Zouches Manor (also Zouches Castle) was an Anglo-Saxon moated manor in Fulbourn Fen, a Site of Special Scientific Interest in the village of Fulbourn, Cambridgeshire, England. It is one of the historic Five Manors of Fulbourn and recorded to have existed 1066 AD to 1539 AD. [1]
The eponymous manor was built by Alan la Zouche, Earl of Brittany (the same family that held Ashby-de-la-Zouch in Leicestershire) [2] in the 13th century on an earlier site. The moat ditch and platform are likely to have been constructed in the 12th or 13th century, obscuring who exactly built the structure.
It came in the hands of the Zouches in 1230, following peace with Brittany. Alan la Zouche, then viscount of Rohan, granted his Cambridgeshire lands to Roger la Zouch. The Zouches and their successors continued to hold Zouches Manor of the honor of Richmond into the 15th century in socage, rendering two gilt spurs yearly into the 15th century. After 1500 the tenure was reckoned as knight service. [3]
It later came into ownership by the Docwra family when it was known as Dunmowes Manor. There is ambiguity [4] over whether Zouches Manor and Dunmowes Manor are the same or whether the latter was built by the Dockra family in the 16th century on the site of the former. [5] The Dockra (or Docwra) family has extensive history in the area. [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12]
Dunmowes Manor took its name from the Norman surname Dunmowe (Saxon 'Dommauua', modern English 'Dunmall'). The Domesday Book recorded the family as holders of a family seat as Lords of the Manor of Dunmow. [13] It is unclear if this is Dunmowes Manor in Fulbourn or the Essex villages 30 miles away at Great Dunmow and Little Dunmow.
The location commands access to the village and the upland areas from The Fens and was probably chosen to defend against attack from the Fens during troubles such as the First Barons' War in the 13th century and the battles between the Romano-British (to the south), Anglo-Saxons (in East Anglia) and Belgae & Norman invaders.
The site has been extensively archaeologically researched. [14] [15]
Cambridgeshire is a county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west. The city of Cambridge is the county town. Following the Local Government Act 1972 restructuring, modern Cambridgeshire was formed in 1974 through the amalgamation of two administrative counties: Cambridgeshire and Isle of Ely, comprising the historic county of Cambridgeshire ; and Huntingdon and Peterborough, comprising the historic county of Huntingdonshire and the Soke of Peterborough, historically part of Northamptonshire. Cambridgeshire contains most of the region known as Silicon Fen.
Ashby de la Zouch Castle is a ruined fortification in the town of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicestershire, England. The castle was built by William, Lord Hastings, a favourite of Edward IV, after 1473, accompanied by the creation of a 3,000-acre (1,200 ha) park. Constructed on the site of an older manor house, two large towers and various smaller buildings had been constructed by 1483, when Hastings was executed by Richard, Duke of Gloucester. The Hastings family used the castle as their seat for several generations, improving the gardens and hosting royal visitors.
Ramsey is a market town and civil parish in the Huntingdonshire district of Cambridgeshire, England. The town is about 9 miles (14 km) north of Huntingdon. Ramsey parish includes the settlements of Ramsey Forty Foot, Ramsey Heights, Ramsey Mereside, Ramsey Hollow and Ramsey St Mary's.
Baron Zouche is a title which has been created three times, all in the Peerage of England.
Fulbourn is a village in Cambridgeshire, England, with evidence of settlement dating back to Neolithic times. The village was probably established under its current name by 1200. The waterfowl-frequented stream after which it was named lies in the east, close to the division between arable and fenland.
The English county of Cambridgeshire has a long history.
Landbeach is a small fen-edge English village about three miles (5 km) north of Cambridge. The parish covers an area of 9 km2 (3.5 sq mi).
Devil's Dyke or Devil's Ditch is a linear earthen barrier, thought to be of Anglo-Saxon origin, in eastern Cambridgeshire and Suffolk. It runs for 7 miles in an almost straight line from Reach to Woodditton, with a 10-metre-high ditch and bank system facing southwestwards, blocking the open chalkland between the marshy fens to the north and the formerly wooded hills to the south. It is a Scheduled Monument, a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest and a Special Area of Conservation.
Cherry Hinton is a suburban area of the city of Cambridge, in Cambridgeshire, England. It is around 3 miles (4.8 km) southeast of Cambridge city centre.
Thorney Abbey, now the Church of St Mary and St Botolph, was a medieval monastic house established on the island of Thorney in The Fens of Cambridgeshire, England.
Fleam Dyke is a linear earthwork between Fulbourn and Balsham in Cambridgeshire, initiated at some timepoint between AD 330 and AD 510. It is three miles long and seven metres high from ditch to bank, and its ditch faces westwards, implying invading Saxons as its architects. Later, it formed a boundary of the late Anglo-Saxon administrative division of Flendish Hundred. At a prominent point, the earthwork runs beside Mutlow Hill, crowned by a 4000-year-old Bronze Age burial mound. The entire length is now a Scheduled Monument and a 7.8 hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest.
Freckenham is a small rural village and civil parish in the West Suffolk district of Suffolk in East Anglia, in the country of England.
Fulbourn Fen is a 27.3 hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest east of Fulbourn, Cambridgeshire. It is privately owned and managed by the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire.
Witchford is a village and civil parish about 2.5 miles (4 km) west of Ely, Cambridgeshire, England. The 2011 Census recorded the parish's population as 2,385.
Little Thetford is a small village in the civil parish of Thetford, 3 miles (5 km) south of Ely in Cambridgeshire, England, about 76 miles (122 km) by road from London. The village is built on a boulder clay island surrounded by flat fenland countryside, typical of settlements in this part of the East of England. During the Mesolithic era, the fenland basin was mostly dry and forested, although subject to salt and fresh water incursions. The marshes and meres of this fenland may therefore have been difficult to occupy, other than seasonally, but there is evidence of human settlement on the island since the late Neolithic Age; a Bronze Age causeway linked the village with the nearby Barway, to the south-east. An investigation, prior to a 1995 development in the village, discovered a farm and large tile-kiln of Romano-British origin; further investigations uncovered an earlier settlement of the Pre-Roman Iron Age. The Roman road Akeman Street passed through the north-west corner of the parish, and the lost 7th century Anglo-Saxon village of Cratendune may be nearby.
The awarding of a flitch of bacon to married couples who can swear to not having regretted their marriage for a year and a day is an old tradition, the remnants of which still survive in some pockets in England. The tradition was maintained at Wychnor Hall in Staffordshire until at least the eighteenth century, but now the flitch required to be held remains only as a carving over the fireplace. At Little Dunmow in Essex a similar ceremony also survived into the eighteenth century. The tradition can be traced back to at least the fourteenth century at both sites and the Dunmow flitch is referred to in Chaucer. The awarding of a flitch at both sites seems to have been an exceedingly rare event.
Cratendune is the name of the lost village reported in the Liber Eliensis, the history of the abbey, then Ely Cathedral, compiled towards the end of the 12th century, as the 500th anniversary of the traditional founding date drew near. As no direction is indicated in Liber Eliensis, a number of archaeological sites are therefore candidates for this lost village.
Alan la Zouche (1205–1270) was an English nobleman and soldier of Breton descent. He built the Zouches Manor.
Nicholas Lane was an English surveyor and cartographer, active in the early part of the seventeenth century, rising to prominence in his works for King Charles I.
Fulbourn Manor is a Grade II listed building in the county of Cambridgeshire and the sole surviving manor of the Five Manors of Fulbourn.