More information : SE 191902 Akebar village; called "Aykebergh" in the 13th and 14th centuries. North of Leeming Brook are some earthworks and south of it stands an isolated church dedicated to St Andrew. A blocked doorway in the N wall of the nave may be about 1140 in date. A map of 1627 shows four houses grouped round a small green. The village is not named in any of the tax lists beginning in 1297, probably because the settlement had been acquired by Jervaulx Abbey by 1290 when "free warren" was granted it there. In 1342 it was described as a large grange. (1-3)
Traditionally a town as large as Bedale (SE 2688) stood near Akebar farm on the road nearest Finghall. Many human bones were found some years ago, in making a sunken fence, which was believed to be its cemetery. (4)
SE 189906 Grange of Jervaulx Abbey (Cistercian). Earthworks of a group of buildings lie immediately SE of the farm. To the S a pattern of banks and ditches descends to Leeming Brook. Other remains around the chapel are said locally to have been bulldozed away. A survey of 1537 lists the buildings as a dwelling house, two barns and a stable and mentions a croft of one acre. (5)
(Centred SE 190903) A few ditches only can be seen on air photographs. (6)
The area between Akebar Farm and St Andrew's Church (delineated on OS 6") is covered by a system of rig and furrow, old field banks, and tracks. Senior's plan sites the four 'houses', probably the grange, to approximately SE 189904, close, on the ground, to a few amorphous mounds and hollows (Platt's earthworks). These, however, do not constitute intelligible remains, and may not even represent the site.
There is a further small area of disturbed ground at SE 19079055. The extent of the original village is unrecoverable, but it is extremely unlikely that it ever approached the size of Bedale. (7)
A possible moated site, cut by a stream and a fragment of a rectangular ditched platform reported by T C Welsh at "Finghall Alebar Farm" (sic) (should be Akebar Farm in Akebar parish). These remains are near Finghall Church (see SE 19 SE 12) and the site is attributed to Akebar Grange. (8)
Additional bibliography. (9) |