Ripple Bishops Manor

Has been described as a Possible Palace (Bishop)

There are no visible remains

NameRipple Bishops Manor
Alternative Names
Historic CountryWorcestershire
Modern AuthorityWorcestershire
1974 AuthorityHereford and Worcester
Civil ParishRipple

In Thompson's list as a residential Manor of the Bishops of Worcester.

The manor of RIPPLE is said to have been granted in 680 by Oshere, King of the Hwiccas, to Frithowald, a monk of Wynfrid, ex-Bishop of Lichfield, but the charter is spurious. Frithowald evidently gave the estate to the Bishop of Worcester, and it belonged to the see in 1086. With Upton upon Severn it contained at that time 25 hides which paid geld. The woodland was included in the king's forest of Malvern, and the bishop only had pannage and wood for firing and repairs, instead of 'the honey and the hunting and all the profits, and 10s. over and above,' which had belonged to him before the Conquest.

The manor was valued at £36 3s. 4d. in 1291, at £57 11s. 10d. in 1535, the last sum including 100s. for the fee farm at Upton. Ripple belonged to the Bishops of Worcester until 1860, when it was transferred to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, who are the present lords of the manor.

There was a mill at Ripple in 1086 and a watermill and windmill in 1299. Only one mill is mentioned in 1291, and in 1302–3 a mill there was repaired. There does not seem to have been any mill at Ripple in 1535 or in 1648.

There appears to have been a park at Ripple Manor in 1339. The bishop had obtained a grant of free warren there in 1254. (VCH 1913)

Gatehouse Comments

Presumably the bishops medieval manor house was on the site now occupied by Ripple Hall, beside the late C13/C13 parish church. The evidence for a park is weak and a grant of free warren may have been a courtesy to the manorial steward so the evidence for residential use, by the bishop, of this manor is equivocal.

- Philip Davis

Not scheduled

Not Listed

County Historic Environment Record
OS Map Grid ReferenceSO875376
Latitude52.0372695922852
Longitude-2.18320989608765
Eastings387500
Northings237600
HyperLink HyperLink HyperLink

No photos available. If you can provide pictures please contact Castlefacts

Most of the sites or buildings recorded in this web site are NOT open to the public and permission to visit a site must always be sought from the landowner or tenant.

Calculate Print

Books

  • Thompson, M.W., 1998, Medieval bishops' houses in England and Wales (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing) p. 187
  • Dyer, C., 1980, Lords and Peasants in a Changing Society: The Estates of the Bishopric of Worcester, 680-1540 (Cambridge University Press)
  • Page, Wm and Willis-Bund, J.W. (eds), 1913, VCH Worcestershire Vol. 3 p. 486-8 online transcription

Other

  • Payne, Naomi, 2003, The medieval residences of the bishops of Bath and Wells, and Salisbury (PhD Thesis University of Bristol) Appendix B: List of Medieval Bishop's Palaces in England and Wales (available via EThOS)