ALLOWENSHAY MANOR

Identity: confirmed — The registry's primary name ALLOWENSHAY MANOR matches the documented medieval and later manor of Allowenshay in Kingstone, Somerset. The historical-name form Kingstone is consistent with the same local manor and parish context; local historical material records Allowenshay as the name of the local manor after about 1300, with documentary variants including Halwenesheye, Alwynesheye, Alwyneshegh, Allowenshay and Allenshay.
Representative point: 50.91586, -2.86569
Basis: supported_manorial_centre — Allowenshay hamlet, the settlement that gave the manor its recorded name. A medieval capital messuage is documented, but its precise site has not been identified. The point is therefore a supported centre for the historical manorial locality, not a confirmed manor-house location.
Point confidence: medium
Boundary status: representative_point_only
Boundary period: Medieval, evidenced particularly by the 1434 inquisition post mortem
Boundary confidence: none
Boundary basis: The 1434 inquisition records the manor as containing a capital messuage, watermill, 28 messuages with 28 virgates, 100 acres of arable demesne, 25 acres of meadow and assize rents. These establish the manor's territorial substance but do not provide a perimeter or sufficiently locatable parcel list. Local historical evidence identifies park remains north of Allowenshay, but these cannot safely be converted into the manor's full boundary. The civil-parish boundary and modern settlement extent have not been substituted for the manorial boundary.
Sources:
- Parishes: Kingstone, A History of the County of Somerset, Volume 3: https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/som/vol3/pp203-209 — Identifies Allowenshay as the dominant settlement and name of the local manor after about 1300, and discusses the medieval settlement, chapel and possible park remains.
- E-CIPM 24-228: Eleanor who was wife of John Chediok: https://inquisitionspostmortem.ac.uk/view/inquisition/24-228/ — The 1434 Somerset inquisition explicitly records the manor of Allowenshay and its capital messuage, watermill, 28 messuages, 28 virgates, 100 acres of arable demesne and 25 acres of meadow.
- Kingstone Parish Meeting: Kingstone Parish History: https://www.kingstoneparish.org/ — Confirms the Kingstone/Allowenshay identity, lists the historical name variants of Allowenshay Manor and places Allowenshay within Kingstone parish.
- The Old Farmhouse, Kingstone - Historic England listing 1177094: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1177094 — Provides a precise geospatial reference for a surviving historic farmhouse in Allowenshay at NGR ST 39247 13297; it is not identified by the source as the medieval manor house, so it was not treated as a documented manor-house site.
Warnings / uncertainty:
- No defensible historical perimeter polygon was found. Do not inject a boundary based on the modern Kingstone civil parish, Allowenshay hamlet, postcode area or contemporary estate extent.
- The representative point is approximate and centred on the documented manorial settlement of Allowenshay; it is not a confirmed location of the medieval capital messuage or manor house.
- The surviving Old Farmhouse in Allowenshay is a possible historic local-site reference but is not documented as the medieval manor house.