More information : Medieval deer park (centred SK 865800, fig. 00) occupies the
whole of an almost rectangular south-western projection of Stow
parish and covers some 680 acres (275ha), all on clay with
limestone or Boulder Clay/Till at 25-50 feet above OD. It is
first documented at the end of the 12th century but undoubtedly
existed earlier. Woodland was an important feature of the park:
this may indicate that it was carved out of earlier woodland.
Its woods are referred to in the 13th century not only as a
boundary feature in defining the liberty of Torksey but as a
source of firewood: in the early 16th century income was derived
from sale of wood and payments were made to keepers of pigs in
the park, and in 1535 sale of underwood was reckoned to be worth
on average 1 p.a.(a) The fisheries, presumably the ponds
attached to the residence, also contributed to the value of the
farm in 1535 and the agistment of the park was worth 6/13/4.
When the bishop leased his demesne lands at Stow park in 1534, he
set controls on the pasturing of pigs in the park, and also made
provision for feeding 200 deer: three years earlier he had made
Thomas, Lord Burgh, and Edward his son and heir seneschals of the
local episcopal manors and 'masters of the game drives' of Stow
Park.(b) The office of parker was an ancient and, in the 16th
century, remunerative one.(c) The park is referred to in 1630
in the will of Nicholas Saunderson, viscount Castleton, of
Fillingham, and is still shown as an empaled area on Armstrong's
county map of 1778 and on Stark's map, though by the early 19th
century it is said that the park was divided into 4 farms.(d)
The E and W boundaries of the park survive as large tree-
covered banks, up to 1m high and 8m across, with water-filled
dykes on either side giving an overall dimension of about 15m;
they retain the names East and West Lawn, documented in the 13th
century.(e) The S boundary also coincides with the parish
boundary, and the modern by-road following it is markedly raised,
perhaps from lying on the former pale bank. On the NE and N the
details of the circuit are less clear, but it may have diverged
from the parish boundary and followed a strikingly straight run
of hedge-lines before swinging W where two kinks in old hedge-
lines may mark its former course adjacent to the moated site, or
alternatively followed the parish boundary to the point in the NE
where the stream that feeds the moat springs westwards. Even
within the latter larger circuit, only one possible block of
ridge-and-furrow has been noted. (1-2)
The park pale surrounding the deer park, which is recorded by
Authorities 1-2, was mapped from poor quality air photographs:-
On the west side of the park it was seen as a broad earthen bank
flanked by ditches, between SK 8592 8071 and SK 8571 7885. The
probable line of the north-eastern corner of the park was seen as
cropmarks. Continuing the line of a straight run of field
boundaries which diverge from the line of the parish boundary, the
park pale was seen as a ditch running from SK 8691 8057 as far as
the shallow valley immediately to the north of the Bishop's Palace
(SK 88 SE 1). It then swings west at this point to include the
moated site and its associated fishponds recorded in SK 88 SE 1,
and is seen as the cropmark of a bank running between SK 8680 8096
and SK 8640 8092.
(Morph No. LI.680.7.1-2)
This description is based on data from the RCHME MORPH2 database.
(3)
SK 85707952 - SK 85847877 and SK 87037995 - SK 86937888
The medieval deer park once occupied an area of about 275 hectares, extending south from the associated bishops' palace. Two sections of the park pale survive as earthworks: 1.5 kilometres and 1 kilometre to the south-west and south-east of the moated palace site respectively. The south-western part comprises a linear bank around 8 metres wide, flanked by an inner ditch and counterscarp bank. The south-eastern section also survives as a linear bank about 8 metres wide, but the inner ditch is no longer visible. Scheduled. (4) |