South Elmham Hall Gatehouse South Elmham St Cross SAM No. 21446
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ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY REPORT SCCAS REPORT No. 2010/094 South Elmham Hall Gatehouse South Elmham St Cross SAM No. 21446 D.Gill and A. M. Breen © May 2010 www.suffolkcc.gov.uk/e-and-t/archaeology Lucy Robinson, County Director of Environment and Transport Endeavour House, Russel Road, Ipswich, IP1 2BX. HER Information Planning Application No: NA Date of Fieldwork: March 2010 Grid Reference: TM 3078 8324 Funding Body: Mr J Sanderson (landowner) through an English Heritage grant scheme Project Officer: David Gill Contents Page 1. Introduction 1 2. Site location 1 3. Summary of the historical background 3 4. Historical context: cartographic record 4 5. Survey results 7 6. Building analysis 7 7. Discussion 17 8. Condition of the structure and archaeological mitigation 19 9. Documentary search 33 10. References 38 List of Figures 1. Site location Plan 2 2. Tithe map 1838 of South Elmham, St Margaret (detail) 4 3. First Edition 25 inch Ordnance Survey of 1884 4 4. Estate map 1876 5 5. Edmund Farrar’s map of the site 1912 6 6. Third Edition 25 inch Ordnance Survey 1927 6 7. General view of the building 8 8. South Elmham Hall Gatehouse, Ground Plan 9 9. Details from Phase 1 building 14 10. Details from Phase 1 building 15 11. West Stow Hall, 16th century gatehouse 18 12. Phase I – Eastern Wall External Elevation 21 13. Phase I– Eastern Wall Internal Elevation 22 14. Phase I – Northern Wall Internal Elevation 23 15. Phase I– Northern Wall External Elevation 24 16. Phase I – Western Wall Internal Elevation 25 17. Phase I – Western Wall External Elevation 26 18. Phase II Addition – Western Wall External Elevation 27 19. Phase II Addition – Western wall Internal Elevation 28 20. Phase II Addition – Southern Wall External Elevation 29 21. Phase II Addition – Southern Wall Internal Elevation 30 22. Phase II Addition – Northern Wall External Elevation 31 23. Phase II Addition – Northern Wall Internal Elevation 32 1. Introduction This report provides an analysis of the remains of the medieval gatehouse at St Elmham Hall, South Elmham St Cross. The building is situated within the moated enclosure about 40m to the north-west of the hall. The site as a whole is a Scheduled Ancient Monument (SAM no 211460) and protected by statute. The analysis and recording of the building was part of a project to stabilise the structure, part of which is in danger of subsiding into the moat, and was undertaken in advance of any remedial work. The work was commissioned by Nicolas Jacobs Architects and funded by the owners Mr and Mrs J Sanderson through an English Heritage grant scheme. The building was surveyed by Nicolas Jacobs Architects and the survey data was supplied to the author in the form of scaled rectified photographs. A search was made of material held at the Suffolk Record Offices at Ipswich and Lowestoft, and a report of the findings has been included in the appendix. This includes a series of medieval compotus, or account, rolls dating 1342- 1483. These include details of payments for materials and building works, undertaken between 1445 and 1470 but appear to make no reference to the early phase of the gatehouse (and predate the second phase). 2. Site location St Elmham Hall lies at TM 3078 8324 on the chalky boulder clay of the high plains of north east Suffolk. It is situated between the 35 and 40m contour on a promontory between two tributaries of the Beck, itself a tributary of the River Waveney (Fig. 1). The hall stands within a moated enclosure of about 3 acres with all of the upstanding medieval building evidence situated within the southern half of the enclosure. The gatehouse is located on the inner edge of the moat on the west side of the enclosure (Fig. 1, shown in red). The line of the parish boundary passes through the east and south entrances to the enclosure so that a quarter of the site is within the parish of South Elmham St Margaret’s. The current Ordnance Survey map shows an entrance to the moat adjacent to the gatehouse, but this no longer exists and the west arm of the moat is unbroken. 