Evercreech bishops palace and hunting lodge (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Evercreech.
In the historic county of Somerset.
Modern Authority of Somerset.
1974 county of Somerset.
Medieval County of Somerset.

OS Map Grid Reference: ST633375
Latitude 51.13533° Longitude -2.52739°

Evercreech bishops palace and hunting lodge has been described as a probable Palace.

There are no visible remains.

Description

The Bishops of Bath and Wells held the manor of Evercreech from at least C11 to 1548 when it was sold. Judging by the documentary evidence there was a manor house at Evercreech from C14 and later evidence refers to several buildings with a chapel. Leland describes the site in 1545 as "demolished completely" by the previous bishop (Clerk). The location is problematic. Leland's description of the building in Evercreech and comparision with other sites would suggest a location by the church (ST650387) but Collinson states that it lay in Evercreech Park near to the later house (at given map ref). In the village is an area known as "Priors Hill" which may be the site but is associated with a hospital. (Somerset HER–ref. Payne, 1999)

Comments

The history given in Payne does mention several episodes of new building and it may be that during one of these the house moved from a position in the village to a position in the park. Payne suggests Evercreech Park was a hunting lodge, ancillary to the palace in the village, at least in origin, but may have been enlarged enough to become the palace in the C14. It is possible the older palace was retained, at least for a while, as ancillary accommodation.
See Payne (2003) for a full discussion and possible locations of palace in village.

Sources of information, references and further reading

County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 35966; 35967.

Books
- Emery, Anthony, 2006, Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales Vol. 3 Southern England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) p. 673
  Thompson, M.W., 1998, Medieval bishops' houses in England and Wales (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing) p. 170
  Bond, J., 1998, Somerset Parks.and Gardens, A Landscape History (Tiverton: Somerset Books) p. 30
  Thorn, C. and Thorn, F., 1980, Domesday Book 8 Somerset (Chichester: Phillimore) p. 6
  Hembry, P., 1967, The Bishops of Bath and Wells, 1540-1640 (London: The Athlone Press) p. 112-3
  Collinson, J., 1791, The History and Antiquities of the County of Somerset (Bath) Vol. 3 p. 414 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. 415
  Toulmin-Smith, Lucy (ed), 1907, The itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535-1543 (London: Bell and Sons) Vol. 1 p. 294 online copy
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Payne, Naomi, 2003, The medieval residences of the bishops of Bath and Wells, and Salisbury (PhD Thesis University of Bristol) p. 111-125 (available via EThOS)
  Payne, N., 1999, The residences of the medieval Bishops of Bath and Wells (unpubl MA dissertation, Bristol)

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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.

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.

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