Kengham (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;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

In the civil parish of Kingham.
In the historic county of Oxfordshire.
Modern Authority of Oxfordshire.
1974 county of Oxfordshire.
Medieval County of Oxfordshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SP259242
Latitude 51.91573° Longitude -1.62484°

Kengham has been described as a probable Fortified Manor House.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

A previously unknown moated site now under pasture (PRN 11854; Centred SP25902420) reported by Mr N Snell of Kingham Hill Trust Farms has been examined with the help of James Bond of Oxfordshire Department of Museum Services and surveyed. The moat is three-sided with a rectangular interior raised about 1m above the bottom of the ditch. The north-west side is demarcated by a hollow way. Differential grass growth in the interior may reflect building foundations. Beyond the north-east arm of the moat is a prominent external bank rising some 2m above the bottom of the moat and forms the south-western side of a larger rectangular enclosure surrounded by smaller ditches, with a mound in the east corner. This enclosure suggests a garden area. If the main moat enclosed a Medieval manor house then this home appears to have been superseded by a later Medieval or very early Post-Medieval timber-framed manor house to the south-east which was demolished and rebuilt in 1922. (Chambers 1980)

Field called Henry Fowler's Orchard and Part of Fowler's Orchard in 1840 (Tithe Award Map)
Three-sided rectangular moated site. Max height from bottom of moat to top of platform is ca 2.25m. Interior may contain building foundations, revealed by differential grass growth. Beyond the NE arm is a prominent external bank rising c.7-8' above bottom of moat, marking the SW side of the a larger rectangular enclosure surrounded by smaller ditches, with a mound in the east corner - perhaps a garden area. Under pasture and in good condition (Chambers)
Previous landscaping of garden where the proposed development is located had removed all archaeological deposits. (John Moore Heritage Services 2007) (Oxfordshire HER)

A Royal licence to crenellate was granted in 1347 Jan 11 (Click on the date for details of this licence.).

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1004856, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number ox255
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 332643.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 11854.

Books
- Turner, T.H. and Parker, J.H., 1859, Some account of Domestic Architecture in England (Oxford) Vol. 3 Part 2 p. 414 online copy
Periodical Articles
- 1980, Moated Sites Research Group report No. 7 p. 24 (plan)
  Chambers, R., 1980, 'Kingham, Manor Farm' South Midlands Archaeology: CBA Group 9 Newsletter Vol. 10 p. 145, 146 (plan) 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), 1903, Calendar of Patent Rolls Edward III (1345-48) Vol. 7 p. 218 online copy
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- John Moore Heritage Services, 2007, An Archaeolgical Evaluation at Moat Cottage, Kingham, Oxfordshire

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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