Hartpury Abbots Court (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Abbot Place; Abbotts Court

In the civil parish of Hartpury.
In the historic county of Gloucestershire.
Modern Authority of Gloucestershire.
1974 county of Gloucestershire.
Medieval County of Gloucestershire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SO78072357
Latitude 51.91023° Longitude -2.32034°

Hartpury Abbots Court has been described as a probable Fortified Manor House, and also as a probable Palace.

There are earthwork remains.

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

Description

The moated site at Hartpury Court survives well, despite the partial infilling of the moat and the presence of later buildings. Buried deposits on the island are expected to include the remains of medieval structures, and will contain archaeological information relating to the construction and subsequent occupation and use of the moated site. Within the moat, buried and possibly waterlogged deposits will preserve archaeological remains relating to the occupation and use of the site, along with organic material which will provide information about the economy of the site and the local environment during the medieval period. The history and ownership of the site is reasonably well documented, and it relates to other adjacent buildings of the medieval period.
The monument includes the surviving extent of the moated site, fishpond and associated water management features located on low lying ground about 2.5km south west of Hartpury village. The eastern and part of the southern arms of the moat survive as a waterfilled ditch 12m wide and between 0.25m and 0.75m deep. It is connected to a pond, believed to have been a fishpond, by a leat visible as a depression leading from the southern arm of the moat. The remaining arms of the moat have been infilled, but will survive as buried features. The moat defines a rectangular island 74m north-south and a maximum of 24m east-west. Hartpury Court, a Listed Building Grade II of mid-19th century date, stands on the island and is known to have been built to replace an earlier dwelling. To the north of the house is a Roman Catholic chapel dating to 1830, a Listed Building Grade II, which is now used as a farm store. Hartpury Court, which was also known as Abbots Court, was the property of St Peter's Abbey, Gloucester, until the Dissolution in 1539, when it became Crown property. In 1547 the property was leased to Richard Pates, Recorder of Gloucester, after which date there are no further records of the site until 1794, when the house was used as a convent for nuns from France. (Scheduling Report)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1016832, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 32337
National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1172186
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 113421.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 5339.

Periodical Articles
- Rawes, B., 1978, 'A Preliminary check list of moated sites in Gloucestershire' Glevensis Vol. 12 p. 35-7 online copy
  Browne, A.L., 1934, 'Richard Pates, M.P. for Gloucester' Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society Vol. 56 p. 205 online copy

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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