Moated site 100m north of Parkhouse Farm

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1008292
Date first listed:: 14-Sep-1993

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1008292
Date first listed:: 14-Sep-1993
Date of most recent amendment:: 08-Feb-1994

Location

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

District:: East Riding of Yorkshire (Unitary Authority)
Parish:: Leconfield
National Grid Reference:: TA 00996 41988

Reasons for Designation

Around 6,000 moated sites are known in England. They consist of wide ditches, often or seasonally water-filled, partly or completely enclosing one or more islands of dry ground on which stood domestic or religious buildings. In some cases the islands were used for horticulture. The majority of moated sites served as prestigious aristocratic and seigneurial residences with the provision of a moat intended as a status symbol rather than a practical military defence. The peak period during which moated sites were built was between about 1250 and 1350 and by far the greatest concentration lies in central and eastern parts of England. However, moated sites were built throughout the medieval period, are widely scattered throughout England and exhibit a high level of diversity in their forms and sizes. They form a significant class of medieval monument and are important for the understanding of the distribution of wealth and status in the countryside. Many examples provide conditions favourable to the survival of organic remains.

Despite its overgrown state this moated site survives reasonably well. Evidence of buildings will survive on the island and artefactual and organic remains will be preserved in the silted moat.

Details

The monument is a moated site north of Parkhouse Farm, one of a pair of moats at the farm. It includes a central sub-rectangular raised platform measuring 40m by 35m. This island is surrounded by a heavily silted moat 10m-15m wide and 1m to 1.5m deep. Access to the island is now afforded by an earthen causeway across the north-eastern arm of the moat, although this is not thought to be original. The moat is thought to have been constructed in the 16th century after Henry VIII extended the Leconfield Deer Park into the parish, and may be the site of a brick lodge, 'made for a house of pleasure', which Leland recorded in 1577.

MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract. It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features, considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:: 21174
Legacy System:: RSM

Sources

Books and journals
The Victoria History of the County of the East Riding of Yorkshire, (1979), 128
Le Patourel, H E J, Moated site of Yorkshire, (1973), 114
Loughlin, N, Miller, K, Survey of Archaeological Sites in Humberside, (1979), 26
Toulmin-Smith, L, John Leland's Itinerary, (1964), 46

Legal

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. This entry is a copy, the original is held by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.