More information : TF 11039664 Earthworks of the post-medieval farmstead of Acre House, deserted in the 19th century. Supposed site of a grange farm belonging to Newsham Abbey, which is more likely to centre on TF 104966. The early endowment of the Premonstratensian house at Newsham, founded in 1143, and the gift was confirmed and augmented with land in adjacent Normanby in the mid 12th century.(b) The abbey continued to hold property in the two parishes until its dissolution in 1536: though the term grange is not used, it evidently formed a compact holding that was granted by name, 'Akerholme alias Akerhouse', along with other monastic spoils to Charles Duke of Suffolk and his wife Katherine in March 1539.(c)
Seventeenth-century inventories show Acrehouse as a residence, perhaps continuing a medieval predecessor, occupied b y the familyof Green, probably as tenants of the Pelhams, later earls of Yarborough, of Brocklesby.(d)
Acrehouse was rebuilt in 1778-9 and is shown high on the Wolds' scarp on Armstrongs map of 1778. In 1842 George Whitworth 'gent', who interested himself in agricultural botany, lived at Acre House: in 1856 the occupier was Robert Gooseman as it had been at the time of the Tithe Award in 1847.(e) In addition to 216 acres in Claxby, Gooseman occupied an adjacent 109 acres in Normanby owned similarly by the earl of Yarborough,(f) and this allowed the earlier farmhouse on the Wolds' scarp to be abandoned in the early 1850s in favour of a new site 300m to the east in Normanby parish. Thereafter
George Brooks and his successors at Acre House appear in directories under Normanby-le-Wold.(g) The combined area in Claxby and Normanby occupied by Robert Gooseman may reflect the monastic holding, and the concentration of field names containing Acrehouse in the low-lying part of it, centred TF 104966, may indicate the location of the medieval grange, rather than the site of the surveyed earthworks.
The site lies chiefly on the NW side of the track which drops down onto the ledge near the S end of the settlement with branches into the settlement itself. Low banks representing the remains of walls, scarps and hollows define a series of rectangular buildings and short paddocks, the form and arrangement of which suggest no more than a post-medieval upland farmstead whose linear plan is reflected by the topographical constraints. Practically every element can be reconciled with the farmstead shown on the Tithe Award map of 1847 (fig. 34), whose buildings were arranged in two main groups. The main building, 'a' on plan, is particularly well marked and wall remnants show that brick and Tealby Limestone were used in its construction and that it was sub-divided internally by a brick partition. Access was through a central doorway in the gable end.
A number of holes at 'b' on plan probably reflect mining subsidence, while a square building ('c') below the farmstead and on the edge of stabilized mud flows, may represent an isolated barn or a shepherd's cottage, not shown on the Tithe map. (1-2)
The elements of the earthwork farmstead, described authorities 1-2, that were visible on air photographs were mapped as part of the RCHME: Lincolnshire NMP. The farmstead is more accurately located at TF 1119 9668. (Morph No. LI.295.10.2). There was nothing visible on air photographs in the area suggested for the Grange.
This description is based on data from the RCHME MORPH2 database. (3) |