b'Wiltons Deer ParkMike PrattStarting Point The Darley Plan of 1765O ne of the back lanes in the village is called ParkIn her book, Medieval Parks of East Yorkshire, Lane because the land that rises from it to theSusan Neave 2 includes the following brief reference to Wolds is known in common village parlance as TheBishop Wilton:Park.The manor of Bishop Wilton also belonged to Most people who use that term would have nothe Archbishop of York. Although no documentary idea of its derivation. But one village resident, Carolineevidence for a park has been found, the field names Kernan (a Landscape Historian by profession), voicedLow Parks, High Parks and Park Head on a plan of an idea that it might be connected with the existence1765 suggest that this manor also supported a deer of a Deer Park sometime in the past.park, which must have been situated to the south of With this seed sown in my mind, it didnt take longHall Garth, site of the archiepiscopal manor house.for supporting evidence to emerge from unrelatedThe plan of 1765 that Susan Neave refers to is strands of local history investigation. It is this evidence,reproduced as Figure 1 3 . As well as giving us our first albeit fragmentary, that is presented here. fragment of evidence for a Deer Park this plan will be used in support of other fragments.Historical Context Why should the term park make us think of deer? The existence of a Deer Park cannot be lookedSusan Neave explains:at in isolation. It has to be seen as an adjunct to theThe word park, derived from the Old moated site of the Archbishops Palace, a scheduledEnglish pearroc, simply means a paddock monument which exists as a grassed field ofor enclosed field, but in the medieval period earthworks at the eastern end of the village. it was more specifically used to denote a Based on Andrew Seftons research, we canprivate enclosure in which deer were kept. attribute the building of the Palace to Archbishop GrayThe medieval deer park most commonly during the period 1216 to 1255 1 (see panel below forcomprised an enclosed tract of wild, semi-the English Heritage position).wooded country, sometimes taken in from With conclusive evidence for deer parks at otherwaste ground on the edge of a manorresidences of the Archbishops of York, notably BishopThe Bishop Wilton parkland identified in Figure 1 Burton and Beverley, it is reasonable to assume thatwas certainly wooded and it was characteristically there was one at Bishop Wilton. But what evidencedivided into separate enclosures, again as Susan exists? Neave describes: more commonly a park would be divided English Heritage manage the Palace site asinto coppices which could be protected a scheduled monument and in their officialfrom the deer by banks and fences, until description they say that the site is thought tothe woodland had reached a certain age.have been built for Archbishop Neville during theOther Evidencereign of Edward IV. Edward IV reigned from 1442Along the same lines, one tiny shred of evidence to 1483 and George Neville was Archbishop fromcomes from an inventory drawn up in 1298 4 . It details 1465 to 1476. Also, English Heritages delineationthe possessions of the Treasurer of York Minster of the site on the southern boundary is at oddsat his Bishop Wilton property. Although there is no with the evidence presented here and with thereference to a Palace or its contents, the last item in evidence on the ground. Both these points will bethe inventory is described as follows:pursued and reported on in a subsequent article. All the timber from a building which was at the park gate, 5 .If we accept that park refers to the Deer Park this 1The Site of the Archbishop of Yorks Palace by Andrew Sefton - Bishop Wilton Local History BulletinNo. 5, November 2003.2Centre for Regional and Local History, University of Hull and the Hutton Press Ltd, 19913Reproduced with permission. University of Hull Brynmor Jones Library, Ref: DDSY/106/6.4York Minster Archives Ref: M2(3)d5. This has been specially translated for future publication in a LocalHistory Group document.5Marremium totum de una domo que fuit ad hostium parci, from medieval Latin: parcus, parca =park or enclosure; parco = to enclose or empark.102 BULLETIN 7'