NAVISFORD HUNDRED 



TITCHMARSH 



boundary and the Thorp brooL that of the north 

 and east. The sub-soil is alluvium, great oolite 

 series and Oxford clay. The parish was inclosed 

 under an Act of Parliament of 1778.' The name of 

 Foxholes, now a farm, is mentioned in 1227.' 



The village lies off the main road from Northampton 

 to Peterborough, about 2j miles from Thrapston. 

 At the north-west end of the long village street is the 

 church. Not far from it is the rectory house, which 

 was rebuilt in 1861, and has in its garden a fine cedar 

 tree planted about 1744.' The Pickering almshouses 

 are to the south-west of the church on the Denford 

 road, and form a long one-story stone building with 

 dormer windows, a tablet records that "This Hos- 

 pital was erected and endowed for the support of 

 eight Poor Persons by Mrs. Dorothy Elizabeth 

 Pickering, eldest daughter of the late Sir Gilbert 

 Pickering, Bart., Anno Domini 1756." There is a 

 modern extension at each end.* Near by are two 

 blocks of cottages dated respectively 1742 and 

 1750. 



The old manor house stood on the south side of the 

 village a quarter of a mile south-east ot the church, on 

 or near a site which has already been described.' The 

 date of its erection is not known, but it may have been 

 built of stone obtained from an older house known as 

 Titchmarsh Castle,* which seems to have been deserted 

 at the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reign, and the 

 ruins of which were taken down in the 1 8th century.' 

 The earlier building would be the house which Sir 

 John Lovcl in 1304 obtained licence to crenellate,' 

 and which in the inquisition on his death (1346-7) 

 was described as moated round and enclosed with a 

 stone wall after the manner of a castle.' In 1363, 

 however, the castle is returned as being in a ruinous 

 condition," and no part of it now remains above 

 ground. An excavation of the site by Sir Henry 

 Dryden in 1887,'^ however, revealed considerable 

 remains of the lower portion of numerous buildings, 

 apparently of two different periods, some of the older 

 having been destroyed before the others were erected. 

 It was found impossible from the fragmentary nature 

 of the remains and the confusion of the plan to appro- 

 priate the greater number of the buildings or to decide 

 the period of their erection. The material was all of 

 limestone, and Sir Henry Dryden was of the opinion 

 that theearliest buildingon the site had been bounded by 

 a wall nearly circular in plan, inclosing several irregular 

 buildings, of which some of the foundations uncovered 

 were portions. This first building he assumed to have 

 been pulled down when the house was reconstructed 



by Sir John I.ovel, and he conjectured that it was an 

 early castle, built, as he suggests, by the Ferrers 

 f.imily, but possibly by the grandsons or great- 

 grandsons of Saswalo, the Domesday holder, in the 

 latter part of the l2tli century. If this was so, the 

 present quadrangular moat is of early 14th century 

 date, and belongs to Sir John Level's building, the 

 lower parts of whose external walls were laid bare 

 along the greater part of four sides, from 12 in. to 

 8 ft. in height above the bottom of the moat. The 

 space inclosed was an irregular parallelogram,"' and 

 at three of the angles were found the foundations of 

 tive-sided towers projecting from the walls ; the 

 north-west angle had disappeared. Boniface Picker- 

 ing died in 1585 seised of a pasture called Castle 

 Yard, with a barn standing in it wliich was again 

 mentioned in 1629." 



A bridge carrying the main road to Peterborough 

 over the brook running into the Ncnc south of Thorpe 

 station, has remains possibly of medieval work on its 

 south side. 



In the time of Edward the Confessor, 

 MANORS Bundi held freely 10 hides and a portion 

 of a hide in TITCHMARSH.^* In 

 1086 the land was held by Henry de Ferrers, ancestor 

 of the Earls of Derby,*' and 

 the overlordship of it con- 

 tinued in the possession of 

 the Earls of Derby as of their 

 Honour of Tutbury until the 

 forfeiture of Earl Robert in 

 1266." The overlordship 

 passed with the Honour to 

 Edmund, Earl of Lancaster," 

 and later, with the Duchy of 

 Lancaster, to the Crown.'* 



The Domesday under-tenant 

 was named Saswalo, who held 

 other lands of the Ferrers.'' 



