CSG Annual Conference - April Markenfield Hall

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1 Markenfield Hall. First-floor hall (left - ground level entrance). The north lodging, chapel and south lodging are to the east (right). Additional lodgings, running south along the east range originally had exterior stairs to the first-floor apartments. Far left: Early 15th century kitchen is adjacent to and west of the Great Hall. Markenfield Hall The small settlement of Markenfield sits in fields three miles south of Ripon, looking much as it did when built in the early fourteenth century. It is mostly medieval and has been beautifully restored. The builder was John de Markenfield (d. before 1323) one-time Chancellor to the hapless Edward II. It received a licence to crenellate in 1310, but it is felt that much rebuilding was in process before that date. The hall now wears any obvious defences lightly, but needed some level of defensive cover to protect him from his (or the king s) local enemies; it might properly be called a lightly fortified manor house. The handsome guidebook, which reproduces the original enrolment of the licence, (p.7) suggests that the gatehouse had a drawbridge over the moat until the eighteenth century; there was also an outer moat. The present remains of walk-ways, arrow-loop embrasures, and battlements above, emphasise that when the present house was constructed c. 1310, (incorporating parts of an earli r 1230s house) it was built with defense in mind - as it had to be: the country was on the brink of civil war between the barons and the ineffective Edward II, and John de Markenfield was part of the royal household and marked out as a hated king s man. The house is now formed around a rectangular courtyard circumscribed by the moat. The Great Hall is straight ahead (above), on the first floor, with the solar and lodging apartments to the east forming a compact L-shaped block. The elegant spiral staircase is distinguished by its distinctive steeple-like cap. Markenfield is a rare treasure in the hands of dedicated custodians. It is the most complete surviving example of a medium sized fourteenth-century country house in England. THE CASTLE STUDIES GROUP 116

2 Plan (from the guidebook) of how the medieval vaulting of the present house may have been arranged before before considerably dismantled in about The site of the original Great Hall (or chamber block) and its undercroft of the earlier 1230s house is marked in red. The plan is based on the measured survey by John Miller during the restoration. The 1230s house The late Professor Andor Gomme worked over several years to establish precisely where the second Markenfield Hall was built and how much of it had been incorporated into the third (c. 1310) Markenfield that exists today. He concluded that the second Markenfield was built c Its undercroft consisted of the three surviving vaulted or semivaulted ground floor rooms on the east side of the house and its Great Hall above was what is now part of the Chapel, the four poster bedroom and the two rooms beyond. It was considerably smaller than the Markenfield that survives today but many differences in style and proportion mark it out as early thirteenth century work. Andor Gomme s posthumous summary analysis is presented in The Medieval Great House, 2011, pp , but on his own admission, There is doubtless still much to be learnt about Markenfield: this account therefore is offered as a staging post during work in progress. THE CASTLE STUDIES GROUP 117

3 Floor plans by Priestly Shires. North to the right. From: The Old Halls and Manor Houses of Yorkshire by Louis Ambler THE CASTLE STUDIES GROUP 118

4 Markenfield Hall. By William Twopenny, c. 1830s. View from the SW. British Museum ref: AN _001_l. Trustees of the British Museum. Note the gable-end windows of the building terminating the west range - since removed to accommodate a fireplace and flue (below). BELOW: A similar viewpoint today. THE CASTLE STUDIES GROUP 119

5 ABOVE: The Tudor gatehouse which may have replaced an earlier gatehouse on the same footprint. It contains a dovecot in the ground-floor west chamber (left). BELOW: The exterior of the west range (to the left of the gatehouse, looking south) - stables, brewhouses and services. THE CASTLE STUDIES GROUP 120

6 Markenfield. The east façade with the large chapel window. A narrow lancet window on the extreme right (north) possibly dates from the earlier hall/solar block (1230s) and remained incorporated into the new 1310 house (window altered later). BELOW: The NE corner with the lean-to latrine block, Great Hall to the right with its flue and chimney stack (the latter probably inserted post 1310). THE CASTLE STUDIES GROUP 121

7 Markenfield - Great Hall and kitchen block from the north. A façade with many puzzles. Between the LH garderobe block and the chimney is a blocked doorway, half built into the 14th century window above it. What was its purpose? And why does the similar window to the right have an oblique roofline cutting right across it? THE CASTLE STUDIES GROUP 122

8 Markenfield - Great Hall and kitchen block from the north, by William Twopenny. c. 1830s. On this side, the upper part of the roof-top parapet is missing, and without any arrow loops or crenels. Was it always thus? The chimney stack is also missing, but there is one at the gable end.. BELOW: The wide segmental arched fireplace in the Great Hall, flush with the wall - a copy of the one that is now in the undercroft below (right) which was removed from the hall when the building became a farmhouse. Suggested date of the fireplace is the 1340s (guidebook p. 24), an early innovation that was moving away from the tall pyramidal projecting hooded fireplace. THE CASTLE STUDIES GROUP 123

9 Markenfield Hall. Great Hall and east lodging block. From Some Account of Domestic Architecture in England, Vol. II, J. H. Parker 1853, opp. p Artist: William Twopenny. BELOW: A similar view today. Notice the change to the ground-floor entrance into the Great Hall undercroft, and the insertion of the long narrow late-victorian window, replacing a square frame. THE CASTLE STUDIES GROUP 124

