HUXLOE HUNDRED 



LOWICK 



falling into decay, and would be an expense to repair,''' 

 and it was enacted tliat as niucli of the building as 

 Thomas Powys might require should be left as a 

 private chapel to his mansion house, in which tlie 

 rector of Lilford cum Achurch was to perform divine 

 service, and the rest sold or otherwise applied to 

 repairing Achurch church : the inhabitants of W'igs- 

 tliorpe and Lilford to be in future rated for repairs 

 with tiiose of Achurch. 



Before the passing of the Act the profits of the 

 vicarage of Lilford, exclusive of the vicarage house 

 and a small homestead thereto belonging, consisted in 

 some small tithes and a right of common belonging to 

 the vicarage house, for which the lord of the manor 

 paid in ' nature of a composition ' ^^65 yearly. Under 

 tile Act of 1778 it was agreed that 65 acres 

 called \\ igsthorpc Little Wold, and 46 acres, tlic 

 east part of a piece of ground called W igstliorpe 

 Great Wold contiguous, siiould be vested in the 

 rector of Achurch in lieu of all tithes. An exchange 



was also effected of the vicarage and land in Wigs- 

 thorpe already referred to for a house and lands in 

 Achurch.'* 



A chapel was at one time in existence at W igsthorpe, 

 the presentation in 1347 being made to ' tlie church 

 of Lilford with tlie chapel of Wygesthorp.' In 

 Bridges' time no trace of this cliapel remained."' 



Ricliard Ragsdale by his will 

 CHARITIES dated 30 Jan. 171 1 charged his land 

 and hereditaments in Bythorne and 

 Thorpe Achurch with 20s. yearly for tiic poor of 

 Lilford. 20s. is received yearly in respect of this 

 charge and distributed by the cliurchwardcns to the 

 poor on St. Thomas's Day. 



V\'illiam Lassells by will dated 9 Sept. 1770 gave 

 /^loo, owing to him on a mortgage of the tolls of the 

 turnpike road between Market Harborough and Bramp- 

 ton to be applied in 'putting apprentice' poor children 

 of VVigsthorpe. Tlie principal sum has increased to 

 /164 9;. Cjd. 



LOWICK 



Lolwyc, Lufwyc (xi, xii cent.) ; Lufwik (xiii cent.) ; 

 Lufwyk, Luffewyk (xiv cent.) ; Luffwyke (xvi cent.). 



The area of the parish is 2,028 acres. The soil is 

 clay, limestone and ironstone, and produces wheat, 

 barley and turnips. Harper's Brook flows in a south- 

 easterly direction through the village and parish, 

 eventually falling into tlie Nene, and the land rises 

 from 50 ft. to 100 ft. on each side. From the high 

 land here are striking views down the valley of the 

 Nene. In a field to the south of the village is ' the 

 Lowick oak,' one of the largest in the country and a 

 survival of Rockingham Forest. Bridges states that 

 about half a mile south-east of the church in the open 

 fields are Huxlow Furlong and Huxlow Cross where 

 the statutes have been kept within the memory of 

 persons now living.' This probably indicates the 

 place v\here the hundred court was held. 



The village lies along the road from Tlirapston to 

 Brigstock. Leland about 154S described it as ' the 

 pratiest place in these quarters'- and it still retains 

 its beautiful surroundings. The church stands at 

 the north end of the village; south of it are the White 

 Horse Inn and a stone 14th-century barn belonging to 

 a once important grange where Jones of Nayland 

 (1726-1800), the well-known divine, was born. The 

 barn has a thatched roof and good end gables. It is 

 of five bays measuring internally 60 ft. by 21 ft., and 

 has four original loops on the east side and one in the 

 south gable; two in the west wall are blocked. There 

 is a wide modern opening on the west side. Near the 

 corner of the road to .^Idwinkle is a house bearing the 

 date 1731. The rectory house, standing to the 

 south-west of the church, a substantial stone build- 

 ing in Elizabethan style, was erected in 1855-6. 

 To the east of the rectory is the Manor Farm, which 



lies south of St. Peter's Church and, like it, east of 

 the main road. The school, formerly called from the 

 costume ordained for it by its founders tlie Green 

 Coat School, lies further south still. 



In the south of the paris-li is the house known as 

 Lowick Lodge, with an old quarry to the west of it, 

 and another to the east. In the north of the parish 

 is Glebe Farm. 



About a mile south-west of the village is Drayton 

 House standing in gardens of remarkable beauty 

 and surrounded by a park of about 200 acres. The 

 house consists of a main block, substantially of 

 I4tli-century date, with its longer axis from north-east 

 to south-west, which is covered on the north side by 

 a range of buildings added in the 15th century. Its 

 main entrance is from a courtyard on the south side, 

 inclosed by buildings of different dates, and bounded 

 on the south by a 14th-century wall, in which is an 

 arched gateway of much later date in a line with the 

 principal doorway of the house. On the east side 

 of the court the buildings, chiefly Elizabethan, are 

 continued along the end of the main block to a tower 

 at the north-east corner, beyond which they are 

 prolonged by a wing projecting northwards. Those 

 on the west side, of various dates, are carried across 

 the end of the main block as far as the north-west 

 tower, which stands above this end of the 15th-century 

 addition already mentioned. 



The main block, containing the hall and present 

 dining-room, together with a smaller block at the east 

 end, which projected a bay northward and contained 

 the vaulted cellar with the solar or great chamber 

 above, was the dwelling-house of the Draytons and 

 the Greens, and is probably rather earlier than 1328, 

 when Simon de Drayton obtained licence to crenellate 



'* Before the increase of their ettatei 

 recorded in the history of the manor, the 

 Powyi lords of Lilford had not only felt 

 equal to meeting this expense but had 

 in the case of '■ Mr. Powys ' (by his 

 executors) paved the chancel with Ketton 

 square stones, cornered with black 



marble ; and Sir Thomas Powys, kt., 

 before his death in 1719, hadin I7i4with 

 his I.ady Elizabeth bestowed on it 'a 

 new altar piece, written and painted by 

 Mrs. Creed, daughter of Sir Gilbert 

 Pickering, in the seventieth year of her 

 age, with the communion table, railing, 



231 



a piece of plate, a pulpit cloth and table 

 cloth of green tabby': Bridges, Hist. 

 Nortbants, ii, 246. 



'^ Then in the occupation of Joseph 

 Weed. 



" Bridges, Ills!. Norihanis. ii, 241. 



' Ibid. 246. • l.cland, /itnerary, i, 8. 



