HALTEMPRICE PRIORY UPDATE – 24 JUNE 2004

The following photographs have been supplied by the owner of the site of Haltemprice Priory, Claire Hadgraft, for inclusion herein.   The owner has also provided the ground plan of the site which is as far as I am aware, the only such existing document of its type pertaining to the Priory.  It is hoped that this will be but the first of many such updates as reports and evaluations become finalised and completed.  The owner has kindly agreed to make any such news releases here before they are released to a broader audience (should there be a broader audience than the Internet!).

The site has recently undergone an in-depth geophysical survey, which it is hoped; together with other archaeological methodologies; will provide a fuller and more extensive picture of the Priory than has ever before existed.  The companies who have undertaken these inquiries were: geophysics, radar, and sonar investigations by GBS Prospection, Bradford (as in Channel 4’s Time Team):  test pits and trenches excavated by EDAS Ltd. (Ed. Dennison Archaeological Services Ltd. of Beverley) under the overall supervision of Keith Miller, Senior Monuments Inspector for English Heritage: all the above investigations have been at the personal expense of the owner of the site.

It is now hoped that this section of the web site can be extended to include as much newly discovered information from both the owner, and by this author, who now has the bit between his teeth, and who wants to provide a full and comprehensive commentary about this once forgotten site which is now, thanks to the efforts of Claire Hadgraft, being revealed once more.

Here then is the first set of very new images taken from a series of test and evaluation pits excavated during the month of May 2004. 

Schematic of Haltemprice Priory Farm, showing the locations of the excavations exposed this May, 2004.  This is a working document, therefore alterations have been made to it, and likely more will be added as interpretations of the excavations are made.

1          Large brick built culvert found in pit 1.

2          Footings and foundations in pit 3 with modern drainage pipes overlaying the archaeology

3          Dressed ashlar blocks beneath the northern wall of the present building, forming a foundation or footings  - pit 4.

4          Thought to be either a base for a gatehouse or a turret, this is at the eastern side of the building – pit 5.

5          A finely constructed brick built culvert of some size viewed from the west of the building, it however apparently continues beneath it – pit 7.

6          A good cobbled floor at the east of the building, running parallel to the possible gatehouse structure in image 5. (Trench 1)

7          Another section of cobbled flooring to the east of the present building. (Trench 2)

8          Southeast corner of the present building with foundations of possible gatehouse, and with cobbling at the base of the trench. (Trench 3)

9          Same trench as 8 taken further back along the trench, to show more cobbling. (Trench 5)

10         Another view of 6 showing the base of a possible buttress and inside corner of an earlier building.  (Note: little has survived, the outer dressed stone layer appears to have been robbed away at some point, leaving little other than a rubble core.

In addition to these latest images, the owner, Claire Hagraft has also provided the following images of the interior of the Priory Farm, made during a survey in 1975, prior to most of the subsequent devastation that has occurred to the building.  There are five images, sadly none too clear, but still they must be a unique collection of pictures.

The first is of the main staircase, later destroyed by fire and vandalism, but from which a single spindle was salvaged, enough to provide a template for later!!

The second is of the entrance hall, a cupboard can be seen under the stairs, and the door leading to the left which was the access to the front section of the house.

The third is taken inside the kitchen, looking west, and includes the door that led to the vaulted cellar.

The fourth is the reverse view of the third.

The fifth is the view from the entrance to the lounge looking towards the kitchen stairs.  The short run of steps leads to the kitchen, raised because of the cellar beneath it.

As the current owner of the site and building, Claire Hadgraft has authorised the following statement of intent:

I have worked very closely with Keith Miller, Monuments Inspector for English Heritage and my Architects, Ingleby and Hobson, to agree a full and sympathetic restoration of the farmhouse. This will include the re-instatement of the courtyard buildings, which were taken down in 1996 with no listed building consent or permission.

My ultimate aim is to see the house once again looking as it looked in the 1970's, a traditional farmstead with supporting outbuildings, including disabled accommodation for my parents.

I am delighted to say that English Heritage have re-listed the property in this years At Risk register, lowering it from a category A to category B, meaning a solution to the deterioration has been agreed, bringing me a step closer to my goal. This places the building ahead of Elmswell Old Hall, where a solution is still being sought.

From my own perspective, I need to add further details concerning the dissolution of Haltemprice Priory, sadly not in context with the main body of the text.  The deed was achieved by the two notorious commissioners for the Crown Layton and Legh (sic) who managed the almost impossible task of dissolving all the monasteries within seven entire counties within SIX weeks, of which Haltemprice was but one.  In their report of the place they said, under the heading (in Latin) Superstitio, meaning superstitions or legends of the house, in the original Latin, Haltemprist.  Huc fit peregrinatio ad Thomas Wake pro febri, et in veneacione habent sancti Georgii, et partem sancta crusis et zonam Marie parturientibus salutiferam ut putator. It has to be said that my Latin verges on the nonexistent, but the gist is that the tomb of Thomas Wake (in the priory church), the founder of the house, very unusually, was viewed with some reverence, as it became the focus of pilgrims seeking relief from pain and disease.  It would be amazing if the tomb ever came to light again, but chances are nonexistent in reality.