Woodstock Palaces (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Everswell; Wudestok Wodestok

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

OS Map Grid Reference: SP43921657
Latitude 51.84609° Longitude -1.36365°

Woodstock Palaces has been described as a probable Timber Castle, and also as a certain Palace.

There are no visible remains.

Description

Woodstock was a Royal Manor and there is a record of a royal building there in 1129. Aethelred II (979-1016) held council at Woodstock but it is not known if this represents a predecessor to the 1129 Palace. It continued as a Royal Palace until the latter 15th c and was used occasionally thereafter (Elizabeth I was lodged there when Mary Tudor was on the throne). The Palace eventually fell into disrepair but was "patched-up" by Vanbrugh as his own residence when he was building Blenheim Palace. It was pulled down c 1720 and its materials used in the filling of the Grand bridge and the causeway. The site is said to have been covered by mud dredged from the lake in 1896.
The Palace is associated with Rosamund Clifford (Fair Rosamund) mistress of Henry II, and by tradition the oldest part of the Palace was called Fair Rosamund's Tower and said to have been joined to the Palace proper by a drawbridge. This fits in well with the view of the palace in Plot's "Natural History of Oxfordshire" which suggests a motte and bailey. The OS siting accords with Thomas Pryce's map of Blenheim (1789). (HKW; Renn; Green; Taunt)
There is nothing at the site today except an ornamental pillar dated 1802, presumably brought from elsewhere to support a concrete tablet,dated 1961, saying that this marks the site of the Palace. (Field Investigators Comments F1 CFW 14-JAN-72)
The palace seems to have been defensible, based upon the evidence of Plot's depiction of the palace. Its relation to the Stephanic castle documented there as fortified on behalf of the Empress Matilda in 1141 is not known. (King 1983) (PastScape)

Comments

Possible site for recorded Stephanic castle, although this may have been in Woodstock Town. Renn (1973) writes 'the view in Plot suggests a motte beside the raised bailey in which the house stood. Woodstock palace was quite heavily walled. Everswell was an adjacent but separate group of buildings in the palace complex built for Rosamund Clifford in the 1170's

In 1249 the queens chamber at Woodstock was ordered to be crenellated and in 1251 John Haneberg was ordered to crenellate the queen's chapel and the kings chamber. It is difficult to see these as anything other than decorative battlements. This shows that as early as 1249 crenellations were an important decorative element.

Blenheim Palace and its grounds, including the locations of the medieval palaces, are a World Heritage site although this is for the C18 buildings and landscaping by 'Capability' Brown.

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 336666; 1392385.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) D2563; 1318.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Wikipedia entry
  Simon Pipe, 2007, Woodstock's lost royal palace BBC Oxford
Books
- Salter, Mike, 2002, The Castles of The Thames Valley and The Chilterns (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 79
  Keevill, Graham D., 2000, Medieval Palaces, An Archaeology (Stroud; Tempus) p. 14, 32, 83
  Cooper, Nicholas, 1999, Houses of the Gentry, 1480-1680 (Yale University Press) p. 110, 323
  Thurley, Simon, 1993, The Royal Palaces of Tudor England (Yale University Press) p. 2, 8, 27, 60, 67-9, 73, 74, 114, 164, 166, 170, 203
  Crossley, Alan (ed), 1990 'Blenheim: Woodstock manor' and 'Blenheim: The King's houses' VCH Oxfordshire Vol. 12 p. 431-35 online transcription online transcription
  James, T.B., 1990, The Palaces of Medieval England (London; Seaby)
  Bond, J. and Tiller, K. (eds), 1987, Blenheim: Landscape for a Palace (Oxford: Alan Sutton) p. 42-5, 55-6
  Colvin, H.M., 1986, 'Royal Gardens in Medieval England' in Elisabeth MacDougall (ed) Medieval Gardens (Washington D.C.) p. 11, 18-20
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2 p. 387, 388, 389n28
  Colvin, H.M., Ransome, D.R. and Summerson, John, 1982, The history of the King's Works Vol. 4: 1485-1660 (part 2) (London) p. 349-355, 552
  DAMHB, 1975, Archaeological Investigations in New Palace Yard 1972-74 (HMSO)
  Renn, D.F., 1973 (2 edn.), Norman Castles of Britain (London: John Baker) p. 349
  Colvin, H.M., Brown, R.Allen and Taylor, A.J., 1963, The history of the King's Works Vol. 2: the Middle Ages (London: HMSO) p. 1009-17 (plan)
  Green, D., 1951, Blenheim Palace (London: Country Life) p. 23, 31-36
  Taunt, H.W., 1909, Blenheim, Woodstock, Etc : Their Story and Some of the Scenes Around Them p. 15-24
  Marshall, E., 1875, The Early History of Woodstock (London)
  Timbs, J. and Gunn, A., 1872, Abbeys, Castles and Ancient Halls of England and Wales Vol. 2 (London) p. 427-35 online copy
  Mavor, W.F., 1789, Blenheim, a poem, to which is added a Blenheim Guide (London) online copy
  Plot, R., 1705 (2edn), The Natural History of Oxford-shire (Oxford) p. 357 online copy
Periodical Articles
- Taylor, C., 2000, 'Medieval Ornamental Landscapes' Landscapes Vol. 1 p. 38-55 (reprinted in Liddiard, Robert (ed), 2016, Late Medieval Castles (Boydell Press) p. 3375-392)
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- Potter, G.R. (ed), 1955, Gesta Stephani (Nelson) p. 91
  Maxwell Lyte, H.C. (ed), 1901, Calendar of Patent Rolls Henry III (1216-25) Vol. 1 p. 124-5 online copy
  Stamp, A.E. (ed), 1937, Calendar of Liberate Rolls Henry III (1245-1251) Vol. 3 passim online copy esp p. 244 (order to crenellate queens chamber, p. 332 (order to crenellate queen's chapel and order to crenellate kings chamber)
Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- Camden, Wm, 1607, Britannia hypertext critical edition by Dana F. Sutton (2004)
  Celia Fiennes, 1888, Through England on a Side Saddle in the Time of William and Mary (London: Field and Tuer, The Leadenhall Press) Vision of Britain online transcription

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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.

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