Stoke Mandeville (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;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

In the civil parish of Stoke Mandeville.
In the historic county of Buckinghamshire.
Modern Authority of Buckinghamshire.
1974 county of Buckinghamshire.
Medieval County of Buckinghamshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SP83900933
Latitude 51.77727° Longitude -0.78660°

Stoke Mandeville has been described as a probable Fortified Manor House.

There are cropmark/slight earthwork remains.

Description

The moated site to the NW of the church has been ploughed out without trace, as has the greater part of the DMV to the SE, with the sole exception of a dry, but moat-like, ditch with inner bank, centred at SP 83900933. This feature runs SE from a stream for 120.0m and then NE through a right angled corner for 50.0m to another stream. The ditch is 6.0m wide, 0.4m deep, the bank, 5.0m wide, 0.4m high. (PastScape)

A Royal licence to crenellate may have been granted in 1202 May 18 (Click on the date for details of this supposed licence.).

Comments

Geoffrey fitz Peter was granted licence to fortify (firmani) his house of 'Stokes' in 1202. Renn tentatively identifies this as Stokesay Castle but this is tenurially unlikely and probably reflects a mistaken idea that such licences resulted in seriously fortified builings. Tenurially the likely location would be Stoke Mandeville, Buckinghamshire where there were two manors, one held by Geoffrey, both of which were probably moated. It is not possible to identify this manor fully but seems likely to be the later New Manor which has been suggested as being occupied by Stoke House. A moat, at the given map reference, may represent the site of the medieval manor house. Stoke Mandeville is a deserted medieval village of which a few earthworks survive. The modern village is a refoundation of the village on a new site to the north.

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 344217.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 0093800000.

Books
- Renn, D.F., 1973 (2 edn.), Norman Castles of Britain (London: John Baker) p. 316
  Matthaei, E.R., 1955, Stoke Mandeville p. 8
  Page, Wm (ed), 1908, VCH Buckinghamshire Vol. 2 p. 360-1 online transcription
  Sheahan, J., 1862, History and Topography of Buckinghamshire (London) p. 197 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.)
- Hardy, T.D. (ed.), 1844, Rotuli de Liberate ac de Misis et Praestitis Regnante Johanne (Record Commission) p. 32 view online copy

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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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