Woodford Court House (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Wodeford Episcopi; Bisshopwodford; Bishop Woodford

In the civil parish of Woodford.
In the historic county of Wiltshire.
Modern Authority of Wiltshire.
1974 county of Wiltshire.
Medieval County of Wiltshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SU12623532
Latitude 51.11693° Longitude -1.82001°

Woodford Court House has been described as a certain 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

A house dating to C15 or C16 and originating as the Court House for the Bishop of Salisbury's manor. The south east range is the oldest part of the house with the north west range added circa 1830-1840. It is built of rendered brick with a slate roof, extended to north with flint and brick chequerwork on one bay, separately roofed. It has two storeys. A little to the east of the house is the site of a small medieval building, possibly a chapel, which was in a ruinous state and demolished in 1875. (PastScape)

Bishop Shaxton pulled it down because it was already somewhat in ruins. (Leland)

A Royal licence to crenellate was granted in 1337 Aug 30 (Click on the date for details of this licence.).
A Royal licence to crenellate was granted in 1377 July 20.

Comments

Geophysical survey carried out in 2001 by N. Payne. Payne writes 'The resistivity survey has confirmed that the main residential block of the medieval residence of the bishops of Salisbury was probably located to the east of the Court House in Lower Woodford, by the river Avon. The two courses of the river bounded the manor house to the west and east, and the artificial channel to the north may have been cut during the medieval period. Together, these watercourses formed what could be viewed as a partially moated site. The convenient location close to the river Avon meant that the bishops would needed only to take a short boat trip down stream to arrive at the cathedral and bishop's palace at Salisbury, which are situated close to the Avon.'

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1284061
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 1323779.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) SU13NW458.

Books
- Smith, P.L., 2013, The Bishop's Palace at Salisbury (Reading: Spire Books) p. 188-90
  Emery, Anthony, 2006, Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales Vol. 3 Southern England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) p. 627-9, 695
  Thompson, M.W., 1998, Medieval bishops' houses in England and Wales (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing) p. 167, 168, 184
  Crittal, Eliz. (ed), 1962, 'Woodford' VCH Wiltshire Vol. 6 p. 221-7 online transcription
  Turner, T.H. and Parker, J.H., 1859, Some account of Domestic Architecture in England (Oxford) Vol. 3 Part 2 p. 411 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), 1895, Calendar of Patent Rolls Edward III (1334-38) Vol. 3 p. 498 online copy
  Maxwell Lyte, H.C. (ed), 1895, Calendar of Patent Rolls Richard II (1377-81) Vol. 1 p. 9, 10 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. 495
  Toulmin-Smith, Lucy (ed), 1907, The itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535-1543 (London: Bell and Sons) Vol. 1 p. 261 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) p. 198-203 (available via EThOS)

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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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