ASTON MANOR

Identity: confirmed — The registry location, authority reference, and the Woodhall Park archive series all identify the historic Manor of Aston in Aston, Hertfordshire. Scholarly evidence identifies Queen Adeliza's 1136 grant of the manor and church of Aston to Reading Abbey, while Historic England identifies Aston Bury Manor as the surviving historic manor-house site in Aston. The extensive Aston court-roll, rental, extent and terrier records in the supplied leads are consistent with this same manorial complex.
Representative point: 51.8793, -0.1476
Basis: documented_manor_house — Aston Bury Manor, Aston Bury Lane, is a documented historic manor house and probable site of the medieval/manorial centre of Aston. Historic England gives National Grid Reference TL 27606 21702, corresponding to approximately 51.8793, -0.1476.
Point confidence: high
Boundary status: representative_point_only
Boundary period: Medieval to early modern manor, documented through the 12th-century foundation grant and surviving court, rental, extent and terrier records from 1309 to the 18th century
Boundary confidence: none
Boundary basis: The evidence confirms the manor's location and existence but does not provide an accessible manor-specific boundary map or a sufficiently explicit perimeter. The supplied archive leads include potentially valuable surveys and land descriptions, especially the 1450 survey and rental, the 1540 extent and rental, and the 1540 terrier, but their catalogue descriptions do not establish the geographic boundary. The civil parish of Aston and the modern Aston Bury estate cannot safely be substituted for the historical manorial extent.
Sources:
- Aston Bury Manor, Aston - Historic England National Heritage List entry 1174988: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1174988 — Identifies the Grade I listed Aston Bury Manor in Aston, Hertfordshire, gives NGR TL 27606 21702, and describes it as a historic manor house.
- Two Twelfth-Century Charters of Reading Abbey - The Antiquaries Journal: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquaries-journal/article/abs/two-twelfthcentury-charters-of-reading-abbey/741FE4CF9A35B2BFDF46FCB0AE4BB03F — States that Queen Adeliza's charter gave the manor and church of Aston, Hertfordshire, to Reading Abbey, and places the relevant deeds among the Woodhall Park estate records.
- Aston Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Plan - East Herts Council: https://www.eastherts.gov.uk/sites/default/files/documents/Aston_Conservation_Area_Appraisal.pdf — Records the Domesday manorial estate of Aston, including its assessed hides, ploughlands, meadow, pasture and woodland, and identifies Aston Bury as a historic former monastic/manorial site.
- Parishes: Aston, A History of the County of Hertford: Volume 3: https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/herts/vol3/pp54-58 — Standard county-history account of Aston, including the descent and historical setting of the manor; the page was identified as the relevant VCH treatment although direct retrieval was unavailable.
- TNA/MDR record F242925 - The National Archives Discovery: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/c/F242925 — Registry record supplied for Aston Manor, Aston, Hertfordshire, matching the manor identified through the associated Woodhall Park archival records.
Warnings / uncertainty:
- No historically defensible manor-specific polygon was located in the accessible online evidence.
- The Aston civil-parish boundary, Aston conservation-area boundary, and modern Aston Bury estate grounds must not be treated as the medieval or early-modern manorial boundary.
- The representative point is suitable for locating the manor but does not imply that the manor's territorial extent was confined to the present Aston Bury grounds.