Skip to main content
hide
Manors information for Owlpen and places above it in the hierarchy
- From earliest recorded times the Manor was a focal point for our ancestors. Manorial records which may exist from the time before parish registers begin, may provide clues to our family history, in terms of who our ancestors worked for, what lands they held, what crimes they may have committed, and more. Although its function became replaced by a more central, and less parochial administration, the Manor Houses themselves still survive in many villages. Sometimes they have become farms, or else in other circumstances, Business Parks (for example Staunton, nr. Newent), or else they are still owned by the same family, and are open as "Stately Homes". Owlpen Manor is an example of the latter. There's a good photograph of the Manor House on Owlpen Manor Estate home page - it was, and still is the home of the MANDER family, and their web site also contains some notes on their family history. The surname MANDER(S) is also the subject of a One-Name Study, although this particular branch are possibly more famous for the manufacture of paint!
- The National Archives' project to update the Manorial Documents Register is now complete. Note particularly the links on that page to the TNA guide and to the A-Z list of manors. Quoting the TNA guide: The Manorial Documents Register (MDR) is maintained by The National Archives, on behalf of the Master of the Rolls, as a record of the whereabouts of manorial documents. It is not a register of title to manorial lordships and we do not collect or record this type of information.
- Primary Sources: English Manorial Documents "From English Manorial Documents, Translations and Reprints from the original Sources of European History, E. P. Cheyney, tr., vol. 3, no. 5 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1907), pp. 3-32". This includes examples from several parts of the country, including Essex, Durham and Norfolk.
