Beverley Manor of the Archbishop of York

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as; Watertowns; The Dings; Bishop Dings; Hall Garth

In the civil parish of Beverley. In the historic county of Yorkshire East Riding (Modern Authority of East Riding of Yorkshire, 1974 county of Humberside).

Residential manor house of the Archbishops of York of which the last remnants destroyed in C19. Leland remarked on moats. The archbishop's base in Beverley was initially his hall in the market place. This stone building was known as the Dings or the Bishop Dings and was in existence by the 1160s. In 1282 the Dings was made over to the town by Archbishop Wickwane for an annual rent of 6s. 8d. By this date the archbishop had moved his Beverley residence to a moated site south of the minster, later known as Hall Garth. The archbishop's manor there was mentioned in 1280. In 1444 there was a reference to the archbishop's court being held in the great hall of the manor, and the archbishop's gaol was presumably also on the same site. Little is known about other buildings but surviving earthworks suggest that they may have been extensive. The archbishop's house there, or its predecessor in the market place, had a chapel, and in 1258 a chaplain was collated to the chapel of St. Swithin within the court of the archbishop at Beverley. An inventory of 1388 mentions only a hall and a kitchen. In 1980 excavation revealed the eastern abutment of a timber bridge, which spanned the moat near its north-western corner and may have supported lifting gear for a drawbridge; an early C14 date has been suggested. Work was under way on the manor in 1409-10, but by the 1530s the house had been abandoned and Leland described it as 'all in ruin'.

The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is TA038389

Air Photo from Air Photo and general mapping	1st edition OS Map from Mid to late 19th century maps
Modern Map from Landscape form and features	Modern Map from General location and route planning
Geograph British Isles occasionally has photos of the site and will usually give an idea of the surrounding landscape.

Sources of information, references and further reading

Further information may be available from the holder of the county Historic Environment Record. In particular 'grey' literature, such as watching brief reports, held by H.E.R.s is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded in this website, or elsewhere.

• Books
  • Thompson, M.W., 1998, Medieval bishops' houses in England and Wales (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing) p188
    Allison, K.J. (ed), 1989 'Medieval Beverley: The Archbishop and Beverley' VCH Yorkshire East Riding Vol6 http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=36403
    Miller, K., Robinson, J., English, B. and Hall, I., 1982, Beverley: an Archaeological and Architectural Study (London: HMSO, RCHME Supplementary Series 4) p11-12
    Le Patourel, H.E. Jean, 1973, The Moated Sites of Yorkshire (The Society for Medieval Archaeology Monograph Series 5) p110
• Journal Articles
  • 1984, Château Gaillard Vol12 p190
    1981, Medieval Archaeology Vol25 p216-8 [downloadable via http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/resources.html?medarch]
• Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
  • Chandler, John, 1993, John Leland's Itinerary: travels in Tudor England (Sutton Publishing) p533
    Toulmin-Smith, Lucy (ed), 1910, The itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535-1543 (Bell and Sons; London) Vol1 p46 http://www.archive.org/details/itineraryofjohnl01
• Other sources, 'grey' literature, unpublished works, etc. (Theses, in-house reports and other such)
  • Payne, Naomi, 2003, The medieval residences of the bishops of Bath and Wells, and Salisbury (PhD Thesis University of Bristol) Appendix B: List of Medieval Bishop's Palaces in England and Wales [available via http://ethos.bl.uk ]