East Folifoot

Has been described as a Possible Timber Castle (Motte), and also as a Possible Fortified Manor House

There are cropmark/slight earthwork remains

NameEast Folifoot
Alternative NamesMoat House; Follithwaite
Historic CountryYorkshire
Modern AuthorityLeeds
1974 AuthorityWest Yorkshire
Civil ParishWalton

The deserted mediaeval village of East Folifoot is now represented by the 'Moat' in the western enclave of Wighill parish (Beresford, 1952). The survey of the moat has been revised. It is now dry and heavily overgrown, and its western arc is encroached by the limits of a modern Ordnance Depot. Within the central hold is a derelict farmhouse. No remains of the associated village can be identified apart from two possible fragments of a perimeter bank (Field Investigators Comments F1 RWE 15-NOV-61). Aerial photography shows cropmarks of a complex of buildings, and probably a series of settlements and enclosures of different periods. Probably the most important is a large ditched enclosure with possibly a large single aisled building standing inside it. This is quite likely to be a Saxon Hall of the Yeavering type (RCHM (YORK) Records 1972). A circular type moat with a possible adjacent motte. A licence for an oratory was acquired in 1313-4. Deserted Medieval Village (Le Patourel, 1973). The circular moat (55 metres in diameter), with an entrance on the eastern side, was visible as earthworks on air photographs, but on later photographs the ditch had been considerably levelled. There was no visible evidence for the medieval settlement remains or a motte. The cropmark site to the east is now recorded separately in SE 44 NE 35. (PastScape)

Gatehouse Comments

What was Le Patourel referring to as a 'possible adjacent motte'? This may be a house in the bailey of an early castle (with or without a motte) or just an early moated house. There may have been a mound but was this a motte (removed to fill in pot holes etc.) or a farm mound of farm yard waste (a very common feature of farms)? Speight makes no mention of a mound.

- Philip Davis

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law

Not Listed

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s)
County Historic Environment Record
OS Map Grid ReferenceSE456462
Latitude53.910041809082
Longitude-1.30656003952026
Eastings445650
Northings446210
HyperLink HyperLink HyperLink

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Books

  • Le Patourel, H.E. Jean, 1973, The Moated Sites of Yorkshire (The Society for Medieval Archaeology Monograph Series 5) p. 124
  • Beresford, Maurice and Hurst, John G. (eds), 1971, Deserted medieval villages: studies (Lutterworth Press) p. 211
  • Speight, Harry, 1902, Lower Wharfedale (London: Elliot Stock) p. 334 online copy

Journals

  • Beresford, Maurice, 1952-5, Yorkshire Archaeological Journal Vol. 38 p. 231

Other

  • Creighton, O.H., 1998, Castles and Landscapes: An Archaeological Survey of Yorkshire and the East Midlands (PhD Thesis University of Leicester) p. 294, 764 online copy