More information : Settlement remains (SK 829847; Fig.00), formerly part of the
village of Knaith, situated in grassland between 5m and 20m above
OD on the lower and upper terraces of the E bank of the R. Trent,
at a prominent bend in the river, which is reflected in the name
Knaith meaning 'landing place by the knee or bend'.(a) The
landing place aspect of the name implies that the area was
regarded as a convenient access point to the Trent and perhaps
indicates why the settlement is located there. The site was
already important in the Roman period, when, during the 3rd and
4th centuries, a pottery and tile industry was established N of
the area of the surviving earthworks. Preliminary studies
indicate that the Trent played a vital role in the transport and
distribution of Knaith vessels.(b)
The documentary evidence for Knaith from 1086 onwards
indicates a settlement that, while always small, nevertheless
underwent considerable fluctuations in its size and prosperity.
This may be as much the result of the fortunes of its lords as of
the poor sandy soils of much of its land.
The low minimum recorded population of three in Domesday
Book is in line with later evidence. Walter de Billinghay's
manor with its capital messuage in 1305-6 had eight free and two
bond tenants, while the early 14th-century subsidies list 12 and
13 taxpayers which is only just half the average for the
wapentake.(c) No doubt Walter de Evermue's endowment of Heynings
Priory (1) out of the parish in the late 12th century had some
effect.
The impact of the Black Death in 1349 is difficult to
assess. Relief allowed in 1352 was only just over 12% but when
the manor of Knaith came into the hands of the Crown in 1356-7 on
the minority of the Darcy heir it could not be let 'because it is
ruinous and the land sandy'.(d) Yet 36 people over 14 are listed
in the Poll Tax in 1377, and there must have been at least 10
households in 1428, perhaps reflecting a period of recovery with
resident Darcy lords at this time.(e)
In fact, the mid 15th-century reliefs were higher and
through that century the manor passed in and out of royal hands,
first to James Strangeways through his marriage to the elder
Darcy daughter, Elizabeth and then to the Conyers family through
the younger daughter Margaret.(f)
In 1489-90 the manor of Knaith was worth 10 plus 4 for the
advowson.(g) By the early 16th century there was again a resident
Darcy lord; John Leland noted 'the late Lorde Darcy had a mene
manor place'.(h) In 1537 the clear value of Knaith to Lord Darch
was 29.6.0.(i) Following Darcy's execution in that year for
complicity in the Pilgrimage of Grace, Knaith was granted to Sir
Thomas Heneage who sought to add the priory of Heynings to the
manor. In 1553 the whole estate passed through marriage of his
daughter and heir Elizabeth to William 1st Lord Willoughby of
Parham and this family made Knaith its principal residence. (j)
It was, perhaps, the arrival of the Willoughbys that led to
the removal of the ancient village of Knaith and its replacement
by landscaped gardens and park (3), though in the 17th century
rather than immediately in the later 16th century it seems. For
the tenurial changes did not result in any fall in population.
Indeed though only nine persons are listed for the Lindsey Muster
of 1539, the 16 taxpayers in 1542-3 and 73 communicants in 1603
appear to represent a rise in population at this period.(k) Both
the displaced inhabitants and the increased numbers may have been
accommodated in two new locations, one SE of the old village
along the Gainsborough road and the other at Knaith Park in the N
of the parish. The settlement on the Gainsborough road appears
to date from the first half of the 17th century while Knaith Park
was a recognizably separate place by the same time for which
wills were registered. However it may have had earlier origins
as the secular settlement adjacent to Heynings Priory (1).(l)
Only 30 communicants were returned in 1676 and by the
beginning of the 18th century the population of the parish
plummeted to two or three households.(m) Whether this decline
was connected with the difficulties of the Willoughbys is not
known; but certainly, despite assistance at the restoration,
Francis, 5th Baron Willoughby of Parham, suffered severely during
the Civil War and the Knaith Estate no doubt suffered also
through his active role in the war and resulting long exile.(n)
It may be that during this period the newly established area of
settlement on the Gainsborough road declined.
