Doddington Bishops Palace (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Manor House Moat

In the civil parish of Doddington.
In the historic county of Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely.
Modern Authority of Cambridgeshire.
1974 county of Cambridgeshire.
Medieval County of Cambridgeshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: TL40749061
Latitude 52.49624° Longitude 0.07216°

Doddington Bishops Palace has been described as a probable Palace.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

Buried and earthwork remains of a moated manor house documented during late C13. The buildings in existence in 1356 included the house and a chapel. The site was converted into a farm by C19. All the present buildings date to C19 and C20. The moated island now measures up to 104m by 106m, surrounded by a moat ranging from 6m to 12m in width. The arms have been greatly recut and shaped in recent years, and about 20m length of the west arm had been filled in. The original entrance was probably central to the west arm. (PastScape)

Doddington was one of the Bishop's principal residences ...survey made for Bishop de Fontibus (1221) ... Like most ecclesiastical manors it passed through a period of depression in the C14. The decline in prosperity seems to have set in about 1300. A survey of 1356 shows some recovery. The manor house itself consisted of a hall, principal chamber, cloister (claustera), pantry, buttery and other chamber. Enclosed within the same encircling wall were a kitchen, brewhouse, chapel, a lodging for the Knights and Esquires, dovehouse, granary and stables. In the wall was a gatehouse. All these buildings were in good repair. The rest of the manorial buildings however, which consisted of a grange, ox-house, two windmills, (one dating from 1300), a newly erected grindery, the park wall, and the vaccary at Stonea, were all more or less ruinous. As in the other manors where the Bishop had an actual residence, the customary tenants of Doddington had the duty of ferrying him to his next manor. ... In the later Middle Ages, the bishops ceased to use the manor house as an official residence. In 1493, Bishop Alcock leased it. ... In the second half of the C16 the... bishop was allowed to Keep Doddington palace ... but the manor was finally alienated c 1600. The manor house had ceased to be used as such before 1808 and was converted into a farm, but the Courts Leet and Baron were still being held there in 1827. .... Letters Patent were dated at Benwick in 1314, presumably when Bishop Ketene was entertaining Edward II at Doddington Palace. (VCH 1953)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1019547, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 33272
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 372488.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 01063.

Books
- Emery, Anthony, 2000, Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales Vol. 2 East Anglia, Central England and Wales (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) p. 154
  Thompson, M.W., 1998, Medieval bishops' houses in England and Wales (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing) p. 176
  Pugh, R.B. (ed), 1953, 'North Witchford Hundred: Doddington' VCH Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely Vol. 4 p. 110-112 online transcription
  Phillips, 1948, in Salzman, L.F. (ed), VCH Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely Vol. 2 p. 28
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)
  English Heritage, 2001. Scheduling record: Scheduled Monument - 2001.

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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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