The Dating of the Palace Site

By Mike Pratt & Andrew Sefton

previous item | up | next item

The English Heritage Perspective

In an article on Wilton’s Deer Park in Bulletin 7 [Local History Bulletin 7 dated May 20th, 2004] it was explained that English Heritage who manage the Palace Site say that the “site is thought to have been built for Archbishop Neville during the reign of Edward IV”. This would give a date between 1465 and 1476, but based on Andrew Sefton’s research we think that the date is earlier than that.

We sent a letter to English Heritage in March 2004 explaining our concerns about their dating (and also about the precise boundaries of the site) and asking them if they had any documentary evidence to support their view. We received a reply in the same month which was encouraging and supportive. The respondent said: “It seems to me highly likely that the site originated at an earlier date”. But on the question of any evidence for the 15th century dating we were told that English Heritage’s “historical information was drawn from information in the local Sites and Monuments Record in Hull”. It was suggested that we supply the SMR in Hull (and English Heritage) with a consolidated report on our research on the site so that they can “update their own records so that these can be fully used in consideration of any planning or other matters affecting the site”.

To help produce this consolidated report it seems worthwhile to investigate the claim that the Palace was built by Archbishop George Neville between 1465 and 1476.

The very first entry for the Palace Site in the SMR records at Hull [Footnote 1] shows where English Heritage get their dating from: “The site is believed to mark the palace of Archbishop Neville who resided here in the reign of Edward IV. His arms appear on one of the church windows.” A subsequent entry (based on a quotation [Footnote 2]) says that “The site was used by the Archbishops of York in the 13th and 14th centuries”. Is this inconsistency or does it imply that although the site was “used” in the 13th and 14th century, it was only in the 15th century that a palace was built? There are no grounds for such an assumption unless there is evidence that Archbishop George Neville did actually have something built at Wilton.

Although we do not know of any actual documentary evidence, we do know that it was a view that was held in the 1800s. There is this reference to Bishop Wilton in a book published in 1856 [Footnote 3]:

“The place derives its affix from the palace which was erected here by Archbishop Neville, in the reign of Edward IV. This episcopal residence stood in a moated field, near a church, where there is now a large farm house, and some fine avenues of lofty trees.”

Does that help us? No, not really, as the description appears to relate to the site of the Manor House (the large farm house) near the Church which we know had lofty trees nearby and which we suspect was surrounded by a moat!

If that isn’t confusing enough there is an earlier reference in White’s Directory of 1840:

“The soil belongs to many proprietors, but Sir T. Sykes is lord of the manor, which was formerly held by the Archbishops of York, one of whom, Alex. Neville, had a palace here, in a moated field, near the church, where there is now a large farm-house, and some fine avenues of lofty trees.”

The phrasing is similar apart from the fact that it attributes the palace to Archbishop Alexander Neville (1374 to 1388) rather than Archbishop George Neville (1465 to 1476)!

A coat of arms in a window in the church (see box) prior to its restoration points to the earlier Archbishop Neville as the one most directly associated with the palace at Bishop Wilton. 

The earliest reference found so far, in Baines Vol 2, a directory published in 1823, simply states:

"Bishop Neville had founded a palace here, which was moated round, and from which it is supposed the village derived its name.”

Interestingly the earliest OS map of 1845 identifies the site as that of Archbishop Neville’s Palace.

We have, at least, discovered some sources for the SMR’s dating of the Palace site despite the frustrating discrepancies that they reveal. The question now is what those sources were based on. There are at least two distinct possibilities. One is that they are based on earlier documentary sources that we have yet to find. The other is that they are based on local knowledge or belief and that the compilers of one or more of the various books actually interviewed people. If the latter, it is possible that they misinterpreted what they were told, e.g. the fact that an Archbishop was said to have resided in Bishop Wilton was interpreted as him having built or founded the palace there; without knowing that there were two Archbishop Nevilles one was confused with the other.

