| Description | Site of c.14th century and later site of manor house belonging to Hospital of St Nicholas in Pontefract. The manorial complex was mostly kept in demesne in 14th.century and the accounts provide good detail. When Methley passed to Waterton in c.1410, a new manor was built on new site to the west, later becoming Methley Hall (PRN 2285).
The old manor appears to have continued as a farm, passing ultimately into private hands; although the area is now covered with housing this is not so dense as to preclude survival of fragments in the gardens and roads; however, can only justify Class IV. The area occupied by the manorial complex can be surmised to survive as outlined by roads and property boundaries today; see APs for aerial view. The site also occupies part of a promontory on the upper terrace jutting out into the floodplain of the R.Aire; as such, and given the nature and density of surrounding cropmarks, it is quite possible that prehistoric, Iron Age or RB site(s) existed here; it would not be too surprising to find that the manor site had antecedents in the Roman period (see also PRN 2121 glass lachrymatory).
The medieval village plan is partly perpetuated by modern property boundaries, particularly on the north side of Main St where the pattern of tofts and crofts is just discernible. |