Ashley Green Grove Farm (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Cheynes

In the civil parish of Ashley Green.
In the historic county of Buckinghamshire.
Modern Authority of Buckinghamshire.
1974 county of Buckinghamshire.
Medieval County of Buckinghamshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SP986042
Latitude 51.72850° Longitude -0.57375°

Ashley Green Grove Farm has been described as a probable Fortified Manor House.

There are earthwork remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.
This is a Grade 2 listed building protected by law*.

Description

The rectangular homestead moat has an outer rampart on all sides and measures overall 190.0m E-W by 165.0m N-S. The NW quadrant is isolated by extensions to the moat along the E and W sides with the outer rampart greatly enlarged to the W and N. Much of the W side has been levelled. Foundations of a gatehouse are set midway in the E side with remains of a curtain wall along the E and S sides. Within this strongly defended quarter, Mr Harman encountered extensive foundations during digging, which are undoubtably those of the fortified manor-house. The sole remaining part is the present dwelling house at SP 9860 0428 formerly used as a barn and erroneously referred to as a chapel. The ground floor has probably C15 windows and doorways and the upper floor C17 half-timbering. The moat is waterfilled around the NW quadrant but elsewhere it is dry or marshy although generally in good condition. A broad causewayed entrance in the N side is probably original; all other ways in are obviously modern. (PastScape)

Remains of probable C15 walls to a strongly defended moated site. Walls have been overgrown with vegetation for many years but some have been cleared to reveal serious structural issues. A grant has been offered by Historic England to the owners to understand the extent and cost of the works needed to conserve the walls. The grant has not been accepted. Further proposals are awaited from the owner. (2016 Heritage at Risk Register)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1006946, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number bu50
National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1124858 , 1124859
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 346310.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 0002100000.

Books
- Salter, Mike, 2002, The Castles of The Thames Valley and The Chilterns (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 35
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 1 p. 29
  Pevsner, Nikolaus, 1960, Buildings of England: Buckinghamshire (Harmondsworth) p. 52
  Page, Wm (ed), 1925, VCH Buckinghamshire Vol. 3 p. 205, 211 online transcription
  RCHME, 1912, An inventory of the historical monuments in Buckinghamshire Vol. 1 (south) p. 16-17 online copy
  Allcroft, A. Hadrian, 1908, Earthwork of England (London) p. 471, 484 online copy
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Historic England, 2016, Heritage at Risk South East Register 2016 (London: Historic England) p. 7 online copy
  Historic England, 2015, Heritage at Risk South East Register 2015 (London: Historic England) p. 6 online copy
  English Heritage, 2014, Heritage at Risk Register 2014 South East (London: English Heritage) p. 7 online copy
  English Heritage, 2013, Heritage at Risk Register 2013 South East (London: English Heritage) p. 6 online copy (new entry)

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.

*The listed building may not be the actual medieval building, but a building on the site of, or incorporating fragments of, the described site.

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