John of Caen House, York Cathedral Close (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of York.
In the historic county of Yorkshire.
Modern Authority of York.
1974 county of North Yorkshire.
Medieval County of Yorkshire Ainsty & York.

OS Map Grid Reference: SE602522
Latitude 53.96172° Longitude -1.07975°

John of Caen House, York Cathedral Close has been described as a probable Fortified Town House.

There are no visible remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

In 1298, Johannes de Cadamo (John of Caen) was given licence 'to crenellate his houses within the close of the church of York' (domos suas quas habet infra clausum Ebor. ecclesi). Actually he seems to have one house in the Minster close and another in Goodramgate, just outside the close. Caen was an Apostolic notary and held a number of prebends as well as being a royal clerk. The question here may be the nature of the house in Goodramgate, was this property let or was it used by Caen for his own possible business interests (the location might suggest private legal work rather than trade). Was the licence only a fairly straight forward recognition of Caen's royal links and works with a building in the Minster close that was decorated with crenellations or were there also some security features added to both houses to protect the legal documents so often the target of the mob? Despite the wealth of medieval buildings surviving in York none of these buildings survive and their actual forms are unknown. (Davis 2010)

A Royal licence to crenellate was granted in 1298 Aug 21 (Click on the date for details of this licence.).

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1017777, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 13280
Further information may be available from the holder of the county Historic Environment Record.

Books
- Peter Addyman (ed), 2015, British Historic Towns Atlas Volume V: York (Oxbow Books for the Historic Towns & York Archaeological Trusts)
  Greenaway, Diane (ed), 1999, 'List 23: Prebendaries: Driffield' Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066-1300 Volume 6: York p. 68 online transcription
  Turner, T.H. and Parker, J.H., 1859, Some account of Domestic Architecture in England (Oxford) Vol. 3 Part 2 p. 404 online copy
Periodical Articles
- Davis, Philip, 2010-11, 'Crenellated town houses in Medieval England' Castle Studies Group Journal Vol. 24 p. 270-91
  Coulson, C., 1982, 'Hierarchism in Conventual Crenellation: An Essay in the Sociology and Metaphysics of Medieval Fortification' Medieval Archaeology Vol. 26 p. 69-100 see 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. 358 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.

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