Cheylesmore Manor House

Description

Cheylesmore Manor House is known to have existed by 1250. A forerunner may have existed as Cheylesmore Park, and was in existence in c.1150. During the mid-C14, it was a favourite residence of the Black Prince and Queen Isabel. At that time it was probably moated, some remains of the moat surviving into the C16. The house was ruinous by 1538-9, the hall being 'down', but the lodgings remaining fit for repair. It was rebuilt between 1661 and 1685,but by the mid-C19 had been divided into tenements and weaver's huts. In 1945, two ranges of timber-framed buildings survived, one incorporating the gatehouse. It is thought that these formed the South and East sides of an irregular courtyard, the gatehouse being in the centre of the East side. The Great Hall may have been opposite to it on the West side. In 1955, a building forming the West end of the South side was demolished. It was a two-storeyed structure of six bays, and judging from the roof beams, of C14 date. The gatehouse itself is C14, but stands on an earlier structure PastScape–ref VCH)

The manor of Cheylesmore was annexed to the Duchy of Cornwall in 1337 subject to the life interest of Queen Isabella, who held it until her death in 1385. It lay on the southern outskirts of Coventry, and had a valuable stone-quarry within its park. In 1385 Richard II gave the citizens permission to take stone to complete their city wall on condition that the site of the manor-house was enclosed within the circuit. Thereafter Cheylesmore had the character of a town-house where the king stayed when he visited the city. C16 gatehouse remains which incorporates earlier work, but main remnants of the manor house were demolished in 1956.