Seaton Holme, Easington (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Easington Village.
In the historic county of Durham.
Modern Authority of Durham.
1974 county of County Durham.
Medieval County of County Palatinate of Durham.

OS Map Grid Reference: NZ41374352
Latitude 54.78488° Longitude -1.35827°

Seaton Holme, Easington has been described as a probable Palace.

There are major building remains.

This is a Grade 1 listed building protected by law*.

Description

In 1248, Seaton Holme, built for the retirement of Prince Bishop Farnham, was to become a major landmark for the governing dynasty, acting as the administrative centre for the area. The earliest phase in the development of Seaton Holme for which there is evidence above ground is an aisled hall with adjoining wing to the east, both of stone rubble. All the indications are that this was part of a mid C13 building phase, this date is suggested by documentary sources and confirmed by dendrochronology. The east wing was at least partly rebuilt in the late C13-early C14. The wing housed services on the ground floor and provided a great chamber on the first. The hall range was rebuilt with a considerably taller open hall in the second half of C15. The two wings were later re-roofed, and the west wing raised in height by almost one metre. Dendrochronological analysis has dated the re-roofing of the west wing to the early C16. The trusses of the east wing have timbers dating to both the late C15 and late C16, suggesting that the wing may have been re-roofed at the same time that the hall range was rebuilt, but was then at least partially rebuilt a century later. In the late C18 and early C19 the building was extensively renovated, in the course of which the interior was remodelled and the west wing virtually rebuilt. (Emery)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1231692
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 27214.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) D12581.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Abaroth's World
Books
- Thompson, M.W., 1998, Medieval bishops' houses in England and Wales (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing) p. 175
  Emery, Anthony, 1996, Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales Vol. 1 Northern England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) p. 51-4, 85-7
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Payne, Naomi, 2003, The medieval residences of the bishops of Bath and Wells, and Salisbury (PhD Thesis University of Bristol) Appendix B: List of Medieval Bishop's Palaces in England and Wales (available via EThOS)

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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.
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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.

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Help is acknowledged.

*The listed building may not be the actual medieval building, but a building on the site of, or incorporating fragments of, the described site.

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