APPULDURCOMBE MANOR

Identity: confirmed — The registry name, Godshill location, National Archives record F238492, and the associated Appuldurcombe court rolls, rentals, surveys and maps identify the historic manor centred on Appuldurcombe House, near present-day Wroxall in the parish of Godshill, Isle of Wight. The manor was a medieval endowment of Montebourg Abbey and later became the Worsley family seat.
Representative point: 50.617008, -1.233615
Basis: documented_manor_house — Appuldurcombe House stands on the site of the medieval Appuldurcombe monastic/manorial centre and the later manor house. Historic England gives the building's National Grid Reference as SZ 54319 79973, corresponding to approximately 50.617008, -1.233615 WGS84.
Point confidence: high
Boundary status: representative_point_only
Boundary period: Medieval to early nineteenth century; extent varied over time
Boundary confidence: none
Boundary basis: The available evidence establishes a substantial but territorially complex manor rather than a single surviving modern boundary. A Godshill parish history describes Appuldurcombe Manor as comprising the best part of Godshill parish. The surviving manorial records divide its jurisdiction into members or homages including Wyke, Sandford, North Godshill and Wydcombe; Wydcombe is specifically documented as part of the manor from at least the mid-fourteenth century and was surveyed as 378 acres in 1774. The archive leads also identify a 1773 Appuldurcombe estate map and an 1800 plan of the manor, but the accessible evidence does not provide a sufficiently legible, georeferenced perimeter for reconstructing the historical manorial territory. The 156-hectare Appuldurcombe Park boundary documented by Historic England is the later designed park, not automatically the full medieval or early-modern manor, so it has not been substituted as the manor polygon.
Sources:
- Historic England: Appuldurcombe, Wroxall, Register of Parks and Gardens entry 1000926: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1000926 — Identifies Appuldurcombe's historic estate and house, describes the 156-hectare later designed park, and cites the 1773 Appuldurcombe Estate Map and 1800 Plan of the Manor of Appuldurcombe.
- Historic England: Appuldurcombe House, Godshill, listing entry 1218394: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1218394 — Provides the documented manor-house site and National Grid Reference SZ 54319 79973; describes the house as the historic Appuldurcombe residence.
- Historic England: Appuldurcombe House and Freemantle Lodge Gateway, scheduled monument 1012720: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1012720?section=comments-and-photos — States that the site began as a monastic cell founded about 1100, that the manor formed part of its endowment, and that the present house occupies the historic site.
- Godshill Parish Council: History: https://www.godshill-iow-parish.gov.uk/community/godshill-parish-community-20899/history/ — States that in 1090 Richard de Redvers gave Appuldurcombe Manor, comprising the best part of Godshill parish, to Montebourg Abbey.
- Isle of Wight Natural History and Archaeological Society, Wight Studies volume 16: https://iwnhas.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Complete-Wight-Studies-Vol-16-2000.pdf — Discusses the Appuldurcombe manorial records, the members or homages of Wyke, Sandford, North Godshill and Wydcombe, Wydcombe's inclusion from at least the mid-fourteenth century, and the 1774 survey of Witcombe/Wydcombe Manor.
- Isle of Wight Natural History and Archaeological Society, Wight Studies volume 22: https://iwnhas.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Margham-Anglo-Saxon-Charter-Bounds-East-Medine-Wight-Studies-Vol-22-2007.pdf — Provides contextual historical discussion of the Appuldurcombe area, the former western pale of Appuldurcombe Park, and the distinction between earlier estate/manorial landscapes and later park boundaries.
Warnings / uncertainty:
- Do not use the modern Godshill parish boundary as the manor boundary.
- Do not use the 156-hectare Historic England registered park boundary as the full historical manor extent.
- The surviving archive references strongly indicate that detailed boundary evidence may exist in the 1773 estate map and 1800 manor plan, but those documents were not sufficiently accessible and georeferenced here to support a safe polygon.