ALDERHOLT MANOR

Identity: confirmed — The registry location and associated place Cranborne identify the manor as the Alderholt holding within the ancient Cranborne parish. Local historical sources describe Alderholt as a manor and hamlet belonging to the lords of Cranborne, with a medieval park called Alderholt Park; the supplied late-medieval and Tudor account references are consistent with this manorial estate.
Representative point: 50.92085, -1.83777
Basis: documented_manor_house — Alderholt Park House is mapped as the historic manor/estate house of Alderholt Park, the historical name associated with Alderholt Manor.
Point confidence: medium
Boundary status: representative_point_only
Boundary period: Medieval to early modern; park evidence principally dates from 1315 to the sixteenth century
Boundary confidence: none
Boundary basis: Sources document a medieval deer park within Alderholt Manor: about 154 acres were recorded in 1315, while later archaeological reconstruction identifies an assumed park boundary enclosing approximately 230 acres. This is evidence for the manor's park component, not a sufficiently documented perimeter for the whole manorial holding. The manor's wider territorial extent cannot safely be reconstructed from the available evidence without substituting the later civil parish or another modern boundary.
Sources:
- Dorset Heritage Explorer: Deer park, Alderholt (MDO5393): https://hbsmrweb-dorset-staging.esdm.co.uk/Monument/MDO5393 — Identifies Alderholt as a medieval deer park first mentioned in 1315, records the estimated 154-acre extent, surviving boundary banks and ditches, and an assumed later boundary enclosing about 230 acres.
- Alderholt Parish Plan: Alderholt History: https://www.alderholtparishcouncil.gov.uk/_UserFiles/Files/Your%20Council/Local%20Plan/Alderholt%20Parish%20Plan.pdf — States that a manor called Alderholt Park was created in the reign of Edward II, that it belonged historically to Cranborne, and that the park ditch remained visible.
- Alderholt Neighbourhood Plan, Appendix 4: Local History: https://consultation.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk/spatial-planning/alderholt-np/user_uploads/alderholt-neighbourhood-plan-draft-v6.5-240510-submission-draft---clean-copy.pdf — Quotes Hutchins's history describing Alderholt as a tithing, manor and hamlet belonging to the lords of Cranborne, with a 154-acre park in 1315 and later Alderholt Park lands.
- Alderholt Park House map record: https://mapcarta.com/W422815621 — Provides the mapped location of Alderholt Park House at approximately 50.91993, -1.83894 and identifies it as a historic manor estate; the representative point is placed at the documented house/estate centre.
- The National Archives: F244307: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/c/F244307 — Supplied TNA/MDR registry record for Alderholt Manor, used as the primary record identity reference.
Warnings / uncertainty:
- The documented territorial evidence relates chiefly to Alderholt Park, the medieval deer-park component of the manor, and should not be treated as the complete manor boundary.
- The modern civil parish of Alderholt and the former Cranborne parish are not substituted as manor boundaries.
- The representative point is based on the mapped Alderholt Park House/estate centre rather than a surviving medieval manor-house survey.