10 Markenfield Hall. The Utility Room under the Solar at the north end of Undercroft B. This appears to be the earliest remaining set of two-bay quadripartite vaults (1230s), and was supported by a central row of columns or piers, similar to the cellarium at Fountains Abbey (see over and p. 127). Image reproduced courtesy of Markenfieldhall.com. THE CASTLE STUDIES GROUP 125

11 Markenfield - Vault under the Solar. View of the semi-octagonal corbel capital in the Utility room. (Larder on Priestly Shire s plan), in the northern part of space B. THE CASTLE STUDIES GROUP 126

12 Markenfield Hall - The quadripartite vaulting under the Solar. The Utility room. (Larder on Priestly Shire s plan), in space B. BELOW left: One of the (two remaining?) freestanding central piers now virtually encased within a dividing partition wall. Below right: The cellarium at Fountains Abbey (mid-late C12), not far from Markenfield, similar to Markenfield, but the ribs are taken down to the ground. THE CASTLE STUDIES GROUP 127

13 ABOVE: Left: Art nouveau window in the Great Hall c Right: Twin-light c hall window with trefoil-headed lights and quatrefoils - facing the courtyard. BELOW: 1,2 The Great Hall looking west to the C15 kitchen range through the door in the gable end, 2, looking NE. Blocked late C13?/C14 window embrasure with tracery above. 3. Chapel with east window. 4. The vaulted study THE CASTLE STUDIES GROUP 128

14 The elegant east 14th century lodging block with semi-octagonal steeple-capped staircase turret. View from the courtyard. Altered from two floors to three floors with reorganised fenestration in about Inset: Clockwise spiral staircase interiors - cut-slab risers and wide lights. THE CASTLE STUDIES GROUP 129

15 Bibliography Gomme, Andor, 2011, Markenfeld Hall, Yorkshire in Airs, M. and Barnwell, P. S. (eds), The Medieval Great House (Donington: Shaun Tyas), Goodall, John, 2011, The English Castle (Yale University Press), 233, 235 Curteis, Ian, n.d. c. 2010, Markenfield Hall (Windsor: Wilton) (official handbook) Senior, J. C., 2009, The Markenfields of Markenfield Hall (Black Swan Books) Gomme, Andor and Maguire, Alison, 2008, Design and plan in the country house: from castle donjons to Palladian boxes (Yale University Press), 92-4 Salter, Mike, 2001, The Castles and Tower Houses of Yorkshire (Malvern: Folly Publications), 59 Emery, Anthony, 1996, Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales Vol. 1 Northern England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by counties (Woodbridge: Boydell Press), 306 Sykes, C. S., 1988, Ancient English Houses (London: Chatto & Windus) King, D. J. C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol., 533 Ryder, P. F., 1982 (paperback edn 1992), The Medieval Buildings of Yorkshire (Ash Grove Book), Le Patourel, H. E. Jean, 1973, The Moated Sites of Yorkshire (The Society for Medieval Archaeology Monograph Series 5), 125 Pevsner, N., 1967, revised by Enid Radcliffe, Buildings of England: Yorkshire: West Riding (London), Wood, Margaret, 1965, The English Mediaeval House (London: Bracken), 180 passim Martin S. Briggs, 1953, The English farmhouse (The new heritage series), 29 Wood, E. S., 1946, Ancient Buildings of Harrogate Illingworth, J. L., 1938 (republished 1970), Yorkshire s Ruined Castles (Wakefield), Tipping, H. A., 1921, English Homes, period 1 Vol. 1 (London), Ambler, L., 1913, The old halls and manor houses of Yorkshire, with some examples of other houses built before the year 1700 (London: Batsford), 45 Sparrow, W. Shaw, 1908, The English House How to judge its periods and styles (London: Eveleigh Nash), Mackenzie, J. D., 1896, Castles of England; their story and structure (New York: Macmillan) Vol. 2, Turner, T. H. and Parker, J. H., 1859, Some account of Domestic Architecture in England (Oxford) Vol. 3 Part 2, 406 Turner, T. H. and Parker, J. H., 1853, Some account of Domestic Architecture in England (Oxford) Vol. 2, Periodical Articles Goodall, J., 2008 June 18, Markenfield Hall Country Life 25, , Medieval Britain and Ireland in 2002 Medieval Archaeology Vol. 47, 292 No. 246 Miller, J. S., 1985, Restoration Work at Markenfield Hall Yorkshire Archaeological Journal Vol. 57, Worsley, Giles, 1985 Sept 19, Markenfield Hall North Yorkshire. The home of Lord and Lady Grantley Country Life, Harrington, C., 1953, The Dalesman Vol Hussey, 1940, Dec 28, Markenfield Hall, Yorkshire Country Life, Tipping, H. A., 1912 Feb 10, Markenfield Hall, Yorkshire Country Life, CD Rom Aspects of Markenfield 6: A story Told in Stone: the pre-1310 house., Pr. Andor Gomme, Malcolm Hand (Ed). THE CASTLE STUDIES GROUP 130