Kirby Bellars Hall (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Kirby Hall

In the civil parish of Kirby Bellars.
In the historic county of Leicestershire.
Modern Authority of Leicestershire.
1974 county of Leicestershire.
Medieval County of Leicestershire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SK719174
Latitude 52.75152° Longitude -0.93422°

Kirby Bellars Hall has been described as a probable Fortified Manor House.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

Medieval moated house and associated buildings mentioned in C14 surviving as earthworks of moat and fishponds and traces of buildings and roof tiles. Incorporated in C17 formal garden with terraced walk, fishpond and prospect mounds. (PastScape)

The moat is rectangular, measuring 70m x 50m with ditch 15m wide and 2.0m deep containing a stone entrance causeway on the south side.

The formal garden earthworks, laid out in the C17th, comprise a terraced walkway, 170m long, 2.0m high at the north end decreasing to 1.0m high at the south end, a conical prospect mound at the north-west corner of the moat, flat-topped, 4.0m high and 22m wide at the base narrowing to 6.0m wide at the top. A second, similar prospect mound 200m south-east of the moat is 3.0m - 4.0m high, 18m wide at the base, and 5.0m wide at the top. A fishpond, 65m long lies to the north-east of the moat, with a flat-topped mound 1.0m high and 18m across to the west of it and irregular earthworks in between. (PastScape–scheduling report)

A truely imposing defensible residence surrounded by a moat and a gatehouse and most probably a wooden palisade consisting of a hall and fourteen chambers, a malt house and an additional structure called 'Le Feehous'. (Williams)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1010304, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 17032
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 321313.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) MLE3759.

Books
- Hartley, R.F., 1987, The Medieval Earthworks of North-East Leicestershire p. 10, 33
  Wall, C., 1907, 'Ancient Earthworks' in Page, Wm, (ed), VCH Leicestershire Vol. 1 p. 267-8 (sketch plan) online copy
Periodical Articles
- Williams, Daniel, 1974-5, 'Fortified Manor Houses' Transactions of the Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society Vol. 50 p. 1-16 online copy

Most of the sites or buildings recorded in this web site are NOT open to the public and permission to visit a site must always be sought from the landowner or tenant.
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The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of Historic England, County Historic Environment Records and other individuals and organisations. It may also contain information licensed under the Open Government Licence. All the sources given should be consulted to identify the original copyright holder and permission obtained from them before use of the information on this site for commercial purposes.
The author and compiler of Gatehouse does not receive any income from the site and funds it himself. The information within this site is provided freely 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.

The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown. Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.

Please help to make this as useful a resource as possible by contacting Gatehouse if you see errors, can add information or have suggestions for improvements in functality and design.
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