A Knights-Hospitaller holding at Castle Hill, Beaumont Leys near Leicester.

 A Knights-Hospitaller holding at Castle Hill, Beaumont Leys near Leicester.

 

 

Reconstruction of Castle Hill as it may have looked in the early 14th century. Image: Leicester City Council.

On 10^th June, I went to the open day at the Castle Hill dig being done by the archaeological fieldschool for students from the University of Leicester’s School of Archaeology and Ancient History (SAAH) and volunteers from the local community.  It is the third season of excavation and is uncovering more of the buildings on the site.

 The walls (one by the yellow buckets & one obvious in the centre of the picture) in this part of the trench  are very insubstantial for medieval work and are likely to be just sills for supportig a pentice over a walkway to a cobbled yard in the top left.

 Last year's dig area is under this spoil heap.

Beaumont was a part of the manor of Thurcaston before Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, gave it to the Knights Hospitaller in the mid-13th century.  Whilst the site was owned by them, it seems that there were no actual members of the Order living there. It was probably run by a bailiff and wood keeper under the oversight of the Hospitallers’ preceptory at Old Dalby about 12 miles (20km) to the north-west.  Even at Old Dalby, there were only the preceptor and one other brother of the Order there, along with the vicar of Dalby who also lived in the preceptory and acted as chaplain.

In 1338, Beaumont was listed as having a house and orchards with surrounding arable and pasture land totalling approximately 960 acres (roughly 400 Ha).  A fishpond on the site is also mentioned in the 14th century. In 1482 when they swapped Beaumont with King Edward IV for the more profitable rectory of St. Botolph at Boston in Lincolnshire. Edward IV converted the estate into a deer park and by the mid-16th century it had become pasture.

From the 1890s to 1960s, the site was part of a sewage treatment works  but is now in the Castle Hill Country Park.

Chatting to my ex-boss, community archaeologist Peter Liddle, I found out more about the possible story of the site in the 13th and early 14th centuries. The enclosure of the site is very large with the roughly rectangular ditch and bank being about 170 metres by 100 metres, however, there is only a small collection of buildings within the boundary.  It certainly looks like the Hospitallers had grand plans for this location.

 

The trenches in the upper left quarter of the picture are where the buildings have been found. Image from the ULAS website.

Move on a few decades and it would seem that once the Knights Hospitaller had acquired the well established  Knights Templar priory at Rothley after the demise of the Templars in the early 14th century, their manor at Beaumont became of less importance.  This might be why the building complex at the site was not extensive considering the size of enclosure and, from the archaeological evidence, largely consisted of timber structures on stone sills.  There may have been at least one substantial building present as a few pieces of Dane Hills sandstone (the Leicester area choice for fancier stonework) have been found during the digs and the current excavation has found the first architecturally shaped stonework, see below.

The decorative stonework and one of the many green-glazed ridge tiles found.

 

Proof that someone was living, or at least cooking on site in the mid- to late 13th century. A soot-blackened pot made at Potters Marston in south Leicestershire.

The prize find of this year's dig - a 13th century copper alloy belt buckle. (Fingers for scale)

Much of the information above is from the Victoria County History of Leicestershire: Volume 2,  the University of Leicester Archaeological Services (ULAS) and the self-led guided walk (see below).  Further information on the site and the past two years’ work can found on this page of the University of Leicester Archaeological Services web site.

If you want to visit the site (it is in an urban fringe park) yourself, there is a very informative online self-led tour and a link to a printable version of the tour on this web page.