Lemmington Hall, Edlingham. Photo by Peter Ryder.

(NU 12111129) Tower. (1)

The tower at Lemington was erected in the latter half of the 14th century. It is mentioned in a list of towers dated 1460 (2) (authority 3 gives the date of this list as 1415). The tower occupies the north east portion of Lemington Hall built before 1752.
The masonry on the north side is untouched but that on the east and part of the south side has been encased in ashlar to harmonise with the 18th century work. The remainder, now being interior walls, have been plastered over.
The tower is L-shaped, external dimensions being about 53ft east-west by 35ft on the west side and 48ft on the east side. The projection on the south east corner is occupied by the entrance, staircase and some small apartments, three storeys in height. The main block is two storeys high, the lower containing a high vaulted chamber, with the upper storey much altered. The tower no doubt possessed a third floor but this was probably removed in the 18th century. The basement or lower floor of the tower is a vaulted apartment that was lighted by a single loop at the west end.
The upper floor has been much altered but traces of original windows and two fireplaces remain. In the north west corner is a vacant space, probably a garderobe. (2)(3)

Description correct; battlements were added to the tower in the 18th century.
Original masonry is visible on the north west and north east sides but all the architectural features are modern except for one small window on the north west side. The small wing in the south east corner is encased in ashlar and has no external traces of antiquity. See photograph. The hall was repaired in 1914-18 and is know a convent. (4)

Condition unchanged. (5)

Lemmington Hall (Sacred Heart Convent), Grade II*. Country House, c.1750 for Nicholas Fenwick, incorporating 15th century tower house of Beadnell family; late 18th century alterations by William Newton; roofless ruin in late 19th century, restored 1913 for Sir Stephen Aitchison; converted to convent 1947. House tooled ashlar, tower squared stone. Tower retains barrel vaulted basement and newel stair in south turret. (6)

Lemington Tower. 14th century, much altered, now part of Hall of 1746. Sham windows and ashlar facing on south and east sides. No sign of battlements. Stands on strong site on top of Lemington Hill. (7)

Historic Building Report prepared by RCHME (York) in April 1992 of Lemmington Hall (formerly Convent of the Sacred Heart).
Original building was a free-standing L-shaped tower-house of at least three storeys. Tower probably built in the first half of the 15th century, but after 1415. Original ground floor entrance in the projecting turret at the east end of the south front. There is a barrel vaulted room to the north of the entrance. In the turret are two mezzanine chambers between the ground and first floor, the eastern room was heated and contained a garderobe. There is a single chamber on the first floor, access is by a spiral staircase.
The tower probably formed a strong point within a manorial enclosure, and possibly acted as a solar tower to a detached hall range. There is no surviving visible evidence of the rest of the manorial site.
In the 16th century a fireplace was inserted into the east wall of the main first floor chamber. The tower was incorporated into a two storey country house in the 18th century, built for Nicholas Fenwick. The tower was re-faced and re-fenestrated to form the eastern two bays of a nine bay house.
The building was ruinous by c.1900. The site was restored by Sir Stephen Aitchison after 1913. The Hall was converted into a convent by 1947, and was an old people's home in the late 20th century. A record of the tower was made in December 1902 whilst ruinous. (8)

