioned in 1399, and a tower in 1415, but all trace of it has vanished. (1)
A Manor House of the Ratcliffes was subsequently erected on the site but only a doorway of it remains and this is incorporated in one of the present farm buildings. (2)
NY 86127680- surveyed at 1/2500. The Ratcliffe doorway is incorporated in a small outbuilding at NY 86107680, and carries a stone inscribed 1676. See Illustration card (3)
Survey checked: No change (4)
Listed by Cathcart King. (5)
Moat or Moot Hill was the site of Anglian Council meetings until 1165 when William the Lion made Wark the centre of his Liberty and ceated a motte and bailey on the site. The Scottish Kings held Tynedale liberty for homage only until 1295. A series of people held the lordship and used Wark as their administrative and judicial centre. The Crown took possession early 15th century and 1495 the liberty status was revoked, Tynedale became subject to laws of state.
It was replaced by a stone tower, first documented in 1399 but probably built a century earlier. By 1541 the tower was ruinous and was replaced by a fortified tower. Wark manor passed through Lordly hands until after the 1715 Jacobite fiasco it was granted to Greenwich Hospital. The Duke of Northumberland bought it in 1835. Sometime in the late 17th or early 18th century the buildings were demolished and the top of the hill levelled, except for a short dyke which may be a remnant of the bailey. Farmhouse and buildings were erected on the site, where a Tudor door-head has been inserted into one of the buildings, probably removed and saved from the 1541 mansion. (6)
|