Moated grange at Spinney Farm, Melton Mowbray

Reasons for Designation

A monastic grange was a farm owned and run by a monastic community and independent of the secular manorial system of communal agriculture and servile labour. The function of granges was to provide food and raw materials for consumption within the parent monastic house itself, and also to provide surpluses for sale for profit. The first monastic granges appeared in the 12th century but they continued to be constructed and used until the Dissolution. This system of agriculture was pioneered by the Cistercian order but was soon imitated by other orders. Some granges were worked by resident lay-brothers (secular workers) of the order but others were staffed by non-resident labourers. The majority of granges practised a mixed economy but some were specialist in their function. Five types of grange are known: agrarian farms, bercaries (sheep farms), vaccaries (cattle ranches), horse studs and industrial complexes. A monastery might have more than one grange and the wealthiest houses had many. Frequently a grange was established on lands immediately adjacent to the monastery, this being known as the home grange. Other granges, however, could be found wherever the monastic site held lands. On occasion these could be located at some considerable distance from the parent monastery. Granges are broadly comparable with contemporary secular farms although the wealth of the parent house was frequently reflected in the size of the grange and the layout and architectural embellishment of the buildings. Additionally, because of their monastic connection, granges tend to be much better documented than their secular counterparts. No region was without monastic granges. The exact number of sites which originally existed is not precisely known but can be estimated, on the basis of numbers of monastic sites, at several thousand. Of these, however, only a small percentage can be accurately located on the ground today. Of this group of identifiable sites, continued intensive use of many has destroyed much of the evidence of archaeological remains. In view of the importance of granges to medieval rural and monastic life, all sites exhibiting good archaeological survival are identified as nationally important.

The site at Spinney Farm is a well preserved example of a small agrarian grange, located an unusually long distance from its parent priory in Sussex.

Details

The moated grange site near Spinney Farm lies on the east side of Scalford Brook and is associated with a series of outlying banks and outer feeder channels. The moated site is rectangular in shape and is orientated north-south, parallel to the brook. It measures 95m x 68m in maximum dimension. Overall, the moat arms are about 2m deep and range in width from 14m on the eastern side to 8m on the northern and western sides. Inner and outer banks are visible along the western and northern arms of the moat. The inner bank is about 1m-1.5m high, while the outer one is about 0.5m high on the northern side but shows up only as a slight hump on the western side. Outside the moat there are a number of earthwork banks associated with the water management of the site. These include an outflow channel to the south and a further channel running parallel with the northern moat arm, which may originally have been connected to Scalford Brook. A series of irregular earthworks running parallel with the western edge of the moat may be artificial levees or banks to further control water flow. Historical records identify the moat as a possible grange or farm owned by the priory at Lewes, Sussex, but later passing into the ownership of the local town estate.

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:

17015

Legacy System:

RSM

Sources

Books and journals
Hartley, R F, The Medieval Earthworks of North-East Leicestershire, (1987), 11,37
Hunt, P E, The Story of Melton Mowbray, (1979), 102-3

End of official list entry

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