The
Unofficial Website
Conisbrough
Conisbrough is a sprawling village just over the border in Doncaster. The village is not much to write home about: as with many villages in South Yorkshire industry in the form of pits, quarries and railways had more than made its mark here. Conisbrough Castle though is worth seeing. I have not visited here for many, many years. I understand that it has been done up and that there are now guides and tours and costume weekends. In my day you used to buy a little leaflet, cost 10p, and wander round to your heart's content playing Ivanhoe.
Conisbrough Castle
The castle was known in Celtic as Caer Conan and in Old Norse and Old English as Conisbrough. These names mean 'The King's fortification'. The castle is situated in a strategic position on a hillside overlooking the river Don. It is possible that the Celtic population had a stockade or stronghold here. There is likely to have been an earth and timber
fortification in Anglo-Saxon times. The castle belonged to King Harold II (Godwinson) and was given by William the Conqueror to William de Warrene.
Conisbrough appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 as Coningesburg. About 1163 the present stone castle was built for Hamelin Plantagenet (Hamelyn Warrene) who
was half brother to Henry II. Throughout the Middle Ages the castle had its fair share of sieges and fighting but these bore little in common with the events pictured by Sir Walter
Scott in the novel 'Ivanhoe'. Now it is largely in ruins although the keep has been substantially restored. The castle is administered by English Heritage.
For more information and details of opening times and events visit their website www.conisbroughcastle.org.uk. Near the Castle is a tumulus. This is said, although there is no direct proof, to have been raised over the body of the Saxon Hengist, captured battle near Conisbrough about the year 488, and beheaded by the victor, Aurelius Ambrosius.
St Peter's Church
The church of St Peter's in Conisbrough is reputed to be one of the oldest churches in South Yorkshire. There is a weathered stone pillar in the churchyard, which is the remains of a preaching cross from around 300. A wooden church was then built on this site and later a stone church was erected in the eighth century. Over the years it had been subject to many alterations.
More information about St Peter's Church Conisbrough can be found at this website St Peter's Church Conisbrough.