Details

The monument includes the remains of Walchelin medieval manorial earthworks
and formal gardens situated 140m south of the Manor House.

The formal gardens relating to the medieval manor house take the form of
earthworks and buried remains defining a complex series of water channels,
moated platforms and enclosures. The earthworks are primarily located in
relation to a sub-rectangular raised platform approximately 55m in length
north to south, and 45m in width located at the easternmost edge of the
complex. A series of faint parallel ridges bisecting the platform suggest the
possible location of a building which would have been reached via a causeway
adjoining its north eastern side. The platform is defined on its northern,
western and southern sides by a `U'-shaped moat, now dry, consisting of
ditches up to 16m in width and 2m in depth. A narrow channel or leat running
at right-angles from the southern arm of the moat and connecting it to a
stream approximately 50m to the south bisects an area of medieval ridge and
furrow cultivation. The location of a further leat is defined by a channel up
to 6m in width and 1m in depth which runs for 70m NNW from the stream. A large
enclosure approximately 70m square immediately west of the second leat is
delineated on its northern and eastern sides by ditches up to 7m in width and
0.8m in depth. The ditches forming the southern and western sides of the
enclosure have been partly infilled, and a small moated platform approximately
13m square is situated across its north western corner. Immediately to the
north east is a short ditch linking the enclosure with the southern arm of a
third much larger moat, now largely infilled, which originally enclosed the
earlier manor house. The eastern, western and northern sides of the moat have
been disturbed by subsequent building and landscaping, and are not included in
the scheduling.

At the time of the Domesday survey of Tur Langton in 1086 Walchelin is
recorded as having held 13 carucates of land under the Archbishop of York.
Successive bishops of York were recognised as the overlords of the manor,
which was attached to their manor of Southwell. The manor of Tur Langton was
granted by the Archbishop of York to Robert Maunsell some time before 1166,
and remained in the hands of his descendants until 1352 when it was divided
into two following the death of the last male heir. In 1590 the manor was sold
by William Brocas of Theddingworth to Andrew Halford of Welham and was
subsequently associated with the Halford family of Wistow and the Faunts of
Foston, who intermarried. The present manor house, not included in the
scheduling, is attributed to the latter families and is an early 17th century
building with extensive 18th and 19th century alterations. Traces of an
earlier building were discovered by an owner, Captain Whitby during
landscaping in the 18th century, and finds included an Elizabethan coin. A
small medieval chapel associated with the manorial site and believed to have
been built by the Maunsells lies a little way to the north of the present
manor house, and is the subject of a separate scheduling.

All fences are excluded from the scheduling, although the ground beneath them
is included.

MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.

Source: Historic England

Reasons for Scheduling

Medieval rural settlements in England were marked by great regional diversity
in form, size and type, and the protection of their archaeological remains
needs to take these differences into account. To do this, England has been
divided into three broad Provinces on the basis of each area's distinctive
mixture of nucleated and dispersed settlements. These can be further divided
into sub-Provinces and local regions, possessing characteristics which have
gradually evolved during the last 1500 years or more.
This monument lies in the East Midlands sub-Province of the Central Province,
an area characterised in the Middle Ages by large numbers of nucleated
settlements. The sites of many of these settlements are now occupied by modern
villages, but others have been partially or wholly deserted and are marked by
earthwork remains. Most of these settlements were first documented in the 11th
century, in Domesday Book. The southern part of the sub-Province has greater
variety of settlement, with dispersed farmsteads and hamlets intermixed with
the villages. Whilst some of the dispersed settlements are post-medieval,
others may represent much older farming landscapes.
The Soar Valley and Nene Plateau local region comprises the low hill country
of the Soar Valley and, to the south east, a low plateau dissected by the
tributaries of the Nene and Welland. Nucleated villages and hamlets dominate
the region, but gaps are found within the pattern in Rockingham Forest, in
Rutland and in High Leicestershire where they are linked to the location of
woodland in and before the 11th century.

The medieval manorial earthworks and gardens 140m south of Manor House are an
important visible component of the medieval settlement of Tur Langton. This
part of the settlement, associated with the manorial site, survives
particularly well as a series of substantial earthworks and buried deposits.
In conjunction with surviving historical documentation relating to the site
the remains will offer an important insight into the economy, layout and
mechanisms underlying the eventual contraction of the manorial site and the
abandonment of much of its area.

Source: Historic England

Sources

Books and journals
Hartley, R F, Tur Langton, (1989)
McKinley, R A, The Victoria History of the County of Leicestershire , (1954)
Nichols, J, The History and Antiquities of the County of Leicester, (1798)
Other
Farnham, G., Leicestershire Medieval Village Notes, 1935,

Source: Historic England