Burgh Manor House, Burrough Green (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Park Wood

In the civil parish of Burrough Green.
In the historic county of Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely.
Modern Authority of Cambridgeshire.
1974 county of Cambridgeshire.
Medieval County of Cambridgeshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: TL641549
Latitude 52.16851° Longitude 0.39884°

Burgh Manor House, Burrough Green has been described as a probable Fortified Manor House.

There are no visible remains.

Description

A double rectangular moat at Park Wood. The main enclosure is 180 ft by 250 ft surrounded by a wet moat between 18 to 25 ft wide and 10 ft deep (see plan). Inside it brick foundations are said to have been dug up which could be the site of the manor house of Burgh. On the west side there is a secondary rectangular area surrounded by a dry ditch which has almost the same dimensions as the main enclosure but is less deep and has no banks. (VCH, 1948). A sub-rectangular homestead moat situated on high ground to the north of Park Wood. The secondary enclosure visible on St Joseph APs to the west has been ploughed out, but its course is marked by slight soil variation. The main moat measures overall 104m north-south by 84.0m east to west the arms averaging 12.0m wide by 3.2m deep. The water level is maintained by surface drainage with the original causewayed entrance across the east arm. The interior, which is now ploughed, appears to have been dug, possibly for building stone, though a dense scatter of medieval tile is still visible on the surface. An inner bank on the south side has been formed down to 0.4m high and an outer bank on the west side is now visible as a slight lift in plough (Field Investigator). Burrough Green is recorded in the early C11, and the earliest manor house probably stood on the Saxon moated site in Park Wood (VCH 1978). (PastScape)

Comments

A 'park for woodland beasts' at Burrough Green is recorded in Domeday. The VCH (1978) suggests the Park Wood moat is Saxon in origin. However one might expect the original Saxon manorial centre to be by the parish church, although some parishes do have multiply manors. The moat most probably dated to around 1330 when Thomas de Burgh was granted a licence to impark his wood of Burgh.
Despite being a well preserved moat still holding water, and this suggestion of Saxon origin–which, if true, would make it exceptional, it was totally destroyed in 1983 after it was decided not to schedule the monument. This complete destruction of a historic monument by a wealthy landowner was entirely legal and should not be compared to the criminal damage done by anomic and alienated individuals who paint or scratch their names on buildings.

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 377252.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 01148.

Books
- King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 41
  Wright, A.P.M. (ed), 1978, VCH Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely Vol. 6 p. 141-2 online transcription
  Phillips, 1948, in Salzman, L.F. (ed), VCH Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely Vol. 2 p. 18-19
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), 1891, Calendar of Patent Rolls Edward III (1327-30) Vol. 1 p. 553 online copy
  C145/73 (4) (Survey of 1313) The National Archives reference (calendared in Maxwell Lyte, H.C., 1916, Calendar of Inquisitions Miscellaneous (Chancery), preserved in the Public Record Office (H.M.S.O.) Vol. 2 p. 34 No. 143 online copy)
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Brian Cushion. 2002. Document detailing new earthwork discoveries

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.

Data >	PastScape	County HER
Maps >	Streetmap	NLS maps	Where's the path	Old-Maps
Data/Maps >	Magic	V. O. B.	Geology	LiDAR	Open Domesday
Air Photos >	Bing Maps	Google Maps	Getmapping	ZoomEarth
Photos >	CastleFacts	Geograph	Flickr	Panoramio