BARFORD HALL WITH SOAME HALL MANOR

Identity: confirmed — The Norfolk historical account for Forehoe identifies Barford as having three manors: Barford Hall, Flint Hall, and Saham or Soham Hall. It records that Flint Hall was united with Barford Hall and separately describes Saham/Soham Hall, matching the registry record's combined Barford Hall with Soame Hall title. The spelling "Soame" appears to be a variant or registry form of the historically attested "Soham" or "Saham".
Representative point: 52.6287, 1.1114
Basis: documented_manor_site — Barford Hall is historically described as being opposite St Botolph's Church in Barford. The point is an approximate location across or immediately beside the church site, representing the documented manor-house site rather than the modern parish centre.
Point confidence: medium
Boundary status: representative_point_only
Boundary period: Medieval to early modern; the exact period of the combined manor is not established by the available evidence.
Boundary confidence: none
Boundary basis: The sources establish the identity and locality of the component manors but do not provide a manor map, mapped estate plan, rental map, enclosure award, or explicit parcel-by-parcel boundary for the combined manorial territory. The modern parish or settlement boundary has therefore not been substituted.
Sources:
- The History of Norfolk, Volume 2: Forehoe — Barford and its manors: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/History_of_Norfolk/Volume_2/Forehoe — Identifies the three Barford manors as Barford Hall, Flint Hall, and Saham or Soham Hall; records the union of Flint Hall with Barford Hall and gives the descent of the component manors.
- The National Archives Discovery: F236452: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/c/F236452 — Registry authority record for the exact manor name BARFORD HALL WITH SOAME HALL MANOR, located at Barford, Norfolk, with authority reference GB/NNAF/M167959.
- A Brief History of Barford — Barford Heritage: https://www.barfordheritage.org.uk/content/new-contributions/brief-history-barford — States that Barford Hall stood opposite the church and provides local historical context for the manor-house site.
- Church of St Botolph, Barford — Historic England data via Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q17532098 — Provides the documented coordinate for St Botolph's Church, the landmark used to locate the historically described Barford Hall site.
- Accompanied Site Inspection Route Map — Planning Inspectorate: https://nsip-documents.planninginspectorate.gov.uk/published-documents/EN010109-000661-SADEP_ASI1_19Jan23_ItineraryRoute_v1.pdf — Modern Ordnance Survey-based plan labels The Hall and Hall grounds within the historic centre of Barford, corroborating the local position of the hall site.
Warnings / uncertainty:
- No reliable historical polygon for the manorial extent was located.
- The returned point is an approximate manor-house/site location and should not be interpreted as the centre of the full manorial landholding.
- The title's "Soame Hall" spelling is not the form used in the principal historical account, which gives Saham or Soham Hall.