Yoxford (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Cockfield Hall

In the civil parish of Yoxford.
In the historic county of Suffolk.
Modern Authority of Suffolk.
1974 county of Suffolk.
Medieval County of Suffolk.

OS Map Grid Reference: TM394691
Latitude 52.26850° Longitude 1.50918°

Yoxford has been described as a probable Fortified Manor House.

There are earthwork remains.

Description

Emery writes "At Yoxford, the inhabitants recalled for an estate register that 'in very ancient days, the manor was walled about with walls and a moat, which said site was formly built upon, and was then called the inner court of the manor', but by 1471 this fortified house had been reduced to no more than 'jambs and posts'."

Square (?, original form unknown) unoccupied moat, 2 arms remaining,W of Cockfield Hall (YOX 006). Earlier mapping only shows the existing two arms from 1836 onwards suggesting these may be fishponds or ornamental landscape features in the garden of the hall - detailed maps of 1792 & 1793 do not show these ponds! There does appear to have been stew ponds to the West of the house which may have been in the area of the existing ponds.
Medieval documents refer to the mansion as within a square moat and other buildings outside the moat (see Rolfe and Breen 2008 for details).
Note: a very large rectangular structure (tennis court?) appears to have been built within the 'moated' area since 1984 (nothing shown on the 1984 OS map here). (Suffolk HER)

Sources of information, references and further reading

County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) YOX 001.

Books
- Emery, Anthony, 2000, Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales Vol. 2 East Anglia, Central England and Wales (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) (Shown on map of fortified houses of East Anglia)
  Copinger, W.A., 1908, Manors of Suffolk Vol. 2 p. 220-1 (tenurial history) online copy
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Rolfe, J. and Breen, A., 2008 Aug, Cockfield Hall, Yoxford (Suffolk County Council Archaeological Service Rep 2008/198) Desk Based Assessment 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.

Data >		County HER
Maps >	Streetmap	NLS maps	Where's the path	Old-Maps
Data/Maps >	Magic	V. O. B.	Geology	LiDAR	Open Domesday
Air Photos >	Bing Maps	Google Maps	Getmapping	ZoomEarth
Photos >	CastleFacts	Geograph	Flickr	Panoramio