ALFORD MANOR

Identity: likely — The record is best identified with the historical Alford manor rather than the surviving 1611 Alford Manor House. The historical evidence links the Alford manor estate with the Ryther/Rither family and records its appurtenant lands in Alford, Well, Ailby, Tothby, Bilsby, Rigsby and Mawthorpe in Willoughby. The supplied alternatives Acclom, Aldford Acclom and Alford Acclom are consistent with the Acclom/Acklam family connection recorded in the historical material. Online evidence does not establish a completely unambiguous equivalence between every supplied registry alias and a single surviving manor-house site.
Representative point: 53.261539, 0.179353
Basis: supported_manorial_centre — Approximate centre of Alford, Lincolnshire, the named location and principal settlement of the historical manor. The evidence supports Alford as the manorial centre, but does not securely identify the surviving Alford Manor House on West Street as the house of this particular manor; local historical material explicitly distinguishes that building from the purely Alford manors.
Point confidence: medium
Boundary status: representative_point_only
Boundary period: Historical medieval to early-modern extent; specific period of the full listed appurtenances is not securely established
Boundary confidence: none
Boundary basis: The available evidence gives a textual territorial description rather than a mapped perimeter: lands or appurtenances are reported in Alford, Well, Ailby, Tothby, Bilsby, Rigsby and Mawthorpe in Willoughby. The supplied 1790 survey is a promising archival lead, but no accessible online plan or parcel schedule was found that would permit a defensible reconstruction of the manorial boundary. The extent should therefore not be substituted with the modern Alford parish or any other administrative boundary.
Sources:
- The National Archives Discovery: F291300, Alford Manor: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/c/F291300 — Registry authority record for the supplied manor identification.
- Reginald C. Dudding, History of the Parish and Manors of Alford with Rigsby and Ailby, with Some Account of Well: https://books.google.com/books/about/History_of_the_parish_and_manors_of_Alfo.html?id=QzwGAQAAIAAJ — Historical monograph specifically treating the manors of Alford, Rigsby, Ailby and Well; its contents include the Alford manors, Ryther/Rither, Bilsby, Mawthorpe and related local places.
- Alford Manor House history: https://www.alford.info/history/alford-manor-house-history — Useful distinction between the surviving Alford Manor House and the separate historical manors of Alford; it states that Alford comprised several manors and that the house was not connected with the two purely Alford manors.
- Lincolnshire Heritage Explorer: Alford Manor House, MLI86812: https://heritage-explorer.lincolnshire.gov.uk/Monument/MLI86812 — Documents the location of the surviving Alford Manor House at TF 45370 76048, but does not identify it as the manor house of this exact Alford registry manor.
- Alford, Lincolnshire gazetteer entry: https://gazetteer.org.uk/place/Alford%2C_Lincolnshire_612 — Provides the representative settlement coordinates used for the supported manorial-centre point.
- Lincolnshire Archives survey lead, HIG/1/1, 1790: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/N17769465 — Archival survey lead that may contain parcel or estate information relevant to reconstructing the territorial extent; an online boundary plan was not available in the research results.
Warnings / uncertainty:
- Do not use the surviving Alford Manor House as the exact manor-house point for this record without consulting the underlying estate papers: local historical evidence distinguishes it from the purely Alford manors.
- The historical extent is multi-local and cannot safely be represented by the modern Alford civil-parish boundary.
- A mapped polygon requires examination of the 1790 survey and/or earlier estate maps, rentals, enclosure records or court materials held by Lincolnshire Archives.