Buckden Palace

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as; Buckden Towers; Bugden

In the civil parish of Buckden. In the historic county of Huntingdonshire (Modern Authority of Cambridgeshire, 1974 county of Cambridgeshire).

Buckden Palace, tower, gatehouses, foundations and moat, N of the church. The manor belonged to the Bishops of Lincoln at the time of the Domesday Survey but it is uncertain when first a house was built on the site. Bishop Hugh de Wells (1209 - 1235) is said to have built or rebuilt a manor house at Buckden and Bishop Robert Grosseteste (1235 - 1254) is credited with building the great hall. The buildings were burnt in 1291 but the extent of the damage does not appear. To C13 would appear to belong the foundations of the great chamber, the chapel, and parts of the great hall. An extensive rebuilding of the palace took place under Bishops Thomas Rotherham (1472 -1480) and John Russell (1480 - 1494); the former according to Leland built the great tower and restored the great hall; the great tower was probably finished by Bishop Russell, whose arms formerly appeared on the woodwork, and the same Bishops built the inner and outer gatehouses and the enclosure walls. Considerable repairs were made to the buildings by Bishop John Williams (1621 -1642) who appears to have rebuilt and shortened the chapel and repaired the cloister. Under the Commonwealth a large part of the house including the great hall was demolished, but the house was restored on a smaller scale by Bishop Robert Sanderson (1660 -1663), the great hall not being rebuilt. In 1839 about half the main building and part of the gatehouse range were demolished and the great tower dismantled. The great chamber, chapel and adjoining buildings were pulled down in 1871, when the modern house was erected and the moat was filled in at the same time. The existing remains are handsome examples of late C15 brickwork. The palace, when complete, consisted of an inner walled and moated enclosure, containing the main buildings of the house and entered by the inner gatehouse on the W side, and an outer walled enclosure on the W entered by the outer gatehouse and containing various outbuildings. Of the main structure of the house only the great tower now survives. (Camb. SMR record)

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law. This is a Grade 1 listed building protected by law*. (Images of England number 54294; 54295; 54296; 54297)

The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is TL19246772

Air Photo from Air Photo and general mapping	1st edition OS Map from Mid to late 19th century maps
Modern Map from Landscape form and features	Modern Map from General location and route planning
Geograph British Isles occasionally has photos of the site and will usually give an idea of the surrounding landscape.

Sources of information, references and further reading

This site's English Heritage (PastScape) Defra or Monument number is 363084
This site's County Historic Environment Record (formerly Sites and Monuments Record) number is 00653 and others 'grey' literature, such as watching brief reports, held by H.E.R.s is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded in this website.

• Web site links
  • http://www.buckden-village.co.uk/
    http://www.fobt.fsnet.co.uk/
    http://www.ecastles.co.uk/buckden.html
• Books
  • Salter, Mike, 2001, The Castles of East Anglia (Malvern) p15
    Emery, Anthony, 2000, Greater Medieval Houses Vol2 (Cambridge) p229, 270
    Thompson, M.W., 1998, Medieval bishops' houses in England and Wales (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing) p10, 112-4, 118, 162, 179
    Pettifer, A., 1995, English Castles, A guide by counties (Woodbridge) p10-11 [plan]
    King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol1 p225
    Fry, P.S., 1980, Castles of the British Isles (David and Charles) p196
    Pevsner, N., 1968, The Buildings of England. Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire and Peterborough p232
    Peach, Maurice, 1957, The palace of Buckden : a concise survey (Buckden)
    RCHME, 1926, An inventory of the historical monuments in Huntingdonshire p34-38
    Inskip Ladds, S., 1926, in Page, Wm and Proby, Granville (eds), VCH Huntingdon Vol1 p268
    Mackenzie, J.D., 1896, Castles of England (New York: Macmillan) Vol1 p314 http://www.archive.org/stream/castlesofengland01mack#page/314/mode/1up
    Turner, T.H. and Parker, J.H., 1859, Some account of Domestic Architecture in England (Oxford) Vol3 pt2 p251
    Buck, Samuel and Nathenial, 1774, Buck’s Antiquities (London) Vol1 p118
• Journal Articles
  • Kenyon, J.R., 1981 'Early Artillery Fortifications in England and Wales: a Preliminary Survey and Re-appraisal' The Archaeological Journal Vol138 p228
    Kenyon, J.R., 1977, 'Early Gunports' Vol4 p76
    Thompson, M.W., 1968, 'Buckden Palace' The Archaeological Journal Vol124 p250
    Simpson, W.D., 1937, 'Buckden Palace' Journal of the British Archaeological Association ser3 Vol2
    Edleston, 1922, Peterborough N.H., etc., Socy., p40-7 and plates
    Tipping, 1909, Country Life Vol26 p162-6
• Guidebooks
  • Sweeny, M., 1981, A History of Buckden Palace (Buckden)
• Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
  • William Camden, 1607, Britannia [http://www.philological.bham.ac.uk/cambrit/huntseng.html#hunts2]
    Chandler, John, 1993, John Leland's Itinerary: travels in Tudor England (Sutton Publishing) p241
• Other sources, 'grey' literature, unpublished works, etc. (Theses, in-house reports and other such)
  • Payne, Naomi, 2003, The medieval residences of the bishops of Bath and Wells, and Salisbury (PhD Thesis University of Bristol) Appendix B: List of Medieval Bishop's Palaces in England and Wales [available via http://ethos.bl.uk ]