The Acquisition of Alton Barnes as a New College Estate in 1385
Issue number
(2023): 20
Notes category
The manors of Alton Barnes with Shaw and Alton Priors, now the civil parish of Alton, are in the Vale of Pewsey on the Marlborough Downs in Wiltshire. Alton Priors only came into New College’s purview relatively recently, in 1912. Alton Barnes with Shaw, on the other hand, has had a much longer association with the college, being one of the first estates to be provided by the Founder for his new foundation in Oxford when it became part of the college’s endowment in 1385. As with many of the college’s estates, the New College archive is rich with documents recording both the process of it becoming part of that endowment, and also something of the back story of its existence before then.
The earl of Salisbury’s counterseal, used by William Montagu (1328–1397), 2nd earl of Salisbury
New College Archives, Oxford, NCA 10039 [detail]