Upton Court, Upton Bishop (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Upton Bishop.
In the historic county of Herefordshire.
Modern Authority of Herefordshire.
1974 county of Hereford and Worcester.
Medieval County of Herefordshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SO65782815
Latitude 51.95090° Longitude -2.49928°

Upton Court, Upton Bishop has been described as a Palace although is doubtful that it was such.

There are masonry ruins/remnants remains.

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

Description

Thompson lists as residential manor of medieval bishop of Hereford. However, Tonkin states that this was a manor of the bishop of Hereford, but that there were no associated residences.

C14 core, largely remodelled during late C16, further C17 alterations, further remodelling during late C18 and early C19, C20 alterations. Timber-framed core largely refaced and replaced with sand- stone rubble, C20 tiled roof. Hall range aligned north-east/south-west with-late C16 cross-wing to south-west end. Through-passage now obscured by later alterations, gable-end stack to hall; lateral stack to cross-wing. C20 additions to rear parallel with hall range and further minor additions to south-east front. Two storeys; south-east front: gable end of cross- wing to left with 4-light and transomed C19 casement window, three 2-light casement windows to hall range to right, C20 porch and door to left of centre, enlarged C20 window and C20 French casement to right; single storey later addition further to right. A 4-light stone mullioned window survives to south-west return of cross-wing and fragmentary herringbone framing survives in gable end to rear of cross-wing. Interior: largely altered during C20 but retaining five-bay smoke-blackened roof of C14 hall range; collar and tie-beam trusses with moulded ridge and principals cusped above collar level. Trusses appear to have been altered at a later date with the addition of swept braces to collar-beam. One truss retains a section of cusping below the collar. The C14 block seems to have extended further to the south. Listed II-star for the importance of its roof structure. The panelling in the south-west room mentioned by RCHME has been removed. (Listed Building Report)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1166877
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 111840.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 6633.

Books
- Thompson, M.W., 1998, Medieval bishops' houses in England and Wales (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing) p. 178
  RCHME, 1932, An inventory of the historical monuments in Herefordshire Vol. 2: east p. 194 no. 3 online transcription
  Robinson, Rev. C. J., 1872, A History of the Mansions and Manors of Herefordshire
Periodical Articles
- Tonkin, J.W., 1976, 'The palaces of the bishop of Hereford' Transactions of the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club Vol. 42.1 p. 53-64
  Ford, R.A., 1938, 'Upton Court in the Parish of Upton Bishop, Herefordshire' Transactions of the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club p. 167-170
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.

*The listed building may not be the actual medieval building, but a building on the site of, or incorporating fragments of, the described site.

Data >	PastScape	County HER		Listing	I. O. E.
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