A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



Woodnewton shares in the charity 



CHARITIES of Lady Grace Mildmay, the annual 



rent charge of £^, and the dividends 



on a sum of ;^107 15/. lo<j'. consols held by the 



official trustees of charitable funds, being allotted to 



this village from the fund to be used in apprenticing 

 poor children.' 



The Church Estate, of unknown origin, which 

 consists of 16 acres and two cottages, produces about 

 ^22 a year, which is used for church purposes. 



YARWELL 



Yarewell (frequently from xi to xiii cent.). 



The parish of Yarwell, covering about 1,210 acres, 

 lies verj' low, never rising to more than 100 ft. above 

 the ordnance datum, and in the eastern part near 

 the River Nene, which here often overflows its banks, 

 it is in some places less than 50 ft. above that standard. 

 The village and the north of the parish are on a 

 subsoil of inferior oolite, the western portion and 

 that near the river is on great oolite. The topsoil 

 is principally clay and produces wheat, barley, beans, 

 and roots. There are 533i acres of arable land, and 

 300J of pasture. 



The main road through the parish runs from Nas- 

 sington towards Wansford. Near the village a branch 



Guy Wolston and 



Village Street, Yarwell. 



from this road towards the west connects with 

 roads to Woodnewton and King's ClifFe. There 

 are several quarries in the south of the parish, and 

 until lately a large number of stone-masons lived in 

 Yarwell. The population, 250 in 1 90 1, is now 

 almost entirely engaged in agriculture. 



The enclosure award for Yarwell dated 1778 is in 

 the custody of the vicar of Nassington. Among the 

 place-names found in this parish are Sammocks Hill, 

 Branston's Waldon, the Slip, Gosemore Gappe, and 

 Wedurhawe. 



The small stone-built village has but one street, 

 branching to the east off the main road from Nas- 

 sington to Wansford. The church is to the south- 

 east and near it is a mixed church school built in 

 1878, while a Wesleyan chapel dated 1840 stands on 

 the north side of the street some distance to the 



west. On the same side, not far from the church, is 

 a house which must once have been of some archi- 

 tectural interest, but only the lower part now stands. 

 Between the village and the Nene remains of Roman 

 buildings have been found.' 



Yarwell mill, on the Nene just on the border of 

 the parish of Nassington, is almost the only detached 

 building in the parish.' 



7'JRIVELL is not mentioned in Domes- 



M/INOR day ; it was probably included in the 



assessment for Nassington. The manor 



exactly follows the descent of that of Nassington 



except that in the 15th and i6th centuries Sir 



his heirs held the whole 



manor or almost all of it to 



farm of the queens of England, 



while they only held a portion 



of Nassington. This accounts 



for the two grants to Sir Walter 



Mildmay, one in 1 551 of the 



manor of Yarwell, late the 



possession of Charles Lord 



Mountjoy, and one two years 



later of the manor of Yarwell, 



late the possession of Lady 



Katherine, queen of England.* 



A court-leet for this manor 



is held by a steward of Mr. 



Leonard Brassey, the present 



lord, every year in November 



at the 'Angel ' in Yarwell. 



Some land in Yarwell formed 

 part of the endowment of the 

 prebend of Nassington ; it now 

 belongs to Lord Carysfort.' 



A messuage and land were 

 held in Yarwell by the ser- 

 jeanty of being forester of the 

 bailiwick of Sulehay in the 

 forest of Clive. In the reign of Henry III Henry 

 and Gilbert of Yarwell each held a virgate of land 

 in Yar\vell for the service of being foresters of fee 

 in the bailiwick of Clive.^ In 1252 Robert and 

 Henry of Yarwell, foresters in fee of the bailiwick of 

 Clive, were declared to be quit of appearing at the 

 sheriff's tourn.' Robert died in 1269, leaving his 

 share of the forestership and one virgate of land in 

 Yarwell to his son William.* The forestership con- 

 tinued to be held by two members of the Yarwell 

 family, each holding in return a messuage and one 

 virgate of land in Yarwell until the 14th century, 

 when both foresters, at that date Thomas of Yarwell 

 and John of Yarwell, sold the forestership and land to 

 John Tyndale, who became lord of the manor of 

 Helpston.' The forestership continued in this family 

 until some time in the 15th century, when it was 



' See Apethorpe. 



» y. C. H. Noribanls, i, 175. 



3 For history of mil! sec Nassing- 



■• Pat. 5 Edw. VI, pt. iii ; Pat. 7 Edw. 

 VI, pt. ii. ^ See Nassington. 



'• Testa de Nevill (Rcc. Com.) p. 28. 

 'i Misc. Inq. Hen. Ill, bdle. 7, No. 14. 



602 



s Chan. Inq. p.m. Hen. Ill, file 36, No. 8. 



9 Ibid. 32 Edw. Ill (2nd Nos.) No. 32 i 

 Pat. 15 Ric. II, pt. ii, m. 31. For Tyn- 

 dales see Helppton. 



