Haversham Manor (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Haveresham

In the civil parish of Haversham Cum Little Linford.
In the historic county of Buckinghamshire.
Modern Authority of Milton Keynes.
1974 county of Buckinghamshire.
Medieval County of Buckinghamshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SP82874257
Latitude 52.07545° Longitude -0.79229°

Haversham Manor has been described as a probable Fortified Manor House.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

The Monument includes remains of a moated site, fishponds and associated earthworks situated on a gentle west facing slope. The moated enclosure is rectangular in shape with overall dimensions of 90m N to S by 84m W to E. The moat ditch is best preserved around the west, south and east sides where it averages 10m wide and is up to 1.7m deep. The NE quadrant of the moat is shallow and considerably less well defined and has possibly been slighted some time in the past. The central platform of the moat measures some 60m N to S by 44m W to E and is raised slightly above the surrounding land surface. The interior surface of the platform is disturbed and uneven, particularly in the northern half, indicating the survival of sub-surface building remains. There is also some loose stone on the surface in this area but no visible evidence of worked stone or masonry. In the SW corner of the platform, separated from the edge of the moat by a narrow bank, is a rectangular hollow 28m W to E by 8m N to S and 1.6m deep. The sides of the hollow are steep and the base surface is level and even. Its close proximity to the edge of the moat suggests that it is likely to be the remains of a small fishpond. A shallow hollow 15m square and 0.6m deep, possibly the site of a building lies immediately to the north of this feature.

To the east of the moated enclosure a recently constructed lake approaches to within 50m of the moat edge; in the area in between are the truncated remains of fragmentary banks and hollows which are thought to represent the remains of village crofts or garden plots. A roughly rectangular hollow some 30m by 20m and 0.5 m deep, which lies adjacent to the NE corner of the moat, may represent the remains of a second early fishpond. To the east of the moat, some 60m up-slope is a large fishpond which appears later in date. It measures 100m N to S by 30m E to W and has a central island. The pond is contained along its eastern downslope side by a substantial embankment some 8m wide at the base and up to 2m high. A second small pond of similar age lies to the north; this is 38m N to S by 8M W to E. (Milton Keynes HER)

Moated site, fishponds, and associated earthworks near Haversham Manor. Adjoining the churchyard to the south is the site of a former Manor House (which was partly of possibly late C17 date) with fishponds, a moat and a dovecote (dated 1665). (PastScape)

Licence to crenellate granted 1304 to James de la Plaunche for his 'mansum suum Haveresham'.

A Royal licence to crenellate was granted in 1304 June 9 (Click on the date for details of this licence.).

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1011300, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 19081
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 345076.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) MMK59.

Books
- Page, Wm (ed), 1927, VCH Buckinghamshire Vol. 4 p. 367-70 online transcription
  RCHME, 1913, An inventory of the historical monuments in Buckinghamshire Vol. 2 (north) p. 145-6 online copy
  Sheahan, J., 1862, History and Topography of Buckinghamshire (London) p. 546-7 online copy
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- Maxwell Lyte, H.C. (ed), 1898, Calendar of Patent Rolls Edward I (1301-1307) Vol. 4 p. 233 online copy

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.

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