Ross Bishops Manor House (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Royal Hotel

In the civil parish of Ross on Wye.
In the historic county of Herefordshire.
Modern Authority of Herefordshire.
1974 county of Hereford and Worcester.
Medieval County of Herefordshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SO59762410
Latitude 51.91397° Longitude -2.58729°

Ross Bishops Manor House has been described as a probable Palace, and also as a probable Fortified Manor House.

There are no visible remains.

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

Description

The medieval bishop's palace lay to the west of the church within the large Anglo-Saxon or early post-conquest precinct defined by the present Wye Street, High Street and Copse Cross Street (HWCM 19931). The date of construction is not known but a building was in existence by 1166-7 when it is mentioned in the Pipe Rolls. At this time it was classed as a defended house (Tonkin 1976, 55). The palace was mostly of timber and had a large gateway and a porters lodge (Morris 1980). It does not seem to have been used after 1334 but was finally abandoned in 1356 when the diocese of Hereford reorganised its property (Tonkin 1976). In the mid-16th century Leland noted that the palace at Ross was "completely ruined" (Chandler 1993, 228). During the construction of the Royal Hotel in 1837 a vaulted underground chamber was discovered on the site. This was interpreted as the bishop's dungeon as it is reported to have contained a stone bench on each side and six massive iron rings for prisoner's chains. The chamber was built into the rock at a depth of c 2m with an entrance in the roof. The walls were c 1.75m thick and the interior of the chamber measured c 4.8m by 3.6m (Morris 1980, 16). (Victoria Buteux in Dalwood and Bryant, 2005)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1098724
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 109949.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 4060.

Books
- Emery, Anthony, 2000, Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales Vol. 2 East Anglia, Central England and Wales (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) p. 513-4
  Salter, Mike, 2000, Castles of Herefordshire and Worcestershire (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 59
  Thompson, M.W., 1998, Medieval bishops' houses in England and Wales (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing) p. 178
  Morris, M.H., 1980, The book of Ross-on-Wye (Buckingham)
  Pevsner, N., 1963, Buildings of England: Herefordshire (Harmondsworth)
Periodical Articles
- Tonkin, J.W., 1976, 'The palaces of the bishop of Hereford' Transactions of the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club Vol. 42.1 p. 53-64
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- 1889, The Great Roll of the Pipe for the thirteenth year of the reign of King Henry II A.D. 1166-1167 (Pipe Roll Society 11) p. 71 online copy
Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- Chandler, John, 1993, John Leland's Itinerary: travels in Tudor England (Sutton Publishing) p. 226, 228
  Toulmin-Smith, Lucy (ed), 1910, The itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535-1543 (London: Bell and Sons) Vol. 5 p. 184 online copy
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Dalwood, H. and Bryant, V. (eds), 2005, The Central Marches Historic Towns Survey 1992-6 Download copy
  Payne, Naomi, 2003, The medieval residences of the bishops of Bath and Wells, and Salisbury (PhD Thesis University of Bristol) Appendix B: List of Medieval Bishop's Palaces in England and Wales (available via EThOS)

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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.

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