Woolmer Hunting Lodge
Has been described as a Possible Palace (Royal)
There are uncertain remains
| Name | Woolmer Hunting Lodge |
| Alternative Names | |
| Historic Country | Hampshire and the Isle of Wight |
| Modern Authority | Hampshire |
| 1974 Authority | Hampshire |
| Civil Parish | Bramshott and Liphook |
The site of a hunting lodge, built for Edward I in 1284-85 in his forest of Woolmer, and last mentioned in 1387, may be marked by the modern Woolmer Lodge in Bramshott parish. Edward's buildings included a stone-built chamber on an undercroft which was 72 feet long and 28 feet wide, and it contained 2 fireplaces, 2 wardrobes and a little chapel. The hall, kitchen and subsidiary buildings were timber-framed and roofed with shingles. In 1336 two ne long buildings were constructed within the enclosure, and a kennel built outside it. It is last documented as a royal possession in the reign of Richard II. (PastScape ref. HKW)
That country-houses, however, were built on the earlier and simpler plan down to the close of this century is proved by an account still existing of the cost of erecting a house for Edward the First, in 1285, at Woolmer in Hampshire. This building consisted of an upper chamber (camera ad estagiam) seventy-two feet long and twenty-eight feet wide, with two chimneys, a small chapel and two wardrobes, of masonry, which cost eleven pounds in work- man's wages. There were six glass windows or lights in the chapel and wardrobes. Beside the chamber and chapel there was a hall wholly constructed of wood plastered over. The windows of the chamber and hall had plain wooden shutters (hostia); a kitchen, built of wood and plastered, completed the house, which was provided with leaden gutters, and roofed with wooden shingles, of which the enormous quantity of sixty-three thousand six hundred was used, besides sixteen thousand laths. The interior of the hall was plastered and painted, as was also that of the chamber ; the floors appear to have been boarded. A small grass-plot or garden was made for the queen's use. The upper chamber of stone in this building was, in all likelihood, built over a vaulted basement story which may have served as a stable
As the dimensions of the hall, which are not given, were probably fully as great as those of the chamber, the latter with the hall and kitchen may have formed three sides of a quadrangle, in the centre of which was the grass-plot for the queen's recreation: but whatever the disposition of the several buildings with respect to each other, we have in this account at the close of the thirteenth century, a house built precisely on the same plan which was in fashion at the beginning of the twelfth century.
"Compotus Ade Gurdun de receptis suis et expensis factis per preceptum Regis in quibusdam domibus in foresta Regis de Wlfmere in comitatu Suthamton. —Et pro cementaria cujusdam camere ad estagiam ad opus Regis et Regine, longitudinis Ixxij. ped' et latitudinis xxviij. ped', cum ij caminis, una parva capella et ij. garderobis, ad taschiam facienda, xj. lib. Et in M. Ixij. magnis petris ad predictam cameram emptis, et calce facienda ad dictas domos, una cum cariagio eorundem, vj.li. xiij.s. Et in sex verrinis emptis ad capellam et garderobas, vj. s. Et in Carpentaria cujusdam aule et predictarum domorum, ad tascham, xiij. li. vj. s. viij. d. Et in cariagio maeremii ad dictas domes, sabulone ad operam, feno ad plausturam aule et camere emptis et domibus mundandis, vj. libri, x. s. vj .d. Et in Ixiij. mill. DC. cendul. faciendis ad dictas domos ad tascham, vj. li. vij. s. Et in cariagio ejusdem cendul., Iv. s. iiij. d. Et in domibus predictis ad tascham cooperiendis, ix. li. iij.s. Et in xvj. mill, lath', DCC. vj. bordis faciendis ad tascham, una cum cariagio eorundem, xlix. s. vj.d. Et in M. H. M. magnorum clavorum, ad cendul. x. mill, ad lath', vj. mill, ad hostia fenestrarum & bord' empt', vj.lib. vj.d. Et in plumbo empto ad gutteras dictarum domorum, Ixx. s. vij. d. Et in quadam coquina ibidem facienda cum clavis ad eandem, et feno empto ad eandem coquinam plastrandam, liiij.s. x. d. Et in parietibus aule et quibusdam parietibus predicte camere et garderob. plaustrand' ad tascham, 1. s. Et in pictura dicte aule et camere ad tascham, xviij. s. Et in ferro, ferruris et cramponis ad caminos emptis, Ivj.s. Et in maeremium in bosco custodiendo, xvij.s. viij.d. Et in quodam herbagio ad opus Regine faciendo, vj. s. ij. d. Summa, Ixxxviij. li. iiij.s. ix.d." Rot. Pip. 13 Edw. I., rot. comp. (Turner and Parker)
The most remarkable medieval discovery is that of the Royal Hunting Lodge, the Royal Manor of Woolmer founded by Edward I in 1287. Previous attempts to locate this manor have placed it at Lynchborough Lodge or at Woolmer Lodge, but the documentary researches show that the Forest of Woolmer and Alice Holt as an administrative term covered both Woolmer and Alice Holt. (Selkirk 1978)
Not scheduled
Not Listed
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s)
County Historic Environment Record
| OS Map Grid Reference | SU842340 |
| Latitude | 51.0998497009277 |
| Longitude | -0.798129975795746 |
| Eastings | 484250 |
| Northings | 134080 |
