Page 12 - Oundle Life May 2023

TO THE
MANOR
BORN
Prebendal Manor – Part 1
You’re looking at the oldest building in Northamptonshire. The current Prebendal Manor was constructed around 1200, but it was built over a much earlier wooden structure, and that wooden structure
was one of the legendary King Cnut’s Royal Halls.
It was recorded in the 12th Century Ramsey Chronicle that Cnut stayed at the manor sometime after 1017, and even enjoyed a banquet and a game
of chess there while he rested on his travels. There is some speculation that Cnut might have had the wooden structure (which was built around 1000 and demolished around 1200) built as one of his Saxon Royal Halls, though this has never been proven.
English crown), but he has been miss-served by history due to the false tale of him trying to turn back the tide. We now know that this was in fact
Time Team visited and found evidence of post holes from the wooden Saxon Hall under the floor
an act of piety, designed to demonstrate his limited powers as king, compared to the power of God and nature.
In 2003, Channel 4’s Time Team visited and found evidence of post holes from the wooden Saxon Hall under the floor of the current great hall in the manor house and confidently called the episode ‘King Cnut’s Manor.’ It is known from the Domesday Book that the manor was a royal estate in
the time of King Cnut and that he even dispensed justice during his stay there, settling local disputes.
Despite being king of England, Cnut was
a Viking (the son of Sweyn Forkbeard, who conquered Etheldred the Unready to take the
More than 14,000 pieces of pottery have been found on the property (some of which are on display in the tithe barn on-site), including Roman, Viking and Saxon pieces. Tony
12