ASTON ROWANT MANOR

Identity: confirmed — The registry name, Aston Rowant location, TNA record F285616, and the associated court-roll, valuation, rent-book and Ewelme Honour records consistently identify the principal Aston Rowant manor, distinct from the separate manors of Kingston Blount, Copcourt and Chalford. Historical accounts identify Aston House as the manor house and describe its associated estate and manorial rights.
Representative point: 51.6863, -0.9469
Basis: documented_manor_house — The manor house was Aston House, historically also called Aston Rowant House. It stood in the village at the site now associated with Aston House Stud, The Green, Aston Rowant, approximately OS Grid SU728991. The house was destroyed by fire in 1957, but its historical site and estate location are documented by local historical accounts, estate-sale material and mapping references.
Point confidence: medium
Boundary status: representative_point_only
Boundary period: Not established as a complete polygon; documented estate evidence is available principally for the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Boundary confidence: none
Boundary basis: The available evidence confirms the manor-house site and gives partial information about the attached estate, but does not provide a sufficiently accessible and unambiguous perimeter for the historical manorial land. A 1768 Survey of the Manor of Aston Rowant survives as an Oxfordshire archive reference, and later estate evidence describes approximately 950-954 acres associated with Aston House, including much of Aston Rowant village, cottages and farms. However, the accessible sources do not expose enough mapped parcel detail to reconstruct a reliable polygon without conflating the manor with the parish, later estate holdings or administrative boundaries. The ancient parish was much larger and included Kingston Blount, Copcourt, Chalford and, formerly, most of Stokenchurch; it must not be substituted for the manor boundary.
Sources:
- The National Archives: Aston Rowant Manor, record F285616: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/c/F285616 — Registry authority and exact manor record used to confirm the target identity.
- Aston Rowant Parish: Aston Rowant Manor House and Park: https://astonrowant.wordpress.com/aston-rowant-parish/ — Identifies Aston House as the Aston Rowant manor house, describes its medieval and early-modern continuity, the 1768 estate map, the 1828 estate layout, the 950-acre 1859 estate, and the destruction of the house in 1957.
- The Manors, Aston Rowant Parish Council: https://www.astonrowantparishcouncil.gov.uk/wp-content/plugins/download-attachments/includes/download.php?id=10434 — Describes Aston Rowant Manor, its manor house, the 1768 formal gardens and water enclosure, ownership history, and the 1859 sale of the manor house with approximately 950 acres, cottages and farms.
- Oxfordshire Historic Environment Record: Medieval moated farmhouse site, Aston Rowant: https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?resourceID=1033&uid=MOX6352 — Records the 1768 estate map and the former moated house site at SU729988, helping corroborate the historical Aston House estate landscape and associated water features.
- National Trust Heritage Records: Boundary Bank, Aston Wood: https://heritagerecords.nationaltrust.org.uk/HBSMR/MonRecord.aspx?skin=printerfriendly&uid=MNA129324 — References the 1768 Survey of the Manor of Aston Rowant, the 1832-1835 enclosure plan and the Victoria County History, confirming that historically mapped manor-related boundaries survive in archival sources.
- Historic England Archive: The Aston Rowant Estate, Near Wallingford: https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/photos/volume/SC00833 — Confirms the Aston Rowant House estate and associated house, garden, lake, farms and estate buildings in a 1916 estate-sale record.
Warnings / uncertainty:
- The representative point is the historical Aston House site, not Copcourt Manor or Kingston Blount Manor.
- No reliable complete polygon was returned. The ancient parish boundary and later estate boundary were not substituted for the historical manor boundary.
- The 950-954 acre figures describe later Aston House estate holdings and should not be treated automatically as the full medieval or early-modern manorial extent.
- Aston House was destroyed by fire in 1957; the coordinate marks its documented historical site and present associated estate location rather than a surviving manor house building.