Burford House (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Burford.
In the historic county of Shropshire.
Modern Authority of Shropshire.
1974 county of Shropshire.
Medieval County of Shropshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SO58206797
Latitude 52.30826° Longitude -2.61428°

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

There are masonry footings remains.

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

Description

It is said that in the process (of demolishing the west wing of Burford House) remains of the former castle of the Cornwall's was found (Shropshire SMR).
Mr Treasure, the owner, indicated the stone foundations upon which the Victorian west wings of Burford House had been constructed. They were revealed when the wings were demolished in 1954, during the restoration of Burford House to its original state as built in 1726.
The foundations, (centred at SO 58206797) comprise large, squared blocks of sandstone, which extend westwards for 7.5m from outside the north west and south west corners of the house, then turning to run north-south for 19.0m. They represent the west end wall, and parts of the north and south side walls of an earlier building.
The foundations are from 0.2m to 0.6m in height, but incorporate a chimney stack in the west wall, which rises to 2.8m in height. 19th century brick walls stand upon the foundations to 2.0m in height.
According to Mr Treasure, the stone walling rises behind the brickwork on the interior, and incorporates some vertical half timbering, but this is all plastered over.
The Cornwalls are known to have lived here from the 14th century to 1721.
The foundations now exposed are probably of a manor-house, perhaps fortified, but not a castle as such (F1 ASP 18-MAR-80). (PastScape)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1383418
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 110804.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 01973.

Books
- Salter, Mike, 2001 (2edn), The Castles and Moated Mansions of Shropshire (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 29
  Emery, Anthony, 2000, Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales Vol. 2 East Anglia, Central England and Wales (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) p. 525
  Jackson, M.J.,1988, Castles of Shropshire (Shrewsbury: Shropshire Libraries) p. 10
  Pevsner, N., 1958, Buildings of England: Shropshire (London, Penguin) p. 92
  Eyton, R.W., 1857, Antiquities of Shropshire (London: John Russell Smith) Vol. 4 p. 301- (tenurial history) online copy
Periodical Articles
- Levien, E., 1868, 'On the barony of Burford' Journal of the British Archaeological Association Vol. 24 p. 136-150 online copy
Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- Chandler, John, 1993, John Leland's Itinerary: travels in Tudor England (Sutton Publishing) p. 387
  Toulmin-Smith, Lucy (ed), 1910, The itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535-1543 (London: Bell and Sons) Vol. 5 p. 74 online copy
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Dalwood, H. and Bryant, V. (eds), 2005, The Central Marches Historic Towns Survey 1992-6 Download 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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