The main front of Lemmington Hall, south facing, is a symmetrical facade of two storeys and nine bays. At the east end this part is a refronting of the southern projection of the medieval tower.
The tower is a substantial L-plan structure. The main body measures 15.8m by 10.7m externally and is now of two storeys. Medieval masonry is exposed on the north, east and a short section of the west elevations. At the east end of the south side is a projection 7.7m by 4m which has three floors within the same vertical range; this was refaced to the south and east. The only external elevations of the tower exposed are the north and east walls of the main body; the southern projection was refaced on the east and south in 1752 when its west wall was concealed externally by the new house.
EXTERIOR:
Externally, the exposed walls of the tower are of large squared blocks, neatly coursed. There is a chamfered plinth on the north and west and a chamfered set-back at mid height on north and east. On the north, two square-headed doorways at basement level are both late insertions. At first floor level are three large windows of 1913 (of two-, four- and one-light) with 14th century style tracery under square heads breaking the set-back. Between the western two and just above the set-back, is an old chamfered square-headed light and close to the west end is a small chamfered loop immediately below the set-back. The embattled parapet is constructed of smaller and more regular coursed stonework.
Adjacent trees make the east wall of the tower a little difficult to inspect. The ground level is higher here than on the north, probably burying the plinth. Set centrally at basement level, is a small window of three trefoil-headed lights. This is an old opening, but the tracery, of soft whitish sandstone, is a fragment of a larger window, imported in 1913. A similar piece is set in a small blind opening to the north and there is a band of blind panelling of similar form (now very badly eroded) at the same level to the south. Above the blind window is an obvious patch in the wall; immediately north of this a small blocked opening with a four-centred head, seems to be genuine medieval work.
At first floor level a two-light window of 1913, of similar character to those on the north, breaks the set-back close to the south end of the wall. Just beyond it is a large stepped buttress, medieval in appearance, but in fact a 1913 addition. Two small loops open in the internal angles of this buttress at first floor level.
Only a short section of the west wall of the tower is exposed north of the 1752 house. This shows the chamfered plinth returning for a short distance, before being cut away. High up, well above the present first floor level, is a small chamfered loop that appears to be an original feature.
Nothing of the southern projection is exposed externally. Its south and east faces are hidden by ashlar refacing of 1752 and its west face now forms the internal wall on the east side of the rooms of the house on the east of the central entrance bay (the north side of these rooms is formed by the south wall of the main body of the tower). Exposed in this wall, at ground floor level, are a small chamfered loop, lighting the lower section of the newel stair and a slightly larger opening actually cut in the north east corner of the room, lighting the chamber formed in the thickness of the main south wall of the tower.
INTERIOR:
The main body of the tower now has two floors: a lofty vaulted basement and a single large apartment. The southern projection contains three floors and a newel stair in the same vertical range. The lowest, comprising the medieval entrance lobby and an adjacent guard chamber, is now completely inaccessible as is a strange little chamber opening off the stair (which rises from the west side of the lobby) but firmed within the thickness of the south wall of the main body of the tower. The first floor chamber is now the sacristy, now reached from the chapel by a short stair dropping through an inserted doorway. The section of newel stair adjacent to the sacristy has been partitioned off to serve as a cupboard. Above this a short section of stair remains accessible, giving access to the second floor chamber in the projection and then a straight flight of steps (of 1913?) leading up to the roof.
BASEMENT:
Internally, the tower basement retains its lofty east-west barrel vault, now subdivided by two 18th century cross walls. The western section is further divided by a 1913 wall, creating a small lobby in the north west angle of the tower that permits access from the western doorway in the north wall and an opening cut through the east wall into the entrance hall of the 1752 house.
The easternmost part of the basement is further subdivided by an inserted brick vault with a loft above, presumably work of 1913. In the west wall of the original basement is a small rectangular loop, now blocked, set high in a splayed recess with a shouldered rear arch that extends down to floor level. An equivalent window at the east end, with a similar rear arch, now has the lower part of its internal recess blocked up, although the loop itself remains open.
From the eastern compartment of the basement a brick arched passage extends south, to be blocked off by a wall pierced only by a tiny opening that utilises the trefoiled head of a small medieval window; through this the inaccessible former entrance lobby can be glimpsed.
FIRST FLOOR:
