Out & About …

… on the North York Moors, or wherever I happen to be.

A wide moorland view in early spring. In the foreground, heather and low scrub in deep russet and brown cover rocky ground. Beyond that, rolling green fields divided by dry-stone walls stretch across a broad valley. A rounded hill rises to the left, its slopes covered in dead bracken. A dark conifer plantation sits on the ridge to the right. In the far distance, higher fells lie beneath a heavy grey sky.

The Pale — Playground of the Percys

Viewed here from Percy Cross Rigg, Capt. Cook’s Monument is just about visible on the highest point of Easby Moor. This eastern end, in the parish of Kildale, is known as Coate Moor and those unforested fields on the spur are labelled “The Pale” on Ordnance Survey maps. It is a relic of one of the three medieval deer parks once owned by the de Percy family, who ruled over the manor of Kildale. The park boundaries were made of split logs and palings, which is how the name came about. It once kept the deer in and the peasants out, and was the family’s hunting ground for four centuries, where they treated Kildale like their own private playground1“The Pale or Pale Close.” The Transactions of the Scarborough Archaeological and Historical Society. No. 20, 1977.2NYMNPA HER Record No: 4880 Pale End deer park..

Arnald de Percy acquired the manor during the reign of Henry I. It is supposed that the family was related to those posh Percys of Northumberland, though nobody actually knows how3“Parishes: Kildale.” A History of the County of York North Riding: Volume 2. Ed. William Page. London: Victoria County History, 1923. British History Online. https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/yorks/north/vol2/pp249-253

It was not all fine dining and archery. By 1285, William de Percy was officially of “unsound mind” although one suspects a modern diagnosis might be dementia. His sons fought over the estate like vultures while he was still breathing4Ibid.. Arnald de Percy II won that bit of a scrap, but the family luck did not hold.

Arnald later invited some friars to live in the manor without asking the King or the Pope5Friaries: The crutched friars of Kildale.” A History of the County of York: Volume 3. Ed. William Page. London: Victoria County History, 1974. British History Online. https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/yorks/vol3/p270a6“Parishes: Kildale.” A History of the County of York North Riding: Volume 2. Ed. William Page. London: Victoria County History, 1923. British History Online. https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/yorks/north/vol2/pp249-253. The Archbishop of York put a stop to that party in 1312. Meanwhile, the local rector was busy committing “incontinence” with a priest’s sister7Scandal in Kildale: Rector of church accused in Court (in 1308). Hidden Valleys Community Project. http://www.hvcparchaeology.org.uk/uncategorized/scandal-in-kildalerector-of-church-accused-in-court-in-1308/.

The family finally pushed their luck too far. John de Percy III joined a plot to kill the King in 1399. He ended up in a cell, which is a bit of a damp comedown. By 1503, the daughters of John de Percy VI had sold the entire estate, and the Kildale Percys vanished from the historical record8“Parishes: Kildale.” A History of the County of York North Riding: Volume 2. Ed. William Page. London: Victoria County History, 1923. British History Online. https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/yorks/north/vol2/pp249-253.

Four hundred years of lording it now amounts to some rubble in a damp field and a name on a map.

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2 responses to “The Pale — Playground of the Percys”

  1. Reece avatar
    Reece

    Is there anything out there about those historic deer parks? I know bits of the boundary are marked on the OS maps but only bits of it around the edge of Warren Moor. I assume “Pale End” must be one end of that boundary.

    There’s also the one at Commondale which is more clearly marked pretty much in full on the map. But the Kildale one just looks like one stretch on the moor. I’m guessing lower down the hill centuries of farming have erased evidence of the boundary?

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    1. Fhithich avatar
      Fhithich

      Historical records seem a bit scattered, so it could really use someone to do a little digging and bring what there is together.

      Reply

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