Wychemere manor (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Bear's Rails

In the civil parish of Old Windsor.
In the historic county of Berkshire.
Modern Authority of Windsor & Maidenhead.
1974 county of Berkshire.
Medieval County of Berkshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SU97347385
Latitude 51.45529° Longitude -0.60014°

Wychemere manor has been described as a certain Palace.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.

Description

Moated Medieval site in Windsor Great Park comprising a waterfilled inner moat surrounded by a shallow dry ditch. Excavations have located a house which has been identified as the Royal manor of Wychemere, which was documented in 1359-1395. The moats are visible as earthworks on aerial photographs. The inner moat encloses an area measuring 90m by 85m and the outer moat encloses an area measuring 140m by 120m. The excavations in 1919-20 were carried out by Captain A. Vaughan Williams in the belief that it was the palace of Edward the Confessor. (PastScape)

The manor of Wychmere was acquired by Edward III in 1359 and added to the park of Windsor castle, and nearly £400 was spent on enclosing the new park of Windsor called Wychmere. The manor house became a member of the ring of residences and lodges surrounding the castle. In 1364 a hall, chamber, wardrobe, gatehouse, and granary were documented there, and a lttle later, a barn and chapel from the manor of New Windsor were transported there. In 1395, Richard II ordered its demolition, the materials being used to repair the Windsor manor house. (PastScape–ref. HKW)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1013168, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 12017
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 251400.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 00228.00.000.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- David Nash Ford's Historic Buildings of Berkshire
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. 1020-21
  Harwood, T.E., 1929, Windsor Old and New (London; Printed for the author) p. 170-1, 293-5
Periodical Articles
- 1920-1, Berkshire Archaeological Journal Vol. 26 p. 11, 13 (note) online copy
  1920, Journal of the British Archaeological Association Vol. 26 p. 208-9 (note)
  1919, Journal of the British Archaeological Association Vol. 25 p. 275-7 (note)
  1918, Journal of the British Archaeological Association Vol. 24 p. 267-8 (note)
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Kupferman, E., 1986, The Moated Sites of East Berkshire p. 119-20

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.

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