BALE MANOR

Identity: confirmed — The supplied registry record identifies Bale Manor in Bale, Norfolk, and the alternative names are independently corroborated by historical references to the manor of Bathley alias Bale Nojeons and to the manor of Nygeons alias Nudgyns in Bale/Bathley. The National Archives also records a 1517 extent of the manor of Nogyns in Bale (Bathele), matching the historical-name cluster.
Representative point: 52.895258, 0.986273
Basis: supported_manorial_centre — Bale Hall, Field Dalling Road, is the principal surviving historic house associated with Bale. Historic England records the Grade II* house at NGR TG 00973 37266; the building is a substantial c.1700 house incorporating an earlier C17 house and is the best defensible surviving manorial or estate-centre location for the Bale manor record. The link to the medieval manor-house site is inferential rather than explicitly stated in the surviving online evidence.
Point confidence: medium
Boundary status: representative_point_only
Boundary period: Medieval to early modern; specifically evidenced by records from 1517 and 1565
Boundary confidence: low
Boundary basis: No reliable manor map, surveyed perimeter, or parcel-level reconstruction for Bale Manor was located. Historical evidence shows that the manor of Nygeons/Nudgyns included land in Bathley/Bale, Sharrington, Gunthorpe, Field Dalling and Hindringham, with a 1565 description of 80 acres of land, 20 acres of meadow, 20 acres of pasture, 2 acres of wood and rent, but this does not define a continuous boundary. The modern Bale or Gunthorpe parish boundary has therefore not been substituted for the manorial extent.
Sources:
- Bale Manor, TNA/MDR record F240038: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/c/F240038 — Registry record supplied for Bale Manor, Norfolk; used as the primary identity reference.
- Bale Hall, Gunthorpe, Historic England List Entry 1049402: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1049402 — Provides the surviving Bale Hall location, NGR TG 00973 37266, parish context and architectural evidence for a substantial historic house incorporating an earlier C17 building.
- Another part of the same extent of manor of 'Nogyns' in Bale (Bathele), Norfolk, TNA WARD 2/52A/178/214: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C4456142 — 1517 catalogue entry explicitly identifies an extent of the manor of Nogyns in Bale/Bathele, corroborating the historical-name and location linkage.
- The Calls of Norfolk and Suffolk: Their Paston Connections and Descendants: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/The_Calls_of_Norfolk_and_Suffolk_-_Their_Paston_Connections_and_Descendants_%28callsofnorfolksu00roma%29.pdf — Reports a 1565 conveyance of the manor of Nygeons alias Nudgyns, with specified land categories and holdings in Bathley, Sharrington, Gunthorpe, Field Dalling and Hindringham, plus the advowson of Bathley alias Bale.
- History of Bale, Norfolk: place names and historical units: https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/5587/names — Corroborates Bale, Bathley and Bale Nojeons as manor names associated with the same Bale locality.
Warnings / uncertainty:
- The representative point is a defensible surviving historic-house or estate-centre proxy, not a proven medieval manor-house footprint.
- The historical manorial extent appears to have comprised holdings in multiple settlements, but the available evidence does not provide a continuous perimeter.
- Do not use the modern civil parish, former parish, postcode, ward or settlement boundary as the manor polygon.
- A manor polygon should be withheld unless an archive map, survey, rental with mapped parcels, enclosure/tithe material or equivalent boundary evidence is obtained.