Monument record 3176/1/1 - Site of probable medieval manor house and fishponds

The remains of the Medieval manor and associated fishponds previously visible as a series of earthworks. The fishponds are two large rectangular features surviving to a depth of 2 metres. Elsewhere building platforms are visible. Recent aerial photography suggests that the earthworks have been levelled.

{2} Manor house site on the west side of Chelveston Brook on limestone, between 50ft and 200ft above OD, within a field known as Water Yard. The earthworks had already been abandoned by 1807. The field name, then Hall Yard, together with the existing remains, suggests that this is the site of a medieval manor house and farm.

The site consists of two large rectangular fishponds, up to 2m deep, set at right angles to each other and parallel to the stream. On the hill slope is a group of rectangular paddocks and building-platforms, nowhere above 1m in height, bounded on the north and north-west by a low bank.

{5-7} The remains of the medieval manor and fishponds described above (Source 2) were visible on historical aerial photographs and were mapped as part of the Bedford Borough NMP project. Recent aerial photographs and lidar imagery show that the earthworks have been levelled.

<1> Northamptonshire SMR Collection of Aerial Photographs, Used with NMR & CUCAP collections (Aerial Photograph(s)). SNN104822.

<2> Royal Commission on The Historical Monuments of England, 1975, An Inventory of The Historical Monuments in The County of Northampton, p. 27/site 11 (Series). SNN77379.

<3> 1807, Enclosure Map of Chelveston cum Caldecot, NRO map 3007 (Map). SNN35856.

<4> Royal Air Force, Vertical Aerial Photography, (RAF VAP CPE/UK 1925 2260 1) (Photographs). SNN104890.

<5> Royal Air Force, Vertical Aerial Photography, RAF/541/486 RP 3320 07-APR-1950 (Photographs). SNN104890.

<6> Environment Agency, LIDAR Composite DTM - 1m, LIDAR SP9868 Environment Agency 1M DTM 01 Oct 2014 - 31 May 2017 (Digital Plots). SNN111710.

<7> Aerial Photograph, Next Perspectives APGB Imagery SP9869 16-APR-2015 (Photographs). SNN112974.

<8> Bedford Borough Council HER, Undated, Bedford Borough NMP, MD003015 (Archive). SNN113023.

Record last edited

Feb 4 2025 7:56PM