Hevingham Bishop's Palace (The Gatehouse Record)

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

OS Map Grid Reference: TG20432083
Latitude 52.73916° Longitude 1.26343°

Hevingham Bishop's Palace has been described as a probable Palace.

There are earthwork remains.

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

Description

This moated bishops' palace was built in 1250 by Walter de Suffield, Bishop of Norwich. It was used by other bishops until the ownership of the land passed to the Crown between 1500 and 1525. Part of the moat was still water filled when the earthworks were surveyed in 1981. Fieldwalking and metal detecting have recovered many medieval and post medieval finds including a medieval copper alloy horse harness pendant with the heraldic design of the Bishopric of Norwich. (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) 1250093
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 133134.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 7656.

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
  Page, Wm (ed), 1906, VCH Norfolk Vol. 2 p. 252-3 online copy
  Blomefield, Francis, 1807, 'Hundred of South Erpingham: Hevingham' An Essay towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk Vol. 6 p. 375 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Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.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)

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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