Monument record 7198/379 - The Manor of Peterborough Abbey

The medieval manor lay south-west of the church. There are documentary references to various buildings from the 13th century.

{1}{2} The manor of Kettering had been held by the crown until 956 and was then given in 967 as part of the foundation grant of Peterborough Abbey. In 1086 there may not have been a large manor or grange at Kettering, for only one of the 16 ploughs was in demesne in contrast to some other of the Abbey estates, such as Oundle with three out of nine and Stanwick two out of three ploughs in demesne. In the 12th century the demesne was let out to farm but at some time before 1211 it was taken back into direct control by the abbey. This seems to have been followed in the early 13th century by a major investment in Kettering manor, a process of investment which included the promotion of the settlement as a market town.
The manor remained in the hands of the abbey as a demesne manor until the dissolution, although apart from a period in the 13th and earlier 14th century, for much of this time it is likely to have been leased out, as it was in 1488 to Richard Alderman for £26/13/4d per annum. Following the dissolution, in 1541-2 the king granted the manor to William Lord Parr but it reverted to the crown almost immediately. It was variously fragmented, leased and mortgaged during the later 16th and earlier 17th century by the crown, the majority of the property being held during the 17th century by the Watsons of Rockingham and the Duke of Montagu. The manor house and Hall Field, an area of enclosed demesne, were separately granted out and in the 17th and 18th century was in the hands of the Sawyer family. The Sawyers still held the manor house and grounds in 1721 but by the time of inclosure in 1804 it too was held by Lord Montagu of nearby Boughton.

The manor lay immediately to the south west of the church. There is evidence for the types of buildings within the grange around 1300, while in 1587 these buildings are seen to have been laid out around a courtyard. The manor was enclosed by a thatched cob wall which was repaired and heightened in 1292. In 1541-3 there is again reference to the repair of the ‘mudwalle’ of the manor and mention of ‘thackyng plyntyng and claying the same….’. In 1587 the buildings and yards together with the orchards and the gardens were still enclosed by a wall. In 1292 a padlock was purchased for the field gate of the manor, which may have been in the same location as in 1587, leading west into the High Street from the garden.. On the east side of the courtyard in 1587 lay what appears to have been the main residence, a long range aligned north-south, with in addition what appears to have been two gables facing onto the courtyard. The main entrance lay towards the north end of the range beneath one of the gables. This building is possibly the ?noble hall roofed with stone’ built by Abbot Walter de St. Edmunds in 1233-45 as a residence for when he was present at Kettering. Brief references in the medieval accounts add a little detail on this structure.
Bridges, writing in circa 1720, states that the manor house then still contained traces of the 'abbot’s hall’. However there must have been extensive rebuilding at a later date for examination of the building in the late 1970s revealed nothing of medieval date.

The only other building which can be approximately located is the circular dovecote, which in 1587 lay centrally towards the south side of the courtyard. This may be the dovecote for which a profit of 2/- was recorded in 1321-2, and for which 3 days work was spent in 1292 on clearing the droppings.

There were two gardens in 1321-2. The upper garden is mentioned in 1292 when a gate was made for it, and 1309 and 1311 when there was an income of 6d from the sale of the fruit of the upper garden. In 1405 and 1488 the upper garden, called the old orchard, was rented out for 2/-. This may be the garden depicted behind the main range in 1587, or perhaps the close to the south.
In 1587 the grounds of the manor were already laid out in what appear to have been formal gardens, immediately to the east of the hall, while the land to the south was a large close with formal gates entering in the walled enclosure.

By implication, in 1292 a lower garden also existed. This is likely to be the land recorded in 1311 when there was an income of £1 from the sale of the herbage and fruit of the garden and the herbage around the great fishpond. This must be the same as the 1292 reference to an income of 16/- from the fruit and herbage of the garden round the Newedam. The location of the lower garden is difficult to establish. The grouping of its income with that from around the fishpond and the description in 1405 and 1488 that the lower garden, which was let out for 5/-, lay opposite the grange of the manor towards the stream, 49 might indicate that it lay in the valley bottom in the area of the fishponds in 1587, perhaps in the area of the Parks.
By 1721 there had been more extensive design of gardens with extensive rectilinear walks, although the south western part was by then an orchard. The buildings around the courtyard in 1587, which appear to have been the remnants of the monastic grange, had largely gone by 1721 and been replaced by a formal entrance and planting overlooked by the hall itself.

<1> Foard G.F., 2000, Northamptonshire Extensive Urban Survey: Kettering (Medieval + Post Medieval), (unchecked) (Digital archive). SNN100747.

<2> Kettering 1587, (unchecked) (Map). SNN100752.

<3> Eayre T., 1721, A Plan of the Town of Kettering in Northamptonshire, (unchecked) (Map). SNN100753.

Record last edited

Jul 14 2023 11:02AM