APEDALE MANOR

Identity: confirmed — The National Archives Manorial Documents Register record F256012 identifies APEDALE MANOR in Audley, Staffordshire, under authority GB/NNAF/M274053, with manor-specific records dated 1588–1840. The associated Staffordshire archive references include court-roll material, a presentment, a residents list, papers specifically relating to the manor boundaries, and a letter concerning the manor's pinfold and stocks. Historical and local sources identify Apedale Hall, in the Audley area, as the manor house and centre of the Apedale estate. This matches the supplied registry record and does not require substitution with another same-named manor.
Representative point: 53.0369, -2.2746
Basis: documented_manor_house — Approximate site of Apedale Hall, the documented manor house associated with Apedale Manor. Apedale Hall stood in the Apedale/Audley area near Newcastle-under-Lyme and was demolished in 1934. The coordinate is supported by published location data for the hall and is consistent with the historical Apedale mapping area around OS grid square SJ 8149.
Point confidence: medium
Boundary status: representative_point_only
Boundary period: Not established from the accessible online evidence; the MDR record confirms boundary papers for 1795–1840, but their mapped content and perimeter were not available online.
Boundary confidence: none
Boundary basis: The existence of manor-boundary papers is documented in Staffordshire County Record Office reference D4452/1/14/14/3. Accessible sources also describe the wider Apedale estate and its industrial and residential sites, but do not publish a defensible historical manor polygon. The wider estate, parish of Audley, Apedale settlement, and modern Apedale Country Park cannot safely be substituted for the manorial extent.
Sources:
- APEDALE MANOR — The National Archives, MDR record F256012: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/c/F256012 — Confirms the exact manor record, Audley Staffordshire location, authority reference GB/NNAF/M274053, date range 1588–1840, and the archive series including papers relating to boundaries.
- Apedale Hall School — Staffordshire Past Track: https://www.search.staffspasttrack.org.uk/Details.aspx?PageIndex=3&ResourceID=32134&SearchType=2&ThemeID=74 — Places Apedale Hall and the Apedale estate in the historical Apedale area and identifies estate-related buildings associated with the Heathcote family.
- The Turbulent Squire of Apedale — Audley and District Family History Society: https://www.audleyfhs.co.uk/Journal%201/Turbulent%20squire%20of%20apedale.htm — States that Richard Edensor Heathcote built Apedale Hall on the Apedale estate and that the hall was connected with the manorial lordship and estate administration.
- GPS coordinates of Apedale Hall: https://latitude.to/articles-by-country/gb/united-kingdom/217109/apedale-hall — Provides the published approximate coordinate 53.0369, -2.2746 for the demolished Apedale Hall site.
- Papers relating to manor boundaries, reference D4452/1/14/14/3: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/N14725257 — Confirms that boundary-related archival material for Apedale Manor survives for 1795–1840, but the catalogue entry does not expose the boundary geometry.
Warnings / uncertainty:
- The representative point is suitable for locating the historical manor house/site, but it is not evidence that the manor occupied the whole modern Apedale settlement, Audley parish, or Apedale Community Country Park.
- No historically grounded polygon was returned because the accessible sources do not expose the boundary papers or a manor map.
- The coordinate is approximate because Apedale Hall was demolished and the available coordinate source is secondary rather than an official surviving site record.