Camel Manor (The Gatehouse Record)

Description

Manor house mentioned (HKW).
Marginal site, but many be connected with the moat in Coages Park (Verbal communication - Dennison, E Somerset County Council 07.01.85).
Moat is very small, the island being an uneven platform about 15m NW-SE and 20m SW-NE. The ditch which survives on the NW-NE and SE is about 4m wide and 30cm deep with rounded angles. There is no trace of any causeway across the ditch. There is an outer bank around the NW and NE sides and a probable fishpond about 50cm deep extending for c20m NE away from the NE arm, separated from it by a small dam (Site visit report - Burrow, I (30.11.1979)).
The moated site is very well preserved. A building is shown on the 1573 map (SRO DD/M1) and it was probably a hunting lodge for Coages Park (Correspondence - Aston, M to Mr Turner, Camel Hill Farm).
The moat and associated earthworks were surveyed. The platform was found to be 18m E-W and 20m N-S althougth the S side is now part of a modern boundary and unclear. Several boundaries and a possible fishpond were identified, surviving as shallow earthworks. The site is likely to have been a hunting lodge which became redundant when the park was enclosed (Turner).
The site has been ploughed twice in the last two years and the earthworks are very degraded although still visible. The farmer is keen to remove the field from arable cultivation (Chris Webster (24/2/1999)). (Somerset HER)

Queen Camel. Moat in Coage's Park. ST 590264 (MSRGR 1978).
Small moat-like feature at ST 59052637. (APs (OS 71 125 146-7)).
APs in low sunlight have revealed a ditched earthwork enclosure which is probably the moated lodge of Coage's Park, known to have been in this area in the C 16 (PSAHNS 1978)
A prominent wide park pale bank has been noted to the north of this site, which appears to be located in the centre of the park. Field investigation confirmed the existence of a small rectangular moated site with a possible fishpond on the north side. The SW arm of the moat has been damaged by a rhyne. (PSAHNS 1980)

In 1229 the king ordered a hall and chamber to be built at Camel and granted timber for work on his house, which cost over £163. In 1400 the house was said to contain only salt fish, old armour, and weapons of little value and not the luxury goods worth £1,000 from a ship at Rooksmill as claimed. In 1508—9 only a grange, dovecot, and bartons were recorded, the main demesne house was Hazlegrove farm, and the old house, described in the 18th century as having been a palace called the Court, had probably been demolished. Court Close, adjoining the churchyard and with no buildings c.1610 and Pigeon House Mead may be the site of the manor house and dovecot. Foundations of a house were said to have been found but there is no evidence to support Gerard's statement that there was a park there. Culverhay, with dovecot and a house built c.1593 was last recorded in 1652 but in 1841 a cottage near the mill was called Pigeon House. (VCH draft)

Comments

Royal residential manor at time of Henry III. Surrendered by Hubert de Burgh to Henry III in 1228, who then spent £163 13s 2d on building a residential hall before returning the manor to Hubert five years later. This is tentatively linked to the small moat in Coages Park (at map ref given) which is described as a hunting lodge.

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 196335.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 54436; 54435.

Books
- Siraut, M.C. (ed), VCH Somerset Vol. 11 (tenurial history) online draft copy
  James, T.B., 1990, The Palaces of Medieval England p. 66 (shown on map, no descriptive text)
  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. 907
Periodical Articles
- Burrow, I., Minnitt, S. and Murless, B., 1980, Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society Vol. 124 p. 126
  1978, Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society Vol. 122 p. 133
  1978, Moated Sites Research Group report No. 5 p. 16
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- 1916, Calendar of Liberate Rolls Henry III (1226-1240) Vol. 1 p. 130
  Maxwell Lyte, H.C. (ed), 1909, Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, Edward II Vol. 7 p. 231, 233 online copy
  Maxwell Lyte, H.C. (ed), 1902, Calendar of Close Rolls Henry III (1227-31) Vol. 1 p. 179, 218 online copy
  1968 Calendar of Inquisitions Miscellaneous (Chancery), preserved in the Public Record Office (H.M.S.O.) Vol. 7 p. 61
  2003, Calendar of Inquisitions Miscellaneous (Chancery), preserved in the Public Record Office (Woodbridge : Boydell) Vol. 8 p. 77
  Robinson, C. (ed.), 1927, The Great Roll of the Pipe for the fourteenth year of the reign of King Henry the Third, Michaelmas 1230 (Pipe Roll 74) (Pipe Roll Society Publications 42) p. 37
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Turner, B., 1995, A deserted medieval landscape at Queen Camel, Somerset (unpubl University of Manchester dissertation)

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