BAMPTON DEANERY MANOR

Identity: confirmed — The registry's alternative names, Exeter Cathedral archival references, and the Oxfordshire Historic Environment Record identify this as the rectory or Deanery manor held by the Dean and Chapter of Exeter, distinct from the royal/Talbot Bampton manor, Bampton Castle manor, and Weald Manor. The capital messuage and manorial centre were at the Deanery immediately west of St Mary's Church, Bampton.
Representative point: 51.7271, -1.5458
Basis: documented_manor_house — The Deanery, Church Close, Bampton, is recorded by Historic England at National Grid Reference SP 31176 03312. The Oxfordshire Historic Environment Record describes it as the capital messuage of the rectory manor and a former prebendal house of the Dean and Chapter of Exeter.
Point confidence: high
Boundary status: representative_point_only
Boundary period: Medieval to post-medieval; no single securely mapped period-specific perimeter established from the accessible evidence
Boundary confidence: none
Boundary basis: The archival leads demonstrate that a formal extent existed, including the medieval Extent of Bampton (Deanery) Manor, the 1730 rental schedule, eighteenth-century partition leases, and nineteenth-century surveys and plans. The accessible catalogue and secondary evidence identify individual Deanery-manor holdings and distinguish them from other Bampton manors, but do not provide enough explicit, georeferenced perimeter information to reconstruct a defensible manorial polygon. The 1821 enclosure material names land belonging to the Dean and Chapter of Exeter, but the available description is not sufficient to separate all Deanery-manor land from other ecclesiastical and freehold parcels.
Sources:
- The Deanery, Bampton - Historic England listing 1053558: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1053558 — Identifies The Deanery, Church Close, Bampton; gives NGR SP 31176 03312; describes it as the former prebendal house associated with Exeter and records the medieval fabric.
- Oxfordshire Historic Environment Record: The Deanery, Church Close: https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?resourceID=1033&uid=MOX1847 — Explicitly describes the Deanery as the capital messuage of the rectory manor and as the former prebendal house of the bailiff of the Dean and Chapter of Exeter; notes the manorial curia and associated farm buildings.
- Bampton Community Archive: Deanery records: https://atom.bamptonarchive.org/index.php/deanery?onlyDirect=1 — Lists archival material titled 'Extent of Bampton (Deanery) Manor Temp. 2 ED II 1307-1326', confirming the specific medieval Deanery-manor extent record.
- Bampton rental: schedule of lands, 1730, Add 38950: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/N17052047 — Registry research lead for the 1730 rental and schedule of lands associated with the Deanery manor.
- Surveys with the Parsonage estate, 1811-1828, CC13/74363 and related records: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/N17052713 — Registry research lead for later surveys of the Deanery manor and parsonage estate.
- Survey book with plans, 1818, CC13/74363 A: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/N17052760 — Registry research lead for the 1818 survey book and plans, potentially relevant to the historical land extent.
- Church View, Bampton, Oxoniensia 2000: https://www.oxoniensia.org/volumes/2000/mayes.pdf — Scholarly archaeological study identifies the rectory manor as held by Exeter Cathedral and distinguishes its lands from the main Bampton/Talbot manor using eighteenth- and nineteenth-century mapping evidence.
Warnings / uncertainty:
- The representative point is the documented Deanery manor house/manorial centre, not the modern centre of Bampton.
- No polygon is returned because the available evidence does not establish a complete, reliably georeferenced boundary of the historical Deanery manor.
- Do not substitute the modern civil parish boundary, the whole historical parish, Bampton Manor House, Bampton Castle, or Weald Manor for the Deanery-manor extent.