Earthworks in Henley Wood

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1005945
Date first listed:: 29-Oct-1957

The Missing Pieces Project

Share your view of unique places.

Add your contribution

Location

Location of this list entry and nearby places that are also listed. Use our map search to find more listed places.

There is a problem

Use of this mapping is subject to terms and conditions.

This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale.

What is the National Heritage List for England?

The National Heritage List for England is a unique register of our country's most significant historic buildings and sites. The places on the list are protected by law and most are not open to the public.

The list includes:

🏠 Buildings
🏰 Scheduled monuments
🌳 Parks and gardens
⚔️ Battlefields
⚓ Shipwrecks

Find out more about listing

Historic England Archive

Search over 1 million photographs and drawings from the 1850s to the present day using our images archive.

Find Photos

Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Scheduled Monument
List Entry Number:: 1005945
Date first listed:: 29-Oct-1957

Location

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County:: Surrey
District:: Tandridge (District Authority)
Parish:: Chelsham and Farleigh
National Grid Reference:: TQ 37474 58532

Summary

Medieval manor house in Henley Wood, 330m south-west of Old Bull Cottage.

Reasons for Designation

Manorial centres were important foci of medieval rural life. They served as prestigious aristocratic or seigneurial residences, the importance of their owners and inhabitants being reflected in the quality and elaboration of their buildings. Local agricultural and village life was normally closely regulated by the lord of the manor, and hence the inhabitants of these sites had a controlling interest in many aspects of medieval life. Manorial sites could take on many forms. Their buildings normally included a hall used as communal space for domestic and administrative purposes, private chambers, service and storage areas and kitchens (which were often housed in separate structures to reduce fire risk). The wider manorial complex may often have included stables, barns, stores, dovecots, fishponds, and enclosures for orchards and gardens. In many areas of the country the buildings were located within a moat, the latter being intended to further enhance the status of the site. Other manors were not moated, their status being indicated largely by the qualities of their buildings or their location in a prominent position. Continued use of sites has in many instances led to the destruction of medieval remains. Hence examples of medieval manorial centres which can be positively identified and shown to have extensive surviving archaeological remains are relatively rare.

The surviving below-ground masonry and substantial earthwork remains at Henley Wood are well preserved. The earthworks are likely to contain further archaeological and environmental information that increase understanding of the land-use and settlement history of the area.

History

See Details

Details

This record was the subject of a minor enhancement on 17/10/14. This record has been generated from an "old county number" (OCN) scheduling record. These are monuments that were not reviewed under the Monuments Protection Programme and are some of our oldest designation records.

DESCRIPTION The monument includes a medieval manor house surviving as earthworks and below ground remains. It is situated on north and west facing slopes near Chelsham. The earthworks comprise an outer and inner enclosure, both having a bank and ditch. The outer enclosure has been reduced on the east side but is well marked on the other three sides. A holloway or sunken trackway leads from the crossroads at Chelsham Common, 300m to the north, to the earthworks. The holloway enters the earthworks through what appears to be a deliberate entrance on the north side. Partial excavation was undertaken in 1912 and 1974. This revealed a range of finds including worked flint, Saxon pottery, late 12th to 14th pottery, medieval roofing tiles, an Iron chisel, knife blade and ox-shoe and a stone-lined well. A substantial medieval building with a central hearth, believed to date to between 1180 and 1320 was also uncovered. The manor house is likely to be the remains of the second Chelsham Court Manor recorded in the Doomsday Book.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:: SU 51
Legacy System:: RSM - OCN

Sources

Books and journals
L.L., Ketteringham, Medieval Building in Henley Wood, Chelsham. In Surrey Archaeological Collections. Volume 72., (1980), 83-90
Other
Surrey HER 1190, 3331, 14655. NMR TQ35NE6. PastScape 403719.

Legal

This monument is scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 as amended as it appears to the Secretary of State to be of national importance. This entry is a copy, the original is held by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.