More information : [TA 03340783] Mansion [G.T.] (Site of) (1)
KETTLEBY HALL, Formerly a hunting lodge, built in the reign of
James I, and later the chief seat of the TYRWHITS was in the process of being demolished in 1697. (2-3)
There are no visible remains of the early Hall. The moat is complete and in sound condition.
A complex of fish stews is centred at TA 03450782, and a gazebo
mound at TA 03390714.
Published survey of moat (25" 1907) revised, and fish-stews surveyed at 1/2500. (4)
Moated site, formal garden remains, fishponds and paddocks (TA 0335
0785) lie at 10m above OD on deltaic sand and gravel deposits in a
low lying situation alongside the Skegger Beck. The site appears to
be that of a medieval moat containing the remains associated with a
16th or 17th century house there. The moat is surrounded by
paddocks, some of which are of early 16th century date. Another
rectangular enclosure may be part of a 17th century garden. The
latter overlies the deserted village of Kettleby.
The Tyrwhitt family of Northumberland appears to have acquired the
manor of Kettleby at the very end of the 14th century or at the
beginning of the 15th. With scarcely an exception the Tyrwhitt
heirs through the 15th and 16th centuries were publicly prominent,
as MPs or High Sheriffs for the county and in direct service of the
Crown. Sir Robert (1482-1548) was notable as a Dissolution
commissioner and grantee of a large amount of monastic land.
King Henry and his entourage stayed for two nights at Kettleby in
October 1541. The decline of this branch of the Tyrwhitts, in
contrast to those at Scotter, Stainfield and Cammeringham, may have
stemmed from the fines and persecution of William Tyrwhitt (d. 1591)
and his wife Elizabeth Frescheville for recusancy and harbouring
Catholic priests. Nevertheless the family was resident at Kettleby
until at least 1648, after which the last male heir was forced by
debts to sell up. The house at Kettleby was pulled down in 1696. It
is said to have been built to entertain James I, who came to hunt,
presumably in the deer park (TA 00 NW 29); with its associated
gardens therefore it may have been the work of Sir Robert Tyrwhitt
(d.1617). Before the present farmhouse was built in the early 19th
century, its site was described as 'scattered with ruins' of what
'seems to have been a large pile of building' and is marked as a
ruin on Armstrong's county map of 1778. A 'long narrow archway
once containing a drawbridge', destroyed in widening the entrance
to this farmhouse, confirms that the earlier principal access was
from the NW.
The major surviving part of the earthworks consists of a sub-
rectangular moated site, perhaps medieval in origin. The
surrounding ditch is 2m to 3m deep with traces of a damaged outer
bank 0.4 - 0.7m high on the S side. There are now two causeway
entrances, but the westernmost is probably relatively modern. The
interior covers just over 1 hectare. The present farmhouse
occupies the NW corner of the interior, but an elongated hollow
('a'), 0.3m deep may be the site of part of the post-medieval
mansion or its predecessor. It extends into the modern garden,
the surface of which is covered by quantities of early brick,
building stone and mortar fragments. There are several dressed or
worked limestone blocks lying around the farmstead which may have
come from a medieval house including a fragment of cusped light.
A carved stone head, possibly a 14th-century label stop, was found
a few years ago while cleaning out the ditch of the moat, and has
been built into the farmhouse. The SE part of the interior is
occupied by the remains of a former garden, possibly of 16th or
early 17th century date. It is square ,bounded by a flat-topped
broad bank with prospect mounds at the NE and SE corners.
Ploughing has damaged the interior of the garden, but traces of
slightly raised footpaths dividing it into four unequal parts are
still visible. The NE quadrant of the interior may have been a
matching orchard, as now.
On the E of the moat is a group of ponds between 0.75m to 1.75m
deep. The E side of the moat ditch is connected to the ponds by a
channel ('b'). A series of narrow channels at their E end must
represent sluices. The curious angular alignment of the ponds on
the E perhaps suggests a two-period development and the layout in
its entirety may be a formally patterned water garden. On the NW
side of the moat are a series of enclosures, perhaps the remains of
former paddocks and orchards. Only part survive as earthworks; the
rest are visible as crop marks. On the N the enclosures extend
into ill-drained land which shows no trace of medieval ploughing,
whereas on the W they partly overlie ridge-and-furrow. The
enclosures are divided into two parts by a broad access way leading
to the moated site. They are possibly to be associated with the
early Sir Robert Tyrwhitt and perhaps even directly with the royal
visit in 1514. The field names Willow Garth, Backside, Sand Croft,
Old Orchard (with the Old Garden and the Ponds) recorded in 1674
appear to be attached to these closes.
To the SW of the moat, a large rectangular enclosure ('d') with
rounded corners, is anomalous in alignment and regularity within
the concentric ring of paddocks. Since 1975 it has been taken in
with arable to the S and survives only on the N and W as a deepened
field drain, but it is shown as an earthwork on both recent and
early OS plans when its S and E sides were not field boundaries,
and it already existed in this form by 1795. To judge from the OS
plans its ditches were narrower and sharper than those of the
paddocks. It appears to have cut across the alignment of paddocks
to the N and certainly overlies N-S linear marks visible on air
photographs ('d') which are probably associated with the deserted
village (TA 00 NW 7) to the S. It is likely to be a post-medieval
garden, similar to the slightly smaller and less rectangular garden
at Goltho. It was perhaps associated with Sir Robert Tyrwhitt's
early 17th century house and garden in contrast to the earlier
paddocks of his predecessor's residence. (5) (6) (7)
The moated site of Kettleby Hall, recorded by Authorities 1-7, with
its associated formal gardens, paddocks and fishponds were seen as
cropmarks and earthworks and mapped from good quality air
photographs. The large rectangular enclosure, thought to be a 16th
or 17th century garden, which lies to the SW of the moated site is
centred at TA 0315 0774.
(Morph No. LI.489.4.1-6, LI.489.5.1)
This description is based on data from the RCHME MORPH2 database.
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