| Summary : Site of Sir Vincent Skinner's House. In about 1607, the London architect John Thorpe designed an ambitious new house for Skinner to stand within the precinct of Thornton Abbey (80418), probably to reflect Skinner's newly-acquired status as a knight and Auditor of the Receipt. This is alleged to have fallen down, almost immediately after it was built, by diarist Abraham De La Pryme's account of 1697. However, Sir Vincent was suffering financial difficulties before the loss, suggesting that the house may have been dismantled around this time because of this, rather than falling down through natural causes. The house now survives as a series of earthworks, mainly deep trenches from which the stone may have been robbed , although it is also though to have been excavated by Lord Yarborough in the 19th century. Earthworks to the east and west almost certainly represent garden compartments associated with the house, but the traces on the south are less easy to interpret, perhaps representing unfinished earthmoving in advance of what would presumably have been intended as the house's finest garden compartment. |
More information : In 2007-8, English Heritage's Archaeological Survey and Investigation Team led a multidisciplinary investigation of Thornton Abbey in North Lincolnshire. In addition to a Level 3 analytical field survey at 1:1 000 scale, covering 8.5 hectares between the church and the gatehouse, the project also comprised rapid examination of the remainder of the precinct and its environs, documentary research, rapid architectural investigation of the standing remains, analysis of Lidar imagery and aerial survey of a plough-levelled portion of the site.
Site of Sir Vincent Skinner's House. In about 1607, the London architect John Thorpe designed an ambitious new house for Skinner to stand within the precinct of Thornton Abbey (80418), probably to reflect Skinner's newly-acquired status as a knight and Auditor of the Receipt. This is alleged to have fallen down, almost immediately after it was built, by diarist Abraham De La Pryme's account of 1697. However, Sir Vincent was suffering financial difficulties before the loss, suggesting that the house may have been dismantled around this time because of this, rather than falling down through natural causes. The house now survives as a series of earthworks, mainly deep trenches from which the stone may have been robbed , although it is also though to have been excavated by Lord Yarborough in the 19th century. Earthworks to the east and west almost certainly represent garden compartments associated with the house, but the traces on the south are less easy to interpret, perhaps representing unfinished earthmoving in advance of what would presumably have been intended as the house's finest garden compartment. David Roberts (1a) first made the link between three drawings of the house by the London architect John Thorpe, now held in the Soane Museum, and the ground plan of the foundations recorded for Lord Yarborough in the mid 19th century. In essence, the house was inspired by Palladio¿s Villa Valmarana of c.1560. It followed Elizabethan fashion, with a central hall entered on the south through a small porch opposite the dais. Thorpe¿s original design specified a hall 34 feet (10.36 m) wide ¿ a huge span by the standards of the day ¿ but a later drawing revised this to a more manageable 25 feet (7.62m). In line with the hall, behind the dais, was a chapel with two rows of pews. Behind this again was a large parlour with a compass window. On either side of this axis, two `lodges¿ (that is, lodgings) flanked the parlour, while the kitchen and pantry flanked the front of the hall, the whole arrangement interrupted in the centre of the house to allow windows to light the dais and the chapel. A `best stair¿ occupied a tower on the west, opposite the chapel, while a second stair on the east led off the hall. Roberts suggests, based on the different foundations recorded by Lord Yarborough, that the former was built in stone, while the latter was wooden. On the first floor, a dramatic long gallery extended the full depth of the house, above the hall, chapel and parlour, flanked by an arrangement of chambers corresponding to those on the ground floor. Substantial external buttresses may have mimicked those of the church, being of similar size and spacing; as Roberts notes, these are unique amongst Thorpe's designs.
The earthworks take the form of crisply-defined trenches up to 1.2m deep corresponding to the buttresses and wall-lines, with mounds filling the spaces (in other words, the rooms) between.
A full report, part of the Research Department Report Series, is available from the NMR, reference RDRS XX/2009. |