KIRTLING TOWERS

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DESCRIPTION

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A gatehouse of circa 1530, built for Lord North. The adjoining house was built circa 1872, the architect being J.A. Hansom. The buildings are of red brick with black diaper brick patterning and limestone dressings. The roof of the tower is flat and leaded, while the house has steeply pitched slate roofs with a gable parapet to the east. The gatehouse is of three storeys with the main south entrance blocked and the ground floor incorporated into the plan of the 19th century house. The gatehouse has four octagonal corner turrets above an embattled parapet. The two larger turrets are to the south, flanking the original entrance with a four-centred arch infilled with 19th century window. Above is a fine two storey limestone oriel window. The 19th century house has similar detail to the gatehouse and is of two storeys. The house also has a closed, embattled porch. It stands on the site of a 13th century castle and hall, which was built in the 16th century and survived until 1801. Prior to that, the site was occupied by a Saxon fortified house owned by King Harold.

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(TL 686575) Kirtling Hall (NR)
(TL 68675744) Kirtling Towers (NAT).(1)

Kirtling Towers. The Gate tower is all that remains of Kirtling Hall built by Lord North in 1554. It is surrounded by a moat three sides of which remained in 1948 enclosing an area 470 ft by 375 ft. The west side was then dry, the north and east containing water to a width of 40-60 ft (see plan). Pevsner gives the date of 1530 for the Gate House. Part of the house was pulled down before 1752 and the rest demolished in 1801. The site was formerly occupied by a fortified house the whole being known as Kirtling Castle in the 13th century.(2-4)

The 16th century gatehouse, at TL 6868 5742, is outstanding and forms an integral part of the modern Kirtling Towers, see ground photographs.

The extant earthworks comprise a central raised platform of maximum height 6.4 m with overall dimensions of 59.0 m E/W and 68.0 m N/S. A large depression with a maximum depth of 2.1 m indicates the cellars of the original hall. A 19th century ice house stands to the north and a heavy scatter of early brick occupies the platform. A major defensive moat surrounds three sides of the hall site to the north, northeast and west but cannot be traced to the south in an area occupied by formal gardens. The external arms hold occasional water and attain a maximum width of 28.0 m and a maximum depth of 3.6 m. An outer counterscarp can be traced in places having a maximum height of 1.5 m. No original inlet is visible but the outlet was probably centred in the eastern arm. No original causeway is evident. Resurvey on 1:2500 AM.

It would seem probable that the defensive earthworks were originally contemporary with the "castle" noted in the 13th century, being later incorporated within the precincts of the 16th century Hall. Certainly their present stature indicates a major defensive role; similarly the construction of the rectangular building platform (even now over 6.0 m high) suggests an original date in the period when a motte was a fairly regular feature of the landscape.(5)

Kirtling Tower (formerly listed as Kirtling Towers), Newmarket Road. Listed as Grade I. Gatehouse c.1530 built for Lord North (c.1496-1564), house rebuilt c.1872, architect J.A. Hansom (1803-1882).(6)

Kirtling Towers, built around 1530. The house itself pulled down c1801. [Further details included]. (7)

Known to occupy the site of a Saxon fortified house owned by King Harold. Formerly scheduled as Cambs No.276, now Scheduled No.13608 1-3.(8)

TL 68675744 site of former house and formal gardens of Kirtling Hall. The site of Kirtling Hall is marked by a substantial platform which tapers toward the south, measuring c35m square on the top, and up to 6m in height. It is situated on a larger 'island' surrounded by a massive moat on its N, W and E sides. The area between the site of the house and the moat displays earthwork evidence of former garden terraces and compartments although their date is uncertain. The size, form and detailing of the moat make it probable that it represents an ornamental creation dating from the 16th century construction of the North's mansion rather than being a defensive moat (as alleged by Authority 5) or an adaptation of an existing moated enclosure. There is no indication that the moat was enclosed by a fourth arm along its south side. Outside the moat, there are numberous earthworks representing possible former ornamental features, including a sequence of elaborate approaches to the site, although the continuity of occupation makes precise interpretation of some of these difficult. Moat-like earthworks to the SE of the site of the former hall possibly represent a predecessor of Place Farm.

The above description is summarised from a detailed level 3 RCHME survey conducted in February 1989. It was recorded at a scale of 1:1000 and the results of the survey have been deposited in the NMR. A second monument was recorded during this survey (TL 65 NE 14) comprising a pond bay which may have been associated with the gardens at Kirtling Hall.(9)

Site of Kirtling Castle and its 16th century successor, of which only the gatehouse remains. Probably also the site of a pre-Conquest fortified house. Kirtling Castle was first recorded in 1219 and the moat is referred to in a document of 1260. The early 15th buildings included a hall, kitchen and chapel and a new hall was built within the moat in 1424. Kirtling Hall was probably begun after 1537. It was reduced in size in 1748 but was little used thereafter and was demolished in 1801. The gatehouse survived and was converted for use as a hunting lodge in the 1830s. The brick wing adjoining it to the east was added in 1872. It subsequently fell into disuse and was restored in the early 1990s. (10)

Listed by Cathcart King. (11)

SOURCE TEXT

( 1) Ordnance Survey Map (Scale / Date)

OS 6" 1960

( 2) edited by L F Salzman, M.A., F.S.A. 1948 The Victoria history of the county of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely : volume two

The Victoria history of the counties of England Page(s)33-4

( 3) List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest

Newmarket, JUN-1949 Page(s)10

( 4) by Nikolaus Pevsner 1954 Cambridgeshire

The buildings of England Page(s)339

( 5) Field Investigators Comments

F1 RSC 01-FEB-78

( 6) List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest

East Cambridgeshire, 25-APR-1984 170 Page(s)51

( 7) by Christopher Taylor 1973 The Cambridgeshire landscape : Cambridgeshire and the southern fens

The making of the English landscape [series]

(8) Scheduled Monument Notification

08-AUG-1991

(9) Field Investigators Comments

Wilson-North, R, Feb 1989 RCHME: Kirtling Towers

(10) The Victoria history of the counties of England

Cambridge and the Isle of Ely 10 Page(s)65-7

(11) by David J Cathcart King 1983 Castellarium anglicanum : an index and bibliography of the castles in England, Wales and the islands. Volume I : Anglesey - Montgomery

Page(s)40

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