ASHINGTON MANOR

Identity: confirmed — The registry record is specifically for Ashington Manor in Ashington, Sussex. The Victoria County History account identifies the manor of Ashington in the same parish and distinguishes its historical extent from nearby manors such as Chancton and Buncton. The National Archives and Arundel Castle references independently confirm a continuing Ashington manorial record series from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries.
Representative point: 50.9410, -0.3965
Basis: supported_manorial_centre — West Wolves Farmhouse, formerly the manor of West Wolves, lies north of Ashington and is associated with the Ashington manor-holding Covert family in local historical accounts. The surviving Grade II farmhouse is seventeenth-century in origin and is the best defensible surviving manorial-centre location identified, although the evidence does not prove that the present farmhouse is the unchanged medieval capital messuage.
Point confidence: medium
Boundary status: representative_point_only
Boundary period: 1786, with earlier and later continuity indicated by the manorial records
Boundary confidence: medium
Boundary basis: The available historical description states that in 1786 Ashington Manor included the whole of the main part of Ashington parish together with an adjacent detached part of Thakeham containing Mutton's Farm. Arundel Castle records also preserve eighteenth- and nineteenth-century perambulations, boundary documents, rentals, and an 1815 map of open commons involving Ashington Manor. However, the accessible evidence does not provide a complete, georeferenced perimeter of the manorial land. The manor therefore cannot safely be represented by a reconstructed polygon without consulting the original perambulation, survey, and rental plans.
Sources:
- The National Archives: Ashington Manor, F255160: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/c/F255160 — Registry authority record identifying the exact manor as Ashington Manor in Ashington, Sussex.
- Victoria County History of Sussex, Volume 6 Part 2: Ashington – Manors: https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/sussex/vol6/pt2/pp65-67 — Historical account identifying Ashington Manor and describing its 1786 extent as the main part of Ashington parish plus a detached part of Thakeham containing Mutton's Farm.
- F. W. Steer Catalogue, Arundel Castle Archives, Volume 3: https://www.arundelcastle.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Steer-complete.pdf — Catalogue entries for Ashington and Chancton manor records, including boundary documents, perambulations, common-right particulars, rentals, and related estate material.
- Ashington Site 5 and Site 6: Archaeological and Historic Landscape Survey: https://www.ashingtonpc.org.uk/pdf/evidence-base-regulation-14-ref-354-site-5-heritage-assessment-45-pdffile.pdf — Identifies the historic Ashington landscape, the Church Farm moated site, and the location of the parish's medieval and post-medieval settlement features; useful contextual evidence but not a complete manor boundary.
- West Wolves Farmhouse, Historic England listing 1286931: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1286931 — Provides the surviving West Wolves Farmhouse location and identifies it as a seventeenth-century farmhouse at NGR TQ1276316952, supporting the representative manorial-centre point.
- The Church and Parish of Ashington: https://www.sussex-opc.org/ParishDetails/WestSussex/Ashington/AshingtonHistory/AshingtonHistory.htm — Local historical account records West Wolves as a manor north of the village and associates Nicholas Wolfe and the Covert family with Ashington Manor.
Warnings / uncertainty:
- No complete historical manor polygon was safely recoverable from the accessible sources.
- The stated 1786 extent is a textual description, not a surveyed georeferenced boundary.
- The main Ashington manor should not be conflated with the separate Chancton manor, whose lands also extended into Ashington and nearby parishes.
- The West Wolves identification is a supported manorial-centre inference rather than a conclusively documented medieval capital-messuage site.