Pucklechurch Moat House

In the civil parish of Pucklechurch. In the historic county of Gloucestershire (Modern Authority of South Gloucestershire, 1974 county of Avon).

Medieval palace and park of Bishops of Bath and Wells, at Pucklechurch. Called by Leland 'a parke and a goodly lordshipe'. The house is built of coursed limestone with pantiled and double Roman tiled roofs. This is a complex house, whose architectural history is complicated by the fact that it is a remnant of a much larger house called the Great House or Great Hall. At some date a large part of the house was destroyed, possibly by fire. The hall and parlour block is the oldest portion, with enormously thick stone walls on three sides, and dates to C14. In the late C16 the medieval house was greatly enlarged and modified, the new work included the addition of a service wing, separated from the parlour block by a passage containing the staircase.
Payne felt it unlikely that this was a residential manor and that when using the deer park the bishops resided at Bath. However, I feel the documentary and archaeological evidence does suggest a residence here.

The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is ST69717671

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 201292
This site's County Historic Environment Record (formerly Sites and Monuments Record) number is 6556 '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.

• Books
  • Thompson, M.W., 1998, Medieval bishops' houses in England and Wales (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing) p170
    Verey, David, 1980, The Buildings of England: Gloucestershire, The Vale and the Forest of Dean p326
• Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
  • Chandler, John, 1993, John Leland's Itinerary: travels in Tudor England (Sutton Publishing) p187
    Toulmin-Smith, Lucy (ed), 1910, The itinerary of John Leland in or about the years 1535-1543 (Bell and Sons; London) Vol5 p102 http://www.archive.org/details/itineraryofjohnl05lelauoft
• 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) p153-5 [available via http://ethos.bl.uk ]