Halton with Aughton

Aughton

Situated at the edge of the parish, a couple of miles from the centre of Halton, is the small hamlet of Aughton. There has been a settlement in Aughton for over 1000 years and today, as has been the case throughout its history, farming plays a very significant part in the life of the village.

Although the numbers of people living in and around Aughton are not large, there is a thriving community life which is centred on the village hall and St Saviour’s Church. The church offers a regular programme of services, including at all major Christian festivals.

The churchyard has been managed for biodiversity for many years and in the spring and summer months you can see lovely displays of wild flowers around the church.

Rarely a week passes without something happening in the hall and as well as its regular programme of events the hall is available for private bookings. The facilities include a children’s playground outside and catering, indoor sporting and high speed internet facilities. Car parking is also available. Details of church services and hall activities are published in the Prattle and for more details about using the hall you can contact aughtonsecretary@gmail.com

War Memorial & Garden

The War Memorial was built after the first World War. It was refurbished in 2018 ready for the Centenary commemoration, with the work being paid for via donations from local residents and a grant from the War Memorial Trust. 

The Memorial Garden is the responsibility of the Parish Council, but actively planted and maintained by Halton Gardening Group. 

It was donated to the village in 1935 by the Reverend John Harold Hastings, in memory of his parents and of his brother Captain George Herbert Hastings who was killed in action in France in 1915.

Castle Hill

A hundred yards to the north-east of the parish church, upon the top of a lofty cliff on the other side of the little beck, towers a circular artificial mound of earth, which bears the name of the ‘Castle Hill.’ This and some adjacent earthworks are the remains of a small mount and court castle, which is very strikingly situated.

The site is nearly 200 yds. away from the present banks of the Lune, which runs through the flat meadows below. It is at an altitude of 100 ft. above the sea and 90 ft. above the river. It is situated at the extreme corner of a promontory, formed by the deep valley of the Cote Beck where it has cut its way to join the low-lying river. The ground falls almost precipitously for 50 ft. or so on the sides next the brook, the south-west and south, while to the south-east it is but slightly less steep. On the north side, however, it is only separated from equally high ground behind by a slight depression, and at less than 200 yards’ distance the hill rises about 25 ft. higher. As long as weapons were short in range the position would be a magnificent one, and the command from the top of the mount complete; but with the advent of the long-bow it would not be at all secure. The view from the fortalice is extensive on every side except the north; it ranges both up and down the valley of the Lune and over the undulating ground across the river to the distant hills beyond; Lancaster is just visible to the south-west.


Halton mount is visibly artificial, and, as usual, circular and conical, with a truncated top ; it is about 100 ft. in diameter at its base, and rises 12 ft. above the level of the bailey, the top measuring about 35 ft. across. The fosse which once separated the mount from the bailey has been almost filled in by former ploughings, but it is still traceable by the curved depression along its course, and is especially recognizable where the rampart of the bailey approaches the mount from the north. There is no fosse round the mount on its west, south, and south-east sides, where the steep, and in places almost precipitous, natural slopes, which were possibly artificially scarped as well, formed ample protection.


The bailey lies to the north-east of the mount and is crescentic in shape. The area of it and its defences and those of the mount taken together is hardly an acre. Its interior has apparently been raised artificially to a height of about 4 ft. above its immediate surroundings; this in order to command equally high ground near it on the north. The site shows traces of ancient ploughing, which has largely obliterated the former defences; but a rampart of varying height is still visible on the north-west and north sides and is traceable on the north-east; the fosse outside this has evidently been well-nigh filled by former cultivation of the field, and is now only to be identified by a depression about half-way round, beginning from the west.
The highest surviving portion of the rampart is now only 2 ft. in height above the level of the bailey, and 6 ft. above the ground outside, from which position it is best viewed. The hill upon which the castle is situated has been grazed for the past fifty years or more, and all its steep slopes, both artificial and natural, have become terraced by the continual tread of animals. This has also tended to obliterate the previously ploughed defensive earthworks. There are no signs of any masonry about the castle, and its palisades must, therefore, have been of wood.


The church of Halton, just across the beck below the mount, is rebuilt upon an ancient foundation, and there is a Saxon cross standing beside it.
The mount has been often described as sepulchral, and also as a Roman botontinus, but there is no doubt that it is a mount and court earthwork castle of the usual type.


The motte and bailey castle at Halton is one of a series of such monuments flanking the Lune valley and is thus of particular importance in contributing to an understanding of the post-conquest land settlement and development of the feudal system in the area. Its earthworks survive well and the lack of subsequent occupation on the site, particularly in the bailey, means that buried structural remains and environmental evidence will survive well.