CSG Annual Conference - April 2017 - Markenfield Hall Markenfield Hall. First-floor hall (left - ground level entrance). The north lodging, chapel and south lodging are to the east (right). Additional lodgings, running south along the east range originally had exterior stairs to the first-floor apartments. Far left: Early 15th century kitchen is adjacent to and west of the Great Hall. Markenfield Hall ‘walk-ways, arrow-loop embrasures, and bat- tlements above, emphasise that when the The small settlement of Markenfield sits in present house was constructed c. 1310, (incor- fields three miles south of Ripon, looking much porating parts of an earli r 1230s house) it was as it did when built in the early fourteenth built with defense in mind - as it had to be: the century. It is mostly medieval and has been country was on the brink of civil war between beautifully restored. the barons and the ineffective Edward II, and The builder was John de Markenfield (d. before John de Markenfield was part of the royal 1323) one-time Chancellor to the hapless Ed- household and marked out as a hated king’s ward II. It received a licence to crenellate in man. 1310, but it is felt that much rebuilding was in The house is now formed around a rectangular process before that date. The hall now wears courtyard circumscribed by the moat. The any obvious defences lightly, but needed some Great Hall is straight ahead (above), on the level of defensive cover to protect him from his first floor, with the solar and lodging apart- (or the king’s) local enemies; it might properly ments to the east forming a compact L-shaped be called a ‘lightly fortified manor house’. block. The elegant spiral staircase is distin- The handsome guidebook, which reproduces guished by its distinctive steeple-like cap. the original enrolment of the licence, (p.7) sug- Markenfield is a rare treasure in the hands of gests that the gatehouse had a drawbridge over dedicated custodians. It is the most complete the moat until the eighteenth century; there was surviving example of a medium sized four- also an outer moat. The present remains of teenth-century country house in England. THE CASTLE STUDIES GROUP JOURNAL THENO 29: CASTLE 2015-16116 STUDIES GROUP JOURNAL NO 31: 2017-18 CSG Annual Conference - April 2017 - Markenfield Hall Plan (from the guidebook) of how the medieval vaulting of the present house may have been arranged before before consid- erably dismantled in about 1570. The site of the original Great Hall (or chamber block) and its undercroft of the earlier 1230s house is marked in red. The plan is based on the measured survey by John Miller during the 1981-84 restoration. The 1230s house The late Professor Andor Gomme worked over several years to establish precisely where the ‘second’ Markenfield Hall was built and how much of it had been incorporated into the third (c. 1310) Markenfield that exists today. He concluded that the second Markenfield was built c. 1230. Its undercroft consisted of the three surviving vaulted or semi- vaulted ground floor rooms on the east side of the house and its Great Hall above was what is now part of the Chapel, the four poster bedroom and the two rooms beyond. It was consid- erably smaller than the Markenfield that survives today but many differences in style and proportion mark it out as early thirteenth century work. Andor Gomme’s posthumous summary analysis is presented in The Medieval Great House’, 2011, pp. 109-124, but on his own admission, ‘There is doubtless still much to be learnt about Markenfield: this account therefore is offered as a stag- ing post during work in progress’. THE CASTLE STUDIES GROUP JOURNAL THENO 29: CASTLE 2015-16117 STUDIES GROUP JOURNAL NO 31: 2017-18 CSG Annual Conference - April 2017 - Markenfield Hall Floor plans by Priestly Shires. North to the right. From: ‘The Old Halls and Manor Houses of Yorkshire’ by Louis Ambler. 1913 THE CASTLE STUDIES GROUP JOURNAL THENO 29: CASTLE 2015-16118 STUDIES GROUP JOURNAL NO 31: 2017-18 CSG Annual Conference - April 2017 - Markenfield Hall Markenfield Hall. By William Twopenny, c. 1830s. View from the SW. British Museum ref: AN00142931_001_l. © Trustees of the British Museum. Note the gable-end windows of the building terminating the west range - since removed to accommodate a fireplace and flue (below). BELOW: A similar viewpoint today. THE CASTLE STUDIES GROUP JOURNAL THENO 29: CASTLE 2015-16119 STUDIES GROUP JOURNAL NO 31: 2017-18 CSG Annual Conference - April 2017 - Markenfield Hall ABOVE: The Tudor gatehouse which may have replaced an earlier gatehouse on the same footprint. It contains a dovecot in the ground-floor west chamber (left). BELOW: The exterior of the west range (to the left of the gatehouse, looking south) - stables, brewhouses and services. THE CASTLE STUDIES GROUP JOURNAL THENO 29: CASTLE 