4
Conclusion
Owston Estate has enjoyed a long history from the pre-Conquest era to the present day and obviously constitutes an important part of the historical landscape of the Doncaster region.
The overall shape of the main park area of the estate, being of a roughly circular layout amidst an otherwise mainly linear field system, suggests the possible survival of the boundaries of the original medieval demesne [land] of the lord of the manor. This possibility is reinforced by the survival of the local name ‘Owston Demesne’. Although, as yet, no direct evidence has been found, it is possible that in the later Middle Ages, this area could have been converted to use as a deer park, a common practice among landlords during this period and one which would serve to fossilise the original outline of the manorial unit in the landscape.
The architecture of the church would suggest a fairy early Norman seigneurial foundation, which, in most cases, was built close to the manor house. It is probable, but not necessarily the case, that the later hall was built upon the foundations of the original manor complex. Associated with the church was a vicarage with associated buildings and agricultural land, which would almost certainly have been situated to the east of the church in an enclosure which survived until the recent past with the field name ‘vicaring’, suggesting an enclosed area appended to the vicarage. Early OS maps mark a building in this area as a vicarage. In the later Middle Ages, the church also supported a chantry school, one of about ten in the South Yorkshire region.
By the fourteenth century, Owston had become an important settlement in the area, although it was to experience population decline in the later Middle Ages. It is uncertain where the main focus of this settlement would have been located. Magilton suggested the most likely area was between the church and the present hall, although this area is currently being used as a car park and yields no obvious physical evidence. The settlement area was most likely to have been located at some point between the car park area and the edge of the present field boundaries to the north of the estate, though the possibility cannot be discounted that there was an original location on some other spot within the demesne area. It might be significant that the Enclosure Commission. of 1760 revealed that some houses had been pulled down on the estate in the mid-18th century. Analogous examples, however, would suggest somewhere near the church and the present hall as most likely.
Although the present outline of the estate forms a coherent feature in the general landscape of the area, the exact details of its landscaping in the modern period are uncertain. Landscape evidence and the estate financial records point to the conclusion that the suggestions of Humphry Repton, made in the late 18th century, were not carried out, though partial landscaping on similar lines was undertaken in the 1820s, which included the plantation of groups of trees. The last significant alterations were made to the immediate vicinity of the house during the 1970s, and modem ploughing has modified the appearance of the present estate.
