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Monument Types

• MANOR HOUSE (Late Medieval to Modern - 1501 AD to 2050 AD) + Sci.Date

Summary

A C16th timber framed house, which replaced the earlier medieval manor house. Many of the timbers appear to have been salvaged from earlier buildings on site. The C15th gatehouse is the only surviving part of the original building.

Additional Information

Listed building description:
House, partly mediaeval, C16 and later centuries. 2 storeys, comprising a C15 gatehouse with C16 timber-framed hall and solar section. Timber-framed rectangle set behind and to left of gatehouse, the resulting rear square filled in by Cl9 addition. A twin-span plain tiled roof, one span over gatehouse, the other over rest. Gatehouse front of ashlar with stone plinth. Ashlar continues round to half of gable ends which are otherwise Cl9 brick. Stonework has shaped stone string courses, first floor cut back. Heads of four large buttresses once on edge of moat visible. This part only filled in. Front door, left of centre, is original gateway with 3-centred arch. Left, a crosslet, renewed C20, and right a single-light window. Above, a renewed rectangular framed tablet of 3 quatrefoils enclosing 3 plain shields. Above, a 3-light mullion window with renewed pointed arches. To left, a renewed 2-light mullion window with cusped arches. To right, a similar, though probably original, window and the projecting stone channel of a stone drainage bowl inside. First floor string course interrupted by later rebuilding. Gatehouse left gable ashlar contains a narrow slit opening below, and a 2- light mullion cusped-headed window above. Otherwise, two Cl9 windows. Right gable ashlar contains a single-light window below otherwise Cl9 windows. The timber-framed section is of 2 bays with close studding, angle braces, plastered infill, its stone plinth set 1m to rear of gatehouse. There is a large central stone chimney with Cl9 brick ridge stack. On front visible to left of gatehouse, 7-light wooden mullion below and 4-light above. On left gable end, small 4-light wooden mullion on first floor and brick gable with 3-light casement. Rear wall is part timber-framed, part stone of central chimney and part Cl9 ashlar. Various windows, including 5-light mullion below. To left, the Cl9 addition, with various doors and casements. A Cl9 brick stack in valley between this and gatehouse. Interior: exposed stone and timber-framed walls. A series of carved stone panels, probably from earlier house, above fireplace of left ground floor room of C16 section. Stone arched fireplace in dining room. "Appleby Magna is the best preserved mediaeval house on a moated site. The original late 15th century gatehouse still stands practically unaltered, and behind it is one of the best examples of 'black and white' timber-framed houses in the county …… replacing the original mediaeval manor house of the Appleby family, who had been squires here as far back as the reign of Henry II. George Appleby sold the ancestral manor in 1560, and the half-timbered house may have been built immediately afterwards by the new owner". Hoskins, W.G., 'The Heritage of Leicestershire', 2nd Edition, Leicester, 1950, pp 1, 14-16.

There was a small excavation by Max Hebditch in 1961/2. Post-holes and other features were found. (note book on file) (PL 14/09/88)

<1> Pevsner N, 1984, The Buildings of England Leicestershire and Rutland, p74 (Bibliographic reference). SLE4.

"Of the extensive medieval manor house (Nichols mentions a hall, chapel, etc.) the moat, blocked only in front of the house, can be traced; so can footings of buildings near it on the E side, and evidence of a cobbled yard stretching beneath the present house. The gatehouse, the only upstanding survival, indicates the status of the original buildings and must once have been exceedingly monumental and forbidding. In the C16 the present timber-framed house was built a few feet E of it. The whole is now an eminently picturesque ensemble.
"The gatehouse is of stone, two storeys, with an arch centrally to the W. (The back wall is missing.) Over the arch a quatrefoil frieze with shields. First-floor windows relatively symmetrically arranged, of two and three lights, arched and cusped. Slits below. Low chute from the side. Said to have been rebuilt c.1530, it has since been decapitated - see the broken string course and the incomplete newel stair. There was originally a tower over the entrance. Timber-framed gables rebuilt in brick.
"The timber-framed house is joined to the gatehouse by a passage of C19 brick. Its S wall is on axis with the gate passage, the angle filled by a brick addition of 1855 (said to replace a jettied upper storey, for which there is internal evidence). Close-studded framing, i.e. not later than the late C16. Many timbers appear to have been salvaged, possibly from earlier buildings on the site. Two rooms on each floor divided by a central stone stack. Above the N room fireplace, a frieze of undecipherable, crudely geometric and figurative carvings and lettering. Former oven on the E wall. Upstairs, four-centred fireplaces built against the stone stack. Moulded beams throughout the ground floor.
"West of the house a square stone building, heightened in brick, said to be a DOVECOTE though it lacks nesting boxes."

