Monument record 727/30 - Medieval manor site, Towcester

The main manorial site is thought to have been located in the main bailey of Bury Mount, situated between the mount and the church. The manor was described in the 14th century.

{1}The main and possibly only bailey is thought to lie between Bury Mount and the church.

{2}An outer court or Bailey to the south enclosed by the moat, it contained the manorial centre throughout the medieval period.

The location of the royal manor at Towcester in the pre-Conquest period is problematical and the Norman castle need not have been built on an existing manorial site. There is a possibility, however, that the Saxon manor house had occupied the same strategic location near the junction of Watling Street and the road between Oxford and Northampton, in order to control the river crossing and the two important routes of communication

(Ref 3.1.2.1)In 1467-8 the site of the manor was farmed for 25s 4d; the 'motehyll' as in the lord's hands and listed among the rents in decay.

(Ref 3.1.1.1)In 1086 the king held Towcester, but the manor was subsequently granted away, possibly by 1135, to the St Hilary family. It passed through marriage to the earl of Arundel, who was named as the holder of seven hides and four small virgates at Towcester in the (?mid to late) 12th century Northamptonshire Survey. The de Munchensi family acquired the manor through the marriage of Arundel’s daughter to William de Munchensi in 1204; and they retained control throughout the 13th century, apart from some periods of confiscation. Dionisia de Munchensi married Hugh de Vere, a younger son of the earl of Oxford, and on her death in 1313 the manor passed to her cousin Aymer de Valence, earl of Pembroke, who was certified lord of Towcester in 1315. From him it passed to the Hastings family, and in 1389, when John Hastings was killed and the earldom of Pembroke terminated, Towcester went to the heir general Reginald de Grey, Baron Grey of Ruthin. His great great grandson Richard earl of Kent alienated the disposable estates and Towcester was purchased by Sir Richard Empson, from whom it was purchased by Richard Fermor in the early 16th century. The link with the Fermor Hesketh family has lasted to the present day.

(Ref 3.5.2)Towcester was not a borough and its inhabitants had no powers of self-government. The medieval town was under the control of the lord of the manor and regulated by an annual leet held on the feast of St Gregory (12 March). The court continued to meet on this day throughout the 16th century. In the 1740s and 1750s, although the court was called for the feast of St Gregory, the session was always adjourned to a date in April. There are, however, a dozen references to burgages in the medieval town, and the mention of ‘Bondemanne mede’ in Hulcote in an undated deed of (perhaps) the early 13th century hints that there may have been some distinction between the agricultural and urban tenants at some time in the medieval period. The earliest surviving reference to a burgage dates from 1326, when it was termed a ‘messuage burgage’. This ambiguity as to the status of the burgage tenements persisted, with three further examples of holdings described as ‘messuage/tenement or burgage’, while other properties were sometimes classified as burgages and sometimes not. This suggests that the privileges once appertaining to the burgage tenements had been lost, together with any legal significance. Many of the plots along Watling Street are long and narrow, with the principal building adjoining the street, and are typical ‘burgage plots’.

In 1392 the site of the manor contained a hall with a chamber at its southern end(?) (in capite australi) roofed with ‘sklet’, a thatched chamber at the end of the hall, and a thatched kitchen with a small stable annexed. Two large barns were described as 'distantes'. There was an Oxhouse subdivided to include a stable and carthouse, a dovecote and a sheepfold for 200 sheep with their lambs. ‘Woodhall’ is recorded as a place-name within the manor a building/central complex where the timber was stored etc.

{3} Domesday: Towcester is given as a rural manor in the lands of the Crown. It was clearly an administrative centre at this time as it gave its name to the Hundred of Towcester. Also records a mill within the manor. The mill was granted to the Knights Templar by the Earl of Hertford. The latter died in 1173 so the manor must have become detached from the crowd within a century of the Conquest.

<1> Kidd S., 1993, Towcester Retail Development, Northamptonshire: Archaeological Planning Assessment, (checked) (Report). SNN40438.

<2> Taylor J.; Foard G.; Laughton J.; Steadman S.; Ballinger J., 2002, Northamptonshire Extensive Urban Survey: Towcester, 1.0, 3.1.2.1, 3.1.1.1, 3.5.2 (unchecked) (Report). SNN103132.

<3> COTSWOLD ARCHAEOLOGICAL TRUST, 1992, Towcester Retail Development, Northamptonshire, Stage 1: Archaeological Assessment, p.6 (checked) (Draft). SNN70046.

Record last edited

Sep 3 2021 10:20AM