This holding appears as forming first one and a half 

 knights' fees,^"and then as two knights' fees,^' through- 

 out the nth and 12th centuries. Sewal, son of Henry, 

 held it in I233,''2 and from him it passed to James 

 Shirley, said to be his son.^* Shirley granted the mesne 

 lordship to Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester,"* but 

 presumably only for a term of years, as his son, Ralph 

 Shirley, had recovered the lordship by 1286.2' Between 

 1298 and 1302 Ralph granted it to Bishop Walter de 

 Langton, the Royal Treasurer.^' On the latter's death 

 it passed to his nephew, Edmund Pevercl, a minor in 

 the wardship of the king." The Peverels continued 



Ff-Rrers. Argent six 

 horseshoes sable. 



• Priv. Act of Pari. 18 Geo. Ill, c. 8. 



• Feet of F. Northanti, Trin. 11 Hen. 

 III. 



• N. and Q. cliii, 103. The tree wai 

 damaged by a »tonn in March 1916 and 

 again in Jan. 19Z8. 



•At the north end for "two Bedei- 

 women, erected A.D. 1857 by donation 

 of the late T. Coalcs, Esq.' : at the south 

 end (or ' two Bedesmen, erected A.D. 

 1863.' The original building hat four door- 

 wayi and eight windows on the ground 

 floor, and eight dormers in the roof. 



» y.C.H. Nortbanls. ii, 413 (under 

 ■ Homestead Moats '). 



• More correctly a fortified manor- 

 house. 



' Bridges, Hist. Northants. ii, 381. 



• Cal. Pat. 1301-7, p. 290. 



' .issoc. Arch. Soc. Rep. xxi, 245. 



'" Chan. Inq. p.m. Edw. Ill, file 14. 



"Assoc. .Ircb. Soc. Rep. xxi, 243-52- 

 See also the measured drawings in the 

 Dryden Collection, Northampton Public 

 Library. 



"The measurements from outside to 

 outside of opposite walls are thus given ; 

 north-east side about 238 ft., south-west 

 about 257 ft., south-east about 220 ft., 

 north-west about 210 ft. 



"Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. ii), ccix, 33; 

 cccclix, 44. 



" y.C.H. Northants, i, 333a. " Ibid. 



'• Ibid. 365* ,- Bk. of Fees, i, 495 ; Cal. 

 Inq. ii, no. 622 i G.E.C. Complete Peerage. 



" Cal. Inq. i, 137. 



" Chan. Inq. p.m. 9 Hen. IV, no. 29 ; 

 ibid. (Ser. ii), ccxxix, 120. 



H3 



" y.C.H. Northants. i, 333a. 



" Bk. oj Fees, i, 495. 



•' Cal. Inij. ii, no. 622 ; Bk. of Fees, ii, 

 937. Sewal had two sons, Henry and 

 Fiilchcr, and Fulchcr also had two sons, 

 Henry and Sew.il, the latter of whom was 

 heir to his father and uncle. Cf. Round 

 in Derbyshire Arch. Soc. "Journ. 1905. 



"And. Deeds, D. 286. 



" E. P. Shirley, Slemmata Shirleiana, 

 362. 



'* Tear Books (Rolls Ser.), 30-31 

 Edw. I, p. 8. 



" Cal. Inq. ii, no. 622. 



■' Ibid, iii, p. 302 ; v, no. 263 ; Tear 

 Books (Rolls Ser.), 30-31 Edw. I, p. 8. 



*' Cal. Iruj. vi, no. 330 (the inquisition 

 enumerates only the lands held in demesne 

 by the Bishop). 



