Kentisbury Barton (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;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

In the civil parish of Kentisbury.
In the historic county of Devonshire.
Modern Authority of Devon.
1974 county of Devon.
Medieval County of Devon.

OS Map Grid Reference: SS62224385
Latitude 51.17724° Longitude -3.97238°

Kentisbury Barton has been described as a probable Fortified Manor House.

There are masonry ruins/remnants remains.

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

Description

A house, probably of late 15th or early 16th century origin, remodelled in 1672. The original plan probably comprised an open hall with a storeyed cross wing at its lower end. The hall was later floored over, possibly in 1672, and the cross wing was almost completely rebuilt in the 19th century. Two service ranges were built to the rear of the house at the same time and the hall was divided to form two rooms. During the 20th century the house was divided into two residences, with the original cross passage converted into an entrance lobby. The house is two storeyed and built of stone rubble with a slate roof. The south front has a tall projecting stone chimneystack. A licence to crenellate a manor house at this site was granted in 1457 to a John Wolf: the surviving structure may contain masonry dating to that period. (PastScape)

A farmhouse which is remains of an ancient manor house with date tablet AR/1672 a mantlepiece of 14C was recently removed from its original position in the house. Owned by Devon County Council and occupied as two dwellings. North wall is modern. South wall has the datestone, a three-light mullioned window and wide external chimney-breasting in its eastern half which portion is probably more recent than the east wall, the west wall and the remains of the south wall (OS Archaeology Division report).
A licence to crenellate was granted in 1457 (Higham 1979)
Barton farmhouse, now divided into two occupations. Probably late 15C or early 16C origins, remodelled - 1672 (datestone), extended and refenestrated in 19C, with 20C alterations. Unrendered stone rubble. Original plan obscured by later additions. (Listed Building Report).
Kentisbury Barton remains of 14C manor house. Three light mullioned window and a date stone 1674 (Pevsner).
Lands and dwelling held by Wolfe family from beginning of King Henry IIIs reign until reign of Henry VII (Risdon). (Exmoor HER)

A Royal licence to crenellate was granted in 1457 Dec 7 (Click on the date for details of this licence.).

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1106771
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 34775.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) MDE20221.

Books
- Emery, Anthony, 2006, Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales Vol. 3 Southern England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) p. 695
  Higham, Robert A., 1999, 'Castles, Fortified Houses and Fortified Towns in the Middle Ages' in Kain, R. and Ravenhill, W., Historical Atlas of South-West England (University of Exeter Press) p. 136-43
  Salter, Mike, 1999, The Castles of Devon and Cornwall (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 87 (slight)
  Pevsner N., 1952, Buildings of England: North Devon p. 110
Periodical Articles
- Higham, R.A., 1988, 'Devon Castles: an annotated list' Proceedings of the Devon Archaeological Society Vol. 46 p. 142-9
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), 1927, Calendar of Charter Rolls 5 Henry VI - 8 Henry VIII, AD 1427-1516, with an appendix, 1215-1288 Vol. 6. (HMSO) p. 129 online copy
Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- Risdon, Tristram, 1811 (written c. 1620) The Chorogphaphical Description or Survey of the County of Devon (London) p. 349 online copy
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Higham, R.A., 1979, The Castles of Medieval Devon (University of Exeter PhD Thesis) p. 52 Downloadable from EThOS

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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