Cakeham Manor House (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of West Wittering.
In the historic county of Sussex.
Modern Authority of West Sussex.
1974 county of West Sussex.
Medieval County of Sussex (Rape of Chichester).

OS Map Grid Reference: SZ78489757
Latitude 50.77247° Longitude -0.88844°

Cakeham Manor House has been described as a probable Palace, and also as a Fortified Manor House although is doubtful that it was such.

There are masonry ruins/remnants remains.

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

Description

The Bishops of Chichester had a house here from the C13 to the C16. The early house had fallen into ruins by 1363, but of it there survives one bay of a C13 hall and undercroft. It was rebuilt in the C16, and of this re-building the principal survival is a tall hexagonal red brick tower, with taller stair turret, built by Bishop Sherborn about 1519. To the south of this is one contemporary bay with trefoil-headed windows with dripstones over. (Listed Building Report)

In 1447 a general licence to impark the estates of the see and to crenellate or fortify the manor-houses, including Cakeham, was granted to Bishop Adam Moleyns, but it is improbable that he made use of it before his murder in 1450.
The episcopal manor-house of Cakeham was a favourite residence of the Bishops of Chichester from the early 12th century onwards. Two of the miracles of St. Richard are associated with his presence there, and many instruments were executed here by later bishops. In 1363, however, the house was stated to be of no value, as it was ruined and roofless. Bishop Robert Sherburne early in the 16th century restored and enlarged it, building, presumably on the strength of the charter of 1447, a tower which has survived and is the most prominent feature of the existing building. (VCH 1953)

A Royal licence to crenellate was granted in 1447 Oct 28 (Click on the date for details of this licence.).

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1005835, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number ws199
National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1221649
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 462174.
Further information may be available from the holder of the county Historic Environment Record.

Books
- Emery, Anthony, 2006, Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales Vol. 3 Southern England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) p. 440
  Salter, Mike, 2000, The Castles of Sussex (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 31
  Thompson, M.W., 1998, Medieval bishops' houses in England and Wales (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing) p. 168, 173
  Pevsner, N. and Nairn, I., 1965, Buildings of England: Sussex (London, Penguin) p. 377-8
  Salzman, L.F. (ed), 1953, VCH Sussex Vol. 4 p. 217-8 online transcription
  Elwes, Dudley George Cary, 1876, A history of the Castles, Mansions, and Manors of Western Sussex (London: Longmans) p. 269 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), 1927, Calendar of Charter Rolls 5 Henry VI - 8 Henry VIII, AD 1427-1516, with an appendix, 1215-1288 Vol. 6. (HMSO) p. 94-5 online copy
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- 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)

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.

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