Lost And Now Found – Medieval Manor House Resurfaces In Leicestershire

You may well ask yourself how it is possible to lose a whole house, but a local community archaeological group have solved that problem by finding it again. Confused? You’re not the only one, but with the help of the Framland Local Archaeology Group in Leicestershire  perhaps the position will be made a lot clearer.

Getting down and dirty!

Close to the Lincolnshire border is a village called Croxton Kerrial, and records show that the house in question which probably dates from the twelfth century, was given to Croxton Abbey in the fourteenth century, but was deemed to be uninhabitable by the sixteenth century.

Tony Connolly, who lives in the village, and is the chairman of the Framland Local Archaeology Group takes up the story. "The house was given to Croxton Abbey in the 14th Century but our records show it was uninhabitable by the 16th Century.

"After that, it disappeared. A lot of people in the village had heard about it but nobody knew where it was. By the 1800s the site was just a field with sheep in it, which is what it is today."

The group have worked with an archaeologist from the Leicestershire County Council, and had access to electrical probes which sent currents into Pinfold Field, near the village church, which they believed was a probable site. As a result, they were able to generate computer images of what lay beneath the ground.

"We have now been able to expose the great hall and the garderobe - that's the medieval toilet - and we are excavating the kitchen at the moment," said Mr Connolly. We understand that there may be stables and a tithe barn still to excavate. We have found lots of medieval property and two pieces of Roman pottery."

Once the work is completed, the group will backfill the site and the records will go into the council archives.

                                                           http://framlandarchaeology.co.uk/