More information : (TF 12978463) Moat (NR) (TF 13098481) Moat (NR). (1)
Deserted medieval village? APs show extent of village (of Bleasby) at
area TF 12998475. (2-3)
Centred to TF 131848 is a well preserved manorial site, comprising
homestead and perimeter moats with associated fishponds and
contemporary field roads.
Published survey 25" revised. (4)
TF 130847 Bleasby deserted Medieval village listed. (5)
At Bleasby extant earthworks under permanent pasture comprise a large
homestead moat, a perimeter moat, fishponds, crofts and accompanying
field roads; surface quarrying is evident throughout. The island of
the principal moat shows much disturbance and a stretch of grassed
walling 21m long is evident standing to a maximum height of 0.3m.
Central to the northern arm an earth causeway is clearly
identifiable.
The site is situated some 30m above sea level in an open situation.
Although the earthworks resemble a large manorial complex no
documentary evidence of such was found, early records simply listing
Bleasby as a hamlet of Legsby.
Surveyed by Air/Ground at 1:2500. (6)
TF 131 848. Bleasby moated site. Scheduled no. LI/196. (7)
The Medieval moated manor and settlement remains at Bleasby,
referred to by the previous authorities, have been the subject of a
detailed survey. For a more detailed description of the earthworks
and the historical development of Bleasby see reference 8a.
Two manors are recorded in 1086, the larger held by Gocelin
son of Lambert, the other by Odo the Arblaster. The family taking
its name from the place-name witnessed many charters from the mid
12th century onwards. Only at the end of the 16th century was the
line broken, when in 1598 Hester Bleasby was found to be heir to
her brother George. But the residence at Bleasby continued, for
she married William Dallison of Greetwell, son of her guardian, and
in 1634 his brother George Dallison was described as 'of Bleasby'.
As Royalists the Dallisons suffered confiscation of their estates,
and although a parliamentary survey of 1653 describes George
Bleasby as paying rent on 3s. for land at Bleasby, it seems likely
that the Dallisons' loss of the manor effectively marked the end of
its residential use.
The second 11th-century manor passed to the family of de
Chauncy and is recorded as forming part of a fee with land at
Walesby in 1262-3, when Roger de Bleasby held the part in
Bleasby, presumably consolidating or augmenting the larger manor.
The square or slightly trapezoidal moat, centred at TF 1306
8481, that must have contained the residence of the Bleasby family
is the most prominent feature within the earthworks. The full
extent of the manorial complex may perhaps be
roughly defined to the S and E by a series of ponds, centred at TF
1299 8464 and TF 1314 8475, created by contour dams. Those at
TF 1299 8464 are particularly interesting, because though
contiguous they are of different depths and are separated by a
marked step. To the S ridge-and-furrow has been overlain by long
narrow ditched enclosures which are bounded on the SE by the course
of the stream whose earlier alignment is shown on the Tithe Award
map of 1846. The presumed manorial area has been sub-divided into
enclosures by banks and ditches of varying strengths. Some may
be contemporary with the moat; others could represent earlier
village properties swept away when the moat was built. Scarps
and depressions centred on TF 1296 8470 relate directly to the
farm, outbuildings and surrounding closes noted here on the Tithe
Award map.
Alternatively, the ponds centred at TF 1299 8464 may be
post-medieval or early modern features. They are not shown on
the Tithe Award map, but are mapped on the 1st edition 25" OS
sheet and designated a 'moat'. If they are not medieval, the
limit of the manorial complex may have been the well-defined
ditch running E from TF 1295 8478, that bounds a series of closes
clearly associated with the moated residence and was still in 1846
a curving field boundary.
No continuous assessment of the Medieval village of Bleasby's
population is possible, since for national taxation it is regularly
reckoned as one of Legsby's unnamed members and only exceptionally
appears in ecclesiastical surveys because it never acquired a
church or chapel, but looked again to Legsby.
The village remains have been made particularly difficult to
understand because changes in the road system, the late survival
of two groups of properties within the earthworks and the
creation of Bleasby House and its farmyard have obscured the
earlier pattern and divorced one section of village remains from
the other.
