Langton Herring manor

Description

Licence to crenellate granted to Walterus Heryng de Wynterbourn, in 1336, from his 'mansum' at Langeton Heryng.

The manor is probably one of the two "Langetone" manors described in Domesday, when it was crown property. It came to the Sarmunville's and in Henry III's time the family of Harang had an interest here. It is certain that the Harang's eventually became possessed of the manor, and Raymond Harang was lord of the manor in 1314 and 1320. 10ED. III Sir Walter obtained (licence) to fortify his mansions at Langton and Winterborne. After 18 Rich. II the manor passed to other families, the Feliozs of Woodlands in the 15th century and the Willoughbys of Warwick in the 16th century and later became the property of the Duke of Cornwall. Near the church is an area called Kirk or Court Close. The unevenness of the ground indicates former buildings. Quite recently a playground for the school was made about here, and in removing the soil various sized stones about 3ft long, one of which was squared, were found. This area may be the site of the mansion house. There are also traces of fishponds (Sparks).
The field immediately south of the school is known as Court Close. Much stone rubble lies beneath the surface of the gardens which now occupy the north east and east sides of the field. The field is grass covered, but along the east side houses have recently been erected, and in some cases high dry stone walls have been built about them from the rubble turned up in the gardens. Inside the south wall of the field, and parallel to it, is a bivallate grass trackway 5.0m wide with its banks averaging 0.5m high. This trackway fades at the west end. The field is divided by small north to south banks forming enclosures, and on the east side there two banked platforms. No fishponds are visible. The area is one of apparent depopulation, presumably of Medieval origin, but only from the name of the field, the close proximity of the church and the large stones found in the last century can it be deduced that a manor house may have occupied the north east of the field (Field Investigators Comments-F1 NVQ 19-APR-55).
In the field centred at SY 614824 there remains only a few vague and unsurveyable scarps. The owner of the field and former farmer in the general area remembers its former condition, but he ploughed it a number of times and altered its northern boundary. He is aware of its significance, but felt the Manor House proper must have been in the vicinity of the Old Schoolhouse, ie on the lower (N) side of the field. Apart from much stone, no finds of any import have been made (F2 JGB 24-APR-80). (PastScape)

Comments

Clearly Herring (aka Harang), a local knight, had a house here probably with fish ponds and other high status features such as crenellations but probably not much in the way of fortifications. The house doesn't seem to have been moated but it did have some stone built parts. The manor probably dated back to pre-Conquest times. The site is now built upon.