MANORS OF StRATTON AND GRIMSTON. 89 



his superior lord even after the expiration of his lease of the 

 Manor. 



In 1570, one Angel Smith, who was buried at Stratton in 1626, 

 and is said to have been lord farmer of the manors of Stratton and 

 Grimston for 58 years, held the manor as lessee under the 

 prebendary of Sarum, and subsequently it was held by George 

 Grey, who married his daughter and co-heiress. 



In 1728, George Pitt, in right of his wife, Mrs. Lora Pitt, 

 daughter and sole heiress of the said George Grey, held the 

 manor. Mrs. Lora Pitt resided for some years in the old i6th 

 century manor house below the Church, where is a fine old oak 

 chimney piece and overmantel, with some Arms carved upon it, 

 possibly those of the Grey family. 



From the Pitt family the leasehold interest in the manors passed 

 by purchase and regrant in or about the year 1820 to Robert 

 Pattison, whose only daughter and heiress married the Honble. 

 Henry Ashley, a younger brother of the great Earl of Shaftes- 

 bury ; at her death the manors, subject to existing grants, fell 

 into the hands of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for England 

 as representing the superior lord the prebendary of Stratton, of 

 whom they were purchased by the present owner. 



The Manor of Stratton consisted of the demesne or manor 

 farm, with the manor house, commonable meadows along the 

 River Frome, open common fields, described as East Field, 

 Middle Field, and West Field, stretching up the slopes of a hill 

 inclining towards the south, with common sheep downs beyond. 

 These common fields were of arable land, and were divided into 

 long strips, varying from one to two acres and sometimes less in 

 extent, which were held in severally by different owners, the 

 only division between them being narrow steps of grass known 

 as walls or lanchetts. The fields were cultivated by a rotation of 

 crops determined by the rules of the View of Frank-pledge or 

 Court Leet, which were founded on immemorial custom. 



The tenants held their farms and tenements for two lives and 

 a widowhood or widowhoods according to the above-mentioned 

 custom. 



