York Historic Environment Record

Tower 3 (NG 60185117. Pl. 19; Fig. p. 92), at the S. angle, is probably the 'Biche Doughter tower already shronken from the Citie wall' mentioned in 1566 (fn. 14) and presumably identical with the king's gaol called 'le bydoutre' repaired in 1451–2. (fn. 15) It was probably rebuilt in 1645 when E. Gyles was granted £48 'to repaire the decayes in the corner of the cittyes walls on the ould Baile & the other decay thereto adjoyning ... & to make a watch house of brick & stone 5 yerds in length & 2 yerds & a halfe broad within'. (fn. 16) In 1834 it was described as a cow house lighted by narrow loops. (fn. 17) It is oddly placed to the W. of the angle, with a short length of wall linking it with the return of the main S.E. stretch, but it already had the same form in c. 1682.
The tower is an irregular circle with the arcs of the curves inside and outside the walls struck from different centres. On the outer face are a double chamfered plinth below a batter and a stone water-spout projecting on the S.E. slightly below the present platform. The interior, though largely solid, contains a roughly rectangular room entered by a passage from a doorway to the N. with a small window above it. The room and passage are vaulted in brick. In the S. wall is a small recess and in the N. corner a fireplace, perhaps 16th-century and reused, with a brick chimney blocked by the flagstones of the platform but which must once have risen above the parapet; the chimney is shown apparently in use in 1676 (illn. opp. p. 184).

¶Along the wall between Towers 3 and 4 masons' marks are frequent on the lower five courses. Where the wall crosses the former ditch of the Old Baile castle it has clearly been rebuilt on several occasions. There are three stretches of brick patching probably of the 17th century on the inner face, the longest being where the wall crossed the N.W. ditch of the castle bailey. The parapet is a 19th-century rebuild since a view of 1718 shows much of it as having musket loops and in 1736 Drake stated that the parapet in this section had been levelled. (fn. 18)
http://www.british-history.ac.uk/rchme/york/vol2/pp90-107

Bitch-daughter Tower 1330-40, remodelled 1645. Bitch-daughter Tower irregular circle on plan.
Extract from English Heritage LB download dated: 22/08/2005

RCHME, 1972, An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the City of York, Volume II The Defences, p91-92 (Monograph). SYO63.

NMR, 2019, NMR data (Digital archive). SYO2214.