ALWALTON MANOR

Identity: confirmed — The registry record is specifically for Alwalton Manor in Alwalton, Huntingdonshire. The historical evidence identifies a single manor of Alwalton: in 1279 the abbot of Peterborough held the manor and vill of Alwalton, with its court, demesne, tenants, mills, fishery and ferry. The surviving listed Manor House at Water End is in Alwalton parish and is the best documented surviving manorial site.
Representative point: 52.5492821, -0.3293403
Basis: documented_manor_house — The surviving Manor House, Water End, Alwalton, identified by Historic England as a manor house and located at National Grid Reference TL 13482 96172. The coordinate is published for Alwalton Manor House and is consistent with that grid reference.
Point confidence: high
Boundary status: representative_point_only
Boundary period: Medieval evidence, especially 1279; later manorial extent not reconstructed
Boundary confidence: none
Boundary basis: The 1279 Hundred Rolls describe the territorial components of the manor and vill: 5.5 hides and 1.5 virgates of land in the whole vill, the abbot's demesne, meadow, pasture, three mills, and a fishery and weir on the Nene extending from Wildlake to the mill of Newton. This establishes a substantial manorial extent but does not provide a sufficiently traceable perimeter for a defensible polygon. A 1809 Alwalton inclosure map is catalogued by Cambridgeshire Archives, but the accessible evidence does not expose enough of the map's parcel-level boundary information to reconstruct the manor boundary safely. The manor should not be substituted with the modern parish or settlement boundary.
Sources:
- The National Archives: Alwalton Manor, TNA/MDR record F271767: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/c/F271767 — Registry record identifying the exact manor as Alwalton Manor in Alwalton, Huntingdonshire, under authority/reference GB/NNAF/M289822.
- Historic England: The Manor House, Alwalton, list entry 1164628: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1164628 — Identifies The Manor House at Water End, Alwalton parish, as a manor house; gives National Grid Reference TL 13482 96172 and describes the surviving early/mid-seventeenth-century building.
- Alwalton Manor, 1279: Hundred Rolls transcription: https://www2.hawaii.edu/~kjolly/IMS/alwalton.html — Records the manor and vill of Alwalton, its court and garden, 5.5 hides and 1.5 virgates, demesne land, meadow, pasture, three mills, fishery, weir, ferry and tenants.
- Cambridgeshire Archives: collection browser, Alwalton inclosure map 1809: https://calm.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/TreeBrowse.aspx?field=RefNo&key=KDMC%2F167&src=CalmView.Catalog — Catalogues an Alwalton inclosure map dated 1809 under item 20, providing a relevant lead for later territorial reconstruction but not an accessible, fully legible manor boundary in the available record.
- The National Archives: copies of surveys, with other estates, 1649; reference PD/DC/E/3/1: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/N15995165 — Existing archive lead for survey material associated with the manor records held by Northamptonshire Archives Service.
Warnings / uncertainty:
- The representative point is suitable for locating the historical manor but represents the documented manor-house site, not the full medieval or later manorial territory.
- No defensible historical polygon was found. The 1279 extent describes land and appurtenances but lacks a traceable perimeter, and the modern parish boundary must not be used as a substitute.
- The 1809 inclosure map and associated surveys may support future boundary reconstruction if the archival images or parcel schedules are obtained and examined.