Shellingford Manor

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as; Shellingford Castle; Shillingford

In the civil parish of Shellingford. In the historic county of Berkshire (Modern Authority of Oxfordshire, 1974 county of Oxfordshire).

The Manor house of Shellingford, described by Lysons as an ancient stone building "called, it does not appear for what reason, Shellingford Castle" has now disappeared,(Lysons), but foundations of the house were pointed out to W. Money some years before 1910. He refers to the buildings as Shellingford Castle(Money). An early C16 range of buildings southwest of the Church, and now converted into cottages, is probably the remains of the manor house offices (Long) There are no remains of "Shellingford Castle", and the site is now occupied by a farmyard and a grass plot. The cottages to the S.W. of the church have been much altered and retain little of C16 date or interest. A water-colour by Buckler (1818) of Shellingford Castle is in the Bodleian Library. This shows a C16 house of 2 storeys with gables containing attic windows. The S.W. face has 3 gables and the S.E. face 4 gables. The painting shows the frontage of the house to be flush with the N.E. end of the above mentioned cottages and the house would therefore be centred at SU 3197 9348. (field investigators comments 1964) Shellingford was a principal demesne manor of Abingdon Abbey estates in 1086. It produced cheese. Fishpond earthworks have been recognised but no documentation has yet been traced. There were two manors here, one of which was Shellingford Newbury. There is documentary evidence only for a dovecote and a corn mill (Bond). (PastScape)
The tenurial history, as the chief manor of Abingdon Abbey, argues against a castle although the medieval manor house may have been used by the abbot and may, therefore, been of high status and impressively built. However, it would seem most likely that the castle name is a later, fanciful, attribution.

The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is SU31969347

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 229596
This site's County Historic Environment Record (formerly Sites and Monuments Record) number is 7059 '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.berkshirehistory.com/castles/other_cast.html
• Books
  • King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol1 p13
    Page, Wm and Ditchfield, P.H., 1924, VCH Berkshire Vol4 p475 http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=62752
    Harvey, Alfred, 1911, Castles and Walled Towns of England (Methuen and Co)
    Lysons, D. and S., 1806, Magna Britannia Vol1 p360
• Journal Articles
  • Bond, C.J., 1979, 'The reconstruction of the medieval landscape: the estates of Abingdon Abbey' Landscape History Vol1 p59-75
    Long, E.T., 1941, 'Medieval Domestic Architecture in Berkshire' Berkshire Archaeological Journal Vol45 p32 [download via http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/resources.html?berks_bas_2007]
• Other sources, 'grey' literature, unpublished works, etc. (Theses, in-house reports and other such)
  • Letter from W. Money dated 3-11-1910