Harlaxton History Society awarded National Lottery Heritage Funding for lost manors project

A group of amateur historians have been awarded more than £12,000 to uncover lost manor houses.

Harlaxton History Society will carry out a community-led archaeology project to find the village’s lost manors after having its bid for National Lottery Heritage Funding accepted.

The project will use a geophysical survey and excavation to identify and record the site of the three ancient manor houses which existed before the New Manor was built on the edge of the village in the middle of the 19th Century.

While it has been known for many years that there was a stretch of moat in a garden in the village, little was known of the buildings it contained or the history of the manor houses which sat within the site.

Research carried out by Harlaxton History Society members in archives showed there were at least three phases of manor house on the site off Rectory Lane in the village, all of which have now been lost.

The records show a manor house was first built in 1174 by William de Mortuo Mari (Mortimer).

A later lord of the manor, Edmund de Swyneford, was then responsible in 1340 for the construction of the moat, parts of which can still be seen around the site.

At some later time in the Tudor period, the Blewitt family replaced the older medieval manor house with their own house which was, in turn replaced in 1694 by a Jacobean manor House, which stood until 1856 when it was demolished and replaced with the current Harlaxton Manor.

Since then the site has become gardens to a number of modern houses.

Douglas Brown, who is leading the project, said: “Our village has a long history yet there are so many questions about the manor houses that for centuries sat at the heart of the community.

“Our lost manors of Harlaxton project seeks to find where these buildings were, their size and shape and hopefully confirm the dates recorded in the archives.

“The £12,100 we have been granted by The National Lottery Heritage fund will allow us to first conduct a thorough geophysical survey of the site using ground penetrating radar which will then guide us when we carry out a community led excavation in September.

“To all the people who play The National Lottery, we say thank you for helping us discover more about our precious village heritage.”

In three years from the group’s first meeting in April 2022, the Harlaxton History Society has run a number of research projects into the village, including an oral history of residents in its oldest houses. However, the lost manors of Harlaxton project will be its first detailed archaeological project.