Just to the North of Yeavering Bell close to the row of cottages stands a battered old building. It is known, rather grandly, as 'The Old Palace' and was even marked as 'King Edwin's Palace' on the old six inch Ordnance Survey map.

The structure may have begun it's life in around 1550 as a form of defensible house or pele. Nearby there are earthworks which could have been a dam and the building may even have been a mill.

However the building certainly never was a palace of any sort. Brian Hope Taylor suggests the name was bestowed on the building by an 18th or 19th century parson who knew his Bede..!

Bede identified the area as the site of Ad Gefrin but was not specific as to the location. In 1637 William Camden was in no doubt that Yeavering was the site of Ad Gefrin.

Perhaps this building was thought of as Ad Gefrin because it happened to be in the right place and was of unknown origin.

Brian Hope Taylor excavated inside the 'Old Palace' in 1955 and recovered 17th century pottery beneath three feet of later deposits.

Interestingly there is a 17th century gravestone built into the floor of Kirknewton church. It commemorates 'Fergus Storey of Yeavering'. We know, from documentary sources, that the Storey family was effectivley in charge of Yeavering at this time. Could Fergus have lived in the 'Old Palace..?

Let's hope it was a bit less cluttered if he did.

The building is used today as a sort of rough and ready store.