Brill Hunting Lodge (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Brehull

In the civil parish of Brill.
In the historic county of Buckinghamshire.
Modern Authority of Buckinghamshire.
1974 county of Buckinghamshire.
Medieval County of Buckinghamshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SP656139
Latitude 51.81992° Longitude -1.04935°

Brill Hunting Lodge has been described as a probable Timber Castle, and also as a certain Palace.

There are cropmark/slight earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

Earthwork comprising bank and ditch lie north of the church. A hunting lodge which Edward the Confessor had at Brill and which remained in royal hands until 1337 has been suggested, and pottery identified as Iron Age or Saxon has been found. Alternatively a Civil War date for the earthwork has been suggested. "The manor was part of the ancient demesnes of the crown, and it is said with much apparent probability, that the Saxon kings had a palace here, which was a favourite residence of King Edward the confessor. It is certain that our monarchs had a palace at Brill for some time after the conquest: King Henry II. kept his court there in 1160, attended by Thomas a Becket as his chancellor; he was there again with his court in 1162. King John, in 1203, gave the manor of Brill to his chaplain, Walter Borstard, appointing him keeper of the royal palace there. Recorded as a royal hunting lodge in 1217. King Henry III. kept his court at Brill in 1224: Hugh de Neville had livery of the manor in 1226. In 1233, Brill appears to have been the property of Richard, Earl of Cornwall, for we are told by Matthew Paris, that his lands and houses there were at that time laid waste by Richard Sward and other exiles (Mat. Paris, p. 332). In 1346, the manor of Brill was granted to Sir John Molins" (Lyson and Lyson)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1006925, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number bu143
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 340949.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 0231000000; 0010600000.

Books
- Bateson, F.W., 1966, Brill, A Short History p. 11-12
  Colvin, H.M., Brown, R.Allen and Taylor, A.J., 1963, The history of the King's Works Vol. 2: the Middle Ages (London: HMSO) p. 902-3
  Page, Wm (ed), 1927, VCH Buckinghamshire Vol. 4 p. 18 online transcription
  RCHME, 1912, An inventory of the historical monuments in Buckinghamshire Vol. 1 (south) p. 67 online copy
  Sheahan, J.J., 1862, History of Buckinghamshire (London) p. 339-40 online copy
  Lipscomb, G., 1847, History and Antiquities of Buckinghamshire Vol. 1 p. 96-100, 104, 108
  Lysons S. and Lysons D.,1806, Magna Britannia Vol. 1 p. 522-3 online copy
Periodical Articles
- Farley, Michael, 1989, 'An Iron Age Hillfort at Brill?' Records of Buckinghamshire Vol. 31 p. 27-32
  Fowler, G.H., 1926, 'Extents of the the Royal Manors of Aylesbury and Brill' Records of Buckinghamshire Vol. 11 p. 401-5 online copy
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- Luard, H.R. (ed), 1876, Matthæi Parisiensis: Monachi Santi Albani, Chronica Majora Vol. 3 p. 264 online copy
  Maxwell Lyte, H.C. (ed), 1901, Calendar of Patent Rolls Henry III (1216-25) Vol. 1 p. 124-5 online copy

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.
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