A Norman manor house from about 1170, cased in brick centuries later, stands beside the grander Burton Agnes Hall
Open to visitorsan English Heritage site — check opening times and admission before you go
Burton Agnes takes its name from a Norman lord’s daughter, and his manor house, known today as the Old Hall, stands right next to the much grander Hall built for his descendants centuries later. Roger de Stuteville built the original house between about 1170 and 1180; it passed by marriage to the Somervilles in 1274 and then to the Griffiths, whose descendant Sir Walter Griffith restored it and added the timber roof still overhead, in the 15th century. In the early 1600s Sir Henry Griffith built the new house next door — the Burton Agnes Hall visitors pay to see today — and the old manor was downgraded to a laundry, cased in brick in the 18th century.
What survives inside the Old Hall is a stone-vaulted storage room, known as the undercroft, held up on stout round columns, plus a 12th-century spiral staircase leading to the room above. One column is scratched with a grid of holes, possibly for playing nine men’s morris, a medieval board game. Out at the back, a restored 17th-century waterwheel, which a donkey once turned, drew water from the manor’s own well.
The Old Hall is free to visit, though it follows the same set opening hours as the Hall and gardens next door, which charge for entry. Skipsea Castle is a short drive away.
