Botyngton (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Bodington; Boddington

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

OS Map Grid Reference: SO89522565
Latitude 51.92882° Longitude -2.15410°

Botyngton has been described as a probable Fortified Manor House.

There are no visible remains.

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

Description

BOTYNGTON, or BODINGTON, is described by Leland as "a faire maner place and a parke ; it came to one Rede, servant to the Lorde Beauchampe, that married his lord's daughter, the eldest of 3, and the Redes have it still." A licence to crenellate his mansion here was granted in the 8th Edward III. to " Johannes de Bures et Hawisia uxor ejus." The house appears to have been rebuilt since that time, but is still ancient, and surrounded by a moat. (Turner and Parker 1859)

John de Bures and Hawise were living at Boddington in 1334, when they had licence to crenellate their house there. (CPR) It may have been they who built the house called a 'fair manor place' in the 16th century, (Leland) and later described as belonging to 'the first style of building after castles were no longer necessary'. (Brayley and Britton) In 1652 the house consisted of a hall, parlour, and offices, with rooms over, built of stone and covered with stone tiles. It occupied a moated site of 2 a. (Glos. R.O., D 2025 (Blagdon), survey of Boddington manor, 1652). (VCH)

The site of an ancient monastery (Listed Building Report 1948), mentioned by Leland as "a fair manor place and park" (Leland). Relics have been found in the moat (TBGAS) of its occupation by Parliamentary forces in the Civil War, when it withstood a Royalist attack (Cox 1949). The present house is 19th.century (Listed Building Report 1948), and little now remains of the moat (Cardew 1898).
The published remains of the "moat" consist of a single slight depression which is extremely unlikely ever to have been a true moat and is probably an ornamental feature. Proof copies of VCH Glos make no mention of either a monastery or a moat here, though the manor belonged to Deerhurst Priory and later, when the Priory was alienated, to Tewkesbury Abbey (RCHM Recorder ANK 04-JUN-1969). (PastScape)

A Royal licence to crenellate was granted in 1334 Oct 22 (Click on the date for details of this licence.).

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1172299
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 115635.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 4336.

Books
- Emery, Anthony, 2006, Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales Vol. 3 Southern England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) p. 132, 211
  Elrington, CR (ed), 1968, VCH Gloucestershire Vol. 8 p. 190 online transcription
  Cox, J.C., 1949, Gloucestershire: Little Guide (London: Methuen & Co) p. 57
  Turner, T.H. and Parker, J.H., 1859, Some account of Domestic Architecture in England (Oxford) Vol. 3 Part 2 p. 258, 410 online copy
  Brayley, E. and Britton, J., 1803, Beauties of England and Wales Vol. 5 p. 704 online copy
Periodical Articles
- Rawes, B., 1978, 'A Preliminary Check List of Moated Sites in Gloucestershire' Glevensis Vol. 12 p. 35 online copy
  Cardew, G.A., 1898, 'The moats or waterforts of the Vale of the Severn' Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society Vol. 21 p. 63 online copy
  1889-90, Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society Vol. 14 p. 204 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), 1895, Calendar of Patent Rolls Edward III (1334-38) Vol. 3 p. 330 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. 191
  Toulmin-Smith, Lucy (ed), 1909, The itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535-1543 (London: Bell and Sons) Vol. 4 p. 133 online copy

Most of the sites or buildings recorded in this web site are NOT open to the public and permission to visit a site must always be sought from the landowner or tenant.
It is an offence to disturb a Scheduled Monument without consent. It is a destruction of everyone's heritage to remove archaeological evidence from ANY site without proper recording and reporting.
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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.

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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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