The site of the manor in 1591 extending to almost three acres comprised the manor house, the moat, the garden, orchard and court. The earthworks lie south of distinctly outside the settlement of South Kelsey. {1} The post medieval hall of South Kelsey stands on the earlier medieval moated site, and by the early part of the 16th century the land was in the possession of the Ayscough family. It is thought that the new hall and gardens were constructed within the moated site at about this time. A walled forecourt, entered by an arched gateway and flanked by octagonal turrets, formed the approach to the new hall. The house served as one of the principal residences of the Ayscough family until the end of the 17th century. During the Civil War the house was attacked by Royalists, due to its occupation by Sir Edward Ayscough, a leading Parliamentarian. At the end of the 17th century the house passed by marriage to the Thornagh family, who remained until the end of the 18th century. At the start of the 19th century the hall was largely demolished and replaced on roughly the same site by the present-day farmhouse, although the remains of the buried hall will remain on the northern side of the farmhouse as a buried feature. The Listed Grade II turret/dovecote and gateway, the present farmhouse, adjacent yard and farmbuildings lie outside the scheduled area. All fences, telegraph poles and water troughs are excluded from the scheduling, although the ground beneath them is included. {7} See also PRN 53511 and 53507. A park is recorded on the first edition c.1880 and c.1905 Ordnance Surveys maps at South Kelsey Hall, South Kelsey. {8}{9} The park of South Kelsey was probably a 16th century creation associated with the development of the Ayscoughs' moated residence. Its extent and its blocks of woodland were described in 1591. It was bounded on the east by the north to south road, then called 'Park Lane', on which there were gates at the north and south controlling access; on the north by a curving boundary later fossilised in the by-road called Clay Lane and a continuous hedge-line leading south to the parish boundary at TF 03709683; and on the south by the parish boundary. This comprised approximately 150 acres (61ha), and included three small blocks of woodland, namely the Connygree (now removed), West Wood (now removed but marked by irregularities overlying ridge and furrow on aps), and South Wood (extant), as well as a shaw or belt of wood along the northern boundary and subdivisions into compartments that included 'coach horse paddocks new impal'd'. The park was full of ridge and furrow and coincides on three sides, north, west and south, with the limits of a tract of land reckoned in the 19th century to have belonged to Winghale Priory. It is attached to the west side of the moated residence and was, therefore, probably created like that in the early to mid 16th century. It was still described as a park 'with the liberty and franchise of free warren' in 1771, when the manor was mortgaged. It was superseded by the early 19th century creation of landscaped parkland north-east and south of the moat, out of what had formerly been a series of closes. A further section of the 16th century park lay south of the parish boundary in Thornton-le-Moor township and created the 'Lowe Park' of about 64 acres (26ha). This, too, was created from former arable land, and by 1796, though still held with the South Kelsey Hall estate, had been divided into three fields. {1}