The Local History Group Perspective

There is no specific documentary evidence supporting an earlier date for the building and existence of the Archbishops’ Palace; it is all indirect and can be simply stated as follows:

1. Moated sites like the one at Bishop Wilton are thought to date predominantly from the 12th to the 13th century. H. E. Jean Le Patourel who studied the moated sites of Yorkshire says [Footnote 4]: “The moated site of the 12th century is everywhere exceptional, though numbers were clearly increasing in the following century, to reach a climax in the later 13th century. After 1325, there seems to be a considerable drop in the number constructed.”
2. We know that the Archbishops of York were visiting and staying at Wilton from the time of Archbishop Grey (1215-1255) to Archbishop Alexander Neville (1374-1388) because of the letters they wrote which were dated and identified with the Latin “apud Wilton” meaning “at Wilton”.
3. There is no documentary evidence, found so far, for the Archbishops’ visits continuing after Alexander Neville. There is evidence, however, for the curtailment of ecclesiastical visitations generally across the country after the upheavals of the 14th century. Christopher Dyer says: “Earls and bishops who before the first plague had maintained and visited twenty or more houses and castles, now focused their expenditure on three or four residences, which they could build and furnish to a higher standard” [Footnote 5].

There is at least one possibility that could embrace both the English Heritage and the Local History Group perspectives but it is very tenuous. We know that a document, dated 1388 [Footnote 6], produced as a result of the forfeiture of land by Archbishop Alexander Neville described the “manor” (i.e. “manor house”) at Wilton as being “in a very ruinous state and almost fallen down”. It is just possible that Archbishop George Neville in the 15th century built a residence by the Church, leaving the Palace site as a ruin, and it is this that is remembered and referred to in the 19th century accounts. This seems most unlikely as visits to Wilton appear to have ceased by then.

In summary, our working assumption at the moment is that the Nevilles were confused one with another in the 1800s and that it is the earlier Archbishop Alexander Neville who was the last and most remembered visitor to the palace at Wilton, but it was not him who built it as it dates to an earlier time when such moated sites were more common.

Continuing Research

It is still possible that continuing research will uncover direct documentary evidence for the existence of the Archbishops’ residence on the Palace site thus allowing unequivocal dating.

Without that the only alternative is archaeological evidence should any excavation of the site be allowed by Garrowby Estate and English Heritage in the future.

Postscript

The site of the Archbishops’ manor house at Otley has been excavated and H. E. Jean Le Patourel and P. Wood report [Footnote 7] on finds suggesting post-conquest building work including a chapel and private apartments during the 12th and 13th centuries. With glass from windows indicating a date of the third quarter of the 13th century for some of the building work, this points to Archbishop Gray as the possible initiator especially as he is known to have been responsible for other work in Otley. Actual use of the site is thought to have fallen off early in the 14th century.

As Wilton was on the Archbishops’ circuit contemporaneously with Otley it is just possible that it shared a similar history.

The Dating of the Palace Site – Update

By Mike Pratt

Since the publication of the article on the dating of the Palace site [reproduced above] in Bulletin 9 [dated November 17th, 2004] a significant fragment of historical information has come to light. Whilst researching an article on the fish ponds, I was reading what seems to be the most comprehensive collection of papers on the topic, Medieval Fish, Fisheries and Fishponds in England edited by Michael Aston [Footnote 8]. In a paper entitled The Royal Fishponds of Medieval England by J. M. Stearne there is a Gazetteer that gives information on the pond at Fosse, as follows:

The castle at York occupied a site just to the north of the point where the river Foss joins the Ouse. To provide it with water defences the Foss was dammed up and created a large pool. Water from the Fosse pool filled the moat surrounding the castle and drove the king’s mill as it flowed into the river Ouse (Brown, et. al 1963, pp. 889-894 [Footnote 9]). The pond at Fossa, Fosse or Foss seems to have been largely used for stocking other people’s ponds or simply as a source for royal presents. The sheriff of York was to allow the archbishop of York 30 bream in the fishpond of ‘Fossa’ to install in his fishpond of Wiltan (Cal Cl. R. 1227-31, p.19 [Footnote 10]). [my underlining]

The “Wiltan” mentioned here has to be our Wilton and the date of the reference underlined, 1227-31, falls within the period that Walter De Grey was Archbishop of York. The “fishpond of Wiltan” (the outline of which is still visible) must have been an integral part of the Palace site of the time i.e. it would not have existed without the other structures on the site. All of which supports the outcome of Andrew Sefton’s research which attributes the establishment of the Palace site to Archbishop De Grey.

__________________________________________________________________________________________