ASTLEYS MANOR

Identity: confirmed — The registry location is Melton Constable, Norfolk, and authoritative historical sources identify the Astley family as lords of the manor of Melton Constable. The documented manor house and later seat of the Astleys is Melton Constable Hall, confirming the record's geographical identity. The exact registry form 'Astleys Manor' is not otherwise independently indexed in the sources consulted, but it is consistent with the documented Astley manor at Melton Constable.
Representative point: 52.847036, 1.014608
Basis: documented_manor_house — Melton Constable Hall, the documented Astley manor house and estate centre. Historic England records that the medieval manor house stood just south-east of the present hall, while the present hall was built by Sir Jacob Astley in the late 1670s and completed around 1687. The published locality coordinates for Melton Constable Hall are 52.847036, 1.014608.
Point confidence: high
Boundary status: representative_point_only
Boundary period:
Boundary confidence: none
Boundary basis: The sources establish the manor house and parts of the associated historic estate, but do not provide a sufficiently explicit, source-verifiable polygon for the full historical manorial landholding. Historic England describes a 1674 estate map, an enclosed park, later park extensions, and a registered park of approximately 180 hectares, but the registered park is not automatically equivalent to the historical manor. The modern parish boundary and registered park boundary have therefore not been substituted for the manor boundary.
Sources:
- The National Archives Discovery: Manorial Documents Register record F240034: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/c/F240034 — Supplied registry record for ASTLEYS MANOR, located at Melton Constable, Norfolk; used as the primary identity lead.
- Melton Constable Hall, Melton Constable - Historic England NHLE entry 1000533: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1000533/ — States that the Astley family gained the manor of Melton Constable through marriage in 1236; identifies the medieval manor house and the later Melton Constable Hall; describes the 1674 estate map and historic park boundaries.
- Melton Constable Hall - Parks & Gardens: https://www.parksandgardens.org/places/melton-constable-hall — Identifies Melton Constable as the Astley manor, describes the medieval manor-house site and later Hall, and supplies published coordinates 52.847036, 1.014608 for the Hall.
- Melton Constable Conservation Area Character Appraisal, North Norfolk District Council: https://www.north-norfolk.gov.uk/media/1456/melton_constable_ca.pdf — Describes the Astley family as Lords of the Manor of Melton from the thirteenth century and identifies the surviving moated site of the medieval manor house within the landscape park.
Warnings / uncertainty:
- The representative point is for Melton Constable Hall, the documented later manor house and estate centre, not necessarily the exact medieval moated-house footprint.
- No defensible full historical manorial boundary polygon was found. The historic park, modern parish, civil parish, and present estate boundaries should not be treated as interchangeable with the manor's medieval or early-modern territorial extent.