Sir – I was very much surprised to read, in Geoff Hedge’s article about Sunningwell Manor on the front of the Property supplement (October 22), that the house concerned was originally built before the year 960. Domestic buildings even back to the 14th century are thin on the ground.

It would be extraordinary if there were surviving today a house with Anglo-Saxon parts. The agent’s particulars describe the house as believed to date back to the early 16th century: that is altogether more likely.

I doubt also that the house is recorded in the Domesday Book. That was largely concerned with who owned what land, what it was worth, how many mills and ponds it had, etc. What might be recorded there is a Sunningwell manor in the sense of an extent of land, not a building, but it would need access to a translation of the entry for Sunningwell to be sure.

A. M. Hughes, Headington