Description:-
Situated on a small plateau known as Castle Hill, the site includes a ditched and banked enclosure containing the earthwork remains of a preceptory or commandery, a monastery or monastic grange of the Knights Hospitallers, with a linear boundary bank and ditch to the E and a substantial dam to the N. The commandery is situated within a sub-rectangular enclosure c.200 x 150m in overall dimension, surrounded by a bank (<1.5m high) and ditch (<0.5m deep). Within the enclosure, the irregular surface includes two obvious mounds c. 1m high & 12m in diameter. To the E a low bank and ditch run parallel with the E edge of the enclosure, and possibly represent the remains of a stock management feature.
A stream situated to the west of the commandery enclosure was dammed to the north to form a large fishpond. The dam measures over 100m long, up to 3m high, and 8m wide; a central breach in the dam marks the site of a former sluice gate. The present stream runs to the west of the fishpond, and probably represents an artificial by-pass channel; the original feeder channel to the fishpond can be seen as a discolouration in the vegetation south of the pond. The resulting fishpond, now a marshy area, measures 100 x 75m, and contains a small island perhaps used for breeding waterfowl in the medieval period. An alternative explanation suggests the island may have been formed from the spoil excavated from a small cattle pond just to the north.
Documentary records suggest Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, gave the land to the Knights Hospitallers in mid C13th. In 1274/5 they area recorded as owning 8 carucates (c. 388 hectares) of land in the area. In 1307/8 the 'Master of Beaumont', presumably an Hospitaller official, was accused of selling wood against regulations in Leicester. In 1338 Beaumont is described as being part of the Hospitaller holding administered from Old Dalby. A bailiff, a wood keeper, an orchard and houses are mentioned at this time, as well as both arable and pasture land. In the C15th the 'fishpond of Beaumont' is mentioned in a context that certainly refers to the large pond below Castle Hill. The Hospitallers held the commandery until 1482 when it was exchanged with Edward IV for the rectory of Boston. Records note a pale surrounded the commandery, and it was later described as a park, given the King's enjoyment of hunting, a possible reason for his desire to acquire it. By 1530 it is again described as a pasture.
Commanderies were initially founded to raise revenues to fund the crusades of the C12th and 13th, in the C15th the Hospitallers used the revenues to assist in the defence of Rhodes from the Turks. Like other monastic sites, they contained buildings designed to accommodate the domestic and religious requirements of the order; additionally, Hospitaller commanderies also provided hospices for travellers and pilgrims. The most unusual feature of Hospitaller establishments was the round nave of their churches, copying that of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
The area was used as a sewage treatment site during the later C19th & early C20th. A survey of the site dated Sept 1913 states 'The work stands on a sewage farm, and channels are cut all about the work and the adjoining land for the filth to run over the same, hence it is not pleasant or very safe to walk about;....' Hartley records that the sewage channels also affected the interior of the earthwork. He suggests that 'The commandery probably represents the remains of a sheep farm of the Hospitallers.'
"Beaumont, Leics. Under Dalby in 1338: v Larking, 63, 65." Listed under The Knights Hospitallers as a manor or camera is the only reference to the site in Knowles and Hadcock.
Excavations held over three seasons identified a substantial building in the northern half of the enclosure, with dividing walls, possible doorways, a hearth, numerous slate tile fragments and 13th-15th century pottery. |