Yate Court (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Yate.
In the historic county of Gloucestershire.
Modern Authority of South Gloucestershire.
1974 county of Avon.
Medieval County of Gloucestershire.

OS Map Grid Reference: ST71288597
Latitude 51.57186° Longitude -2.41578°

Yate Court has been described as a certain Fortified Manor House.

There are masonry ruins/remnants remains.

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

Description

Ruins of the great hall, chambers and service rooms of Yate Court. Early - mid C16, for the Berkeley family, possibly incorporating parts of an earlier mediaeval manor. Tall rubble walls survive, in places, up to 18/20 feet high. Moulded string course at first floor level on exterior. Ruins consist of part of a gatehouse and part of the hall. 2 storey section at north east with the remains of an ashlar fireplace which has a moulded jamb and part of a 4-centred lintel with carving in the spandrel. To the south west are 3 walls of a tower (gatehouse) with part of a moulded jamb. A section of freestanding wall survives at the south-west. Part of an important manorial complex, dating from the late C13 and belonging to the Berkeley family and the Crown. Razed in 1644. (Listing report)

Ruins of Yate Court. The gateway of 1299 was removed recently to Berkeley Castle. Only a few walls of the great mediaeval house remain. Burnt down during the Civil War (Listed Building Report 1947).
Yate Court has an oval moat, now drained, c.80 by 100 yds. The buildings were arranged round a courtyard. Licence to crenellate was granted in 1299. The house was rebuilt and enlarged by Henry VII's family. Occupied by Parliament forces in 1644 and burnt shortly afterwards. (TBGAS 1898; )
The ruins of Yate Court are in poor condition. Part of an angle tower 2.0 m. high is at ST 71258593, otherwise the remains are in the N.E. quadrant of the enclosure, centred at ST 7129 8599.
The moat which encloses the site is partly waterlogged and averages 2.0 m. deep. Except for the S.E. quadrant it has an external bank of upcast (F1 NVQ 10-JUL-62).
Listed as a strong house by Cathcart King. An oval moated area of some strength with remains of walls. Said to have had a portcullis gate. Licenced in 1299 (King 1983). (PastScape)

A Royal licence to crenellate was granted in 1299 Aug 8 (Click on the date for details of this licence.).

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1321126
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 205092.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 2062.

Books
- Emery, Anthony, 2006, Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales Vol. 3 Southern England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) p. 132
  Salter, Mike, 2002, The Castles of Gloucestershire and Bristol (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 39
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 185
  Johnson, L.J.R., 1971, The History of Yate
  Rahtz, Philip et al, 1969, Medieval sites in the Mendip, Cotswold, Wye Valley and Bristol Region (Bristol Archaeological Research Group 9) p. 22
  Cox, J.C. and Stratton Davis, H., 1949, Gloucestershire - The Little Guides (London: Methuen & Co) p. 174
  Turner, T.H. and Parker, J.H., 1859, Some account of Domestic Architecture in England (Oxford) Vol. 3 Part 2 p. 404 online copy
  Rudder, S., 1779, A new history of Gloucestershire p. 854 online copy (large file)
Periodical Articles
- Iles, 1979, Avon Past p. 9-10
  Lindley, E.S., 1966, 'The Manor of Yate' Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society Vol. 85 156-63 online copy
  1938, Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society Vol. 84 p. 207
  1898, 'Transactions at the Spring Meeting at Yate, and Excursion to Iron Acton, Yate Court, Horton, and Little Sodbury' Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society Vol. 21 p. 8-12 online copy
  Fox, F., 1898, 'The Description of the Manor Place of Yate' Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society Vol. 21 p. 22-24 online copy
  Kennedy-Skipton, H.S., 1898, 'The Berkeleys at Yate' Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society Vol. 21 p. 25-31 online copy
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), 1895, Calendar of Patent Rolls Edward I (1292-1301) Vol. 3 p. 430 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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