Chew Court (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Chew Magna; Chute

In the civil parish of Chew Magna.
In the historic county of Somerset.
Modern Authority of Bath and North East Somerset.
1974 county of Avon.
Medieval County of Somerset.

OS Map Grid Reference: ST57776321
Latitude 51.36641° Longitude -2.60804°

Chew Court has been described as a certain Palace.

There are masonry ruins/remnants remains.

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

Description

Chew Court, originally C14/C15, is said to have been one of the country residences of the Bishop of Bath and Wells. Many windows appear to be later, C17 and C17, and several have been restored. The earliest portion is probably the gatehouse abutting the south end of the east wing, which was probably larger originally and now has modern plaintile roofs. (PastScape)

The available evidence therefore suggests that the episcopal manor house at Chew was in existence at least by the late twelfth century and continued to be used fairly regularly. It went out of favour in the mid-fourteenth century, but started to be used as episcopal accommodation again in the late fifteenth century, after which it remained popular until the manor was sold to the Duke of Somerset. (Payne)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1320739
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 198048.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) MBN10581; MBN11360.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Wikipedia entry
Books
- Emery, Anthony, 2006, Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales Vol. 3 Southern England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) p. 673
  Corcos, N., 2002, The Affinities and Antecedents of Medieval Settlement: Topographical Perspectives from three of the Somerset Hundreds (Oxford: Archaeopress (British Archaeological Reports British Series 337) p. 57-8, 63
  Thompson, M.W., 1998, Medieval bishops' houses in England and Wales (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing) p. 170
  Durham, I and Durham, M., 1991, Chew Magna and the Chew Valley (Bristol: Redcliffe Press Ltd.) p. 24
  Ramsey, F.M.R. (ed), 1995, English Episcopal Acta X, Bath and Wells 1061-1205 (Oxford: University Press) p. xxiii, xxxvii n.
  Hembry, P., 1967, The Bishops of Bath and Wells, 1540-1640 (London: The Athlone Press) p. 112-3
  Pevsner, N., 1958, Buildings of England: North Somerset and Bristol (London, Penguin) p. 159
Periodical Articles
- Strachey, E., 1869, 'On Sutton Court and Chew Magna.' Proceedings of the Somersetshire Archaeological and Natural History Society Vol. 14 p. 83-102
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- National Archives SC 6/1131/9 (Account roll of 1459 detailed in Wood, F.A., 1903, Collections for a Parochial History of Chew Magna (Bristol: Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society (Northern Branch)))
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. 429
  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. 97-104 (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.
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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.

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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