Details

The monument includes a moated site and an adjacent area containing remains of
a fishpond and medieval ridge and furrow. The moated site is known as Kensbury
or Keesbury Hall and is situated on low-lying level ground to the south east
of Cawood village.
Although the medieval archbishops of York had a residence at Cawood Castle and
retained major landholdings in the area, Kensbury Hall has been identified as
the seat of the de Cawood family, who held a manor in the town independently
of the archiepiscopal estate.
The fishpond is located in the corner of the field 65m to the south of the
moat. It survives as a rectangular depression 40m long by 18m wide. It was
connected to the moat by a channel which still survives a shallow earthwork.
The ridge and furrow earthworks lie to the south east of the moat and include
low ridges up to 4m wide and 0.75m high. This evidence of medieval agriculture
is considered to be contemporary with the moated site. It is the only
surviving fragment of what would originally have been an extensive field
system.
The moated island is roughly oval in plan, measuring 50m by 40m across, with a
slight mound at its north side where buildings once stood. A rectangular
building, measuring 8m long by 4m wide and having a small porch to its north-
east elevation, still occupied the site in the 1960s and is depicted on
previous OS map editions. A photograph taken in circa 1910 shows a single
storey structure built of handmade bricks resembling those used in the
construction of Cawood Castle. Two thirds of the circuit of the moat is
visible as a ditch, 8m wide and 1m deep. Part of the northern arm of the
ditch was infilled in the 19th century but it survives as a buried feature and
is visible as an 8m wide swathe of lush vegetation. More recently, the
north western arm has also been infilled; it will also survive beneath the
gardens of properties fronting onto Broad Lane.
As early as AD 975, part of Cawood was specified as not belonging to the
archbishops. Cawood is not mentioned at Domesday but it is likely that the
Cawoods had received the manor as a royal grant soon after the Norman Conquest
and it was certainly in their hands by 1201. The family then held the manor
until 1454. By 1425 the manor had passed to Thomas Aunger and was later
leased from the Crown by Richard Acclam, after which the manor was apparently
broken up and sold off. There is evidence that the moated site was abandoned
some time previously as, in 1390, 1403 and 1450, the Cawoods' messuage was
described as worthless.
All fences and the garden wall of 9 Broad Lane are excluded from the
scheduling, although the ground beneath is included.

MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.
It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features,
considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

Around 6,000 moated sites are known in England. They consist of wide ditches,
often or seasonally water-filled, partly or completely enclosing one or more
islands of dry ground on which stood domestic or religious buildings. In some
cases the islands were used for horticulture. The majority of moated sites
served as prestigious aristocratic and seigneurial residences with the
provision of a moat intended as a status symbol rather than a practical
military defence. The peak period during which moated sites were built was
between about 1250 and 1350 and by far the greatest concentration lies in
central and eastern parts of England. However, moated sites were built
throughout the medieval period, are widely scattered throughout England and
exhibit a high level of diversity in their forms and sizes. They form a
significant class of medieval monument and are important for the understanding
of the distribution of wealth and status in the countryside. Many examples
provide conditions favourable to the survival of organic remains.

Medieval moated sites often lay at the centre of a wider agricultural complex.
The wider remains may include a range of associated agricultural features
adjacent to the moat such as fishponds and field systems. A fishpond was an
artificially created pool of slow moving fresh water constructed to cultivate,
breed and store fish to provide a constant and sustainable supply of food.
Fishponds were maintained by a water management system which included inlet
and outlet channels carrying water from a river or stream, a series of sluices
and an overflow channel to prevent flooding. The most common form of field
system of the medieval period was known as ridge and furrow. This took the
form of parallel rounded ridges separated by furrows. The ridges provided rich
well drained land for planting crops. The earthworks of such field systems
tended to adopt a characteristic `s' shape to accommodate the turning circle
of a plough team. In small or steep areas where the use of a plough team was
impractical ridge and furrow would be dug by hand. Although remains of ridge
and furrow are common in some areas of central and southern England it is
becoming rare in the north.
Although cultivated for a short period, the moated island at Kensbury remains
undeveloped and retains buried remains of medieval buildings, one of which was
still standing until the 1960s and is recorded on maps and photographs. Over
the years, part of the circuit of the ditch has been infilled but survives as
a buried feature; because of the monument's low-lying situation, the ditch
silts will contain environmental evidence.
The remains of the ridge and furrow cultivation are all that survive in the
area of this form of medieval agriculture.
Important evidence of earlier land use will be preserved beneath these remains
and they offer important scope for understanding the wider economy of the
moated site. Kensbury Hall has been identified as the seat of the de Cawood
family, who owned a manor separate from the estate of the archbishops of York;
the moated site is thus an important feature relating to the medieval history
of the town of Cawood and its remains may be contrasted with the nearby
archiepiscopal residence at Cawood Castle.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Blood, N, Taylor, C, 'Yorkshire Archaeological Journal' in Cawood: an Archiepiscopal Landscape (Volume 64), , Vol. 64, (1992), 83-102
Other
1:2500 Series,
Photograph in possession of Mrs Payne (the present owner),
SMR Officer N Yorks Co Council, L Smith, Kensbury,
Title: 25" Series
Source Date: 1908
Author:
Publisher:
Surveyor:

Source: Historic England