Monument record MLI50409 - POST MEDIEVAL DEERPARK AND GARDEN SOUTH OF KNAITH HALL
Summary
POST MEDIEVAL DEERPARK AND GARDEN SOUTH OF KNAITH HALL
Type and Period (4)
- DEER PARK (Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1900 AD)
- GARDEN (Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1900 AD)
- GARDEN FEATURE (Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1900 AD)
- PARK (Post Medieval - 1540 AD to 1900 AD)
Protected Status/Designation
- None recorded
Full Description
The earthworks immediately south of Knaith Hall and church were previously identified as the site of Heynings Priory but appear rather to be the fragmentary remains of a garden and associated park whose form would suggest a late 16th century or early 17th century date for their construction. Their partial destruction is likely to have been the result of 18th century landscaping. The documentary record as well as the architectural history of the church and hall suggest a long period of landscape improvements. In 1553 the Knaith estate passed to William, 1st Lord Willoughby of Parham, and the house became the family's principal residence. They also created a new park extending south from the hall which is shown on Saxton's map of about 1576 as reproduced a century later by John Speed. Whether it was Lord Willoughby or his successors who created the garden south of the hall is not known. The relationship between the remodelled church and gardens implies that the latter were also laid out in the early 17th century and this, together with the alterations to the house, suggests that a major estate reorganisation took place at this time. At the end of the 17th century Knaith passed by marriage to the Berties, who sold it to Richard Dalton in 1761. He and his son Henry were responsible for the late 18th century alterations to the hall. It was probably one of the Daltons who destroyed the formal gardens and opened out the view to the landscaped parkland and to the River Trent. In 1826 Knaith was sold to the Huttons and became part of their Gate Burton estate. At least part of the extent of the early post medieval park is marked on the ground by massive north-south banks lying on either side of the present parkland. Broad ridge-and-furrow within this pale demonstrates that the emparked area had formerly lain in open-field arable. Immediately south of the church, rectangular depressions, terraces, low banks and broad scarped enclosures, apparently in part overlying ridge-and-furrow, are the remains of late 16th or early 17th century formal gardens. These earthworks are now much degraded and incomplete as a result of later landscaping, but large quantities of broken brick and mortar, visible in mole upcasts, indicate that these gardens were at least in part walled while the terraces may have had brick revetments. To the south-west an irregularly arranged group of hollows and platforms, some with masonry in situ, marks the positions of former buildings. In some instances they may have been related to the gardens. {1}
A park pale and an earthwork platform have been identified by the National Mapping Programme from aerial photographs, and interpreted as medieval. {4}
Sources/Archives (5)
- <1> SLI1063 Bibliographic Reference: P.L. Everson, C.C. Taylor and C.J. Dunn. 1991. Change and Continuity: Rural Settlement in North-West Lincolnshire. pp53-55,115,117;Fig26,85.
- <2> SLI1063 Bibliographic Reference: P.L. Everson, C.C. Taylor and C.J. Dunn. 1991. Change and Continuity: Rural Settlement in North-West Lincolnshire. ARCHIVE NOTES.
- <3> SLI1062 Bibliographic Reference: Nikolaus Pevsner and John Harris, with Nicholas Antram. 1989. Buildings of England: Lincolnshire (Second Edition). 2nd Rev Edn p423.
- <4> SLI3613 Map: Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England. 1992-1996. National Mapping Programme. SK8284:LI.673.1-2.1,1995, .
- <5> SLI181 Aerial Photograph: COLE, C.. 1993-2002. InnerVisions Business Presentations. 184/0697/9A,1997, .
Map
Location
| Grid reference | Centred SK 8290 8438 (734m by 839m) Centre |
|---|---|
| Civil Parish | KNAITH, WEST LINDSEY, LINCOLNSHIRE |
Related Monuments/Buildings (4)
Related Events/Activities (1)
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External Links (0)
Record last edited
Mar 21 2021 8:35PM
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