Watlington Manor House (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;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

In the civil parish of Watlington.
In the historic county of Oxfordshire.
Modern Authority of Oxfordshire.
1974 county of Oxfordshire.
Medieval County of Oxfordshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SU68559479
Latitude 51.64774° Longitude -1.01062°

Watlington Manor House has been described as a probable Fortified Manor House.

There are no visible remains.

Description

Site of a manor house, possibly fortified after 1338 as a licence to crenellate was granted in that year. The manor house is first recorded in a document of circa 1250 and had probably been demolished by the early C17. A moat was documented in 1442 but no trace of one survives. (PastScape)

The earliest reference to the manor-house occurs in c. 1250 when a pit in the curia of Richard, Earl of Cornwall, is mentioned. Nicholas de la Beche was given licence to crenellate in 1338 and may have fortified or rebuilt the house. Some years later in 1349 and 1350 the king's sons were staying there. When the site of the manor was granted for 40s. a year to the king's sergeant Richard Lyllyng in 1442 all the houses built on it, two crofts, two meadows, and the water called a 'mote' round the site were mentioned. This moat was partly in the present churchyard and is still met with in digging graves, and partly beyond the end of Church Street where it is still visible. The manorhouse was not kept up and in the early C17 the king's bailiff was accused of giving away the timber and stone instead of using it for the repair of the king's tenements in Watlington. In 1660 the vicar said that its 24 acres of meadow had been divided up. (VCH 1964)

A Royal licence to crenellate was granted in 1338 March 3 (Click on the date for details of this licence.).

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 242004.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 3984.

Books
- Salter, Mike, 2002, The Castles of The Thames Valley and The Chilterns (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 79
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 387
  Lobel, Mary D. (ed), 1964, VCH Oxfordshire Vol. 8 p. 211 online transcription
  Harvey, Alfred, 1911, Castles and Walled Towns of England (London: Methuen and Co)
  Potts, W., 1907, in Page, Wm (ed), 'Ancient Earthworks' VCH Oxfordshire Vol. 2 p. 330 online transcription
  Mackenzie, J.D., 1896, Castles of England; their story and structure (New York: Macmillan) Vol. 1 p. 168 online copy
  Turner, T.H. and Parker, J.H., 1859, Some account of Domestic Architecture in England (Oxford) Vol. 3 Part 2 p. 412 online copy
  Turner, T.H. and Parker, J.H., 1853, Some account of Domestic Architecture in England (Oxford) Vol. 2 p. 268 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.)
- Maxwell Lyte, H.C. (ed), 1898, Calendar of Patent Rolls Edward III (1338-40) Vol. 4 p. 24 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.

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