Blenheim Palace World Heritage Site Management Plan

Blenheim Palace Estate and Wessex Archaeology

Blenheim Palace was designed by Sir John Vanbrugh and built between 1705 and 1722.
The estate was landscaped by Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown in the 1760s.
But the history of the estate actually goes back over 6,000 years.

Wessex Archaeology Ltd was commissioned by Historic Landscape

Management Ltd for the Blenheim Estate and the Countryside
Agency to report on the condition of significant archaeological sites
and monuments on the estate.

Road
Grim’s Ditch
Burial Map of Blenheim Park with
Earthwork
coloured dots marking sites
Pottery of former activity
Cropmark Earthwork
Furze
Deer-leap North Platt Pottery
Park Pale
Lodge Blenheim Park Bowl Barrow
Grim’s Ditch
Flint Bowl Barrow
d
R oa Earthwork
Pottery
an
Rom

Earthwork

Cropmark Earthwork
Earthwork
Well Icehouse

The Motte
Earthwork
Track

Earthwork
Column of
Victory
Park Farm
Watermill

Pottery
Fair Rosamund’s
Well
Coins
Earthwork Grim’s Ditch Romano-British Temple
Pottery Woodstock Palace
Cropmark
Pottery

Earthwork Romano-British
Temple Courtyard

The
Cowyards
Blenheim
Palace

Cropmark Lower
Park
Earthwork

Garden
High Earthwork
Lodge

Earthwork
Key:
Prehistoric
Neolithic
Bronze Age Roman Road Park Pale
Iron Age
Roman
Saxon
Medieval
Post-medieval
Undated

Wessex Archaeology Ltd is one of the largest archaeological

practices in the country and unique in that it deals with all aspects
of our buried, built and underwater heritage.
The Motte Fair Rosamund’s Well
It is a registered charity, and one of its aims is to help people find
out more about archaeology.

Wessex Archaeology
Map based on 1999 Ordnance survey 1:25000 Explorer ® map with the permission of the controller of Her Majesty's Stationary Office © Crown copyright, Wessex Archaeology, Portway House, Old Sarum Park, Salisbury, Licence Number:AL 100006861.
Blenheim Palace World Heritage Site Management Plan

Blenheim’s First Visitors

The archaeological record tells us that people first visited the

Blenheim area as far back as the Neolithic period. Follow the Saxon
AD410-1066
time line to uncover more about Blenheim’s past.
Only a small scattering of Saxon pottery
Neolithic has been found on the estate
4000-2400BC

A Neolithic axe-head was discovered in

Blenheim Park.
Medieval
AD1066-1499

The estate became part of a royal forest

Bronze Age when Henry I enclosed the park in the
2400-700BC Twelfth century.

There is a Bowl Barrow on the estate.

These are funerary monuments and it
may have looked like this.
Medieval
AD1066-1499

The Medieval motte is the possible

Iron Age location of a castle documented as being
700BC-AD43 fortified for Empress Matilda in 1141.

A ditch and bank known as Grim’s Ditch

runs through the park. It is part of an
enclosure that covers 5,700 hectares of
Medieval
AD1066-1499
countryside in north Oxfordshire.
The site of Fair Rosamund’s Well. In the
Roman Twelfth century Henry II had a home built
AD43-410 for his mistress Rosamund de Clifford.

The site of a Romano-British temple lies

close to the present lake. This is one of Post-medieval
only 150 such sites. AD1500-1799

1705-22 Blenheim Palace built.

Roman ‘Capability’ Brown designed the gardens
AD43-410 in the 1760s.

Part of Akeman Street runs through the

estate. This Roman road went from St. Modern
Albans (Verulamium) to Cirencester AD1800-Today
(Corinium).
Archaeologists assess the estate.

Wessex Archaeology