HUXLOE HUNDRED 



GREAT ADDINGTON 



Edintone (xi cent.) ; Haderingtona, Nordadington, 

 Borcalis Adintona, Adington Major (xiii cent.). 



The Addingtons lie on the left bank of the River 

 Nenc and are very nearly equal in size ; Great or 

 North .^ddington, as it was once called, is 1,260 acres 

 in extent, being but 127 acres larger than Little 

 Addington, which lies to the south of it. A little 

 to the east of the dividing line between them is Ring- 

 stead and Addington Station on the Northampton 

 and Peterborough branch of the London Midland 

 and Scottish Railway. The soil is partly light, and 

 partly stif? clay : the subsoil clay and ironstone. The 

 chief crops grown are wheat, barley, peas, and beans. 

 Ironstone quarries were opened in 1877, but are 

 now no longer worked. The population in 1921 

 was 285. 



The little village of Great Addington lies on the 

 road from Irthlingborough to Lowick, which is here 

 crossed by a road from Ringstead to Cranford St. John. 

 It is about 1 1 miles away from the station, and about 

 4 miles south-west of Thrapston. A stream flowing 

 into the Nene almost encircles it, its water driving 

 the mill on the south of the village. At Shooters 

 Hill burials with weapons and ornaments have been 

 found.* 



At the northern end of the village is the church, 

 and grouped near it, on the eastern side of the road, 

 are the school (erected in 1873-4) ^""^ ^^^ smithy. 

 Opposite, and west of the road, is the Manor House, 

 a good example of simple Jacobean work, and the 

 residence of Licut.-Col. Malcolm Romer, O.B.E. 

 The rectory, a little distance to the north-east, a 

 substantial building of stone, erected in 1678, and 

 repaired in 1870, is pleasantly situated. The hall 

 windows of the rectory house, as Bridges noted, contain 

 several escutcheons : arms of the Peterborough see. 

 Bacon, Isham, and Towers. Outlying properties are 

 Rectory Farm in the north-west of the parish, and in 

 the south-west Great Addington Lodge, to the west of 

 which are chalk pits and Patch Lodge. There were 

 riots here and at Rushton and ' Pightesley ' in 1607 

 regarding the inclosure of lands. An agreement made 

 in 1232-3 between Baldwin de Vere and the Abbey of 

 Croyland confirming a grant to the church (q.v.) gives 

 various place names, such as Sleng near the fee of 

 Maurice de Audely ; Wudefordebanlon', Grenewey,* 

 Ridgeway, Trendlade, Lidewellehil, Michelwelle, 

 Westfield on Scitershul (Shooters Hill), Brook furlong. 

 By a very doubtful charter of 833, 

 MANORS Witlaf, King of the Mercians, confirmed 

 to Croyland Abbey the gift of Wulnoth 

 his steward of 2 hides of land in Addington, with a 

 fishery, the advowson of the church of the vill, and a 

 •virgateof land in another [Little] Addington.' This 

 grant was confirmed in other doubtful charters by 

 Behrtulf, King of Mercia in 851,* by Burgred of 



Ittli 



litii 



Croyland Abdey. 

 Quarterly : 16-4, Gulrs 

 three knives with thetr 

 points upwards set Jesse- 

 utise^ ivith hafts or and 

 blades argent ; 2 dj* 3» 

 Azure three scourges or 

 also set fesseuiise and 

 upright. 



Mercia in 868,' and by King Eadred in 948 ;• the 

 last confirmation refers to the gift as 3 hides, with 

 the advowson of the church of the vill. 



In the Domesday Survey, 

 the Abbot of Croyland was 

 entered as holding 2 hides in 

 Addington, and a mill render- 

 ing 131. \d. The value had 

 risen from 15/. to 40J.' The 

 abbey's tenant of these 2 hides 

 in the reign of Henry I was 

 William son of Guy [f de 

 Reinbuedcourt].* The Abbot 

 of Croyland in 1284 held two 

 parts of the vill of 'Adington 

 Major' of the king in chief in 

 frankalmoin,* and in 1 291 

 the value of his lands was 

 £6 8/.*" Addington with its 

 members was in 1316 held 

 by the Abbot of Croyland, 



the Abbot of Sulby, and Robert de Vere," the two 

 latter each holding manors or lands in both Adding- 

 tons. In 1318 the Abbot of Croyland was engaged 

 in a suit against William Marmaduke, bailiff of Richard 

 Marmaduke of Raunds, and others, for damage done 

 to his mill pond at Addington.** 



The abbey continued to hold the manor, rectory and 

 advowson until the Dissolution.** 



The manor and advowson of the rectory and church 

 on 25 March, 1544, were granted as parcel of the 

 property of Croyland Abbey to Sir William Parr, 

 Lord Parr of Horton, in tail male.** After the death 

 of Lord Parr without male issue in 1546, a fresh grant 

 was made in 1558 to Sir Robert Lane, Kt., of Horton, 

 and Anthony Throckmorton, of Charleston (co. 

 Oxon),togetherwith grants of other monastic property. 

 Great Addington manor was held with Brinklow 

 (co. Warwick) for one fortieth of a knight's fee.*' By 

 Sir Robert Lane and Anthony Throckmorton the 

 manor (but not the advowson) was sold in 1562 

 to Henry Clarke of Stanwick,** who, in his will dated 

 1574, refers to his farm at Stanwick where he dwelt, 

 to his wife Anne (who survived him), and to his sons 

 Gabriel and Christopher. He died in that year, his 

 heir being his son William, aged 28 years.*' William 

 Clarke, as lord of the manor of Great Addington, 

 was with Richard Curteys (son of Richard Curteys, 

 late of Great Addington, husbandman), Richard 

 Bolney, and John Bolney, defendant in 1588 in an 

 action instituted by John Curteys of Great Addington, 

 another son of Richard Curteys, and others, as to the 

 admission to certain copyhold lands.** 



William Clarke died in 1604, leaving a widow Eleanor, 

 who lived at Potterspury.*' His heir was his brother 

 Gabriel, aged fifty, who in 1608 conveyed the Manor of 



> V.C.H. Nortbami. i, 241. 

 'Rot. Hug. de WeUei{Ctat. and York 

 Soc), ii, 260. 



• Kemble, Cod. Dip. i, no. 233, p. 

 307. 



♦ Ibid, ii, no. 265, p. 43. 



• Ibid. no. 297, p. 91. 



* Ibid. no. 420, p. 284. 



' F.C.H. Narlbanli. i, 319. Thi« riie 



probably indicated a previous fall through 

 invading devastation. 



• V.C.H. Northants. i, 3893. 



• Feud. Aids., iv, 12. 



>» Pope Nich. Tax (Rec. Com.), 54*. 



** Feud. Aids, iv, 29. 



'' Abhrev. Plae. (Rec. Com.), 331- The 

 dam of the mill pond had flooded lands in 

 Raundi. 



155 



'• falor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iv, 85-7. 



" Pat. R. 35 Hen. VIII, pt. 13. 



>' Ibid. 4 & 5 Phil. & Mary, pt. 12. 



" Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. ii), cclxxivi, 

 178. 



" Ibid. cUxi, loi. 



" Chan. Proc. (Ser. ii), 223 (ii5). 



'• Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. ii), cclxxxvi, 

 178. 



