Aldingbourne Bishops Palace (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;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

In the civil parish of Aldingbourne.
In the historic county of Sussex.
Modern Authority of West Sussex.
1974 county of West Sussex.
Medieval County of Sussex (Rape of Chichester).

OS Map Grid Reference: SU922050
Latitude 50.83497° Longitude -0.68869°

Aldingbourne Bishops Palace has been described as a certain Palace.

There are earthwork remains.

Description

From early times Aldingbourne was one of the chief seats of the Bishop of Chichester, who had there a 'palace' or manor-house and a large demesne farm. By 1606 the place was in decay although when the manor was sold in 1648 it included the manor house and chapel. No buildings now remain and although the site of the 'palace' is uncertain, early maps agree with modern tradition in placing it adjoining Tote Copse, a castle mound.
A park attached to the manor is noted in 1225 and mention is made of its paling in the same century. Most of the large timber had been felled before the mid-17th c and the whole was disparked about that time. (PastScape–ref. VCH)

A Royal licence to crenellate was granted in 1447 Oct 28 (Click on the date for details of this licence.).

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 249257.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) MWS2362.

Books
- Emery, Anthony, 2006, Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales Vol. 3 Southern England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) p. 440
  Jones, R., 2003, 'Hastings to Herstmonceux: the castles of Sussex' in Rudling, D. (ed) The archaeology of Sussex to AD2000 (Great Dunham: Heritage Marketing and Publications) p. 171-8
  Salter, Mike, 2000, The Castles of Sussex (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 14 (confused with Tote Copse)
  Thompson, M.W., 1998, Medieval bishops' houses in England and Wales (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing) p. 168, 173
  Salzman, L.F. (ed), 1953, VCH Sussex Vol. 4 p. 134 online transcription
  Elwes, Dudley George Cary, 1876, A history of the Castles, Mansions, and Manors of Western Sussex (London: Longmans) p. 4-5 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), 1927, Calendar of Charter Rolls 5 Henry VI - 8 Henry VIII, AD 1427-1516, with an appendix, 1215-1288 Vol. 6. (HMSO) p. 94-5 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) Appendix B: List of Medieval Bishop's Palaces in England and Wales (available via EThOS)

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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.
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