BARFORD MANOR

Identity: confirmed — The registry record, location at Barford in Warwickshire, and associated court rolls, estreats, survey and map references consistently identify the Warwickshire manor of Barford, distinct from Barford manors in Bedfordshire and elsewhere. Medieval evidence places Barford manor among the lands of the earls of Warwick; later local and county evidence records the manor-house site off Church Street.
Representative point: 52.2452, -1.6049
Basis: documented_manor_house — Approximate point for the former Barford Hall/Fairfax Manor House site off Church Street, near the present Memorial Hall and opposite St Peter's Church. The Warwickshire Historic Environment Record identifies the site as the post-medieval manor house at grid reference SP2760; local historical evidence places the former manor house near the Memorial Hall.
Point confidence: medium
Boundary status: representative_point_only
Boundary period: Insufficiently defined; a 1760 plan of the Lordship of Barford and the 1760 enclosure material are known to survive, but the accessible evidence does not provide a sufficiently legible, source-controlled perimeter for reconstruction.
Boundary confidence: none
Boundary basis: The surviving archive leads establish that a mapped 1760 Lordship of Barford existed (Warwickshire County Record Office, CR 1886/M18), and that the whole parish was enclosed under the 1760 enclosure process. However, the available web evidence does not demonstrate that the manor occupied the whole parish, nor does it expose the map's parcel-level boundary sufficiently to derive a defensible polygon. The manor therefore should not be substituted with the parish or modern settlement boundary.
Sources:
- The National Archives: Barford Manor record F242161: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/c/F242161 — Registry record for the exact manor, identified as Barford Manor in Barford, Warwickshire.
- Warwickshire Historic Environment Record: Site of Post Medieval Manor House off Church Street, MWA5481: https://timetrail.warwickshire.gov.uk/detail.aspx?monuid=WA5481 — Identifies the former manor-house site off Church Street, Barford, at grid reference SP2760, and describes the timber manor house, garden and surviving sandstone wall footings.
- Our Warwickshire: Site of Post Medieval Manor House off Church Street: https://www.ourwarwickshire.org.uk/content/catalogue_her/site-of-post-medieval-manor-house-off-church-street — Corroborates the HER identification of the former manor-house site and its location near Church Street.
- Barford Heritage: The Red House and Barford Hall: https://www.barfordheritage.org.uk/content/places/the-red-house — Places Barford Hall, described as the manor house, opposite the church and near the surviving sandstone boundary wall; also records the associated historic landholding and later enclosure references.
- Warwick Castle: Parks and Gardens record: https://www.parksandgardens.org/places/warwick-castle — Lists G. Salmon's Plan of the Lordship of Barford, 1760, Warwickshire County Record Office reference CR1886/M18, confirming the existence of a dedicated historical lordship map.
- Mapping the Medieval Countryside: Barford in the Warwick earldom: https://ipm-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/view/inquisition/25-261/266.html — Medieval inquisition material identifies Barford as a manor held as part of the earldom of Warwick and records its tenure as a half knight's fee.
Warnings / uncertainty:
- The representative coordinate is approximate because the historical manor house has been demolished and the HER supplies only the grid square SP2760 rather than a full coordinate.
- Barford parish, modern civil-parish, conservation-area and settlement boundaries have not been used as substitutes for the historical manorial extent.
- A defensible manor polygon requires examination or digitisation of the 1760 Lordship of Barford plan and/or associated enclosure and survey schedules held by Warwickshire County Record Office.