Monument record 2882 - Collyweston

There was a single manor at Collyweston in 1086 which included a mill and woodland. The manor was held by Ralph, Lord Cromwell in the mid 15th century and, after reverting to the crown, was granted to Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII, in 1486. She completed a palace which was used by the crown until the late 16th century. Earthworks of the palace and grounds survive to the west of the village and are designated a Scheduled Monument. Stone for roof tiles has been dug here since at least the Roman period and there are extensive remains of filled-in quarry pits across the the parish. It became the main producer of stone slates by the early modern period and was extracted from open quarries and mines.

{1} This was apparently a settlement with a single east west street which was modified by the construction of the royal palace. Later it also developed by expansion onto the Stamford road.

{3} The village has a rectangular plan formed around the broad High Street, and Back Lane, a lesser road on the N. The church, parts of which are probably of the 11th century, stands away from High Street, and the village has the appearance of having been replanned, perhaps in the 15th century in conjunction with alterations to the former manor house which lay in the closes immediately W. of the High Street. This manor house, also known as the Palace, was occupied in the 15th century by Ralph Lord Cromwell and later by Lady Margaret Beaufort who remodelled it as well as the church. The house was demolished in 1640. The manor was bought in 1650 by Peter Tryon, who built a new house on the site of the palace, and whose descendants lived there until 1778 when it was demolished.

In 1800 the manor was bought by the Earl of Exeter. Most tenements in the village were copyhold. Two large 17th-century farm houses appear to have belonged to the manor, but all other and later houses of any pretension were copyhold. In 1673 there were 53 tenements, and in 1801 there were 54 houses; by 1851 the number of houses had increased to 93. Some of this increase was made possible by the subdivision of copyhold tenements, especially in the S.E. Corner of the village. The slate industry never created great wealth but it was probably responsible for a modest affluence in the village. In 1673 there were relatively fewer exemptions from Hearth Tax than average, and fewer single-hearth houses, yet the population was high in relation to the area of the parish, suggesting that trade rather than agriculture was responsible for the level of wealth. A similar situation existed at Easton-on-the-Hill, where slaters also formed an important section of the population. This is probably reflected in a tendency for houses before 1800 to be on average a little larger than elsewhere. After 1800 this statistical difference ceases to exist. Following enclosure of the open fields in 1842 a number of houses was built on new copyhold plots to the N.E. Of the village, on the former slate workings along the road to Easton.

<1> Brown R.A.; Colvin H.M.; Taylor, 1982, The History of The Kings' Works (Vol.IV), p.67-68 (unchecked) (Series). SNN60132.

<2> Foard G.; Hall D.;Britnell T., 2004, The Historic Landscape of Rockingham Forest, p.88-9 (unchecked) (Article). SNN109359.

<3> Royal Commission on The Historical Monuments of England, 1984, An Inventory of The Historical Monuments in The County of Northampton, p. 30-36 (Series). SNN77384.

<4> Foard, G.; Hall, D. & Partida, T., 2009, Rockingham Forest: An atlas of the medieval and early-modern landscape, p. 191-195 (Book). SNN106598.

Record last edited

Jul 21 2026 9:46AM