Fareham manor of the Bishop of Winchester (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Cheney Court

In the civil parish of Fareham.
In the historic county of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.
Modern Authority of Hampshire.
1974 county of Hampshire.
Medieval County of Hampshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SU575061
Latitude 50.85217° Longitude -1.18362°

Fareham manor of the Bishop of Winchester has been described as a probable Palace.

There are no visible remains.

Description

Listed by Thompson as a residential manor of the Bishop of Winchester. Emery writes "Thick stone wall incorporated in Roche Court a mile north of Fareham." and associates this house with the Bishop's manor. However, the VCH makes it clear that this was not Bishops manor, the actual location of which is lost but was in South Fareham; either near the church (at given map reference), or a lodge in the deer park (SU550072).

Fareham Park has existed from a very early date. In 1279, a complaint of park-breaking and deer-stealing occurs and in 1477 there is a record of payment for a hedge round the park. Held by the Bishop of Winchester, the park was leased in 1541 to Sir Thom Wriothesley and continued in that family. The timber appears to have been in great demand for ship-building, and this is mentioned in 1538 together with report of the shortage of stags due to poaching (VCH).
Bounds and 'lodge' shown and described (Minns).
The bounds of Fareham Park are on the south and south-east followed by modern roads, and on the west the R Meon formed a natural boundary. Traces of the park pale were observed during field investigation. The lodge mentioned in Minns has been replaced by a modern building (F1 DS 19-AUG-55).
(SU 5531 0770 - 5542 0745) The mutilated remains of the park pale are still visible extending for approx 270 metres in a SSE direction from the SE corner of Iron Mill Coppice. The pale consists of a mutilated tree-covered bank averaging 5.0m in width and 1.2m in height with no obvious ditch(es) (F2 AC 05-SEP-55).
Nothing which can be positively identified as remains of the park pale can be found (F4 JGB 01-FEB-83). (PastScape)

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 234188.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 54111 (hunting lodge).

Books
- Emery, Anthony, 2006, Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales Vol. 3 Southern England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) p. 430-34
  Roberts, E., 2003, Hampshire Houses 1250-1700: Their Dating and Development (Winchester: Hampshire County Council)
  Thompson, M.W., 1998, Medieval bishops' houses in England and Wales (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing) p. 186
  James, T.B., 1990, The Palaces of Medieval England (London; Seaby) p. 88
  Page, Wm (ed), 1908, VCH Hampshire and the Isle of Wight Vol. 3 p. 209-16 online transcription
Periodical Articles
- Minns, G.W., 1906, Proceeding of the Hampshire Field Club and Archaeological Society Vol. 5.2 (C17 estate map)
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Dave Hopkins, 2004, Extensive Urban Survey - Hampshire and the Isle of Wight (English Heritage) Download copy
  ayne, 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