The 1st edition 1" OS map of 1824 shows the road serving
Bleasby following the irregular alignment represented in the
earthworks by a hollow-way which extends from TF 1270 8478,
following a sinuous route, to the west side of the moat. This has
been partially ploughed out as it diverges from the modern road.
The road in 1824 served two groups of property on its S side
represented by earthworks centred on TF 1296 8470 and TF 1291 8469.
By 1846 the Tithe Award map shows the road shifted to its present
alignment but the properties remained in the field and were
described as a house and garden, together with two cottages,
outbuildings and closes in the occupation of William Waddingham.
This farm was replaced by the new Bleasby House on the N roadside
c.1850. At TF 1291 8469 the greensand and brick foundations of a
large building, probably a farmhouse, are obvious on the earthworks
and to its SW a derelict group of brick outbuildings stands within
a network a small rectangular ditched and formerly hedged closes,
that overlie ridge-and-furrow. Indeed, the pair of long ponds,
centred at TF 1299 8464, rather than marking the limit of the
medieval manorial block may have been associated with the
post-medieval farm: they are not shown on the TA map, but their
contour dams appear to overlie ridge-and-furrow and their overflow
and outlet channels cut through it.
With allowances made for these later features, the early
settlement may perhaps be seen as structured around roads which
either climbed onto or across the ridge at right angles or ran
along its spine. Thus, the early hollowed street, which extends E
and W from the south of the moat, crosses the ridge, and was
blocked by the construction of the moat and perhaps diverted NE up
the west side of the moat. The hollow-way from the W
has a similar alignment, with village properties on its N side
both E and W of the dyke, while on its S side the plot W of the
dyke clearly developed over the ends of earlier arable ridges.
It turned at right angles at TF 1290 8475 and has traces of
buildings and yards in plots on its W side, which appear from faint
traces in a grass paddock formerly to have continued to the N of
the modern road, presumably served by the street continuing in that
direction. The position and alignment of the E end of the
modern road may also be a relic of a street defining the NE side
of the manor. To the NE of Bleasby House, a hollow-way
following the spine of the ridge may pick up the diversion along
the west of the moat. Fragmentary closes wedged between and
possibly overlying blocks of ridge-and-furrow on either side of it
may originate as properties relocated by the creation of the moat
and manorial complex. (8a)
The moated manor and settlement remains have also been mapped at
1:10,000 scale as part of the RCHME: Lincolnshire NMP. (8)
The earthworks at Bleasby survive in good condition within permanent
pasture as recorded by authorities 8 and 8a with the exception of the
southern belt of narrow closes centred at TF 1295 8456 which have
been destroyed by the destruction of a large reservoir; also the
small isolated block of ridge and furrow at TF 1268 8437 has been
ploughed out. (9)
The remains of Bleasby medieval village. The settlement was established before the late 11th century, when the Domesday Book records 2 manors at Bleasby and a population of 10. The manors were held by the Bleasby family until the late 16th century, but by 1563 the population of the village had declined to only 7 households. In 1846 there were only 3 dwellings in the village, forming part of a farm south-west of the medieval manor, but these were finally abandoned around 1850 when the present Bleasby House was built.
At the highest point of the site, about 70 metres south-east of Bleasby House, is a moated enclosure around 34 metres square. Building remains are visible in the northern part of the enclosure. The moat is up to 2 metre deep and is crossed on the north side by a causeway, which is thought to be original. It is apparent that the moated manor was established over earlier settlement remains, probably in the 13th or 14th century. To the south-west of the moated manor is a further series of raised enclosures, representing a post-medieval farm complex which remained in use until the mid 19th century. North of Bleasby House is a further series of earthworks, representing more of the settlement. This northern section may have originated as the focus of the second manor recorded in Domesday, possibly being replanned when the later manorial complex was established in the south-east part of the site. The remains of ridge and furrow extend east and west of the settlement, representing parts of 2 furlongs, the only surviving parts of a once extensive system of open fields which formerly surrounded the village. Scheduled. (10) |