Northwick in Claines manor of the bishop of Worcester (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Whistones; Wistan

In the civil parish of North Claines.
In the historic county of Worcestershire.
Modern Authority of Worcestershire.
1974 county of Hereford and Worcester.
Medieval County of Worcestershire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SO842581
Latitude 52.22089° Longitude -2.23270°

Northwick in Claines manor of the bishop of Worcester has been described as a certain Palace.

There are no visible remains.

Description

Leland writes, in a list of premises belonging to the Bishop of Worcester, 'Northwick in the manor of Clains, two miles from Worcester. Until living memory Northwick belonged to John of Wodds, but was brought by a bishop because he had no house in Claines. It has a moat, and there used to be a park.'

Northwick Manor, or Palace as it was also known, was owned by the Bishop of Worcester. The earliest documentary evidence indicating its existence dates to 1476. The bishop did not live there, but used it as a temporary residence when travelling to and from various events. Often the manor was let to one of the bishop's officials and in the early 16th century the manor was leased by Thomas Wem, scribe to the Consistory Court in the 1530s. The lease held by the Wem family indicated that the manor had a moat and it also made reference a dove house, a porters house, fish ponds, pastures and a garden. By 1585 the moat and some of the fishponds had been drained and in later years alterations were made to the manor while some of the surrounding buildings were demolished and rebuilt. On a map dating to 1751, the remains of the manor were indicated, however by 1843 the only existing buildings were farm buildings. (PastScape ref. Young Archaeologists Club Worcestershire)

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 1507285; 116094.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) WCM91039; WSM29981.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Worcestershire Young Archaeologists Club
Books
- Worcestershire YAC, 2007, The Hidden Treasures of Northwick online copy
  Emery, Anthony, 2000, Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales Vol. 2 East Anglia, Central England and Wales (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) p. 466
  Thompson, M.W., 1998, Medieval bishops' houses in England and Wales (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing) p. 187
  Dyer, C., 1980, Lords and Peasants in a Changing Society: The Estates of the Bishopric of Worcester, 680-1540 (Cambridge University Press)
  Page, Wm and Willis-Bund, J.W. (eds), 1913, VCH Worcestershire Vol. 3 p. 301-2 online transcription
Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- Chandler, John, 1993, John Leland's Itinerary: travels in Tudor England (Sutton Publishing) p. 518
  Toulmin-Smith, Lucy (ed), 1910, The itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535-1543 (London: Bell and Sons) Vol. 5 p. 228 online copy
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Northwick Manor Heritage Trail online copy
  Payne, Naomi, 2003, The medieval residences of the bishops of Bath and Wells, and Salisbury (PhD Thesis University of Bristol) Appendix B: List of Medieval Bishop's Palaces in England and Wales (available via EThOS)
  Beckham, C., 1995, Survey of the Archaeological Significance of Fieldnames in North Claines (Historic Parish). HWCAS internal report. 383
  Hughes, Pat, 1995, A History of the Hamlet of Northwick in the Parish of Claines
  Payne, Sheena, 1995, The History of Northwick - the Bishop's Seat, Manor and Hamlet from the year 680AD to the present day

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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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