BARDWELL MANOR

Identity: confirmed — The supplied record's historical name, Bardwell Hall (Manor), matches the Suffolk Heritage Explorer record for Bardwell Hall Manor, now Moat House. That record cites the 1730 William Warren estate map, Suffolk Archives reference M550/1, which explicitly depicts 'Bardwell Hall Manor' at the same site. The associated rental, court-roll and later copyhold references are consistent with a long-lived Bardwell Hall manor record.
Representative point: 52.3303, 0.8504
Basis: documented_manor_house — Moat House, Spring Road, is the surviving manor house identified by the 1730 estate map as Bardwell Hall Manor. Its listed-building location is OS Grid Reference TL 94322 74076, approximately 52.3303, 0.8504 WGS84.
Point confidence: high
Boundary status: representative_point_only
Boundary period: 1730 and earlier/later manorial tenure; no complete perimeter established
Boundary confidence: none
Boundary basis: The 1730 William Warren map clearly identifies the manor house, moat, court yard, barn yard, gardens, pasture and adjoining manorial/home-farm features, but the available evidence describes the surviving map extract as showing only the immediate house and its grounds; it does not provide a sufficiently recoverable perimeter for the whole historical manor. The parish boundary and modern estate or farm boundaries cannot safely be substituted for the manorial extent.
Sources:
- Suffolk Heritage Explorer: BAR 064 – Bardwell Hall Manor, now Moat House: https://suffolkher.esdm.co.uk/Monument/MSF17862 — Identifies the site as Bardwell Hall Manor, gives grid reference TL 9430 7409, and records that William Warren's 1730 estate map depicts 'Bardwell Hall Manor'. It describes the manor house, courtyard, barn and stable, garden, moat/canal and pasture features, and cites Suffolk Archives M550/1.
- Moat House, Bardwell – Historic England listing: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1031321 — Provides the authoritative location of the surviving late-16th-century Moat House at listing grid reference TL 9432274076 and identifies it as a former farmhouse, consistent with the house shown on the 1730 Bardwell Hall Manor map.
- Suffolk Heritage Explorer: BAR 005 – Site of former medieval moated manor house and fishpond: https://heritage.suffolk.gov.uk/Monument/MSF7313 — Documents an earlier medieval de Bardwell manor-house site west of the church and distinguishes it from later/sub-manorial sites, including Bardwell Hall Manor. This supports a warning that the medieval manorial residence and the later Bardwell Hall/Manor House site are not necessarily identical.
- Suffolk Archives catalogue: map, 1730, reference M550/1: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/N14557555 — The supplied archive lead identifies the 1730 map associated with Bardwell Hall Manor; the Suffolk Heritage Explorer record links this map directly to the manor site.
- Suffolk Historic Environment Record parish summary: Bardwell: https://heritage.suffolk.gov.uk/media/pdfs/bardwell.pdf — Lists a 1730 map of Bardwell Hall manor and rentals of Bardwell Hall Manor from approximately 1300, 1717 and 1767–1792, corroborating the identity and long chronological continuity of the manor record.
Warnings / uncertainty:
- Do not use the modern civil parish of Bardwell as the manor boundary.
- The present listed Bardwell Hall at Low Street, approximately TL 94002 72615, is a separate surviving 16th-century hall/farmhouse site and should not replace Moat House as the representative point for this exact Bardwell Hall Manor record.
- The medieval moated de Bardwell manor-house site west of the church is historically relevant but is not sufficient evidence that it was the same residential site as the later 1730 Bardwell Hall Manor shown at Moat House.
- A complete historical manorial polygon requires examination of the original 1730 map, rentals, field book, later estate plans, tithe/enclosure material and/or mapped copyhold parcels held by Suffolk Archives; no polygon is returned to avoid inventing an extent.