Description

CHUDLEIGH ROCK ROAD, Chudleigh
SX 87 NE
4/78 Remains of Bishops Palace at
Palace Farm
23.8.55

GV II*

Remains of Bishop's Palace. Medieval. Local grey limestone rubble, partly roofed
over with corrugated iron on trusses with a 1950's date.
The scheduled site suggests extensive remains below ground. The most substantial
remains above ground consist of a partly 2-storey block incorporating walling which
continues as the west boundary wall of the garden in front of Palace Farm. The plan
of this block includes, at ground floor level, 2 vaults, 1 with a rounded and 1 with
a pointed arch. At the north end these vaults are completed by a section of wall
(probably at one time external) with a well-finished plinth that rises at the west
end. The wall has a blocked, deeply-splayed arched window and the remnants of a
stone newel stair. To the north of this wall and parallel to it, a second section
of wall extends as re garden boundary wall, and contains several deeply splayed slit
windows, mostly blocked.
The relationship between the surviving remains above ground and what may be below
ground remains conjectural.
The Bishop of Exeter had selected a site in Chudleigh for a rural palace as early as
1080 and the "See's ownership is confirmed some hundred years later in an undated
charter of Bishop Bartholomew (1165 -1184)" (Crockett). In 1550 Bishop Veysey was
obliged to alienate the properties and rights pertaining to Chudleigh which were
dispersed into secular ownership. The building above ground is clearly part of a
site of major historical and archaeological interest.

Listing NGR: SX8657278872

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17536002

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Oxfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cambridgeshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)