Northwick in Blockley manor of the bishop of Worcester (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;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

In the civil parish of Blockley.
In the historic county of Worcestershire.
Modern Authority of Gloucestershire.
1974 county of Gloucestershire.
Medieval County of Worcestershire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SP16483489
Latitude 52.01224° Longitude -1.76125°

Northwick in Blockley manor of the bishop of Worcester has been described as a certain Palace.

There are no visible remains.

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

Description

Immediately south of the Church. Site of the mediaeval summer palace of the Bishops of Worcester. Rebuilt before 1539 and remodelled in C18. Irregular, 2 storeys and attics; built in coursed rubble with stone tile roofs; coped verges; numerous chimneys. 3:1:2:1:2 windows - central 2 windows flanked by gabled projections, 2 windows deep. Mostly glazing bar sash windows, right hand gable with mullioned windows. Tudor arch doorway with carved spandrels in link section between gables; another to right of right hand gable, 6 panelled in a cast-iron porch. (Listed Building Report)

Burhred, King of the Mercians, granted a monastery at Blockley in 855 to Aelhun, Bishop of Worcester, who paid 300 solidi of silver for it. Liberties of an archaic kind were granted with the estate to the bishop. This gift was confirmed in the grant of the hundred of Oswaldslow to the church of Worcester made by the so-called charter of King Edgar.
At the time of the Domesday Survey the Bishop of Worcester held 38 hides belonging to the manor of BLOCKLEY, including 1 hide at Iccomb which was appropriated to the support of the monks. During the early part of the 12th century Ditchford, which had been held in 1086 by Richard, was added to the bishop's demesne together with 1 hides of land which had previously belonged to Ansgot.
The woodland belonging to the manor of Blockley was described at the time of the Domesday Survey as 'half a league in length and in width,' but the date of its inclosure as a PARK is uncertain. Walter Cantilupe, Bishop of Worcester, obtained a grant of free warren in Blockley from Henry III in 1248, and this grant was afterwards confirmed and extended. His successor, Godfrey Giffard, who cared as little as Chaucer's monk for 'the text . . . that seyth that hunters ben nat hooly men,' seems to have been the first to stock the park with deer. In 1277 he obtained for that purpose a gift from Edward I of twenty bucks and does from the neighbouring forest of Wychwood. There is more than one reference to the deer kept in this park during the next three centuries, but after the Reformation the stock seems to have been allowed to decline (VCH 1913)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1153475
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 330692.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 2740; 2734 (possible deerpark).

Books
- Emery, Anthony, 2000, Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales Vol. 2 East Anglia, Central England and Wales (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) p. 466
  Thompson, M.W., 1998, Medieval bishops' houses in England and Wales (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing) p. 187
  Dyer, C., 1980, Lords and Peasants in a Changing Society: The Estates of the Bishopric of Worcester, 680-1540 (Cambridge University Press)
  Page, Wm and Willis-Bund, J.W. (eds), 1913, VCH Worcestershire Vol. 3 p. 266-7, 270 online transcription
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 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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*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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