AVILL MANOR

Identity: confirmed — The registry name AVILL MANOR matches the historical manor of Avill, also recorded as Avelle, in Dunster parish, Somerset. The Victoria County History identifies Avill as a separate manor and tithing from the late 11th century and describes its manor house at Avill, later occupied as Avill Farm. The supplied TNA reeve's-account references SC 6/968 are consistent with the surviving medieval and early-modern records of this manor.
Representative point: 51.17796, -3.46416
Basis: documented_manor_house — Aville Farm, the surviving/rebuilt farmhouse on the site of the medieval manor house or court at Avill. The VCH states that Thomas of Avill built a house in the court at Avill in the 14th century and that the site later functioned as a farmhouse; the georeferenced Aville Farm location is SS 9775 4310.
Point confidence: high
Boundary status: representative_point_only
Boundary period: Core medieval extent, with documented expansion by c.1746
Boundary confidence: medium
Boundary basis: The manor was not coterminous with Dunster parish. Its core included the Avill tithing and scattered manorial holdings including Ellicombe, Frackford, Kitswall, houses in West Street and Gallox Street, and land in Carhampton and Timberscombe. By 1746 the estate/manor also included land in Bicknoller, Crowcombe, Carhampton, Cutcombe, Old Cleeve, Dunster, St Decumans and Timberscombe. The evidence describes a dispersed manorial estate rather than a single continuous territory, and the accessible sources do not provide a defensible perimeter or parcel-by-parcel reconstruction. A polygon would therefore risk incorrectly substituting the modern parish or an estate boundary for the historical manorial extent.
Sources:
- Victoria County History, Dunster: Manors and Estates — Avill Manor: https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/46628463/dunster-manors-and-estates-victoria-county-history — Identifies Avill as a separate manor and tithing; locates the manor court/house at Avill; lists the core associated holdings and the wider lands recorded by 1746; cites the relevant Acland estate maps and surveys.
- Aville Farm, Dunster — Geograph Britain and Ireland: https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/5665221 — Provides a georeferenced location for Aville Farm: OSGB36 SS 9775 4310, WGS84 51.17796, -3.46416.
- National Archives record F253534: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/c/F253534 — Supplied registry record for AVILL MANOR, associated with Dunster, Somerset, under authority GB/NNAF/M271571.
- Inquisitions Post Mortem: manor of Avill by Dunster: https://inquisitionspostmortem.ac.uk/view/inquisition/20-826/831.html — Provides medieval confirmation of the manor of Avill by Dunster and describes its associated agricultural resources and manorial status.
- Victoria County History of Somerset publication information: https://www.history.ac.uk/research/victoria-county-history/counties-z/somerset/vch-somerset-publications — Confirms the relevant VCH volume covering Minehead, Dunster and Carhampton and the historical context of Dunster's manors and estates.
Warnings / uncertainty:
- The historical extent was dispersed across multiple parishes and included scattered freeholds, tenements and later additions; it should not be represented by the modern civil parish of Dunster.
- The point is suitable as a representative injection point for the manor site, but no historically defensible polygon has been established from the accessible evidence.