Michael Thompson - Medieval Bishops’ Houses in England and Wales

Medieval Bishops' Houses in England and Wales

Michael Thompson

First published 1998 by Ashgate Publishing

Reissued 2018 by Routledge
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Copyright Michael Thompson, 1998

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ISBN 13: 978-1-138-32449-7 (hbk)

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My interest in medieval episcopal residences began in 1958 with the remarkable tower base discovered in the excavations on the keep at Farnham, Surrey (Thompson, 1960) and consequent hunting through the Winchester Pipe Rolls, then still at the Public Record Office in Chancery Lane. Acquaintance with the see palace at Lincoln, Durham castle, Lyddington and St Davids did much to broaden these interests. I was anxious to pick a medieval class of person, whose activities were reasonably well documented, the houses of whom had survived in sufficient numbers to illustrate the views I had formed in my books on castles and the hall (Thompson, 1991 and 1995). Bishops' houses seemed an ideal example. Hence the present book, not a catalogue, nor an exhaustive study, but I hope by following certain themes to reach a coherent account of a fairly chaotic subject. The intention is to survey the wood, not climb the individual trees, and over-elaborate treatment with fashionable reconstructions would defeat the purpose for which the book was written.

I have not had an opportunity to see all the buildings in question but fortunately Dr Schofield has covered London examples of episcopal houses, while Anthony Emery's three-volume work on larger medieval houses, of which the volume on the North has already appeared (1996), will furnish descriptive detail of the buildings under examination. This removes the burden of description beyond a minimal level.

Professor Norman Pounds has been collecting information about bishops' houses on record cards over some years, a record that he has most kindly passed on to me. This has furnished valuable guidance on tackling a large and seemingly inexhaustible literature. Dr Phyllis Pobst of Arkansas State University has kindly furnished me with a print-out of Bishop William Bateman's (of Norwich) itinerary prepared for the publication of his register (1996), the first for this diocese, hitherto the only diocese without a published register. I am also grateful to Tim Tatton-Brown for explanations of the excavations on the palace at Canterbury. Dr Charles Coulson has most kindly allowed me to extract licences to crenellate for bishops from his full list. Many others have helped by allowing me to use their illustrations in my figures and will be mentioned in the captions. John Dunbar has advised me on bishops' houses in Scotland and John Newman on the palace at Mathern, Gwent, To all these I am very grateful.

Michael Thompson
Cambridge, 1998

For permission to transcribe the 1647 Survey of the archbishop's palace at Canterbury I am indebted to the Librarian of Lambeth Palace Library. For permission to quote itineraries I am indebted to the Canterbury and York Society. I am also indebted to the Bodleian Library for permission to reproduce Tanner MS 217, F. 42 ().

I am grateful for permission to reproduce material belonging to the following bodies in the figures specified:

Surrey Archaeological Society: jacket illustration, 47; Ministry of Defence (Crown Copyright Reserved): frontispiece, 98; Cambridge University Air-photographic Collection (copyright reserved): 4, 9, 26, 30, 54, 57, 67, 73, 76; Victoria County History: 6; National Monuments Record: 11, 29, 36, 37,43, 48, 58, 59, 76; Jan Thorbecke Verlag GmbH & Co.: 14,15; Society of Antiquaries of London: 17, 42, 55; Canterbury Archaeological Trust: 18, 19; Royal Archaeological Institute: 20, 61, 65, 66, 85, 86, 91, 92, 95, 96, 97; British Archaeological Association: 23, 24; English Heritage: 25; Yorkshire Archaeological Society: 27; Society for Medieval Archaeology: 28, 75; Cadw, Welsh Office: 39, 79, 80; London Topographical Society: 46; Newark Castle Trust: 63; Sussex Archaeological Society: 70, 81, 82, 83; Church Commissioners (Archbishop of York): 77; Hampshire Field Club and Archaeological Society: 104, 105.

'Bishop', the word being derived from Greek episkopos, overseer, was the title conferred on a higher grade of priest who held ecclesiastical jurisdiction over a considerable area, the diocese, a division adopted by Christians from the Roman empire at an early date. There were evidently bishops and presumably dioceses in Britain in the late Roman period, the fourth century AD. However, in this country the mission of St Augustine in 598 was the starting point, spreading from the south-east, for dioceses based on cathedrals the church with the bishop's throne, the cathedra from which the bishop derived his authority. The changes in Saxon times in the dioceses need not concern us; sufficient for our purposes is it that after some shuffling of sees from rural to urban sites in the years following the Conquest the creation of the diocese of Carlisle in 1133 completed the pattern of 21 dioceses (omitting Galloway) that lasted until the Reformation in England and Wales when six more were created in England (Brett, 1975, chap. 1).