Penhallam Manor, Jacobstow

Description

Late C12 to mid C14 moated manor house in a steep sided valley floor near Week St Mary. Visible as a sub-circular moat defining a central island which supports walls and foundation trenches of manor house complex. The surviving walls are generally 0.75m-0.8m wide and 0.5m high but they rise to 1.4m high in the north west sector. The foundation trenches recorded by excavation are now visible as modern, low, wire-framed and turf-covered earth banks which are built over their courses. The moat is flat- bottomed, from 5.5m wide and 1.5m deep on the south to 12m wide and 1m deep on the north. It contains water on the north, east and south sides. The structural complex forming the manor house is visible as four ranges of buildings. Excavations indicated that the surviving plan resulted from four main building phases. The east range contains the earliest structure and is dated to circa 1180-1200. It housed, over an undercroft, the domestic apartments of the owner. About AD 1200, a wardrobe and garderobe were added to the northern end of the domestic apartments. The third and most extensive visible phase of building took place between circa 1224 and 1236, resulting in most structures of the north, west and south ranges. This building phase included the hall, buttery, chapel and bakehouse. The fourth building phase of circa 1300 resulted in the rebuilding of the kitchens and service wing. Historical records show that the manor of Penhallam formed part of the honour of Cardinham, held by Richard fitz Turold in 1087, and by his descendants, eventually the de Cardinham family. It is Andrew de Cardinham who is considered responsible for the major third building phase. (PastScape)

The shape, together with some fragments of a bank levelled by the later buildings, suggested that the earthwork originated as a Norman ringwork, perhaps of the late C11, but there was no dating evidence (for example, no bar-lug pottery) and no associated early structures, though one sunken floored feature is said to predate the ringwork bank (Beresford, 1974, 89, 125). (Preston-Jones and Rose)

However, the existence of this ringwork may be doubted, for several reasons: the valley bottom site is unusual for a ringwork; ringworks are not usually associated with moats; the earthwork evidence mentioned by Beresford is not clear on the ground; the excavated evidence for the ringwork bank is not clear and it is not shown on the section through the hall where it is said to have sealed earlier features, and since the finds from the site are entirely late 13th and 14th centuries, any 11th or 12th century occupation, let alone a ringwork, may be questioned (APJ, PGR ,pers comm). Furthermore, it is strange that two ringworks should have been built so close together and by the same family - both Penhallam and Week St Mary were owned by Richard Fitz-Turold in 1086. (Cornwall & Scilly HER)