1 N 283400°N 283300°N 0 50 100m 283200°N E ©Crown Copyright. All00 Rights Reserved. Suffolk County Council Licence No. 100023395 2010 00° 630700°E 6305 °E 6306 Figure 1. Site location plan 2 3. Summary of the historical background The extensive manor of South Elmham extended over nine parishes and was part of the estates of William Bishop of Thetford at the time of Domesday. The manor included the site of the Anglo-Saxon minister, arguably the See of an early Anglian bishopric. The sacred significance of the site was believed to be such that it was re-purchased, having fallen into lay ownership, by Bishop Losinga in the first year of the 12th century and conferred on the cathedral at Norwich to enhance the sanctity of the new See. Moat building, generally, began in the late 12th century with most moat dating from the period 1200-1325 and it is therefore likely that the enclosure of the Hall is the work of one of the subsequent bishops. The annual compotus or account rolls account makes reference to repairs to the chapel and cloister in 1342 along with repairs to other buildings ‘inside the moat’ suggesting the presence of a monastic community. It also refers to an ‘Old Cloister’ suggesting that it had already been long established by this date. The Hall developed as a ‘summer palace' for the bishops and to the west of the enclosure were laid out the Old Park and, further to the south, the New Park. Entries in the compotus indicate that the parks were carefully stocked and maintained suggesting that the provision of good hunting was the principal attraction of the estate. The current hall has a core of stonework which can be dated by door arches and window forms to no earlier than the 13th century. Bishop Henry Despenser was given a licence to crenellate his South Elmham manor house in 1387. After the Dissolution the property was granted to Edward, Lord North in 1541. He was responsible for the remodelling of the hall, possibly from a ruinous state, adding the west wing and timber extensions to the north and south walls of the existing flint building in the 16th century. The gatehouse, the subject of the survey, stands on the west side of the enclosure on the inner edge of the moat and is described, erroneously, on the early OS maps as a chapel in ruins. 3 4. Historic context: cartographic record Figure 2. Tithe map 1838 of South Elmham, St Margaret (detail) The Hall is shown in red and the gatehouse coloured grey with what appears to be buttresses on the long walls of the Phase 1 building and the Phase 2 building complete with its east wall. The moat platform is accessed from the south and east via a bridge and causeway but no crossing by the gatehouse is shown. Figure 3. First Edition 25 inch Ordnance Survey of 1884, The plan describes the gatehouse as Chapel (in ruins) and shows the position of a footbridge approached by a public footpath. 4 Figure 4. Estate map 1876 with enlarged detail of enclosure inset . 5 Figure 5. Edmund Farrar’s map of the site drawn in 1912 The gatehouse is labelled ‘so called chapel’ and ‘postern bridge’ Figure 6. The Second and Third Edition 25 inch Ordnance Survey published in 1904 and 1927 (Third edition shown here) shows the site much as it is depicted in 1884. 6 5. Survey results The building was recorded by photogrammetric survey undertaken by Nicolas Jacobs Architects. The survey images have been annotated and reproduced within the report as Figures 12-23. The building is described in detail by phase below, and the numbers in brackets reference the figure numbers followed by the feature numbers. 6. Building analysis General description The Gatehouse is constructed in mixed flint with corner quoins and window and door openings built in brick. It was constructed in two phases, with the gatehouse wing (Phase 2) being added to the south end of an existing building (Phase 1) to create the L-shaped plan form that we see today. The original building was a small twin-celled structure laid out over two floors but almost all of the fabric of the first floor walls has been lost. The north gable however survives to the full height of the ridge and presents a near complete elevation. The architectural style of the windows and the size and firing characteristics of the bricks are very similar to the nearby Mettingham Castle and suggest a mid- 14th century date for the construction of Phase 1. The Phase 2 range is broadly similar in appearance to the Phase 1 but the use of brick is more extensive both in the corner quoins and with courses alternating with flint in the body of the walls. The brick size and type suggest a mid 16th century date. Less survives of the second phase of the building and the remains stand, in general, only to about 1-1.5m. The gatehouse is grouped along with the other early buildings within the southern half of the enclosure, but stands apart from them on the west edge of the moat platform. Its north edge aligns approximately with a section of substantial medieval wall which was recorded in the north side of the ‘Batemans’ barn (Boulter 2006) but there is no evidence of scars or wall stubs to suggest that the gatehouse was attached to, or integral with, a precinct or curtain wall.