Wyfordby manor (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Freeby.
In the historic county of Leicestershire.
Modern Authority of Leicestershire.
1974 county of Leicestershire.
Medieval County of Leicestershire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SK79301885
Latitude 52.76168° Longitude -0.82615°

Wyfordby manor has been described as a probable Fortified Manor House.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

VCH records this site as a 'moated inclosure with stronger defensive works.'

A square plateau, 68ft. square, with a scarp of 7ft., is surrounded by a dry moat 20ft. wide, with low banks, which at the north-west corner continue 150 ft. towards the west. Parallel to the west side is a fishpond. (VCH)

The moat comprises a rectangular island raised by 2m above the surrounding ground surface measuring 20 x 30m with some construction stone showing on the south bank. Evidence of outer banks on the eastern and southern sides and an outer bank of up to 2.5m on the western side; later disturbance has modified evidence of a north bank which may have contained an entrance. To the north-west the bank turns to form a fishpond, measuring 30 x 8m with banks up to 1.5m high. The site is believed to have been the residence of the Chevercourt family who abandoned it about 1400. (PastScape–scheduling report)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1017619, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 17102
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 321275.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) MLE3692.

Books
- Hartley, R.F., 1987, The Medieval Earthworks of North-East Leicestershire p. 16, 48
  Wall, C., 1907, 'Ancient Earthworks' in Page, Wm, (ed), VCH Leicestershire Vol. 1 p. 270 online copy
Periodical Articles
- 1956, 'List of scheduled monuments in Leicestershire and Rutland' Transactions of the Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society Vol. 32 p. 83 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 >	PastScape	County HER	Scheduling
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