After the rebellion that followed the death of the Conqueror, in 1088, the lands that had belonged to the Count of Mortain were forfeited. These included 7 curacates in another Leavening. The Count’s land in the area went to Nigel Fossard, who had been a subtenant of the Count. In the late 11th or 12th Centuries, he built a castle at Mount Ferrant on a headland on the escarpment of Birdsall Brow. Theses early castles were built of wood, some later being rebuilt in stone.

There are several legends, but history tells a different story. It was Henry II who ordered the destruction of Mount Ferrant, for William’s support of the rebellion of 1174 and that it was Robert de Stuteville, Sheriff of Yorkshire who carried out those orders and sent the wood to Meaux Abbey.

On his journeys through England and Wales between 1535 and 1543, John Leland, the Tudor antiquary noted that:

“Mount Ferraunt castelle stood 2 miles from Malton, in the lordship and paroche of Byredeshaul. It is now
 clerely defacid, and bussches grow where it stoode”.

From Leavening Through the Ages by Don Howarth

Location of Mt. Ferrant (above)

Photograph taken from bridle path to Mt. Ferrant Farm.
Below, notice the platform area from this more eastern angle