West Tisted Manor

Description

The manor of WEST TISTED belonged in 1086 to the Bishopric of Winchester. It occurs regularly to the present day, the Tichborne family having held it from the 14th century to modern times.
North of the church on a moated site is the picturesque manor-house of red brick and stone, now a farmhouse. It dates from c1600 and has a central hall with a large fire-place, and a fine panelled room on the ground floor of the east wing.(VCH).
West Tisted - a defended manor-house. Traces of moats enclosing the whole square enclosure can be made out (Ordnance Survey Archaeology Division Object Name Book 1909).
The manor-house is of flint and stone at the south end, and of brick on stone foundations at the north. It stands on a high plateau but the site is of no intrinsic strength. The defences consist of the remains of an earthen bank with an outside ditch which can be traced, more or less, round the whole of the rectangular enclosure of 6 or 7 acres containing the church and farm buildings. Within this enclosure the house is surround on three sides by the remains of a moat, much cut about by extensive alterations about 30 years ago. The house does not appear to have been placed squarely within the moat and the occurrence of curved ditches and hedges suggest that the present arrangements were superimposed upon an earlier Norman citadel-and-bailey plan.
In the field to the east of the road are traces of another bank and ditch the relationship of which to the defences is not clear (Williams-Freeman).
The manor-house was pulled down in 1955-6; a large private house is now being built upon its site. Fragments of a moat are traceable to the south and west of the site of manor-house. It would appear to have been approx. 15.0m wide and 1.0m deep. A large wall has recently been built along the inner side of the south arm and preparations were in progress at the time of investigation to fill in the remainder of the moat. The present state of the site precludes any comment upon the suggestion that the manor-house complex succeeded a Norman motte and bailey. The banks and ditches enclosing the grounds and church appear to be simple enclosure banks whose ditches also serve to drain the heavy soil of the area.
Opposite the manor-house, to the east of the road, in a pasture field is an area of uneven ground bisected by a ditch (or ?sunken road). This probably represents an area of minor depopulation.
West Tisted is, therefore, another example of the 'shrunken' village so common in this part of Hampshire. There has, however, been considerable development there of recent years to alter the population pattern yet again (F1 AC 07-JAN-56). (PastScape)

Comments

The tenurial history possibly argues against a Norman castle here but the idea that manor house sites can develop from Norman castles (of either motte and bailey or ringwork forms) is an important one often overlooked.