2015-16120 STUDIES GROUP JOURNAL NO 31: 2017-18 CSG Annual Conference - April 2017 - Markenfield Hall Markenfield. The east façade with the large chapel window. A narrow lancet window on the extreme right (north) possibly dates from the earlier hall/solar block (1230s) and remained incorporated into the new 1310 house (window altered later). BELOW: The NE corner with the lean-to latrine block, Great Hall to the right with its flue and chimney stack (the latter probably inserted post 1310). THE CASTLE STUDIES GROUP JOURNAL THENO 29: CASTLE 2015-16121 STUDIES GROUP JOURNAL NO 31: 2017-18 CSG Annual Conference - April 2017 - Markenfield Hall Markenfield - Great Hall and kitchen block from the north. A façade with many puzzles. Between the LH garderobe block and the chimney is a blocked doorway, half built into the 14th century window above it. What was its purpose? And why does the similar window to the right have an oblique roofline cutting right across it? THE CASTLE STUDIES GROUP JOURNAL THENO 29: CASTLE 2015-16122 STUDIES GROUP JOURNAL NO 31: 2017-18 CSG Annual Conference - April 2017 - Markenfield Hall Markenfield - Great Hall and kitchen block from the north, by William Twopenny. c. 1830s. On this side, the upper part of the roof-top parapet is missing, and without any arrow loops or crenels. Was it always thus? The chimney stack is also missing, but there is one at the gable end.. BELOW: The wide segmental arched fireplace in the Great Hall, flush with the wall - a copy of the one that is now in the undercroft below (right) which was removed from the hall when the building became a farmhouse. Suggested date of the fireplace is the 1340s (guidebook p. 24), an early innovation that was moving away from the tall pyramidal projecting hooded fireplace. THE CASTLE STUDIES GROUP JOURNAL THENO 29: CASTLE 2015-16123 STUDIES GROUP JOURNAL NO 31: 2017-18 CSG Annual Conference - April 2017 - Markenfield Hall Markenfield Hall. Great Hall and east lodging block. From ‘Some Account of Domestic Architec- ture in England’, Vol. II, J. H. Parker 1853, opp. p. 230. Artist: William Twopenny. BELOW: A similar view today. Notice the change to the ground-floor entrance into the Great Hall undercroft, and the insertion of the long narrow late-Victorian window, replacing a square frame. THE CASTLE STUDIES GROUP JOURNAL THENO 29: CASTLE 2015-16124 STUDIES GROUP JOURNAL NO 31: 2017-18 CSG Annual Conference - April 2017 - Markenfield Hall Markenfield Hall. The ‘Utility Room’ under the ‘Solar’ at the north end of Undercroft ‘B’. This appears to be the earliest remaining set of two-bay quadripartite vaults (1230s), and was supported by a central row of columns or piers, similar to the cellarium at Fountains Abbey (see over and p. 127). Image reproduced courtesy of Markenfieldhall.com. THE CASTLE STUDIES GROUP JOURNAL THENO 29: CASTLE 2015-16125 STUDIES GROUP JOURNAL NO 31: 2017-18 CSG Annual Conference - April 2017 - Markenfield Hall Markenfield - Vault under the Solar. View of the semi-octagonal corbel capital in the Utility room. (Larder on Priestly Shire’s plan), in the northern part of space ‘B’. THE CASTLE STUDIES GROUP JOURNAL THENO 29: CASTLE 2015-16126 STUDIES GROUP JOURNAL NO 31: 2017-18 CSG Annual Conference - April 2017 - Markenfield Hall Markenfield Hall - The quadripartite vaulting under the Solar. The Utility room. (Larder on Priestly Shire’s plan), in space ‘B’. BELOW left: One of the (two remaining?) freestanding central piers now virtually encased within a dividing partition wall. Below right: The cellarium at Fountains Abbey (mid-late C12), not far from Markenfield, similar to Markenfield, but the ribs are taken down to the ground. THE CASTLE STUDIES GROUP JOURNAL THENO 29: CASTLE 2015-16127 STUDIES GROUP JOURNAL NO 31: 2017-18 CSG Annual Conference - April 2017 - Markenfield Hall ABOVE: Left: Art nouveau window in the Great Hall c. 1900. Right: Twin-light c. 1300-1310 hall window with trefoil-headed lights and quatrefoils - facing the courtyard. BELOW: 1,2 The Great Hall looking west to the C15 kitchen range through the door in the gable end, 2, looking NE. Blocked late C13?/C14 window embrasure with tracery above. 3. Chapel with east window. 4. The vaulted study. 1 2 4 3 THE CASTLE STUDIES GROUP JOURNAL THENO 29: CASTLE 2015-16128 STUDIES GROUP JOURNAL NO 31: 2017-18 CSG Annual Conference - April 2017 - Markenfield Hall The elegant east 14th century lodging block with semi-octagonal steeple-capped staircase turret. View from the courtyard. Altered from two floors to three floors with reorganised fenestration in about 1550. Inset: Clockwise spiral staircase interiors - cut-slab risers and wide lights. THE CASTLE STUDIES GROUP JOURNAL THENO 29: CASTLE 2015-16129 STUDIES GROUP JOURNAL NO 31: 2017-18 CSG Annual Conference - April 2017 - Markenfield Hall Bibliography Wood, E.