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part of the northern range, ABCD,1 and also the existing building, QRST, at the south end of the western range, to the south-west of Langley's gateway; and the map does not indicate any division between the existing building and the rest of the western range. The western range and the western part of the northern range are also shown in an engraving2 by E. Francis after a drawing by W. Westall, A.R.A.,3 here reproduced (fig. 6). The map and the engraving both indicate that the western range extended through to the north wall, and both show an external stair in the north-west corner of the court. The engraving also shows the condition at that time of the north wall to the east of what then remained of the northern range.

Of these there now remain the building QRST at the south end of the western range, and the lower parts of the west and north walls (RSUABE), though these latter have been considerably altered by repair or reconstruction. With these exceptions, the western and northern buildings shown on the engraving (fig. 6) were destroyed in 1850, according to a history of Howden which was published in that year. On the ordnance map of 1847, the whole western range, including the existing building, is marked "Manor Court House," and, after the demolition of the rest of the western range, the existing building was used as the Manor Court House and for the storage of the market stalls.5 The existing north wall of the western range is faced on its northern (outer) side with large ashlar, which extends eastward to A, just beyond the present doorway into the vicarage garden. This doorway is of old masonry, but it has been inserted here, probably when the present vicarage was built; it has a low four-centred arch, the mouldings of which die into the splayed jambs.6 West of this doorway, at V, is the lower part of a

1 The lines of these have been added on my plan from the ordnance map. 2 From Great Britain Illustrated, London, 1830.

3 William Westall, born 1781; A.R.A. 1812; died 1850 (Dict. Nat. Biog.)

4 History of the Church, Parish, and Manor of Howden (Howden, published by W. F. Pratt), 1850. This book speaks of the buildings then being demolished as "the Prebendal Residences" (which of course they never were), forming the eastern boundary of the churchyard, and it records a protest to the bishop of Ripon and his lessee, the Rev. J. D. Jefferson, against their demolition (pp. 16, 54 and 85). From what information I have been able to gather locally, there does not appear

to be any doubt that these so-called Prebendal Residences" were the buildings shown in the engraving here reproduced as fig. 6.

5 I owe this information to the kindness of Mr. Henry Green, deputy-steward of the manor of Howden.

There are four doorways of this kind still existing: that mentioned above, the doorway on the east side of the building QT, the doorway to the porch of the vicarage house, and the doorway on the north side of the fruit-house. All appear to date from Langley's time, but only that of the fruit-house is in situ. The window by the side of the vicarage doorway is also an old one reused.

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FIG. 6.

VIEW SHOWING BUILDINGS ON WEST AND NORTH SIDES OF COURT.

window, with splayed jambs. The angle buttress at the northwest corner U is built of the same large ashlar as the north wall, but the greater part of the west wall is of stone rubble. In the west wall, a little to the south of the angle, is the lower part of another window, with splayed jambs. Further south, at W, is a projection, 4 feet 2 inches in width and 4 inches in projection, surmounted by a quarter-round corbel course, which probably carried a chimney. The outer face of the west wall has a chamfered plinth, which is stepped down at X to suit the fall of the ground, and is continued along the existing building up to (but not including) the angle buttress at R. This plinth is apparently continued northward, and around the angle buttress at U along the north side, though much of it is now buried. The masonry of the lower part of the west wall, RS, of the existing building is of the same character as that of the wall SX northward, and the wall from R to X is of one build.

The existing building QRST, to the south-west of Langley's gateway, shows in places the same chamfered plinth which occurs on the outside of its west wall. The doorway on its east side is like that in the north wall of the western range described above, and is probably of Langley's time. Both Canon Raine. and Mr. Hutchinson, however, considered the building to be comparatively modern, with old materials reused in it. This view is confirmed by the fact that no place for it can be found in either of the sixteenth-century surveys. If the length of 140 feet, which both surveys give as the length of the western range, be taken as its external length, and measured along its eastern face, the south wall of the range would have occupied the site of the north wall of the existing building. If, on the other hand, the 140 feet be taken as an internal length, the south end of the western range would overlap the northern part of the existing building, and may have extended to the south face of Langley's gateway. In neither case, however, could the western range have included the present building. The non-existence of this building when the survey of 1561 was made seems to be indicated by its mention of "a wall of bryck, runyng from the gate of this syde" (Langley's gateway) "to ye barne-wards, of lj fote long, besides a brode gatewaye therin, agenst which hathe been a brewhouse and bakehouse; of which is now left no mensyon.' 912 The building, or at any

1 Yorkshire Archæological Journal, ix,

2 Raine, op. cit., 299.

392.

rate one of the same plan, existed when the ordnance map of 1847 was made; its west side is raised upon what I take to be a mediæval wall, and its north wall was probably built after the western range was destroyed,1 when the building was apparently altered to serve the uses mentioned above.

The survey of 1561 gives the dimensions of the court as 126 feet from north to south, and 186 feet from east to west.2 As the plan (fig. 1) shows, the court was irregular in shape, but its width from north to south along its eastern side is almost exactly the 126 feet of the survey. Its length from east to west, measured along a line opposite J (fig. 1), is about 186 feet.

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To the south of the buildings which formed the south side of the court was a pasture or close within several hedges and ditches; 'within the myddest of which ground, enclosed wt a great ditche," was an orchard, "wt a fruite house sett on the north side of the same, over a drawebrydge at the entry into the same orcherd." The fruit-house still exists, some 80 yards to the south of the south range, although, as Canon Raine said, it has been much tampered with, and the drawbridge has been replaced by a permanent arch. Its north wall, 12 feet 6 inches long, of large ashlar, is complete up to the top of its moulded cornice, and contains a doorway, 5 feet wide, with a low four-centred arch, the mouldings of which die into the splayed jambs. It is of (or near) Langley's time.

"At the orcherd end, betwene the manor and the fruite house," was a large barn, with a high roof, which the survey of 1577 says had been uncovered by the commandment of the said late busshopp "5 (Pilkington). No trace of this remains.

The survey of 1577 shows that even by that time the buildings had been allowed to get into bad repair, and, with the abandonment of the house as a residence of the bishops, its ruin was only a question of time. Skirlaw's hall, with its porch, has survived because it has been converted into a dwellinghouse; the other walls have survived because they served as boundaries; and Langley's gateway by some good fortune has been preserved.

1 On account of its uncertain character, the building is shaded as modern on the plan (fig. 1).

2 Raine, op. cit., 297.

3

Survey of 1561, ibid., 300.

Ibid., 300.

5 Ibid., 301.

6 Cf. Yorks. Archæol. Journal, ix, 392.

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