Despite my last sentence in the last blog I have decided to stick with the above title for now, covering the Humberside region, and come back to Beverley Road, Hull at a later date.
Three of the posts on the English Heritage ‘Heritage at Risk Register’ are for Cottingham, although one is just outside the parish boundary.
The site of the once Augustinian canons priory (dating from 1326 and sometimes known as Haltemprice Priory) just west of Priory Road between west Hull and Cottingham is in private hands and described by English Heritage as ‘generally unsatisfactory with major localised problems’, these related to ploughing across the site. It has a Grade 2* listing as a ‘scheduled monument’. In fact the only surviving evidence above ground is some sections of walling in the now derelict farmhouse on site. Exactly how the surviving walling related to the original complex is unclear. It cannot be long before the area is earmarked for housing, at which point the welfare of the surviving evidence will be in the lap of the gods. The updated version of Pevsner’s ‘Buildings of England’ describes the site on page 756.
Baynard Castle site, Cottingham is also in private ownership with very little visible from Northgate or West End Road. It is described by English Heritage as ‘generally satisfactory but with significant localised problems’ these a result of drainage and dewatering(?). The site is Grade 2 listed.
There is national archive evidence to support the fact that the site has been enclosed and fortified since the 12th century, this by a surrounding double ditch and mound. The early medieval property that once stood on the central area was described as ‘ruinous’ even by the mid-14th century, the building there now being partly a 17th century manor house which David Neave describes as ‘one of the best surviving timber-framed houses in the East Riding’, p. 389.
I have no photos of these sites so my policy is to include a photo of a wild plant, in this case a section of Castle St. detached, disused cemetery before the major road works began.
(to be continued)