There has been a settlement at Weston Subedge since Roman times and, by the Norman invasion of 1066, it was a valuable manor. The Domesday Book recorded its owner in 1086 as Ansfrid de Cormeilles, a man who owned lots of land across Gloucestershire.

He married into the powerful de Lacy family, the same Lacys who owned, and actually still own, Stanway house which we visited with such pleasure last year, and his heirs retained his estates until the male line of his family failed in the early thirteenth century. They built a manor house at Weston Subedge no later than the twelfth century probably replacing an existing structure.

In 1269 the manor passed into the hands of Godfrey Giffard, Bishop of Worcester who built the church right next to his house.

Today all that remains of this fortified manor house are the earthworks of the square moat. The manor house itself was demolished in the early nineteenth century and we don’t really know what it looked like but, highly unusually, the land on which it sat is for sale at the moment.

Of course, it is highly protected and the chances of anyone buying a piece of this ground being allowed to do anything with it except stand and stare at it are extremely remote.

So strict are the rules that it’s unlikely you would even be allowed to put up a fence around your land in case the fenceposts disturbed something important underground. Nevertheless, it is a rather remarkable opportunity to own a piece of medieval manor ground and I can’t deny feeling a slight temptation to make enquiries. Please don’t tell my wife!