Maidstone House of Walter Maydenstan (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Maidstone.
In the historic county of Kent.
Modern Authority of Kent.
1974 county of Kent.
Medieval County of Kent.

OS Map Grid Reference: TQ76025571
Latitude 51.27341° Longitude 0.52221°

Maidstone House of Walter Maydenstan has been described as a probable Fortified Town House.

There are no visible remains.

Comments

Gatehouse is unable to identify or locate this house, although it was different from the Shoford manor in Maidstone parish granted a licence in 1382. Hasted mentions Walter and the licence but does not identify a location for the house. The wording "in the town" is rare in licences and is usually significant implying a town house, rather than a manor house with considerable surrounding grounds.
Leland c1540 mentions a castle in good repair, but this most probably refers to the Archbishop's palace.
The given map reference is Maidstone Town Hall near to the site of the ancient market cross. It is likely Walter's House was somewhere near to the market centre of Maidstone.

Sources of information, references and further reading

Further information may be available from the holder of the county Historic Environment Record.

Books
- Coulson, C., 1995, 'Battlements and the Bourgeoisie: Municipal Status and the Apparatus of Urban Defence' in Church, Stephen (ed), Medieval Knighthood Vol. 5 (Boydell) p. 194n297
  Turner, T.H. and Parker, J.H., 1859, Some account of Domestic Architecture in England (Oxford) Vol. 3 Part 2 p. 406 online copy
  Hasted, Edward, 1798 (2edn), The history and topographical survey of the county of Kent Vol. 4 p. 260- online transcription
Periodical Articles
- Davis, Philip, 2010-11, 'Crenellated town houses in Medieval England' Castle Studies Group Journal Vol. 24 p. 270-91
  Coulson, Charles, 2007-8, 'On Crenellating, in Kent and Beyond - A Retrospection' Castle Studies Group Journal Vol. 21 p. 189-201 esp p. 194
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- Maxwell Lyte, H.C. (ed), 1894, Calendar of Patent Rolls Edward II (1307-13) Vol. 1 p. 271 online copy

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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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