Northwick in Blockley manor of the bishop of Worcester

Has been described as a Certain Palace (Bishop)

There are no visible remains

NameNorthwick in Blockley manor of the bishop of Worcester
Alternative NamesThe Manor House
Historic CountryWorcestershire
Modern AuthorityGloucestershire
1974 AuthorityGloucestershire
Civil ParishBlockley

Immediately south of the Church. Site of the mediaeval summer palace of the Bishops of Worcester. Rebuilt before 1539 and remodelled in C18. Irregular, 2 storeys and attics; built in coursed rubble with stone tile roofs; coped verges; numerous chimneys. 3:1:2:1:2 windows - central 2 windows flanked by gabled projections, 2 windows deep. Mostly glazing bar sash windows, right hand gable with mullioned windows. Tudor arch doorway with carved spandrels in link section between gables; another to right of right hand gable, 6 panelled in a cast-iron porch. (Listed Building Report)

Burhred, King of the Mercians, granted a monastery at Blockley in 855 to Aelhun, Bishop of Worcester, who paid 300 solidi of silver for it. Liberties of an archaic kind were granted with the estate to the bishop. This gift was confirmed in the grant of the hundred of Oswaldslow to the church of Worcester made by the so-called charter of King Edgar.

At the time of the Domesday Survey the Bishop of Worcester held 38 hides belonging to the manor of BLOCKLEY, including 1 hide at Iccomb which was appropriated to the support of the monks. During the early part of the 12th century Ditchford, which had been held in 1086 by Richard, was added to the bishop's demesne together with 1½ hides of land which had previously belonged to Ansgot.

The woodland belonging to the manor of Blockley was described at the time of the Domesday Survey as 'half a league in length and in width,' but the date of its inclosure as a PARK is uncertain. Walter Cantilupe, Bishop of Worcester, obtained a grant of free warren in Blockley from Henry III in 1248, and this grant was afterwards confirmed and extended. His successor, Godfrey Giffard, who cared as little as Chaucer's monk for 'the text . . . that seyth that hunters ben nat hooly men,' seems to have been the first to stock the park with deer

In 1277 he obtained for that purpose a gift from Edward I of twenty bucks and does from the neighbouring forest of Wychwood. There is more than one reference to the deer kept in this park during the next three centuries, but after the Reformation the stock seems to have been allowed to decline (VCH 1913)

Not scheduled

This is a Grade 2* listed building protected by law

Historic England Scheduled Monument Number
Historic England Listed Building number(s)
Images Of England
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s)
County Historic Environment Record
OS Map Grid ReferenceSP164348
Latitude52.0122413635254
Longitude-1.76125001907349
Eastings416480
Northings234890
HyperLink HyperLink HyperLink

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Books

  • Emery, Anthony, 2000, Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales Vol. 2 East Anglia, Central England and Wales (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) p. 466
  • 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. 266-7, 270 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)