Malshanger House (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Malsanger Castle; Church Oakley

In the civil parish of Oakley.
In the historic county of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.
Modern Authority of Hampshire.
1974 county of Hampshire.
Medieval County of Hampshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SU56785262
Latitude 51.26990° Longitude -1.18734°

Malshanger House has been described as a Fortified Manor House although is doubtful that it was such.

There are masonry ruins/remnants remains.

This is a Grade 2 listed building protected by law*.

Description

Malshanger House was built by EDWARD, first LORD THURLOW - who bought the manor in 1806 on the south side of the ancient house, of which a lofty octagonal tower is still standing (VCH).
The original Malshanger Castle was a large Tudor house of which little is known. It is supposed that it was built by Archbishop Wareham. A number of tiles re-used in the roofs of the present out buildings are of Md. date. A subsidence in the drive almost certainly indicates a well. The tower, of red 'Tudor' - type brick is octagonal and four storeys high. It has an embattled parapet and is now a clock-tower and store. In the north face is a blocked doorway with the mark of a former roof crossing it. A fragment of walling extends to the east and another to the north. No other indication of the original building was seen other than the slight depression at the site of the supposed well - SU 56805261.
It would appear that the tower formed part of a gateway to a large Tudor manor-house (F1 WW 20-DEC-56).
A late Medieval date for the gatehouse tower is rejected. The tower is neither military nor Medaeival (King). (PastScape)

C16, early C19, mid C19. A connected structure of several dates, the main part being a long narrow block (of stable and service wing ) of one storey, and attic (of the last date ). The centre has a gable with an upper window above a 'Tudor' carriageway arch (now filled), which on each are windows and doors. Tile roof, with gabled dormers (with cills at eaves level). At the east end of the block is a tall octagonal staircase tower (part of a gateway) which is the main surviving feature of a house known to have been built by Archbishop Warham in the first years of the C16. It is in red brickwork, English bond, with a crenellated top having a moulded stone coping; there is a blocked doorway at mid-height and at the ground-floor a plain doorway with a 4-centred arch. At the west end of the block is a square 'gazebo' with an upper bay window on brackets (early C19) with diagonal metal casements. On the south and north faces of the main block are flint panels. Northwards from the west end there is a high garden wall of red brickwork, the lower of the C16. (Listed Building Report)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1339535
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 236715.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 31327.

Books
- Osborne, Mike, 2011, Defending Hampshire: The Military Landscape from Prehistory to the Present (Stroud: The History Press) p. 245 (listed in Appendix)
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 196 (reject)
  Pevsner, N. and Lloyd D., 1973, Buildings of England: Hampshire and the Isle of Wight (Harmondsworth) p.363
  Page, Wm (ed), 1911, VCH Hampshire and the Isle of Wight Vol. 4 p. 224 online transcription

Most of the sites or buildings recorded in this web site are NOT open to the public and permission to visit a site must always be sought from the landowner or tenant.
It is an offence to disturb a Scheduled Monument without consent. It is a destruction of everyone's heritage to remove archaeological evidence from ANY site without proper recording and reporting.
Don't use metal detectors on historic sites without authorisation.

The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of Historic England, County Historic Environment Records and other individuals and organisations. It may also contain information licensed under the Open Government Licence. All the sources given should be consulted to identify the original copyright holder and permission obtained from them before use of the information on this site for commercial purposes.
The author and compiler of Gatehouse does not receive any income from the site and funds it himself. The information within this site is provided freely for educational purposes only.

The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.

Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.

The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown. Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.

Please help to make this as useful a resource as possible by contacting Gatehouse if you see errors, can add information or have suggestions for improvements in functality and design.
Help is acknowledged.

*The listed building may not be the actual medieval building, but a building on the site of, or incorporating fragments of, the described site.

Data >	PastScape	County HER		Listing	I. O. E.
Maps >	Streetmap	NLS maps	Where's the path	Old-Maps
Data/Maps >	Magic	V. O. B.	Geology	LiDAR	Open Domesday
Air Photos >	Bing Maps	Google Maps	Getmapping	ZoomEarth
Photos >	CastleFacts	Geograph	Flickr	Panoramio