ASTON BAMPTON MANOR

Identity: confirmed — The record matches the historical manor of Aston and Cote, also called Aston Bouges and Aston Pogges, in the ancient parish of Bampton, Oxfordshire. Historical evidence identifies Aston Manor as the manor associated with Cote House and distinguishes its manorial lands from the separate hamlets/manors of Shifford and Chimney.
Representative point: 51.7183, -1.4871
Basis: documented_manor_house — Cote House, Cote, is a documented surviving manor house. Historic England identifies it as a manor house with late-16th-century origins and records that the Horde family bought the manor in 1553. Its listed-building National Grid Reference is SP3552502303, corresponding to approximately 51.7183, -1.4871 WGS84.
Point confidence: high
Boundary status: representative_point_only
Boundary period: Medieval to early modern manor; extent evidenced particularly for the 16th- to 19th-century manorial landscape
Boundary confidence: none
Boundary basis: The manor comprised Aston and Cote and historically operated through a shared open-field system. Sources describe 16 hides of arable land, equivalent to 64 yardlands, and a later area of approximately 1,870 acres for Aston and Cote. Archive leads confirm that a manor survey and map for Aston and Cote survives at Oxfordshire History Centre under SL189, and that 19th-century tithe and enclosure mapping exists. However, the accessible evidence does not provide a sufficiently legible, authoritative perimeter for the manorial land itself. The modern civil-parish boundary cannot safely be substituted because later administrative units incorporated or were associated with Shifford and Chimney, which were distinct from the Aston and Cote manorial system.
Sources:
- Historic England: Cote House and Attached Forecourt Walls, Gatepiers and Gates, List Entry 1284444: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1284444 — Identifies Cote House as a manor house, gives its late-16th- and early-17th-century history, notes the Horde family's purchase of the manor in 1553, and supplies NGR SP3552502303.
- The National Archives: Aston Bampton Manor, TNA/MDR record F285629: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/c/F285629 — Registry record matching the primary name Aston Bampton Manor, historical names Aston and Cote, Aston Bouges and Aston Pogges, and the Bampton, Oxfordshire context.
- Aston History Group: Parish History: https://astonhistorygroup.org/parish-history/ — States that Thomas Horde bought the manor of Aston and Cote in 1553, identifies Cote House with the Horde family, and distinguishes the manorial system of Aston and Cote from Shifford and Chimney.
- Frederic William Maitland, The Village Community, discussion of Aston and Cote: https://rosenfels.org/pll-v5/pdf/Maitland_0242-02_EBk_v5.pdf — Describes Aston and Cote as a hamlet of Bampton, gives an area of about 1,870 acres, and records the 1657 manorial structure of 16 hides and 64 yardlands.
- Oxfordshire History Centre: Tithe map handlist: https://oxfordshirehistory.org.uk/public/catalogues/tithe_handlist_accessible.pdf — Confirms surviving 1841 and later maps and apportionments for Aston and Cote in Bampton, including references 18/M, 18/A and related records.
- The National Archives: Aston and Cote manor survey with map, SL189: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/N17051558 — Archive lead for the 1668-1854 survey associated with the manor, held by Oxfordshire History Centre.
- The National Archives: Aston and Cote map with survey, SL189: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/N17051559 — Archive lead for the associated manor map, potentially the most relevant source for reconstructing the historical territorial extent.
Warnings / uncertainty:
- The representative point is the surviving manor house at Cote House, not a calculated centroid of the manorial lands.
- No defensible historical manor polygon was established from the accessible web evidence; no boundary has been invented.
- The manor's historical extent should not be substituted with the modern civil parish of Aston, Cote, Shifford and Chimney or any later administrative boundary.
- The approximately 1,870-acre figure describes Aston and Cote as a historical hamlet/manorial landscape and should not be treated as a surveyed polygon without consulting the SL189 survey/map or the 1841-1855 enclosure and tithe material.