East Folifoot (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Moat House; Follithwaite

In the civil parish of Walton.
In the historic county of Yorkshire.
Modern Authority of Leeds.
1974 county of West Yorkshire.
Medieval County of Yorkshire Ainsty & York.

OS Map Grid Reference: SE45654621
Latitude 53.91004° Longitude -1.30656°

East Folifoot has been described as a probable Timber Castle, and also as a probable Fortified Manor House.

There are cropmark/slight earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

The deserted mediaeval village of East Folifoot is now represented by the 'Moat' in the western enclave of Wighill parish (Beresford, 1952). The survey of the moat has been revised. It is now dry and heavily overgrown, and its western arc is encroached by the limits of a modern Ordnance Depot. Within the central hold is a derelict farmhouse. No remains of the associated village can be identified apart from two possible fragments of a perimeter bank (Field Investigators Comments F1 RWE 15-NOV-61). Aerial photography shows cropmarks of a complex of buildings, and probably a series of settlements and enclosures of different periods. Probably the most important is a large ditched enclosure with possibly a large single aisled building standing inside it. This is quite likely to be a Saxon Hall of the Yeavering type (RCHM (YORK) Records 1972). A circular type moat with a possible adjacent motte. A licence for an oratory was acquired in 1313-4. Deserted Medieval Village (Le Patourel, 1973). The circular moat (55 metres in diameter), with an entrance on the eastern side, was visible as earthworks on air photographs, but on later photographs the ditch had been considerably levelled. There was no visible evidence for the medieval settlement remains or a motte. The cropmark site to the east is now recorded separately in SE 44 NE 35. (PastScape)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1003801, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number wy1195
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 54753.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 6839; MNY17018 (North Yorkshire HER record).

Books
- Le Patourel, H.E. Jean, 1973, The Moated Sites of Yorkshire (The Society for Medieval Archaeology Monograph Series 5) p. 124
  Beresford, Maurice and Hurst, John G. (eds), 1971, Deserted medieval villages: studies (Lutterworth Press) p. 211
  Speight, Harry, 1902, Lower Wharfedale (London: Elliot Stock) p. 334 online copy
Periodical Articles
- Beresford, Maurice, 1952-5, Yorkshire Archaeological Journal Vol. 38 p. 231
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Creighton, O.H., 1998, Castles and Landscapes: An Archaeological Survey of Yorkshire and the East Midlands (PhD Thesis University of Leicester) p. 294, 764 online copy

Most of the sites or buildings recorded in this web site are NOT open to the public and permission to visit a site must always be sought from the landowner or tenant.
It is an offence to disturb a Scheduled Monument without consent. It is a destruction of everyone's heritage to remove archaeological evidence from ANY site without proper recording and reporting.
Don't use metal detectors on historic sites without authorisation.

The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of Historic England, County Historic Environment Records and other individuals and organisations. It may also contain information licensed under the Open Government Licence. All the sources given should be consulted to identify the original copyright holder and permission obtained from them before use of the information on this site for commercial purposes.
The author and compiler of Gatehouse does not receive any income from the site and funds it himself. The information within this site is provided freely for educational purposes only.

The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.

Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.

The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown. Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.

Please help to make this as useful a resource as possible by contacting Gatehouse if you see errors, can add information or have suggestions for improvements in functality and design.
Help is acknowledged.

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