Markenfield Hall

Markenfield Hall, taken from the bridge over the moat, looking through the gatehouse
Gatehouse and moat, Markenfield Hall

Markenfield Hall is an early 14th-century moated country house three miles (5 km) south of Ripon, North Yorkshire, England in the civil parish of Markingfield Hall. The population of the civil parish taken at the 2011 Census was less than 100. Details are included in the civil parish of Markington with Wallerthwaite. It is one of the finest surviving English country houses from that time.

The house is an L-shaped castellated block, with a great hall that stands upon an undercroft and was originally reached by an exterior stone staircase. It is lit by two double-light windows with quatrefoil transom under their arched heads.

The house is open for public tours during specific periods, for groups by appointment, and is also available for weddings.

History

Markenfield was mentioned in the Domesday Book in 1086, when there were two households.[1]

In 1150 the estate belonged to the Le Bret family who adopted the name de Markenfield. A house existed on the site at that time.

The present house was built by John de Markenfield, an associate of Piers Gaveston and a servant of Edward II. A licence to crenellate was issued for Markenfield in 1310, the same year that John was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer. Sir Thomas Markefield was appointed High Sheriff of Yorkshire for 1484 and fought with Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth. In 1569 Thomas de Markenfield was involved in the pro-Catholic Rising of the North and was forced to flee to the Continent. Markenfield was confiscated and granted to Thomas Egerton, Master of the Rolls.

Egerton never made Markenfield his principal residence, and it devolved to a rented farmhouse, whilst preserving its features. In 1761 the house was bought by Fletcher Norton, 1st Baron Grantley, who replaced the roof of the Great Hall and ensured that the house was structurally sound once more. It descended to the 7th Lord Grantley who began a restoration project in 1980 to convert the hall from a farmhouse into a family home. [2]

The estate was historically an extra parochial area, which became a civil parish (with the alternative spelling Markingfield Hall) in the West Riding of Yorkshire in 1858.[3] The estate has remained a separate civil parish, since 1974 in the Harrogate district of the new county of North Yorkshire. The population of the civil parish is estimated at 10.[4]

References

  1. ↑ Open Domesday website
  2. ↑ "Markenfield Hall". Welcome to Yorkshire. Retrieved 13 February 2013.
  3. ↑ Vision of Britain website
  4. ↑ "Population Estimates". North Yorkshire County Council. 2012. Retrieved 8 June 2014.

Media related to Markenfield Hall at Wikimedia Commons

Coordinates: 54°06′06″N 1°33′04″W / 54.10161°N 1.55104°W / 54.10161; -1.55104

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