Kempton Manor (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Sunbury.
In the historic county of London and Middlesex.
Modern Authority of Surrey.
1974 county of Surrey.
Medieval County of Middlesex.

OS Map Grid Reference: TQ118700
Latitude 51.41832° Longitude -0.39373°

Kempton Manor has been described as a probable Palace.

There are no visible remains.

Description

In 1228 Henry III asked Hubert de Burgh for his manor at Kempton in exchange for lands elsewhere. He constructed a new kitchen, chapel and chambers. The chapel was damaged by fire in 1236 and replaced by a new chapel. This was a two-storey timber building measuring 30 feet by 12 feet, with the Queen's chamber above. A separate chapel was built for the King's use. A smithy and bakehouse are also documented. The buildings stood within a walled courtyard entered by a timber-framed gateway. In 1244 the old gateway at Westminster was dismantled and re-erected at Kempton. A survey of 1331 shows the site to be largely ruinous. In 1374 Edward III granted the site to John of Kingston, giving him permission to demolish it and to sell the materials for his own profit. Thereafter, the only references to it in the royal accounts are to the park and the lodge which took the place of the manor house. (PastScape)

The site of the medieval manor-house may be represented by the traces of moats west and north of the present Kempton Park House. (VCH)

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 1393711.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 2447.

Books
- 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. 965-7
  1962, 'Sunbury: Manors' VCH Middlesex Vol. 3 p. 56-7 online transcription
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- C145/117 (11) (Survey of 1331) The National Archives reference (calendared in Maxwell Lyte, H.C., 1916, Calendar of Inquisitions Miscellaneous (Chancery), preserved in the Public Record Office (H.M.S.O.) Vol. 2 p. 300 No. 1220 (wrongly described as Windsor Castle) online copy)

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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.
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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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