Eagle Preceptory (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Aycle

In the civil parish of Eagle And Swinethorpe.
In the historic county of Lincolnshire.
Modern Authority of Lincolnshire.
1974 county of Lincolnshire.
Medieval County of Lincolnshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SK86516574
Latitude 53.18174° Longitude -0.70694°

Eagle Preceptory has been described as a probable Fortified Manor House, and also as a probable Fortified Ecclesiastical site.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

In 1449, Robert Botyll, prior of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem in England, was given a complex grant for markets, fairs, imparking etc his manor of Aycle, which included licence to 'embattle, crenellate, and machiolate the manor'

Hospital for sick and aged members of the order of the Templars established at Eagle during Stephen's reign (1135-54). After the suppression of the order in 1312 the preceptory passed to the Hospitallers; and was dissolved in 1540.(Knowles and Hadcock 1971).
The present 'Eagle Hall' is an 18thC farmhouse but the stone barn at SK86466576 may be a 16thC construction (F1 BHS 27-FEB-64).
The Medieval moat, described by the previous authorities, was visible as earthworks and mapped from poor quality air photographs. It is defined by a broad ditch on three sides, forming an enclosure 310m wide, and is centred at SK 8651 6574. (PastScape)

A Royal licence to crenellate was granted in 1449 June 26 (Click on the date for details of this licence.).

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1008316, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 22620
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 324380.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 60126.

Books
- Osborne, Mike, 2010, Defending Lincolnshire: A Military History from Conquest to Cold War (The History Press) p. 47, 67
  Owen, D.M., 1990, Church and Society in Medieval England p. 18, 48, 95, 144
  Knowles, David and Hadcock, R Neville, 1971, Medieval religious houses in England and Wales (Longman) p. 235, 242, 269
  Allen, T., 1934, History of the county of Lincolnshire Vol. 2 bk5 p. 266
  Page, Wm (ed), 1906, VCH Lincolnshire Vol. 2 p. 211 online copy
  White, W., 1856, History, Gazetteer and Directory of Lincolnshire p. 345
Periodical Articles
- 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), 1927, Calendar of Charter Rolls 5 Henry VI - 8 Henry VIII, AD 1427-1516, with an appendix, 1215-1288 Vol. 6. (HMSO) p. 112-3 online copy
Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- Chandler, John, 1993, John Leland's Itinerary: travels in Tudor England (Sutton Publishing) p. 282
  Toulmin-Smith, Lucy (ed), 1907, The itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535-1543 (London: Bell and Sons) Vol. 1 p. 98 online copy
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- English Heritage, 1994, Scheduling Document 22620 Mp. 22

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.

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