The chapel at first floor level is now entered from the house by an inserted doorway at the north end of the west wall. The walls are panelled to a height of 2.5m and few old features are immediately apparent above. However, a removable panel in the panelling of the western internal jamb of the westernmost window in the north wall allows access to a small chamber, the west part of its south wall broken through to intersect a broad shaft running both up and down. In the north wall of the chamber is a small original loop. Looking down the shaft, it appears that another cavity may enter on the west at a lower level, with below that a possible exit on the same side. Although sometimes termed an 'oubliette', this is clearly a garderobe with its shaft. At the east end of the chapel, a doorway in the reredos gives access to a large fireplace hidden behind the altar. This is square-headed with a roll-moulded surround and a moulded stone mantelpiece on shaped corbels with a carved bust at either end; corbels, mantelpiece and bust are all additions by Aitchison who moved this fireplace from the north wall. A large and somewhat damaged corbel north of the fireplace may be an original feature.
On the south side of the chapel, a confessional utilises what appears to be the internal splay of a large window with a shouldered rear arch. East of this is a square-headed chamfered doorway opening from the newel stair into the chapel and east again the later doorway to the sacristy.
There are few features above the panelling except for an obvious rebuilt area at the south end of the west wall and five corbels on each wall, carrying the 1913 roof structure.
SOUTHERN PROJECTION:
[Details from County History account]
STRUCTURAL HISTORY:
Lemmington Hall Tower is an unusually complex building, having suffered a considerable amount of alteration over the last 250 years.
i) Medieval Tower: This lacks closely dateable architectural features, but may have been built c.1400. The main body of the tower would presumably have had at least three storeys. The internal wall faces in the present chapel now show little evidence of a second floor, but this may have been obscured by refacing and patching, as there is clearly a garderobe chamber below the present roof level at the north west corner.
It is not clear whether the tower was a self-contained residence or an adjunct to other manorial buildings. The latter scenario appears the most likely, in which case it would probably have contained the solar at first floor level and private chambers above.
ii) Later medieval alterations: The large fireplace which is now in the east wall looks to be of 16th century date, as may have been the smaller fireplace in what is now the sacristy.
Whether or not the original tower formed part of a larger complex of buildings, there is one piece of evidence suggesting that some sort of structure was built alongside prior to the mid-18th century remodelling. This is seen on the short exposed section of the west wall of the tower, where the plinth is cut away a metre or so short of the north wall of the 18th century building.
iii) 18th century remodelling: The upper part of the tower was probably removed at this time and its south and east sides completely disguised by new ashlar facades. Three new doorways were broken through at basement level and the main vaulted chamber subdivided. The first floor room may have been subdivided either at this time or perhaps earlier and a doorway, now sealed off, was cut through the south end of the west wall to link with the first floor of the house.
However, the tower, although disguised, was never really integrated into the new house; its basement must have simply served as a series of stores as it retained most of its original openings. By the late 19th century the house lay abandoned and derelict.
iv) Sir Stephen Aitchison's reconstruction: In 1913 the house was a roofless ruin and major reconstruction was carried out. The basement of the tower was left as it was, apart from subdividing the western part and sealing off the original entrance lobby and adjacent rooms, but the upper part was refashioned into a reception room. Four large new windows were inserted, one replacing the 16th century fireplace on the north, which was moved to the east end. A new roof structure was placed on the old corbels. The lower walls were concealed by panelling brought from the chateau of Bar-le-Duc.
The two upper chambers in the southern projection were fashioned by having their narrow loops opened out to link with what had previously been trompe l'oeil windows in the 18th century facades. It would appear that the second 16th century fireplace, in the east wall of the lower chamber, was resited in the north wall.
Externally Aitchison stripped the 18th century facing from the east end of the main body of the tower. He also constructed the large buttress at the south end of this section. The present embattled parapet is also entirely his.
v) 1947 conversion: When the hall was converted into a convent and the first floor of the tower into a chapel, there appear to have been few structural changes. One alteration was the breaking through of a doorway from the chapel into what is now the sacristy, which involved the partial destruction of the reset 16th century fireplace there. (9)

The works by William Newton are undated but took place under the ownership of Robert Fenwick who succeeded his father, Alderman Fenwick of Newcastle, in 1752. He added a new nine-bay front and west wing. (10)

Listed by Cathcart King and Dodds. (11 a-b)