More information : Garden and park remains (SK 828845; Fig. 00), lie immediately S of Knaith Hall and church in grassland close to the R. Trent. They have previously but erroneously been identified as the site of Heynings Priory (Knaith (1)).(a)
The detailed history of the area is unknown but the earthworks appear to be the fragmentary remains of a garden and
associated park whose form would suggest a late 16th- or early 17th-century date for their construction. Their partial
destruction is likely to have been the result of late 18th- or early 19th-century landscaping. The documentary record as well as the architectural history of the church and Hall suggests a long period of landscape improvements.
As noted above (Knaith (2)) the Knaith estate passed to William, 1st Lord Willoughby of Parham in 1553 and the house
became the family's principal residence. If they did not build the present hall then, the Willoughbys substantially refurbished an earlier house from which 15th-century brickwork is said to survive in the present cellars.(b) They also perhaps created a new park extending S from the Hall alongside the Trent, which is shown on Saxton's map of c. 1576 as reproduced a century later by
John Speed, perhaps occupying the area described in 1536 as 'two
great closes before the manor...and the close beside them that
the old ponds are in'.(3) They appear also to have removed the
old village of Knaith to a new site further SE (Knaith (2)) as
well as diverting the Gainsborough road away from the Hall.
Whether the first Lord Willoughby instituted these changes,
including creation of the gardens S of the Hall, in the later
16th century is not known. But a major rebuilding of the Hall
in the early 17th century is evident in its fabric, and about
1630 the medieval church was reduced, re-roofed and re-furbished,
and might also have been part of the same programme.(d)
The estate at Knaith was perhaps neglected in the middle of
the 17th century for Francis, 5th Baron Willoughby, suffered
severely in the Civil War and later spent many years in exile.(e)
At the end of the 17th century, Knaith passed by marriage to the
Berties, Earls of Abingdon and was then sold to Richard Dalton in
1761.(f) He and his son Henry were certainly responsible for the
late 18th-century alterations to the hall that made it again a
place of note. It was probably one of the Daltons who destroyed
the formal gardens and opened out the view to the landscape
parkland and to the R. Trent that afforded to John Byng 'a
constant scenery of traffic' on his visit there in 1791.(g) In
1826 Knaith was sold to the Huttons and became part of their Gate
Burton estate.
At least part of the extent of the post-medieval park is
recognizable on the ground by massive N-S banks lying on either
side of the present park, which are the remains of the original
park pale formerly enclosing a large area of the lower river
terrace and its eastern slope. Broad ridge-and-furrow within
this pale demonstrates that the emparked area had formerly
provided part medieval Knaith's arable requirements.
Immediately S of the church rectangular depressions,
terraces, low banks and broad scarped enclosures, all apparently
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 up-
casts indicate that these gardens were at least in part walled,
while the terraces may have had brick revetments. They also
incorporate the S part of the early churchyard, whose boundary is
marked by a substantial W-facing scarp continuing the line of the
present yard's W limit. To the SW an irregularly arranged group
of hollows and platforms, some with masonry still in situ, marked
the positions of former buildings. In some instances these may
have been related to the gardens, though an L-shaped building in
a narrow close, is shown here on the 1850 Tithe Map.(h)
To the SW of the gardens the W side of the 1m high park pale
is fronted by a 2m deep outer ditch which may have led water into
a deep oval pond ('g' on plan) bounded by banks 0.7m high.
Attached to the pond on the NE is a small rectangular enclosure
defined by a shallow ditch and slight outer banks. These
earthworks might have been an ornamental water feature, although
their location outside the park pale makes this doubtful. A
more likely interpretation is that they represent the site of a
watermill. They are bounded on the N by a sharply defined 2m
high modern flood bank. (1-3)
Some of the earthwork remains of the Post Medieval park and formal
gardens, recorded by Authorities 1-3 were mapped from good quality
air photographs as part of Lincolnshire NMP; they included the park
pale on the west side of the parkland, the oval embanked pond
between the pale and the River Trent, and the small rectangular
site suggested as a watermill. Two blocks of ridge and furrow were
also recorded within the boundaries of the park at SK 8268 8410,
and SK 8293 8437. With the exception of one corner of a scarped
enclosure, the formal garden remains were on the whole, difficult
to identify on air photographs.
(Morph No. LI.673.1-5.1)
This description has been generated from the RCHME MORPH2 database.
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