Watlington Manor House
Has been described as a Possible Fortified Manor House
There are no visible remains
| Name | Watlington Manor House |
| Alternative Names | Watlyngton |
| Historic Country | Oxfordshire |
| Modern Authority | Oxfordshire |
| 1974 Authority | Oxfordshire |
| Civil Parish | Watlington |
Site of a manor house, possibly fortified after 1338 as a licence to crenellate was granted in that year. The manor house is first recorded in a document of circa 1250 and had probably been demolished by the early C17. A moat was documented in 1442 but no trace of one survives. (PastScape)
The earliest reference to the manor-house occurs in c. 1250 when a pit in the curia of Richard, Earl of Cornwall, is mentioned. Nicholas de la Beche was given licence to crenellate in 1338 and may have fortified or rebuilt the house. Some years later in 1349 and 1350 the king's sons were staying there. When the site of the manor was granted for 40s. a year to the king's sergeant Richard Lyllyng in 1442 all the houses built on it, two crofts, two meadows, and the water called a 'mote' round the site were mentioned. This moat was partly in the present churchyard and is still met with in digging graves, and partly beyond the end of Church Street where it is still visible. The manorhouse was not kept up and in the early C17 the king's bailiff was accused of giving away the timber and stone instead of using it for the repair of the king's tenements in Watlington. In 1660 the vicar said that its 24 acres of meadow had been divided up. (VCH 1964)
Not scheduled
Not Listed
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s)
County Historic Environment Record
| OS Map Grid Reference | SU685947 |
| Latitude | 51.6477394104004 |
| Longitude | -1.01061999797821 |
| Eastings | 468550 |
| Northings | 194790 |
