Biggleswade Bishops Manor (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
New Inn

In the civil parish of Biggleswade.
In the historic county of Bedfordshire.
Modern Authority of Bedfordshire.
1974 county of Bedfordshire.
Medieval County of Bedfordshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: TL187446
Latitude 52.08640° Longitude -0.26668°

Biggleswade Bishops Manor has been described as a probable Palace.

There are no visible remains.

Description

Henry I had granted the manor of Biggleswade to Bishop Alexander in 1132, and later in this century the Bishops of Lincoln acquired further property, a manse with buildings and land in about 1250 and a messuage with buildings and meadowland called 'Le parc' in 1262. King John had granted the bishops a market at Biggleswade. (A 'Lincolnshire Archivist' quoted in www.biggleswadehistory.org.uk/bishopspalace.htm)

It has been conjectured that the Bishops of Lincoln had a palace in the vicinity of the church. This is largely based on the existence of the fieldname “palace ground” on the 1838 Tithe Map (BLARS MAT 5/1). Although there are several references to the Bishops of Lincoln visiting Biggleswade there is no record of a palace. Hill suggests that Palace Street, located some distance to the south-east is a corruption of the Old English plaish, meaning marshy place (Hill 1992). This could also explain the palace ground field-name adjacent to the river. (Extensive Urban Survey)

Sources of information, references and further reading

County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 13953.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Biggleswade History Society
Books
- Thompson, M.W., 1998, Medieval bishops' houses in England and Wales (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing) p. 178
Periodical Articles
- Dawson, M., Robinson, M. and Coleman, S.,1994, 'Biggleswade West' Bedfordshire Archaeology Vol. 21 p. 119-36
  Hill, D., 1992, 'Palace Street - Some Problems and Possibilities about its origin' Biggleswade History Society Newsletter 90
  Page, K., 1992, 'The Bishop's Palace' Biggleswade History Society Newsletter 88
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Albion Archaeology, 2003 (edited January 2005), Extensive Urban Survey - Bedfordshire and Luton (Bedfordshire County Council and English Heritage) Download copy
  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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