Monument record SKT 022 - Stowmarket Medieval Town Centre

Area of medieval town. Urban by 1086 (S4). Defined on HER map as same as in (S1, area excluded from Tithe. Listed in the apportionment as 362, part of site of town 32 acres 3 rods, 36 perches (S1). This area is highly likely to represent the extent of the medieval core of the town.
Thorney (Stow) was one of nine places in Suffolk in the Domesday Book that had a market. It was part of the Royal Manor of Thorney, and had its own church and four freemen had built a chapel `on their own land near the cemetery of the Mother Church' (S2).
It does not appear to have been granted a charter and probably developed as a Seigneurial Market Town. The Manor was granted to the Abbot of St Osythe, Essex by Henry II, who held Free Warren in Stowmarket in 1268. There is no published cartulary for the Abbey of St Osyth. The Church had been granted to the Abbey by Henry I pre 1135 (S2)(S3).
Includes area of Church (SKT 015). For excavations in core area, see SKT 005, 014 & 025 (Watching Brief only).