Lanner Barton (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Castellum Lanner

In the civil parish of St Allen.
In the historic county of Cornwall.
Modern Authority of Cornwall.
1974 county of Cornwall.
Medieval County of Cornwall.

OS Map Grid Reference: SW825497
Latitude 50.30701° Longitude -5.05531°

Lanner Barton has been described as a probable Palace.

There are no visible remains.

Description

Residential manor of the Bishop of Exeter.

The barton of Lanner was purchased by the Bishops of Exeter in 1269 and was frequently visited in C14 and C15 Attached to this was a chapel which was first mentioned in 1321. (PastScape)

The Bishops of Exeter purchased Cargoll Manor in 1296; their manor house was at Lanner, where they were frequent visitors in the C14 and C15. The manor house must have been substantial, and possibly fortified, for in 1478 William of Worcester referred to 'Castellum Lanner -- in Villa Laner' - although it was also said to be dilapidated. The OS map of 1891 notes that Lanner is on the site of a barton. Warner notes William of Worcester's reference, but questions whether Worcester was in fact referring to a prehistoric earthwork - either 25192 or 25196. A chapel of St Martin at the Bishop of Exeter's manor house at Lanner is mentioned in 1314, 1317 and 1321 (see 25195.1, but it is uncertain where this chapel was located. (Cornwall & Scilly HER)

The Bishops of Exeter had, at an early period, a castle here, which William of Worcester speaks of as dilapidated in the reign of Edward IV. (Lysons)

Comments

1km south of parish church in area of dispersed settlement and associated with a deer park. Seems to be a country retreat and hunting lodge. Gatehouse also suspects that the 'castle' mentioned by William Worcester was a prehistoric earthwork with no medieval use. (A hunting lodge requires good supplies of water, mainly for the horses. Lanner Barton is on the spring line but both Prehistoric earthworks suggested in the Cornish HER are slightly above the spring line.)

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 428742.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 25195; 25195.1.

Books
- Emery, Anthony, 2006, Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales Vol. 3 Southern England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) p. 549-51
  Thompson, M.W., 1998, Medieval bishops' houses in England and Wales (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing) p. 177
  Elliott-Binns, L.E., 1955, Medieval Cornwall p. 302-5
  Polsue, J., 1867, A complete parochial history of the county of Cornwall (William Lake, Truro & John Camden Hotten, London) Vol. 1 p. 14 online copy
  Lysons, D. and S., 1814, Magna Britannia Vol. 3 Cornwall p. 12 online transcription
Periodical Articles
- Warner, R., 1964, 'St Allen Checklist' Cornish Archaeology Hendhyscans Kernow Vol. 3 p. 98 online copy
  Henderson, C., 1953-6, 'Ecclesiastical History' Journal of the Royal Institution of Cornwall Vol. 2 p. 12
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- Harvey, John (ed), 1969, Itineraries of William Worcestre (Oxford : Clarendon Press)
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)

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.
Don't use metal detectors on historic sites without authorisation.

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.

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.

Data >	PastScape	County HER
Maps >	Streetmap	NLS maps	Where's the path	Old-Maps
Data/Maps >	Magic	V. O. B.	Geology	LiDAR	Open Domesday
Air Photos >	Bing Maps	Google Maps	Getmapping	ZoomEarth
Photos >	CastleFacts	Geograph	Flickr	Panoramio