The surviving earthworks fall into two clearly defined
groups. The first lies NE of St Mary's church and must
represent, at least in part, the site of medieval Knaith. These
earthworks again seem to illustrate the part played by the river
and its utilization not only in effecting the form of the
settlement along its bank, but also perhaps in helping to sustain
occupation. Two former streets ('a' and 'b' on plan) surviving
largely as hollow-ways, with 'b' still used to give access to the
church and hall, leave the Trent at right angles to run E to the
edge of the upper terrace. A drain lying between and parallel
to these streets continues the line of the present Knaith Hill
road riverwards and may thus follow the line of another former
street. Slight scarps and banks presumably representing former
close boundaries are associated with these lanes. The remains
of a rectangular building 20m by 10m with a yard-like hollow on
its N is clearly visible 'c'. A second former building site is
recognizable 30m to the E just below the modern road. Medieval
pottery fragments were observed in this area during survey.
The plan thus emerges as a small rectangular block with
streets so arranged that direct access to the river is afforded.
Some other Trent-side settlements in the region, notably Marton,
still retain a similar pattern of dwellings arranged along
parallel roads leading from the river.
The S limits of this settlement are uncertain since the
development of the Hall and its gardens have obliterated any
above-ground evidence for settlement E of St Mary's church. To
the N of the northern hollow-way, slight scarps (some of which
may be natural) and ridge-and-furrow are recognisable and are
bounded on the N and E by a massive hollow-way ('d' on plan).
The latter represents an earlier course of the present road
running to Gainsborough prior to its realignment in this century,
though the curious bends in its course and the fact that it
appears to have cut through existing ridge-and-furrow suggests
that it is not an early road line. It could be either the result
of a medieval alteration to cause the through road to avoid the
village centre, or (and perhaps more likely) a 16th-, 17th-or
18th-century realignment of an older more direct route through
the village, carried out as part of contemporary garden and park
landscaping (3).
The second group of earthworks lie S of Terrace House Farm,
on the E side of the Gainsborough road. It is probable that
these are the remains of a new village laid out along the road on
the upper terrace away from the church. This settlement, in
part still perpetuated by the extant farm and cottages, may have
been a deliberate foundation in order to re-house the inhabitants
of the original village cleared to produce an open area for the
expansion of the Hall, its gardens and approaches.
The Dutch Cottage in the centre of the earthworks could be a
survivor of this development. This cottage with a fine brick
Dutch gable at its W end appears to be no earlier than 1600, yet
seems to be part of the layout of the new settlement. If this
is correct then the new village was perhaps laid out around 1630
when work on the hall, church, gardens and park (3) were being
undertaken. On the other hand the settlement might date from
the 16th century when the Willoughbys made Knaith their main
residence and the population began to increase. A third
possibility is that the whole site is merely medieval expansion.
That the settlement, whatever its date, is a secondary part
of Knaith is clear from the fact that it lies on top of ridge-
and-furrow. The ground between Dutch Cottage and Terrace House
Farm apparently once contained properties as it is divided into
large enclosures with a hollowed track, preserving earlier ridge-
and-furrow in its bottom, running along the E perimeter. Inside
the enclosures are a series of scarps and hollows adjacent to the
existing road, with those at 'e' definitely being the site of a
former building. Any houses here had certainly gone by 1850 and
probably by 1824.15 A boggy linear hollow ('f' on plan) is
perhaps an earlier course of the modern road. During the
Commission's survey a small quantity of medieval pottery was
observed in the garden of Dutch Cottage. (1-2)
Earthwork remains of the deserted Medieval and Post Medieval
settlement, as recorded by Authorities 1-2, in the form of hollow
ways, boundary banks/terraces, and ridge and furrow were mapped
from good quality air photographs.
Centred at:-SK 8307 8474 and SK 8284 8478
(Morph No. LI.673.7.1-4)
This description is based on data from the RCHME MORPH2 database.
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