ALTON PRIORS MANOR

Identity: confirmed — The supplied primary name, historical name, Overton/Wiltshire location, and archive references match the former manor historically known as Alton Priors and Stowell. Wiltshire historical material states that from 1284 the estate was a separate manor comprising the lands of the tithings of Alton and West Stowell.
Representative point: 51.3574, -1.8450
Basis: documented_manor_house — The Priory at Alton Priors is identified by Historic England as the surviving reduced remains of the late-seventeenth-century manor house, probably replacing the earlier manorial residence. Coordinates are converted approximately from Historic England NGR SU 10886 62038.
Point confidence: medium
Boundary status: representative_point_only
Boundary period: From 1284 onward; historically comprising the tithings of Alton and West Stowell
Boundary confidence: none
Boundary basis: The historical extent is documented textually as the lands of the Alton and West Stowell tithings, but no reliable manor-specific map, survey, rental plan, or documented perimeter was located. The parish or modern civil boundary cannot safely be substituted for the manorial boundary.
Sources:
- Wiltshire Council Community History: Alton Priors: https://apps.wiltshire.gov.uk/communityhistory/Community/Index/5 — States that in 1284 the estate, then separate from Patney, was confirmed to St Swithun's and comprised the land of the tithings of Alton and West Stowell; it was subsequently known as the manor of Alton Priors and Stowell.
- The National Archives: Manor record F273381: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/c/F273381 — Registry record supplied for the manor, associated with Overton, Wiltshire, and authority/reference GB/NNAF/M291443.
- Historic England: The Priory, Alton, list entry 1035677: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1035677 — Identifies The Priory at Alton Priors, NGR SU 10886 62038, as the surviving reduced remains of a late-seventeenth-century house, historically the manor-house site.
- Wiltshire OPC Project: Alton, Barnes and Alton Priors: https://www.wiltshire-opc.org.uk/parishes/alton-barnes/ — Confirms that Alton Priors was a former chapelry of Overton and included the tything of West Stowell, helping distinguish the manor from the separate Overton manor.
Warnings / uncertainty:
- No defensible manor-specific polygon was found.
- The stated historical extent should not be treated as identical to the modern civil parish of Alton, the former ecclesiastical parish, or the wider parish of Overton.
- The representative coordinates are approximate WGS84 coordinates derived from the documented National Grid reference.