POLEBROOK HUNDRED 



POLEBROOK 



able to the Creed Educational Foundation, and the 

 residue is paid to the Vicar in consideration of his 

 conducting religious services and giving religious 

 instruction in the Hamlet of Ashton. 



By his will dated 29 January, 1723, John Clifton 

 gave ;^30O to the feofTees of the Town Estates, the 

 interest to be applied for the benefit of two poor 

 blind people, or failing this to be distributed among 

 deserving old men. In respect of this charity a sum 

 of j£5 5/. 4//. was distributed in 1924. 



Paine's Almshouses. By an Indenture dated 

 21 May, 1801, John Paine conveyed to trustees 4 

 tenements situate at Chapel End in Oundle upon 

 trust to place therein poor persons or families of or 

 attending the congregation of Protestant dissenters 

 in Oundle. The almshouses have no endowment. 



By an Order of the Northamptonshire County 

 Court holden at Oundle 17 April, i860, the Vicar 

 and Churchwardens of Oundle were appointed 



Trustees of the Charity of Miss Charlotte Simcoe, 

 the endowment of which consists of ;^S00 Consols 

 with the Official Trustees of Charitable Funds pro- 

 ducing £12 10;. od. yearly in dividends, which is 

 distributed in flannel to about 100 recipients. 



The Unknown Donors Chanty consists of a yearly 

 payment of 6s. Sd. paid by the Hon. Mrs. C. Roth- 

 schild out of the Tring Estate. This payment is 

 distributed in flannel by the Vicar and Church- 

 wardens with Miss Simcoe's Charity. 



The Charity of John William Smith, founded by 

 will proved in P.R. I June, 1 897, is regulated by a 

 scheme of the Charity Commissioners dated 2 April, 

 1912. The property consists of £iJS 4 P^f cent. 

 1st Prcf. Stock of the L. and N.E. Rly. with the 

 Official Trustees of Charitable Funds producing 

 yearly £s Si. od. in dividends, which is distributed 

 in doles by the Trustees of Parson Latham's 

 Hospital. 



POLEBROOK 



Pochebroc (xi cent), Pokebroc (xii cent), Pokebroke 

 (xiii cent.), Pokesbrook, Pogbroke, Polbrok (xv cent.), 

 Polehbrooke als Polebrooke (xviii cent.). 



The parish of Polebrook covers 1,836! acres, its 

 hamlet of Armston, 852J acres, on a subsoil chiefly 

 of Oxford clay, but of cornbrash in the north-west, 

 the upper soil being clay. There are here 681 acres 

 of arable land, 1,037! of permanent grass, and 13 of 

 woods and plantations. The chief crops are hay, 

 barley and wheat. In the north-west of the parish 

 where the River Nene separates it from Oundle, 

 and about the village, the land is 100 ft. above the 

 ordnance datum, but rises towards the south and 

 east to 200 ft. 



The road from Peterborough enters the parish 

 through Ashton on the north and runs south-east- 

 wards through the village. A branch road bears 

 east to Lutton, Washingley and Norman Cross, with 

 a small Wesleyan chapel, built in 1863, on its north, 

 and the rectory, Polebrook Hall, the school and 

 Manor House on its south. The main road con- 

 tinues in a southerly direction to the Giddings, 

 passing the church of All Saints on the one side and 

 on the other the post office, noteworthy for two 

 16th-century chimneypieces. In the centre of the 

 village a stone column commemorates the fallen in 

 the war of 1914-18. The Northamptonshire his- 

 torian in the early part of the 1 8th century describes 

 the village as standing low on a rocky ground, with 

 two bridges, one ' Pottock bridge,' outside, the 

 other, a small horse bridge of two arches, within, 

 its area.i At Armston are woods called New Fox 

 Covert, Horse Close Spinney, Burray Spinney, and 

 Cow Shackle Coppice, a name which recalls the Cow- 

 shakell bushes and Cowshakell slade of 1602.^ There 

 are two moats here and the site of a chapel, possibly 

 that of St. John Baptist. In or before 1791 there 

 remained in a building here four large windows 



resembling ' chapel windows,' and a high arched roof 

 within and two columns without.' The remains of 

 the chapel of St. Leonard at Armston were also found 

 at the end of the 19th century in a farmhouse to the 

 east of the Green, and near to them were some evidences 

 of a moat and fishponds.* This chapel was founded 

 apparently by Ralph de Trubleville and Alice his wife 

 early in the 13th century, who gave it to Royse 

 lady of Polbrook and patron of the church, together 

 with six acres of land. Whereupon Royse gave to 

 the chapel a font for the baptism of infants and pro- 

 vided a chaplain to say services daily excepting burial 

 of the dead. 5 There was an altar of St. Mary in the 

 chapel.* The abbot of Peterborough was bound to 

 find a chaplain to say divine service daily for the soul 

 of Robert le Fleming.' To the east of Polebrook 

 stands the rectory farm, now the property of Brig.- 

 Gen. A. Ferguson, and Polebrook Lodge, with New 

 Lodge, near the borders of Hemington. Three Acre 

 Spinney, with Kingsthorpe Lodge and Kingsthorpe 

 Coppice, with a moat adjacent and other woods, are 

 all in this direction. 



Armston is said to have been inclosed in 1683. 

 Long before that time, however, other parts of the 

 parish had been inclosed by tenants. In 1602, at 

 the instance of Edward Batley, farmer of the Queen's 

 manor of Polebrook, it was found on inquiry that 

 30 acres of arable land and pasture had been inclosed 

 by the first Sir Edward Montagu and his son, besides 

 various other lands in the hamlet of Kingsthorpe.* 

 An Act was passed in 1790 for inclosing the common 

 fields of Polebrook, then reported to contain about 

 1,400 acres.* Armston was finally inclosed by an Act 

 of 1807.9' 



Among place names which occur are Le Lynch- 

 furlong, Cookesgreene, Haselbrooke, Cuttstones Crosse 

 (Le Cutcrosse in Kingsthorp), Hensons Closse, 

 Saltersmeare, the Queenes Closse, Hartmere Furlong, 



' Bridges, ftist. Nortbants. ii, 414. 



• Duchy of Lane. Spec. Com. 633. 



• Bridges, op. cit. 417. 



• T. H. Wright, MS. notes on 

 Barnwell Esute, 1909. 



• Buccleuch Deeds, F. 26. 



• Ibid F. 3. 



' Ibid F. 45. 

 the • Duchy of Lane. Spec. Com. 633, 645. 



lOI 



» Private Act, 30 Geo. Ill, cap. 



•" Loc. and Personal Act, 47 Geo. Ill, 

 SesB. I, cap. 19 (not printed). 