<2> 2016, National Record of the Historic Environment (NRHE) accessioning (Website). SLE4981.

SUMMARY: "C16th timber-framed house on site and incorporating part of of Medieval moated manor house. C15th gatehouse from earlier house and C16th or C17th dovecote survive as roofed buildings."
URL: 'https://nrhe-to-her.esdm.co.uk/NRHE/RecordDetail.aspx?pageid=8&he_uid=312840', accessioned 20/07/2016.

<3> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey card index series (Card Index). SLE8.

"Moat House...c.1400. A most valuable specimen of a mediaeval moated manor, with a striking gatehouse". (Rec. 6" (M.P.Dare, Udtd.))

<4> Hoskins, W G, 1950, The Heritage of Leicestershire, p1, p14-16 (Bibliographic reference). SLE4993.

"Appleby Magna is the best preserved medieval house on a moated site. The original late 15th cent. gatehouse still stands practically unaltered, and behind it is one of the best examples of 'black and white' timber-framed houses in the county, dating from probably the middle of the 16th cent., and replacing the original medieval manor house of the ancient Appleby family who had been squires here as far back as the reign of Henry II. George Appleby sold the ancestral manor in 1560, and the half-timbered house may have been built immediately afterwards by the new owner".

<5> The Archaeological Journal, Vol 112 (1955), p169-70 (MW Barley) (Journal). SLE2994.

This house, with modern additions in brick, is a 16th cent. rebuilding of the earlier manor house in re-used materials including some which show 15th cent. features. This includes the western half which seems to be the gatehouse mentioned above. A square stone dovecot on the west is probably also 16th cent.

<6> Field Investigators Comments, F1 BHS 23-JUN-72 (Website). SLE3488.

House and dovecote as described above. The moat has now been cleared out and filled with water. See photos and 25" survey.

<7> Vernacular Architecture Group, 2016, Dendrochronology Database (Digital archive). SLE4697.

Tree-ring dating gave a felling date of 1621-1622.
(Information from VAG Dendrochronology Database, 'http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archives/view/vag_dendro/full_record.cfm?id=2411', accessed 02/12/2016.)
Collection doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5284/1039454

<8> Hartley R F, 1984, The Medieval Earthworks of North West Leicestershire, p5 (Bibliographic reference). SLE326.

"No other site in Leicestershire preserves so well the atmosphere of a moated manor house as the ancient mansion of the Appleby family which was considered a curiosity even in Nichols' time (Nichols 1804 431). East of the church a small dovecote (1) with a stone base stands on a slight promontory surrounded by a hollowed-out area (2) which might have been dammed to form a pond. By the church wall is a terrace (3) which formerly had farm buildings on it. The structures within the moat itself comprise a stone gatehouse (4) of fifteenth century date, with, behind it a timber-framed house of "not later than the late sixteenth century" (Pevsner 1980 48). The moat has been restored and refilled. To the south is a small rectangular pond (6) and to the east an area of low rectangular earthworks which may indicate the site of a garden, divided into four parts after the traditional pattern. Beyond this is a hollow way (8) apparently an old back-lane to this part of the village, and a small paddock (9) called the "bull-ring" containing some traces of possible building foundations with evidence of small-sale quarrying at the edges."

<9> Patrick, J, 2007, An archaeological watching brief at The Moat House, Appleby Magna (Unpublished document). SLE566.

In 2006 a watching brief was carried out on works associated with a new bathroom at The Moat House. A wall was recorded that pre-dated the C16th brick wall of the existing building.

Sources

Associated Finds

None recorded

Designations

• Listed Building (II*) 1361263: THE MOAT HOUSE
• Conservation Area: Appleby Magna
• Scheduled Monument 1011458: MOATED SITE, FISHPONDS, FORMAL GARDEN AND SETTLEMENT EARTHWORKS EAST OF ST MICHAEL'S CHURCH

Associated Images

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