ABLINGTON MANOR

Claim

Historical names: Ablyngton (Manor)

Location: Bibury, Gloucestershire

Places / associated places: Bibury, Gloucestershire

Location & Extent

GPS Location & Recorded Land Areas

Representative GPS point: 51.7666, -1.85007

Location / boundary notes:

Identity: confirmed — The registry identity matches the documented medieval manor of Ablington (also Ablyngton) in the hamlet of Ablington, within Bibury parish, Gloucestershire. The surviving Grade I-listed manor house at Ablington is explicitly identified as the 1590 house built for John Coxwell on the manor site, confirming the record's location and distinguishing it from other manors named Ablington.
Representative point: 51.76660, -1.85007
Basis: documented_manor_house — Historic England identifies Ablington Manor at National Grid Reference SP 10359 07607; the corresponding mapped position is approximately 51.76660, -1.85007. The site is the surviving manor house and the documented location of the historic manor centre.
Point confidence: high
Boundary status: representative_point_only
Boundary period:
Boundary confidence: none
Boundary basis: The sources establish the manor house and immediate historic estate setting beside the River Coln, and a 1914 sale-particulars volume identifies associated properties including Manor Farm, Lower Farm, the mill, bridge and other estate buildings. However, no publicly accessible source located in this research supplies a sufficiently clear, manor-specific polygon or explicit perimeter for the medieval or early-modern manorial land. The 1769 map reference located in the sources is an estate map of the Manor of Bibury, not demonstrably the boundary of Ablington Manor, and must not be substituted for the Ablington manorial extent.
Sources:
- Historic England: Ablington Manor, Bibury — List Entry 1341833: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1341833 — Identifies the Grade I-listed Ablington Manor in Bibury parish at National Grid Reference SP 10359 07607 and dates the surviving manor house to 1590, built for John Coxwell.
- Parks & Gardens: Ablington Manor: https://www.parksandgardens.org/places/ablington-manor — Places Ablington Manor in the hamlet of Ablington on the River Coln about one mile upstream from Bibury; records its Gloucester Abbey origin, Howse lease, Coxwell acquisition in 1574, 1590 house and later estate history; supplies a locality coordinate and references the Victoria County History.
- Historic England Archive: Ablington, Cirencester, Estate Sales Particulars, 11 May 1914, SC00372: https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/photos/volume/SC00372 — Catalogues the 1914 Ablington estate sale particulars and lists the manor house, bridge, mill, Mill House, Lower Farm, Manor Farm and associated barns as locations within the estate sale material.
- Acanthus Clews Architects, Ablington Manor Heritage Assessment: https://docs.planning.org.uk/20240103/123/S58Q2KFIG5G00/5j8czyd0qklle1hj.pdf — Provides contextual historical evidence for the manor, the 1574 acquisition by John Coxwell, the surviving 1590 house and the 1914 break-up of the Ablington estate.
- The National Archives: Ablington Manor MDR record F246174: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/c/F246174 — Registry authority record for the exact manor, supporting the identification of Ablington Manor and its associated manorial documents.
- Gloucestershire Historical Studies: reference to the 1769 Bibury Manor estate map and Ablington enclosure material: https://glosdocs.org.uk/sites/ghs/ghs09all.pdf — Confirms the existence of a 1769 estate map of the Manor of Bibury and separate 1779 Ablington Field enclosure material; these are useful archival leads but do not themselves establish a recoverable Ablington Manor boundary polygon.
Warnings / uncertainty:
- The representative point is suitable for the manor's documented house/site, not proof that the entire medieval manorial territory was confined to the house grounds.
- Do not substitute the modern Bibury parish, Ablington hamlet, civil parish or the 1769 Bibury Manor estate-map area for the historical Ablington Manor boundary.
- The 1914 estate sale evidence concerns the later Coxwell-Rogers estate and may not correspond exactly to the medieval manor's territorial extent.
- A manor-specific polygon would require examination of the Gloucestershire Archives survey, rental, court rolls, enclosure material and any surviving estate plans, especially D269B/M1, D269B/E/14 and related Ablington deeds or maps.

About the Manor

Ablington Manor was an ancient manor in the hamlet of Ablington, within the parish of Bibury, Gloucestershire, approximately one mile upstream from Bibury on the River Coln. Medieval evidence identifies Ablington, also recorded as Ablyngton, as an established manor and as a member of the wider Bibury manorial complex. The manor was originally held by Gloucester Abbey. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries it was leased to the Howse family and was acquired by John Coxwell in 1574. Coxwell constructed the surviving principal manor house, dated 1590, on or beside the earlier manor site. The house is a substantial limestone Elizabethan building with later seventeenth-, eighteenth- and nineteenth-century alterations and is listed at Grade I. The estate remained associated with the Coxwell and later Coxwell-Rogers family for several centuries. In the early twentieth century the estate was broken up: Richard Hugh Coxwell Rogers began the break-up in 1914, and the estate was sold and divided in 1918. The surviving manor house and associated land subsequently passed through separate ownerships. The present architectural building should not be treated as identical in date to the origin of the manor, which is medieval.

Ownership / Holder Account

The secure public-source descent is incomplete. Ablington was originally a possession of Gloucester Abbey, but the precise medieval descent and the identities of all lords recorded before the sixteenth century require consultation of the relevant medieval deeds, inquisitions, fines, court rolls and the detailed manorial material cited by the Victoria County History. A late medieval feet-of-fines abstract records a sixth part of the manor of Ablyngton in 1413, but that fractional interest belongs to a larger transaction involving William Palton and Elizabeth his wife and should not be treated as the whole manor without further investigation. A local historical account also states that in the time of King John a moiety of Ablington was purchased by Ralph de Willington and Olympia, his wife; this is useful evidence that interests in the manor existed in the early thirteenth century, but it does not establish a complete descent of the whole manor. After the Dissolution, the Howse family held the property by lease rather than as proven freehold lords. John Coxwell acquired the manor in 1574. Directly documented later Coxwell-family associations include John Coxwell as lord in 1727, Charles Coxwell as lord around 1780, and Richard Rogers Coxwell/Coxwell-Rogers in the nineteenth century. The Coxwell-Rogers family remained associated with the estate until Richard Hugh Coxwell Rogers initiated its break-up in 1914; the estate was sold and divided in 1918. The intervening transfers and the precise legal descent between the named Coxwell holders remain insufficiently documented in the sources located.

Records & References

Sources and references mentioning this manor/title which are not necessarily conveyances or transfers.

29 records found · showing 1–8.