Weycroft Hall, Axminster (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;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

In the civil parish of Axminster.
In the historic county of Devonshire.
Modern Authority of Devon.
1974 county of Devon.
Medieval County of Devon.

OS Map Grid Reference: SY307998
Latitude 50.79408° Longitude -2.98319°

Weycroft Hall, Axminster has been described as a probable Fortified Manor House.

There are major building remains.

This is a Grade 1 listed building protected by law*.

Description

Early C15, and C16 and C17 with great hall of circa 1400. Restored in C19. The existing house is the greater part of former Manor House. Stone rubble with freestone, dressings and slate roofs. Gabled three storey north east wing with corner buttresses and external stone stack to side. Square tower over porch in the angle with the three storey range. Great hall of circa 1400 to south east with range of three larger three-light stone mullion windows each side, the lower lights have cusped arches. Chimney stack over gable end. Generally stone mullion-windows with dripmoulds and leaded panes. In the tower over the porch is single-light window with cusped arch and the adjoining wing has small window with cusped ogee arch and two-centred arch chamfered doorway. One storey and attic wing to north west with three-light window with reticulated tracery in end gable and two stone mullion windows at side, one with four-centred arch lights, the other ovolo moulded. Interior: The great hall has an open timber roof, a contemporary gallery like a rood-loft and with carved bressummer. Large fireplace at opposite end of hall. Remains of newel staircase. In 1417 the Bishop of Stafford licensed a private chapel the remains of which are probably incorporated into the garden wall, and in 1426 a royal license was granted to crenellate the house and enclose the park. (Listed Building Report)

A Royal licence to crenellate was granted in 1427 May 20 (Click on the date for details of this licence.).

Comments

The licensed to crenellate and empark was granted to Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester and others, the trustees of Brooke family. This licence was granted after William Bonville of Shute had broken into Thomas Brooke's house at Weycroft, assaulting servants and causing damage, earlier in 1427, Emery suggests the attack by Bonville was because of Brooke's Lollard sympathies, although there seems to have also been some poaching in the already existing deer park. Clearly the defensive value of this licence (a patent letter) was in showing the strength of support Brooke had rather than any crenellation or other defensive features the house may have had. However, this does also demonstrate that resorts to violence did happen and there was reason for medieval houses (with or without licences) to have some defensive features from thieves of all social status.

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1098625
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 449754.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 11436.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- TASK
Books
- Emery, Anthony, 2006, Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales Vol. 3 Southern England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) p. 577-8, 695
  Higham, Robert A., 1999, 'Castles, Fortified Houses and Fortified Towns in the Middle Ages' in Kain, R. and Ravenhill, W., Historical Atlas of South-West England (University of Exeter Press) p. 136-43
  Salter, Mike, 1999, The Castles of Devon and Cornwall (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 87 (slight)
  Pevsner, Nikolaus and Cherry, Bridget, 1989, Buildings of England: Devon (Harmondsworth) p. 904
  Hoskins, W.G., 1954, A New Survey of England: Devon (London: Collins) p. 325
  Turner, T.H. and Parker, J.H., 1859, Some account of Domestic Architecture in England (Oxford) Vol. 3 Part 2 p. 357, 421 online copy
  Lysons, D. and S., 1822, Magna Britannia Vol. 6 Devon p. 23 online transcription
Periodical Articles
- Higham, R.A., 1988, 'Devon Castles: an annotated list' Proceedings of the Devon Archaeological Society Vol. 46 p. 146
  Seymour, D.J., 1955 - 1958, 'The Smaller Manor Houses of Medieval Devon' Transactions of the Torquay Natural History Society Vol. 12 p. 16
  Wilkin, W.H., 1936, 'Axminster Notes: Part 2' Transactions of the Devonshire Association Vol. 68 p. 363-4
  Wilkin, W.H., 1935, Transactions of the Devonshire Association Vol. 67 p. 309
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), 1901, Calendar of Patent Rolls Henry VI (1422-29) Vol. 1 p. 400 (licence to crenellate and impark) p. 403 (Commission to investigate the assault) online copy
  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. 1 (licence to crenellate and impark) 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.

*The listed building may not be the actual medieval building, but a building on the site of, or incorporating fragments of, the described site.

Data >	PastScape	County HER		Listing	I. O. E.
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