One of the things I have been planning and to a lesser extent working on is to build Lead Manor and St Mary’s Church, which were on the edge of the battlefield. The church remains but the manor has been lost. Plenty of reading, including Historic England’s Medieval manorial complex, garden and water management features, St Mary's chapel, and a linear earthwork forming part of the Aberford Dyke system and the excellent English Heritage report Historic Farmsteads - Preliminary Character Statement:Yorkshire and the Humber Region, on vernacular buildings of Yorkshire which I’m using to help me get the materials right. Medieval farm buildings in the Vale of York, where Lead and Towton are located were generally wattle and daub, rather than local stone as I had expected.
According to the archeologically survey, there was a sizeable
farmstead, fishponds and outbuildings, as well as the church. Historic England’s
report states,
“As a manorial centre, Lead would have been an important focus of medieval rural life. Its buildings, which probably included the chapel, will have reflected its status as an aristocratic or seigneurial residence. However, whilst being of such status, the complex is typical of those manors which were not confined within impressive moats or major enclosing earthworks which tend to be well-preserved. The original buildings of the complex typically exhibit a fairly unplanned layout which appears to extend over a large area …
… includes the earthworks of a medieval manorial complex, garden and water management features, together with St Mary's chapel, and a linear earthwork which is considered to be part of the Aberford Dyke system. The manorial earthworks lie within a triangular area of land east of the farm, at the centre of which is St Mary's Chapel, dating from the 12th-13th centuries, … Excavation has shown that the chapel was once larger and that it has been much altered over the years. The earthworks of the manorial complex have several distinct components. On the west side of the field containing the chapel is a large enclosure approximately 50m long which probably contained the manor house; to its south are at least three smaller enclosures on the same alignment, which would have contained ancillary manorial buildings. … A hollow way approximately 7m wide runs between the smaller enclosures and connects with a larger hollow way over 10m wide, aligned north- south, along the east side of the enclosures. The latter hollow way appears to join a 9m wide trackway aligned east-west, which may be a carriageway to Lead Hall Farm, possibly also formerly a routeway associated with the medieval earthworks. East of the manorial enclosures and the hollow way aligned north- south, are the earthworks of medieval ridge and furrow, aligned east-west. These are discontinuous and lie in two main areas, one north of the carriageway and another south of the chapel. Between the two areas of ridge and furrow lie the chapel and a large, almost square enclosure with part of another enclosure appended to its south end; both enclosures and the ridge and furrow appear to follow the main hollow way aligned north-south. A further hollow way runs north to south on the east side of the chapel at which point it turns south east towards a probable water course which may be associated with the water management features in the adjacent field to the west. The chapel itself is surrounded by a small enclosure. The hollow way on the east side of the chapel appears to form the eastern boundary to this distinctive group of earthworks. To the east of this group there are the remains of a dovecote mound and the earthworks of ponds and water courses. On the west side of Lead Hall Farm are the earthworks of garden features including a probable prospect mound. To the south west of the manorial complex are the earthworks of water management features comprising a number of irregularly-shaped and interlinked enclosures of different sizes interpreted as fishponds. The ponds lie on either side of a broad water channel running east to west, water probably being diverted into them at the north western end of the field from the Cock Beck. A system of leats and sluices, the latter represented by in situ stonework, is well preserved. The morphology of the ponds and the system of leats running into the east-west channel suggest different phases of use. The entire complex of earthworks is extensive and it is likely that a number of different phases of activity are represented on the site and these may be further clarified by documentary and interpretive earthwork survey. The history of this medieval manorial complex and chapel is not yet fully understood. The complex lies less than two kilometres from the heart of the Towton battlefield. The battle of Towton on 29th March 1461, reputably the largest and bloodiest battle ever fought in England, was one of the major engagements of the Wars of the Roses … The scale of this battle must have had a major impact on settlement and agricultural activity in the immediate battlefield area and significant information on this impact will be preserved within the manorial remains at Lead.
As a start, I thought I would make one of the three southern barns/out houses. I bought a Sarissa barn to start off with.. I accidently ordered two, which gave me a chance to try out some variations – stone or wattle and daub, thatch, tile or stone roof. The wattle and daub is Polyfilla and coffee stirrers. The stone walls are air-dry clay stamped with a stone template from a doll house company. The finish isn’t perfect, with lots of flash lines where the stamps join. Having seen Sarissa practice their stone stencil system at Salute, I would try this next time.
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