ASPALLS MANOR

Identity: confirmed — The registry name Aspalls Manor and Mildenhall location match the documented medieval sub-manor of Mildenhall historically associated with Aspal Hall, now a demolished moated manor-house site in the Holywell Row/Beck Row area of the ancient parish of Mildenhall. Suffolk Historic Environment Record MNL 083 explicitly identifies Aspal Hall as the site of the manor once held by Sir Robert de Aspal and as a sub-manor of Mildenhall. The listed archival rentals, extents and court records for the Manor of Aspalls provide consistent supporting evidence.
Representative point: 52.3689, 0.4981
Basis: documented_manor_site — Approximate WGS84 conversion of Suffolk Historic Environment Record grid reference TL 7017 7746, identifying the demolished, moated site of Aspal Hall. The site is the strongest surviving geographical locus for Aspalls Manor.
Point confidence: high
Boundary status: representative_point_only
Boundary period: Medieval to early modern; documented acreage c.1445
Boundary confidence: none
Boundary basis: The available evidence establishes the manor site and records an extent of approximately 70 acres of land, 14.5 acres of meadow and 10 acres of marsh in about 1445, but no accessible source supplies a plotted perimeter or enough explicit parcel-by-parcel boundary evidence to reconstruct the historical manorial territory. The modern Aspal Close/Aspal Park area and the ancient parish of Mildenhall must not be substituted for the manor boundary.
Sources:
- Suffolk Historic Environment Record: MNL 083 - Aspal Hall, Holywell Row: https://suffolkher-dev.esdm.co.uk/Monument/MSF8898 — Identifies the demolished site of Aspal Hall, gives grid reference TL 7017 7746, describes the surviving moat, and states that the manor once belonged to Sir Robert de Aspal and was a sub-manor of Mildenhall.
- Suffolk County Council, Mildenhall parish summary: https://heritage.suffolk.gov.uk/media/pdfs/mildenhall.pdf — Lists Aspalls as a sub-manor of Mildenhall; records Sir Robert de Aspal c.1326, George de Felbrigge in 1375, approximately 70 acres of land, 14.5 acres of meadow and 10 acres of marsh c.1445, and absorption into the main manor in 1557.
- West Suffolk Council, Mildenhall Conservation Area Appraisal: https://www.westsuffolk.gov.uk/planning/Conservation/upload/Mildenhall-Public-Consultation-Draft.pdf — Confirms the historical relationship between Mildenhall Manor and Aspalls Manor and their joint ownership in 1557.
- The National Archives: Aspalls Manor registry record F249836: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/c/F249836 — Primary registry record for the exact manor identity used in this investigation.
- The National Archives: rental of Aspalls Manor, 1538-1552, E18/454/4: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/N14551345 — Archival rental specifically identified as a rental of the Manor of Aspalls, supporting the exact manor identification and its separate documentary existence.
- Iron Age Fortification archaeological report: https://eaareports.org.uk/assets/uploads/EAA_REPORT_169.pdf — Bibliography identifies Suffolk archival material including the 1538-1552 Rental of the Manor of Aspalls, E18/454/4, and related Mildenhall estate records.
Warnings / uncertainty:
- The representative point is the documented Aspal Hall manor-house site, not the centre of Mildenhall settlement.
- No historically defensible manor boundary polygon was located. The recorded acreage is insufficient by itself to determine a perimeter.
- The modern civil-parish boundary, Aspal Close Local Nature Reserve and wider Mildenhall parish are not treated as the historical manorial extent.