Acomb Grange - its place in history - an overview
For the detailed history and archaeology of Acomb Grange click here
In the 1120s,
Acomb Grange was founded by the Master of
There are very
substantial stone remains from the 12th and 13th
Centuries.
The
Pilgrimage of Grace, the rebellion to restore Catholicism after the
reformation, gathered at Acomb Grange before its march on
In 1644, it
is thought that the last stand of the Royalist army at the battle of
In 1694 , the
Master's House was demolished and replaced with a house designed by the famous
architect John Etty.
It was extensively
remodelled in the Georgian period, in the period 1810 to 1820, when a whole
series of new rooms were added. Attached to the house is a cottage still much
in the style of the period of the 1690s. Both house and cottage are timber
beamed and have a number of interesting period features. The cottage is under
separate ownership from Acomb Grange itself.
In the vicinity of the
house are a number of outbuildings of a variety of dates, including an ancient
barn thought to be the site of the last stand of the royalist army referred to
above. Some of the adjacent buildings are under separate ownership. The
community of buildings is surrounded by the remains of a double moat, and set
in a landscape of mature trees and gardens, including a magnificent copper
beech of great age, and a walnut tree considered by experts to be one of the
finest in the North of England.
In the 19th century, George Hudson, the Railway King,
planned to build a railway line from
The site is close to a
site of special scientific interest and there is unusual flora and fauna.
For the detailed history and archaeology of Acomb Grange click here
Acomb Grange - its place in history
– details
The detailed history and archaeology of Acomb Grange
For further details of the history of Acomb Grange click on
the following:-
Some of these articles are not yet completed
and will be ready shortly as indicated
A watching brief by
In August
1999, the North Eastern Electricity Board installed an underground cable from
an existing overhead pole, immediately to the north of the house. The route of
the cable ran westwards and then southwards around the back of the boundary of
the Old Dairy, to feed an electricity supply to a mobile phone mast.
The trench
was dug to a depth of about 70 centimetres, and a watching brief was undertaken
by the
In the
length of the trench from the point where it turned southwards towards the
mobile mast nothing of great interest was discovered, except for a very small
number of pottery fragments from the late middle ages. In the part of the
trench that ran westwards, about 3 metres to the west of the roadway, remains
of buildings were uncovered, that were tentatively dated to the early
nineteenth century. At the time of the digging of the trench there was nothing
previously known of any such buildings.
A copy of
the full report is available from the
A geophysical survey of Acomb Grange commissioned by
In 2001,
the
The survey
was a little disappointing in that no new major features were discovered, with
the exception that a series of disturbances to the earth were noted in a
pattern that suggested a roadway or droveway to the east of the house. The
earthworks that are most prominent to the south of the present
house were clearly detected. Originally thought to be defensive moats, some
commentators now believe these may a complex series of medieval fish dykes. In
the depression to the north of the site there is a scatter of deposits that may
be modern rubbish deposits or may be scatters from the demolition of a building
previously on the site. This is interesting
in that there was thought to have been a gate house in the area at one time.
The archaeologists believe that only excavation can uncover the full story of
the site.
A copy of
the full report is available from the
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