Cuddenbreak Manor, St Germans (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Cudden Beke; Cuddenbeak

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

OS Map Grid Reference: SX361574
Latitude 50.39343° Longitude -4.30591°

Cuddenbreak Manor, St Germans has been described as a probable Palace.

There are no visible remains.

Description

The episcopal manor house of Cuddenbeak, used as a country seat by the bishops of Exeter, stood on the site of St. Germans railway goods station (named at SX 361574 on OS 6" 1891). It was occupied in 1703 later becoming a farmhouse, but ruined by Defoe's time (a). The ruins were still visible about 1868. Henderson notes that half the manor of St Germans passed to the Bishop of Exeter in 1042 under the name of 'Cuddenbeak'. (PastScape)

Leland wrote "And at this day the Bisshop of Exceter hathe a place callid Cudden Beke joyning hard upon the southeast side of the same towne"

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 436606.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 126491; 6408.01.

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
  Sheppard, P.A., 1980, The Historic Towns of Cornwall p. 53
  Elliott-Binns, L.E., 1955, Medieval Cornwall p. 302-5
  Henderson, Charles, 1925, The Cornish church guide and Parochial History of Cornwall p. 70-2
  Polsue, J., 1868, A complete parochial history of the county of Cornwall (William Lake, Truro & John Camden Hotten, London) Vol. 2 p. 53 online copy
  Defoe, Daniel (abridged and edited with an introduction and notes by Pat Rogers), 1971, A tour through the whole island of Great Britain p. 340
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. 87
  Toulmin-Smith, Lucy (ed), 1907, The itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535-1543 (London: Bell and Sons) Vol. 1 p. 325 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Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.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) 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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