Low Catton Manor House (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Catton.
In the historic county of Yorkshire.
Modern Authority of East Riding of Yorkshire.
1974 county of Humberside.
Medieval County of Yorkshire East Riding.

OS Map Grid Reference: SE704539
Latitude 53.97638° Longitude -0.92810°

Low Catton Manor House has been described as a probable Fortified Manor House.

There are no visible remains.

Description

SE 704539. The north and south arms of a three-sided moat (Type A4), with River Derwent below, situated beside the church at Low Catton."Percy ing. post mortem of 1258 gives three fossata and fishery in Derwent beneath court".
Nothing visible on RAF air photographs (Le Patourel 1973).
The Manor-house, which stood immediately south of the church at Low Catton, was apparently moated in 1258-9. It was mentioned in 1315 and 1352, but in 1577 it was described as "so utterly ruinated .... that it hardly can be judged where it hath stood". There is no later mention of a manor house but some traces of earthworks remain (VCH 1976).
SE 70485396. In the graveyard about 27.0m parallel to the south wall of the church at Low Catton is a shallow ill-defined depression (about 30.0m long, 12.0m wide and 0.4m maximum depth) too poor to warrent survey.
It may possibly be the remains of part of the moat but it is more probably the site of a continuation of the approach road to the church from the east.
The area south of this covering Hall Garth down to Wath Lane is level ground used either for gardens or farmyard and there is no trace of any earthworks visible (F1 ISS 02-APR-79).

Comments

The form of this Percy manor house is not known. Patourel seems to have assumed that the three fossata mentioned in 1258 were three arms of a moat (the fourth side being the River Derwent?) around the house. By analogue this is a reasonable assumption. The function of these fossata may have been defensive, flood defence, pisciculture or some combination of all of these. There was a deer park at Catton which suggests the house at Low Catton was a Percy residence, although a minor one and presumably abandoned after the construction of Wressle Castle in c. 1380. As a Percy house one might expect some expression of martial nobility in even such a minor house.

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 59588; 59585 (Deer Park).
Further information may be available from the holder of the county Historic Environment Record.

Books
- Allison, K.J. (ed), 1976, VCH Yorkshire: East Riding Vol. 3 p. 151 online transcription
  Le Patourel, H.E. Jean, 1973, The Moated Sites of Yorkshire (The Society for Medieval Archaeology Monograph Series 5) p. 111 no. 5
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- Maxwell Lyte, H.C. (ed), 1904, Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem Vol. 1 p. 125 no. 452 online copy
  The National Archive C 132/23/7 online reference
  The National Archive C 134/41/1 online reference
  The National Archive C 135/116/1 online reference
  Petworth House Archive, no. 1417

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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.

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