DESFORD MANOR

Identity: confirmed — The National Archives Manorial Documents Register record F284957 is explicitly catalogued as Desford Manor in Desford, Leicestershire, matching the supplied primary name, location, associated place and authority/reference. Historical evidence identifies Desford as a medieval demesne manor associated with the Duchy of Lancaster/Crown. The surviving Old Manor House at 32 High Street is the strongest documented candidate for the historic manorial centre, although the available sources do not explicitly cross-reference it to TNA record F284957.
Representative point: 52.6257, -1.2938
Basis: documented_manor_house — Old Manor House, 32 High Street, Desford, is a Grade II* early seventeenth-century house formerly listed as Manor Farmhouse. Historic England records its National Grid Reference as SK4789903342; local historical material identifies the Old Manor House/Manor House and the adjacent barn as connected with the former manorial administration.
Point confidence: medium
Boundary status: representative_point_only
Boundary period: not established
Boundary confidence: none
Boundary basis: The available evidence establishes the manor's location within Desford and indicates that it operated through the historic open-field agricultural system, but no manor-specific estate map, survey, rental map, enclosure map or scholarly reconstruction was found that securely defines the territorial perimeter of Desford Manor. The modern civil parish boundary has not been substituted for the historical manorial boundary.
Sources:
- The National Archives Discovery: Desford Manor, TNA/MDR record F284957: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/c/F284957 — Primary catalogue record supplied for the exact manor; record title and location identify Desford Manor, Desford, Leicestershire.
- Historic England: Old Manor House and Attached Barn and Service Block, Desford, list entry 1074078: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1074078 — Documents the Grade II* Old Manor House at 32 High Street, Desford, formerly listed as Manor Farmhouse, with National Grid Reference SK4789903342 and early seventeenth-century fabric.
- Heritage Gateway: Old Manor House, Desford, HER/Historic England research record 314953: https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?resourceID=19191&uid=314953 — Describes the Desford Old Hall/Old Manor House as an early seventeenth-century manor house and gives grid reference SK4790003330.
- Desford History and Heritage: A Brief History: https://www.desfordheritage.org/brief-history — States that the medieval Manor of Desford belonged to the Earls of Leicester, later the Dukes of Lancaster, and identifies Old Manor Farm among the historic buildings of Desford.
- Desford Neighbourhood Plan, submission version: https://www.desford-pc.gov.uk/uploads/desford-neighbourhood-plan-submission-version-december-2019.pdf — Provides contextual evidence that the medieval manor was farmed through an open-field system and cautions that parts of the modern civil parish boundary may preserve older estate boundaries; it does not provide a sufficiently reliable manor-specific perimeter for polygon reconstruction.
Warnings / uncertainty:
- The representative point is based on the documented Old Manor House/Old Hall site, but the surviving sources do not conclusively prove that this building was the sole or continuous centre of the exact MDR record throughout all periods.
- Desford contains other buildings with manor-related names, including Manor Farmhouse and Desford Hall; these were not used as the representative point because the Old Manor House has the strongest explicit historical association with the manor.
- No defensible historical manorial polygon was found. The modern civil parish boundary, conservation-area boundary and settlement footprint must not be treated as the boundary of Desford Manor.