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Summary

The earthworks of a medieval moated bishops' palace.

Monument Type(s):

• MOAT (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
• WINDMILL (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
• HOUSE (19th century - 1801 AD to 1900 AD)
• CHAPEL (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
• BISHOPS PALACE (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
• MANOR (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
• GRANGE (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
• STABLE (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
• GATEHOUSE (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
• PARK PALE (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
• GREAT HALL (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
• GRANARY (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
• BREWERY (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
• DOVECOTE (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)

Associated Events:

• AP appraisal, Ingle's Lane, Doddington, 2001

Protected Status:

• Scheduled Monument 33272: Moated bishops' palace at Manor Farm

Full description

1. Manor House moat, close to the railway, half a mile E of the church. It is 350 feet square and has a slight moat averaging 10 feet in width except at the NW corner, where it has increased into a pond. The area is now occupied by a farm. The site is reminiscent of Croydon Wilds and is probably late in date. This manor belonged to Ely, and was a seat of the bishops, Bishop Balsham dying here in 1286.
3. Doddington was one of the Bishop's principal residences ...survey made for Bishop de Fontibus (1221) ... Like most ecclesiastical manors it passed through a period of depression in the C14. The decline in prosperity seems to have set in about 1300. A survey of 1356 shows some recovery. The manor house itself consisted of a hall, principal chamber, cloister (claustera), pantry, buttery and other chamber. Enclosed within the same encircling wall were a kitchen, brewhouse, chapel, a lodging for the Knights and Esquires, dovehouse, granary and stables. In the wall was a gatehouse. All these buildings were in good repair. The rest of the manorial buildings however, which consisted of a grange, ox-house, two windmills, (one dating from 1300), a newly erected grindery, the park wall, and the vaccary at Stonea, were all more or less ruinous. As in the other manors where the Bishop had an actual residence, the customary tenants of Doddington had the duty of ferrying him to his next manor. ... In the later Middle Ages, the bishops ceased to use the manor house as an official residence. In 1493, Bishop Alcock leased it. ... In the second half of the C16 the... bishop was allowed to Keep Doddington palace ... but the manor was finally alienated c 1600. The manor house had ceased to be used as such before 1808 and was converted into a farm, but the Courts Leet and Baron were still being held there in 1827. .... Letters Patent were dated at Benwick in 1314, presumably when Bishop Ketene was entertaining Edward II at Doddington Palace.
4. Electricity pylons set c 0.6m deep were laid across the site in 1986.
5. A medieval moated bishops' palace. The moated site includes a roughly square island measuring up to 104m by 106m. An inner bank, approx. 3m wide and 0.5m high and thought to represent upcast from the moat, is visible along the S side of the island. The moat is partly water-filled and measures between 6-12m in width and up to 2m in depth. The present house on the island dates from the C19th.

Sources and further reading

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