More information : (SO 72565688) Whitbourne Court on site of (NAT) Bishop's
Palace (NR) Moat (NR). (1)
Whitbourne Court stands on the site of a manor house of the Bishops
of Hereford. It is very largely a modern building, but incorporates
some work in the central range which may be medieval, and a block
of masonry in the N wing is perhaps of the same age. The interior
contains 16th and 17thc. details.
The W side of the moat has been filled in. There are traces of an
inner bank on the NE side of the island. (2)
The bishops palace was built in a park which was disparked in 1620
although the grounds still retain the name of the Park. (3)
Taylor shows the name Sapey Park SW of Whitbourne. (4)
Whitbourne Court has had so many additions to the original building
that nothing outstanding remains. See GP's.
J Harington (QC) excavated the area in his garden to the ESE of the
house early in the 1920's and discovered walling which is probably
the foundations of the Bishop's Palace (a). No trace now remains
on the surface.
Only three arms of the moat remain, the north west arm having been
filled in. The north-east arm is contained by a bank 0.7m high
and 3.4m deep to the water. The outer scarp rises 2.0m out of the
moat, which originally went round the south and east sides of the
island. The island was created in the early 1800's. A causeway
appears at SO 72645678 whenever the moat is drained but it does
not connect with the present inner bank.(a)
Published survey (25") revised. (5)
Whitbourne Court. The site is that of a manor house of the Bishop of Hereford. It is largely 18th and 19th century, but incorporates some medieval and 17th century work. Grade 2 (6)
Additional bibliography. (7)
The water filled remains of the moat around the site of the Bishops Palace were seen centred at SO 7264 5683 and mapped from aerial photographs. The north-western side of the moat has been filled in, but much of the rest of the moat remains with its small island to the south and a small elongated pond outside the moat to the south-east. (8-9)
The moat is much as described by previous authorities, though part of the NE arm has now been filled in; it survives as an earthwork. A slight bank along the outside E edge of the moat continues the mapped embankment along the NE side and contains an overflow channel to the pool to the S, which is extant as an earthwork with ruinous brick wall and sluice at its S end. In the interior a broad raised area at the extreme W corner looks like a deposit of rubble or rubbish rather than a bank, unlike the substantial bank along the NE side. There is much stone visible across the site but no architectural fragments, with the exception of two sculpted pieces of ?early post-medieval date on display in the garden. There has been some recent garden landscaping. The causeway appears as a hard stone ridge when the water is low and leads to the beech avenue which once extended S as far as a lodge on the present A44. The original part of the moat is as much as 3m deep, though mostly 2-2.5m, while the newer part at the extreme S, cut to form a small island, is only about 1m deep (a). (10)
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