Thornage Hall (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Thornage.
In the historic county of Norfolk.
Modern Authority of Norfolk.
1974 county of Norfolk.
Medieval County of Norfolk.

OS Map Grid Reference: TG047364
Latitude 52.88576° Longitude 1.04258°

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

There are masonry ruins/remnants remains.

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

Description

Thornage Hall is a former grange of the Bishops of Norwich. The site is known to have been occupied from the Norman period, and excavation has uncovered medieval floor surfaces. The present building was built around 1482 for Bishop Goldwell, and contains reused fragments of 12th to 13th century stone in the walls. In the 17th century each end was demolished and remodelled, but the hall windows and doorways in the centre block were retains. In 1988 a 17th century sewer tunnel was rediscovered. Nearby there is a large brick dovecote, dating to 1728, and barns of flint and brick dating to 1718 and 1727. (Norfolk HER)

A Royal licence to crenellate may have been granted in 1327 (Click on the date for details of this supposed licence.).

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1304519
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 131083.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 3173.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Norfolkcoast.co.uk
Books
- Emery, Anthony, 2000, Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales Vol. 2 East Anglia, Central England and Wales (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) p. 131, 155-7
  Thompson, M.W., 1998, Medieval bishops' houses in England and Wales (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing) p. 181
  Pevsner, N. and Wilson, B., 1997, The Buildings of England: Norwich and North-East Norfolk p. 303
  Blomefield, F., 1808, 'Holt hundred: Thornage' An Essay towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk Vol. 9 p. 445-6 (tenurial history) online transcription
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.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)

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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.

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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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