Beaumont Leys Castle Hills (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Leicester.
In the historic county of Leicestershire.
Modern Authority of Leicester; City of.
1974 county of Leicestershire.
Medieval County of Leicestershire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SK56500926
Latitude 52.67790° Longitude -1.16539°

Beaumont Leys Castle Hills has been described as a Fortified Manor House although is doubtful that it was such.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

Preceptory, boundary, two mounds, fishpond and dam at Beaumont Leys. Scheduled. The preceptory is situated within a sub-rectangular enclosure measuring 200m x 150m overall and is formed by a bank up to 1.5m high and an outer ditch about 0.5m deep. An irregular surface exists internally containing two mounds each about 1m high and 12m in diameter. To the east and parallel to the enclosure is a further bank and ditch running north-south. the boundary runs for almost 300m, with the bank about 0.5m high and the ditch 0.5m deep and formed part of a former boundary to control stock movement. A stream situated to the west of the preceptory enclosure was dammed to the north to form a large fishpond, now a marshy area, 100m x 75m with a small island formerly used for breeding water-fowl. The dam measures over 100m long and up to 3m high and 8m wide; a division in the centre marks a former sluice gate. The present stream runs to the west of the fishpond but the original channel can be seen as discolouration of vegetation south of the pond. In 1252, Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester granted Beaumont Leys to the Knights Templars but the lands were seized by the King in 1308. The land was then granted to the Knights Hospitallers until 1482 when it was exchanged with Edward IV for the Rectory of Boston. The land is described as being surrounded by a pale and the area is later described as being a park. Comparison of an excavated Templar house at South Witham indicates that below ground features of the preceptory buildings exist around the perimeter of the enclosure, originally forming a courtyard in the centre. (PastScape–ref. Scheduling report)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1009196, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 17095
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 316702.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) MLC205.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Leicester City Council
Books
- Knowles, David and Hadcock, R. Neville, 1971, Medieval religious houses in England and Wales (Longmans) p. 308
  Wall, C., 1907, 'Ancient Earthworks' in Page, Wm, (ed), VCH Leicestershire Vol. 1 p. 265 online copy
  Nichols, J., 1811, The History and Antiquities of the County of Leicestershire Vol. 4.2 p. 492
Periodical Articles
- Creighton, O.H., 1997, 'Early Leicestershire Castles: Archaeology and Landscape History' Transactions of the Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society Vol. 71 p. 29 online copy
Guidebooks
- nd (post 2014) Castle Hill Earthworks (Leicester City Council) 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
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