Baile Hill

Baile Hill is an earth mound in York’s Bishophill district, the last trace of a fortification called the Old Baile. After William the Conqueror took York in 1068 he built a castle on the east bank of the River Ouse, then a second on the west bank the next year. Historians argue which came first, but agree the west-bank castle became the Old Baile. The mound was about twelve metres high and sixty-six metres wide, topped by a wooden lookout reached by steps and surrounded by a wooden palisade. A rectangular bailey lay to the north-west, defended by an earth bank and ditch. The castle saw little use after the 13th century. By then it belonged to the Archbishop of York, and Archbishop Melton promised to man it in wartime. Around 1340 part of York’s city wall was built along the south-east and south-west edges of the site, re-using the old ramparts and ditch. The only time these defences were tested was in 1644 during the Civil War, when royalists placed guns on Baile Hill. Mostly the mound served for grazing and leisure, especially archery practice in the Middle Ages. Today Baile Hill sits where Baile Hill Terrace meets Cromwell Road. Apart from the mound itself, only two shallow dips in the city wall mark where the old ditch once ran. The rest of the Old Baile is buried beneath rows of houses built in the 1880s.