| Summary : Site of a 13th century hall house and a 15th century house, excavated between 1964 and 1972. The later house, built circa 1450, was stone-built and H-shaped in plan. Fragments of stone walling are all that survive above ground. The excavations also revealed a bridge abutment, the remains of a gatehouse, traces of a possible formal garden and a 17th century bowling green. The house was burned down in 1648. |
More information : [SE 2563 1889] THE HALL [GT] (Remains of) (1)
The ruins of a 15th century manor house and chapel, surrounded by a moat, stand in the grounds east of Thornhill Church. (2)
Two isolated fragments of walling, at SE 2563418919, are the only visible remains of the Hall and chapel. (See G.P. AO/64/247/1.)
The area enclosed by the moat is at present being excavated by the Tolson Memorial Hall Museum, Huddersfield, who have unearthed the foundations of a gate-house at SE 25641888. The moat is water-filled and complete; its published survey, (1/1250), has been revised. (3)
SE 255 189. Thornhill Hall, moated site. Scheduled. (4)
SE 2559 1890. Thornhill Hall moat and sites of formal gardens and bowling green, and remnant of pre-seventeenth century open-field system. Scheduled RSM No 13289.
The moated island is trapezoidal, measuring c.70m x 60m at its widest point and surrounded by a partially water-filled ditch varying between 5m and 30m wide and up to c.4m deep. A series of partial excavations were carried out between 1964 and 1972 revealed the remains of two houses on slightly different alignments: the earlier was a large 13th century timber-framed hall with clay-bonded foundation walls and the later a stone-built building of H-plan of c.1600 with paved floor, plaster walls and chimney. The standing remains of this later hall are Listed Grade II. A bridge abutment was identified on the N side of the island and a gatehouse excavated on the S.
The moat post-dates an earlier field system which may be contemporary with the 13th century hall or even earlier. Remains of it survive to the S of the moat, which itself truncates the ridge and furrow. Immediately to the N is the site of the 17th century bowling green noted on Saxton's map of c.1600 while to the W lies an area identified by Saxton as 'New Orchard', where three earthwork terraces probably represent the remains of a formal garden of the later hall. Thornhill was the principal seat of the Savile family from the 14th to the mid-17th century, when, in 1648, it was burned to the ground, possibly to avoid seizure by the beseiging Parliamentarian army. (5)
Fragments of a manor house. 1450. The moat, also 1450 is still well filled with water. The ruins comprise a fire-place of rubble, lined in brickwork, and part of a wall containing the sill of a large 2-light window and part of the moulded surround. Two, much eroded, limestone eagles on the edge of the water moved in the C19 but said to have been on the site of the gatehouse to the hall.
In August 1648 troops of Lady Anne Savile, under Capt. Thos. Paulden defended the hall against the Parliamentary forces under Col. Sir Thos. Fairfax. They were forced to surrender but the hall was accidentally blown up and destroyed. (6)
Listed as a strong house by Cathcart King. (7) |