ABBOT’S BOURTON MANOR

Identity: confirmed — The supplied registry record identifies Abbot's Bourton as the Oseney Abbey manor and estate in Black Bourton, also known as Burton Abbots. Independent local-history evidence distinguishes this Oseney/Christ Church manor from the separate Hungerford Bourton Place or Bourton Winslow estate. The surviving Manor Farm complex is the best documented physical centre of the Oseney/Abbot's Bourton estate.
Representative point: 51.73330, -1.58400
Basis: documented_manor_house — Manor Farmhouse, Bampton Road, Black Bourton, is a documented medieval-origin farmhouse and the surviving centre of the former Oseney Abbey/Christ Church Manor Farm estate. Historic England gives National Grid Reference SP2882503928, corresponding approximately to 51.73330, -1.58400.
Point confidence: high
Boundary status: representative_point_only
Boundary period: Medieval to nineteenth century; extent not precisely reconstructed
Boundary confidence: none
Boundary basis: The available evidence establishes that the Oseney/Abbot's Bourton estate occupied the southern part of Black Bourton parish and was later represented by the Christ Church Manor Farm estate. Publicly accessible sources found do not provide a sufficiently explicit manor map, parcel schedule, or legally defined perimeter for the historical manorial land. The modern parish boundary and the whole parish cannot safely be substituted for the manor boundary, particularly because Black Bourton contained multiple separate manorial estates.
Sources:
- Manor Farmhouse, Black Bourton - Historic England NHLE 1199270: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1199270 — Identifies Manor Farmhouse on Bampton Road in Black Bourton, gives National Grid Reference SP2882503928, and describes the building as C15 in origin with later alterations. This supplies the defensible manor-house representative point.
- Village history - Black Bourton Village: https://blackbourton.org.uk/village-history/ — States that the Augustinian canons of Osney Abbey owned Abbots Bourton manor, distinguishes the Hungerford Bourton Place manor, and records that Christ Church's estate included and refurbished Manor Farm in the southern part of the village.
- Short History - Black Bourton: https://blackbourtonox18.tripod.com/hist.htm — States that Oseney owned the southern manor, identified with Manor Farm, until the Dissolution, after which Christ Church succeeded to the Abbey lands; it also distinguishes the Hungerford estate.
- Christ Church Archive Catalogue: Treasury guide: https://archive-cat.chch.ox.ac.uk/guides/treasury — Lists Black Bourton as a Christ Church foundation estate consisting of manor and profits received from Oseney Abbey, supporting the documented ownership descent.
- Oxfordshire History Centre Tithe Handlist: https://www.oxfordshirehistory.org.uk/public/catalogues/tithe_handlist_accessible.pdf — Confirms the existence of Black Bourton tithe award and map material, including the 1848 map and award. These are relevant boundary evidence leads, but the publicly accessible handlist itself does not reproduce a manor-specific perimeter.
- The National Archives: Abbot's Bourton Manor, record F285658: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/c/F285658 — Registry record supplied for the exact manor identity and authority reference GB/NNAF/M309692.
Warnings / uncertainty:
- Representative point is based on the documented Manor Farmhouse/Manor Farm centre, not a modern settlement centroid.
- No historically defensible polygon was found in the publicly accessible evidence consulted.
- Do not substitute the modern Black Bourton civil-parish boundary: the parish contained more than one manorial estate, including the separate Hungerford Bourton Place/Bourton Winslow estate.
- The Oxfordshire tithe-map and award records are promising primary evidence leads for future parcel-level reconstruction, but they were not sufficiently accessible here to justify injecting a boundary polygon.