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Leconfield Manor

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Leconfield Castle; Lekyngfeld; Lekinfield; Leckenfield; Leckonfield; Lekenfeld; Lekingefelde; Legenfeld; Legenfeud

In the civil parish of Leconfield.
In the historic county of Yorkshire East Riding.
Modern Authority of East Riding of Yorkshire.
1974 county of Humberside.

OS Map Grid Reference: TA01254312
Latitude 53.87441° Longitude -0.46146°

Leconfield Manor has been described as a certain Fortified Manor House.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.
Description

Site of a medieval fortified manor house, surrounded by a moat. The principal seat of the Percy family from the 14th to the later 16th century, it was licenced in 1308. Known to have been ruinous in 1608, it was demolished soon after. All that now remains are the earthworks of the moat. Documents of 1538/9 refer to a timber framed house and brick gatehouse, with outbuildings set around a central courtyard. The earthwork remains of ridge and furrow and a fishpond survive to the east of the moat. (PastScape)

The large sub-rectangular island measures 140m E-W; its W end is 120m long and its E end 110m long. It is surrounded by a single dry moat with an outer earthen bank. The moat ditch is steep-sided, up to 4m deep and generally between 3 and 6m wide, although in its NE corner and elsewhere it is as wide as 10m. Surrounding the moat on its NE and S sides is an external earthen bank 5m wide. On the W side this has been reduced to 3m by ploughing. On the N and E sides of the moat the bank is 1.5m high; to the S it is 1.75m high; to the W it is only 0.75m high, though still 5m wide. Access to the island was via a causeway crossing the N arm of the moat. Immediately to the E of the moat there are traces of ridge and furrow and a poorly defined fishpond; these are excluded from the Scheduling due to their poor state of preservation. (EH Scheduling Report)

Lekingfeld is a large house, and stondith withyn a great mote yn one very spatius courte. 3. partes of the house, saving the meane gate that is made of brike, is al of tymbre. The 4. parte is fair made of stone and sum brike. I saw in a litle studiyng chaumber ther caullid Paradice the genealogie of the Percys. The park therby is very fair and large and meately welle woddid. Ther is a fair tour of brike for a logge yn the park. (Leland)

There is a 3m high mound in the SW corner of the site is report in PastScape as 'A shapeless earthen mound at TA 0131 4307 appears to have no significance, and is possibly the residue from the clearance of the site. -Ref: Field Investigator, RWE, 09-OCT-1962'. This may represent a collapsed building, possibly mixed with other demolition debris.

A Royal licence to crenellate was granted in 1308 Oct 4 (Click on the date for details of this licence.).

Links to mapping and other online resources
Data >
PastScape   County HER   Scheduling        
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Sources of information, references and further reading

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I do not receive any income from this site and I fund it myself. The information within this site is provided freely by me for educational purposes only.
The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.
Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.
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This record last updated on Monday, June 17, 2013
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