ONE of the most important historic sites in Driffield is to be sold at public auction – with a guide price of just £25,000 to £30,000.

The town’s medieval motte and bailey castle at Moot Hill will be auctioned at Beverley Race Course on September 7.

Keith Miller, Inspector of Ancient Monuments at the York office of English Heritage, said: “Despite earlier antiquarian excavations, 19th century stone quarrying and the surrounding housing developments, the site at Moot Hill remains largely untouched.”

“Due to the importance of the site and its designation as a scheduled monument all 2.33 acres up for sale could not be built on or developed in any way.

“We would be pleased to hear from any potential buyers to discuss how the site could be better managed to preserve it for future generations.”

David Bull, the LEADER Coast, Wolds, Wetlands and Waterways Rural Heritage Officer added: “Moot Hill would be an ideal focus for a community archaeology project.

Given the limitations on the use of the site and the importance of it to the history of Driffield it would make a wonderful educational public green space a short walk from the town centre.”

The mayor of Driffield Coun Joyce Fletcher said that her personal view was that the site should be retained for the people of Driffield.

However, the town council is currently on a summer break and the first meeting is September 6 – the day before the auction – which would be too short notice to take decisive action.

The impressive earthwork monument is protected as a nationally important archaeological monument under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979.

The castle, which had royal connections, dates from the 11th Century and is thought to have been occupied on and off until the 15th Century. Like many other similar Norman motte and bailey castles such as Clifford’s Tower York, it would have functioned as a defensive stronghold for the local lord and as a centre for administering and policing the local region.

Centered on the motte or mound, it would have had earthwork defences with timber palisades and buildings, although during the course of the Middle Ages some buildings may have been rebuilt in stone. Its bailey or outer courtyard is referred to in a document of 1208 AD. The origins of the site as a regional centre go back to before the Norman Conquest. Moot Hill is also associated with the site of a possible eighth century Northumbrian royal palace, referred to in connection with Driffield in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for the year 705 AD. The Chronicle suggests that King Aldfrith, who ruled Northumbria from 685 AD, possessed a palace at Driffield, and this area is the most likely location. And earlier still, the remains of 4th century Roman occupation were found beneath the motte in excavations in the 1970s.

The site, close to the old Highfield Country Club, is protected by an English Heritage listing which states that “this monument is scheduled under the ancient monuments and archaeological areas Act 1979 as amended as it appears to the Secretary of State to be of National importance.”