Riccall Manor (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Rikhall; Escrick

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

OS Map Grid Reference: SE615380
Latitude 53.83533° Longitude -1.06580°

Riccall Manor has been described as a certain Fortified Manor House.

There are major building remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.
This is a Grade 2* listed building protected by law*.

Description

The buried and earthwork remains of a medieval moated site for a prebendary manor house belonging to York Minster, located on the western outskirts of Riccall village. Upon the island there is a Grade II-star Listed Building that incorporates substantial remains of a late medieval brick built manor house. The manor of Riccall was held by the Archbishopric of York from before the Domesday Survey. The prebendal manor house was in existence by 1294, when it was first documented, and a licence to crenellate was granted in 1350. The oldest part of the existing house is a brick built three storey tower with a five stage turret dated to c.1480. The manor and moated site passed to the Wormley family in 1651, who in 1654 made Riccall Hall, 700m to the south east, their main residence. In 1869 the manor house was enlarged to serve as a vicarage. The moated island is approximately 60m by 80m, orientated NNW-SSE. It is rhomboid in plan with the western side being 90m long, and the eastern side 70m. The upstanding late medieval building is sited centrally on the western side of the island. The encircling moat ditch is broad and deep, typically 20m wide and was originally at least 2m deep. The northern and eastern moat arms survive best; the south western part of the of the circuit survives mainly as an infilled feature, modified by 19th-century landscaping. The field to the west of the monument is lower than the island and, as a result, the western moat arm is defined on its outer western side by a bank. The island also retains some evidence of internal division with low linear banks. (Scheduling Report)

A Royal licence to crenellate was granted in 1350 Feb 16 (Click on the date for details of this licence.).

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1018212, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 30121
National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1172683
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 58023.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) MNY12072.

Books
- Salter, Mike, 2001, The Castles and Tower Houses of Yorkshire (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 77
  Ingham, Bernard, 2001, Bernard Ingham's Yorkshire Castles (Dalesman) p. 26
  Emery, Anthony, 1996, Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales Vol. 1 Northern England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) p. 387, 421
  Williams, Alison, 1996, 'Castles and moated sites' in Neave, Susan and Ellis, Stephen, An Historical Atlas of East Yorkshire (University of Hull Press) p. 32-3
  Neave, Susan, 1991, Medieval Parks of East Yorkshire (Univeristy of Hull) p. 31, 34
  Ryder, P.F., 1982 (paperback edn 1992), The Medieval Buildings of Yorkshire (Ash Grove Book) p. 108-22
  Pevsner, N., 1978, Buildings of England: Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (London) p. 329
  Allison, K.J. (ed), 1976, 'Riccall' VCH Yorkshire: East Riding Vol. 3 p. 84 online transcription
  Le Patourel, H.E. Jean, 1973, The Moated Sites of Yorkshire (The Society for Medieval Archaeology Monograph Series 5) p. 115
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), 1916, Calendar of Charter Rolls 15 Edward III - 5 Henry V 1341-1417 Vol. 5. (HMSO) p. 120 online copy
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- English Heritage, 2013, Heritage at Risk Register 2013 Yorkshire (London: English Heritage) p. 83 online copy
  English Heritage, 2012, Heritage at Risk Register 2012 Yorkshire and the Humber (London: English Heritage) p. 104 online copy
  English Heritage, 2011, Heritage at Risk Register 2011 Yorkshire and the Humber (London: English Heritage) p. 96 online copy
  English Heritage, 2010, Heritage at Risk Register 2010 Yorkshire and the Humber (London: English Heritage) p. 102 online copy
  English Heritage, 2009, Heritage at Risk Register 2009 Yorkshire and the Humber (London: English Heritage) p. 112 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.

*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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