| Summary : The ruins of a tithe barn, the only standing remains of the ancillary buildings associated with Acton Burnell Castle, forming part of one of the county's finest and most substantial medieval moated manor complexes. Although usually spoken of as a barn, it may have been a domestic building, possibly the forerunner of the adjacent manor house built in 1284. However, the surviving masonry is not older than the time of Robert Burnell (the builder of Acton Burnell Castle).The two gable ends of the barn survive to their full height, and evidence for the side elevations will survive below ground. The gables would have formed the north and south ends of a substantial aisled building, 50 metres long by 13 metres wide. The barn was the property of the Burnell family who owned the land from the 1180s. Robert Burnell entered the royal service as a clerk to Henry III's son Prince Edward, and later became chancellor of England and the Bishop of Bath and Wells when the prince became King Edward I in 1272. The king's military campaigns frequently brought him to Shropshire, and he stayed at Acton. This barn is, by tradition, the place where in 1283 he held a parliament, supposedly the first at which commoners were represented. |
More information : (SJ 53500196) Tithe Barn (NR) (Remains of) (NAT) (1)
The remains of the building known as the "Parliament House" consist of two gable ends 40 feet in width and 157 feet apart. It is traditionally the building in which the Statute of Acton Burnell was passed in 1283 when Edward I summoned his parliament there. However, as the barn is probably contempory with or later than the adjacent manor house of 1284 (SJ 50 SW 6), this is unlikely. (2,3,4)
The two gable ends, all that remain of this building, are indicative of a tithe barn rather than a domestic building. (5)
Published survey (25") correct.
SJ 535019 Tithe Barn NE of Acton Burnell Castle. Scheduled (6-8).
The remains of the barn lie within a registered park. (9)
Additional references. (10-15)
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