APPLEBY MANOR

Identity: confirmed — The supplied TNA/MDR record F246245 is the Appleby manor record located at Appleby in historic Westmorland. The associated medieval and later records, including Appleby court material, Hothfield estate rentals, boundary rolls and a 1600 map of manorial boundaries, are consistent with the Appleby lordship centred on Appleby Castle, not with the unrelated Appleby manors in Leicestershire or elsewhere.
Representative point: 54.57354, -2.48792
Basis: documented_manor_house — Appleby Castle was the caput and principal seigneurial residence of the Appleby lordship/barony. Historic England identifies the castle site at National Grid Reference NY 68544 19987; the supplied coordinates represent the castle/manorial centre rather than the modern settlement centroid.
Point confidence: high
Boundary status: representative_point_only
Boundary period: Medieval to nineteenth century, with later Hothfield estate administration
Boundary confidence: low
Boundary basis: The evidence establishes a substantial historical lordship centred on Appleby Castle and distinct from the borough/parish boundary. Medieval evidence describes the castle and manor of Appleby and its demesne; later evidence indicates that the Lordship of Appleby included parts of Appleby and Bongate and manorial waste such as Murton and Hilton Fells, but not Warcop. The archival boundary rolls of 1528-1897 and the 1600 WDX 1290 map are strong leads for reconstructing the perimeter, yet the accessible catalogue evidence does not provide a sufficiently legible or coordinate-traceable manor boundary. A modern parish, borough or estate boundary therefore has not been substituted.
Sources:
- The National Archives, Manorial Documents Register: Appleby Manor, record F246245: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/c/F246245 — Primary registry record supplied for Appleby Manor, located at Appleby, Westmorland, under authority reference GB/NNAF/M191760.
- The National Archives: Map of manorial boundaries, WDX 1290: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/N14247518 — Catalogue lead for a 1600 map of manorial boundaries involving Appleby and other manors; potentially relevant to a future boundary reconstruction, but no accessible georeferenced perimeter was available.
- The National Archives: Boundary rolls, WD/HOTH: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/N14361711 — Catalogue lead for Appleby-related Hothfield boundary rolls dated 1528-1897, confirming the survival of boundary documentation but not exposing the boundary geometry in the accessible record.
- Appleby Castle, National Heritage List for England no. 1000659: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1000659 — Historic England places Appleby Castle at NY 68544 19987 and describes its medieval foundation, succession of the Vipont and Clifford families, later ownership by the Tuftons/Earls of Thanet, and the castle grounds and historic boundaries.
- Mapping the Medieval Countryside: Inquisition Post Mortem, Appleby castle and manor, 1415: https://inquisitionspostmortem.ac.uk/view/inquisition/21-952/953.html — Medieval evidence explicitly records the castle and manor of Appleby and describes demesne arable, meadow, woodland, pasture and a watermill, demonstrating that the manor was a territorial landholding rather than merely the built-up town.
- Cumbria County Council inquiry evidence concerning the Lordship of the Manor of Appleby: https://www.cumbria.gov.uk/eLibrary/Content/Internet/538/755/3145/43392104733.pdf — Later historical evidence states that the Lordship of Appleby included Murton and Hilton Fells, excluded Warcop, and included part of Bongate Parish; it also links the title and estate administration to the Tufton/Hothfield succession.
Warnings / uncertainty:
- The manor must not be represented by the modern Appleby-in-Westmorland civil-parish boundary, borough boundary, conservation area or the separate Appleby Castle registered park-and-garden polygon.
- The Appleby Manor Hotel on Roman Road is a modern property name and is not the historical manor house.
- The accessible sources support a precise manorial centre at Appleby Castle but do not justify a safe historical manor polygon.