Fladbury Bishops Manor (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Fladbury.
In the historic county of Worcestershire.
Modern Authority of Worcestershire.
1974 county of Hereford and Worcester.
Medieval County of Worcestershire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SO995463
Latitude 52.11503° Longitude -2.00871°

Fladbury Bishops Manor has been described as a Palace although is doubtful that it was such.

There are no visible remains.

Description

At least ten vills comprised the manor of Fladbury, Worcestershire, a manor of the bishop of Worcester. A minster founded here had probably failed some time before the Conquest and the bishopric had absorbed its lands, as it had so many others. The distribution of its hidage shows that there had once been a traditional inland at Fladbury itself, the site of the minster. Around 1170 this was a typical curial centre (there was a hall there in 1299), the home of permanent estate officials like the beadle and some 'radman', of inland workers, Famuli, bovarii and cottages, and of fifteen customary tenants with yardlands, half-yardlands and 'Mondaylands', owing week-work (and providing beer). (Faith 1997)

The see of Worcester continued to hold the manor until the date of the Domesday Survey, when it paid geld for 40 hides. In the 12th century the bishop still held these 40 hides at Fladbury. Richard I freed 13 acres from essartum, and King John confirmed this grant. On 15 March 1214 he gave leave to the bishop to plough up 29 acres of his wood. In 1254 the bishop received a grant of free warren at Fladbury. The manor was confirmed to the church by Pope Gregory in 1275, and in 1291 was worth £29 6s. a year. It remained in the possession of successive Bishops of Worcester, and was in 1535 worth £53 1s. 2d. yearly. (VCH 1913)

Comments

Thompson includes this in a list of residential manors of the Bishop of Worcester. Clearly a manor of the bishopric but where is the evidence it was used residentially by the bishop? The Worcestershire and Worcester City HER seem to place the possible location as west of the parish church, in an area that looks like an infilled village green so a location north of the parish church (now occupied by an extended graveyard) may be more likely.

Sources of information, references and further reading

County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) WSM07820.

Books
- Thompson, M.W., 1998, Medieval bishops' houses in England and Wales (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing) p. 187
  Faith, R., 1997, The English peasantry and the growth of lordship (Leicester University Press) p. 240
  Dyer, C., 1980, Lords and Peasants in a Changing Society: The Estates of the Bishopric of Worcester, 680-1540 (Cambridge University Press) p. 30
  Page, Wm and Willis-Bund, J.W. (eds), 1913, VCH Worcestershire Vol. 3 p. 352-4 online transcription
Periodical Articles
- Bond, C.J.. 1975, 'Two Recent Saxon Discoveries in Fladbury' Vale Evesham Historical Society Research Papers Vol 5 p. 19
  Peacock, D.P.S., December 196?, 'Fladbury' Current Archaeology Vol. 5 p. 123-4
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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