HUXLOE HUNDRED 



WOODFORD 



The registers before 1812 are as follows : (i) 

 baptisms and burials 1559-174.1, marriages 1559-1740; 

 (ii) baptisms 1742-1812, marriages 1742-1756, burials 

 174I-1812; (iii) marriages 1756-1812. The church- 

 wardens' accounts begin in 1769. 



The church was held with the 



ADfOlf'SOX manor by the abbey of Bury St. 



Edmunds, and appears before 1191 



in a list of churches of manors belonging to the 



abbey as worth 10 marks yearly.-* 



In 1291 it was valued at ^^ll 61. SJ. yearly." At 

 the Dissolution, the profits of the rectory, then leased 

 to I.eo Kyng, were/[l9 6/. 8</. yearly." 



The advowson has always been held with the 

 manor, and the Duke of Buccleuch is the present 

 patron. 



Edw.ird Hunt, by his will proved 

 CHARITIES at Northampton 7 Dec. 1674, 8^^'^' 

 land in the parish of Broughton for 

 the benefit of the poor of certain parishes. The land, 

 which consisted of a farm of 64 acres, was sold in 1921 

 and the proceeds invested in stock with the OfHcial 

 Trustees of Charitable Funds. The stock has now 



been apportioned in the OlTui.d Trustees' books be- 

 tween the parishcsintcrestcd and the sumsof £19 \s.\d. 

 Derby Corporation 6 per cent. Redeemable Stock and 

 £19 %s. id. Middlesbrough Corporation 6 per cent. 

 Stock, producing together £2 6s. ^d. yearly, represent 

 the endowment of the ciiarity for this parish. The 

 income is distributed in money by the minister, 

 cliurchwardcns and overseers to about 12 poor. 



The Cliurcli Land consists of 5 a. 3 r. of pasture l.ind 

 which has long been appropriated to the church. It is 

 let for £S 15;. yearly, which is expended by the 

 churchwardens in church expenses. 



By a Deed of Trust dated 28 Dec. 1922, Mrs. 

 Elizabeth Panther established a charity comprising 

 a sum of ^^178 OS. Sd. 2^ per cent. Consols vested in 

 the Peterborough Diocesan Board of Finance. The 

 income is applicable by the rector and church- 

 wardens for the maintenance of the Sunday school, 

 and, subject thereto, for the mainten.ince of the 

 fabric of the church. 



The parishes of Wcckley and Warkton participate 

 in the Lathom and Bigley Edu' ational Foundation 

 (Ringstead) Endowment. 



WOODFORD 



Wodeford (xi, xii, xiv cent.) ; Wudeford (xiii cent.) ; 

 Woodforde (xvi cent.). 



The parish of Woodford contains 2,264 ^c<^s of 

 land, which lies under 300 ft. above the ordnance 

 datum. The sub-soil is Upper Lias, Great Oolite and 

 Cornbrash. The river Nene forms tl;e eastern 

 boundary of the parish and the village lies on the slope 

 of the hill rising from the river along the by-ro.id from 

 Irthlingborough. Tlie church stands on tlic east of 

 the road near the river. The rectory house was built 

 in I S20 ; some portions of the medieval rectory remain 

 in a farm house immediately north of the church and 

 include three buttresses and a late 13th century 

 pointed doorway. A two-story thatched cottage in 

 the Old Town to the north-west of the church has a 

 panel inscribed ' F.B. 1687,' and on the west side of 

 the Green in the upper part of the village is a gabled 

 house dated 1654. The upper part of the village is 

 known as New Town. The Northampton and 

 Peterborough branch of the London Midland and 

 Scottish Railway crosses the parish for a short distance, 

 but the nearest station is at Twywell on the Kettering 

 and Huntingdon branch. There were formerly 

 brickworks near the village and in 1874 the large beds 

 of ironstone in the parish were extensively worked.^ 



John Cole, the bookseller and antiquary, lived at 

 Woodford at the end of his life and died there in 1848. 

 Continually unsuccessful both as a bookseller and 

 schoolmaster, his real interests lay in antiquarian 

 pursuits and natural history. He published many 

 books on local history and also left manuscript collec- 



tions for the history of many places in Northampton- 

 shire.^ The parish was inclosed by private Act of 

 Parliament in 1768.^ 



The manor of WOODFORD at the 

 MANORS time of the Domesday Survey, and 

 probably in pre-Conquest times, be- 

 longed to the fee of Peterborough Abbey,* which 

 remained the overlord of the manor till the dissolu- 

 tion of the abbey,* the last mention of the overlordship 

 being in 1515.* 



In 1086, Roger held 7 hides of the abbey and he, 

 Hugh and Siward held a further 3 virgates.' He may 

 be identified with Roger Maufe, the first knight 

 enfeoffed by the abbey at Woodford.'* In the North- 

 amptonshire Survey no under-tenant is mentioned 

 and more land is assigned to the abbey, so that 

 Roger's holding was presumably included in a holding 

 of 8 hides and J a virgate belonging to the fee of Peter- 

 borough, while the J hide held by William dc Houton 

 and the J virgate held by Reginald de la Bataille 

 represented part of the holding of 3 virgates.* A 

 Guy Maufe in the same survey held land at Heming- 

 ton ' which was part of the Maufe fee, and he may have 

 been Roger's successor at Woodford. He certainly 

 granted land there to the abbey, as the grant was 

 confirmed by Henry I in a charter of 1 1 14. Guy was 

 living in 1117,*" but the tenant in 1 125-8 was another 

 Roger Maufe, whose holding had been reduced to 

 5 hides and 3 virgates, together \\'ith the soke of 

 3 hides of land of which Gislebert, son of Richard, 

 was the tenant. His Northamptonshire lands were 



•• Mtm. 0} St. Edmund'i Abb. (Rolli 

 S«r.), i, 267-8. 

 " Op. cit. (Rec. Com.), 40 b. 

 " Valor Ecctti. (Rec. Com.), iv, 311. 

 ' Whelljn, WiK. of Norihanls. 1874. 



• Did. Nal. Biof. 



• Act of Pjrit. 3 Ceo. Ill, c. 8 ; RecoT. 

 R. Trin. 6 Geo. Ill, ro. 275 (deedi and 

 writings). 



« y.C.lI. Northams. i, 317*. 



' Cbron. Pelrob. (Camden Soc), p. 23 j 

 Feud. Aids, iv, 12; Cott. MS. (B.M.) 

 Clcop. C i, fol. 146 ; Cal. Inq. Hen. VI I, i, 

 no. 297. 



• Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. ii), xxi, 117. 



' V.C.H. Nortbanis. i, 317a. 



'a Cbron. Pelrob. (Camden Soc), 173'r. 



' V.C.H. Nortbanis. 3886. In the notes 



to the survey these two holdings are said 

 to represent the i hide and i virgate held 

 of the Bishop of Coutances in io^6 by 

 one Ralph. The i^ hides assigned to 

 Guy Trailly may, however, represent the 

 Coutance lands, and are mistakenly 

 assigned to the abbey. * Ibid. 366-7. 



»" Pytchley, Bk. of Fees (Northants. 

 Rec. Soc), ()0n. 



