A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



When the parish was inclosed in 1786, an allotment 

 of 320 acres was made for tithes and for the glebe. 



Edward Hunt's Chanty founded by 

 CHARITIES will proved at Northampton 7 Decem- 

 ber 1 674 is described under the parish 

 of Warkton. Stock producing £9 5^. \d. yearly in 

 dividends represents the endowment for this parish. 



The Poor's Land. An allotment of about 14 acres 

 was set out in the inclosure in lieu of land formerly 

 given to the poor. The land produces about £24. 



Bentham's Charity. It is stated in the accounts for 

 the year 1870 that the rector and churchwardens are 

 the trustees of a sum of £40 left by Mr. Bentham for the 

 poor. The money is invested on mortgage and £2 yearly 

 is received in interest. 



Church Estate. An allotment of about 17 acres was 

 set out on the inclosure in lieu of lands anciently appro- 

 priated to the repairs of the church. The land is let 

 for £,2"^ 13/. yearly which is applied by the church- 

 wardens to church expenses. 



Mrs. Elizabeth Henchman, who died in 1772, left 



£40 for poor widows who attend church. The money 

 was applied towards making new pews in the parish 

 church and in respect of it £2 is distributed by the 

 churchwardens to about 16 poor widows. 



Sarah Keyston on 5 November 1841 deposited ^^lo 

 in the Kettering Savings Bank on trust to the rector and 

 churchwardens to distribute the income to poor widows 

 of 50 years and upwards, members of the Church of 

 England. The money was eventually invested and the 

 endowment is now £() i6s. ^J. Consols producing 

 4/. 8(2'. annually in dividends, which sum is distributed 

 equally among 6 poor widows. 



The Rt. Hon. James Lord Douglas by deed of 

 directions dated 7 April 1852 directed the trustees of 

 his will to pay the sum of j^i.ooo to the rector and 

 churchwardens to be invested in the Public Funds and 

 the interest to be distributed amongst the poor. The 

 endowment now produces ^{^26 js. yearly. The income 

 is distributed in money payments by the rector and two 

 trustees appointed by the Parish Council in place of the 

 churchwardens. 



CRANSLEY 



Cransley, Cranesle (xi cent.); Cranesley (xvi cent.). 



Cransley, 1 2 miles north from Northampton, lies on 

 the road from Northampton to Kettering, which skirts 

 it on the south-east. Kettering lies to the east of Crans- 

 ley, and Walgrave to the west. It includes the hamlet 

 of Little Cransley, near its southern boundary. The 

 village lies along a branch road running north-west from 

 the Northampton road. There is an old tramway for 

 ironstone south of the village; and to the north of the 

 village the Cransley and Loddington tramway now 

 runs across the parish from west to east, the Cransley 

 Iron Works being situated at its eastern end. 



St. Andrew's Church lies south of the village street 

 with the vicarage on the other side of the road, where 

 two roads meet. The vicarage house was enlarged in 

 1858. The school stands at a little distance from the 

 church, to the west of the Three Cranes Inn. 



The manor-house,' now known as Cransley Hall, 

 stands in a pleasant situation to the north-east of the 

 church, with gardens on the south side above a small 

 brook, here expanded into two large fish-ponds. It is a 

 house of two stories, faced with wrought ironstone, with 

 barred sash windows, wooden cornice, and hipped roofs 

 covered with Colleyweston slates, much altered and 

 added to in the 1 8th century and subsequently, but still 

 retaining portions of a 16th-century building. The 

 main fronts face west and east, and over the west door- 

 way are the arms of Sir Thomas Cecil,^ who may have 

 rebuilt this part of the house before 1595, though the 

 character of the existing elevation is somewhat later. 

 The east and south fronts appear to belong to the 

 rebuilding and enlargement of 1708—9 referred to by 

 Justinian Isham in his Diary,^ and over the east door- 

 way, which is centrally placed with two windows on 

 each side, are the arms and crest of Sir Henry Robinson 

 (d. 1727).* A bay window has been added in the middle 



of the south front, and a new two-story wing containing 

 housekeeper's room and servants' hall in character with 

 the 1 8th-century work was built on the north side by 

 William Somerset Rose (1845-84). 5 More recently 

 (1905) a further large one-story addition has been made 

 on the north side, on the site of various outbuildings. 



At the western end of the village is Cransley Wood, 

 almost due west of which on the western boundary of 

 the parish is the windmill, with Ragsdale Spinney to 

 the south of it; and farther south still Cransley Lodge, 

 Squire Lodge, and Old Lodge. 



Outlying farms are North Field Farm in the extreme 

 north, and about half a mile south-west of it Bottom 

 Lodge Homestead near the old ironstone pits, east of 

 which is Bottom Lodge Farm. 



The population of Cransley, which was 217 in 1801 

 and 329 in 1871, was 296 in 1931. The parish has an 

 area of 2,094 acres of land and 19 acres of water. The 

 soil, which varies, is good red and black loam; subsoil 

 lime and ironstone; land arable and grass in equal 

 proportions. 



Cransley appears in the hands of three 

 MANORS owners in the Domesday Survey. Two 

 hides and i virgate of land in Cransley were 

 a member of the king's manor of Rothwell;* ij hides 

 were included among the lands of Gunfred de Cioches 

 in Orlingbury Hundred, and were valued as before the 

 Conquest at 30/.:' and among the lands of the Countess 

 Judith, in Wilebrook Hundred, a hide is entered with 

 1 1 hides of socland in Broughton and 3 virgates in 

 Hannington.* By the 1 2th century these lands were in 

 the hands of four owners and appear to have been 

 redistributed.' Hugh Kyde held i| hides and ij 

 bovates in Cransley of the fee of Chokes ; Ralf Meschin 

 held 5 small virgates of the fee of Geddington; John 

 le Bauld l great virgate; and Foliot (evidently the 



^ A facsimile of a plan of *Dallison's 

 manor house & close', made in 1598, is in 

 the church. 



^ Sir Thomas succeeded his father as 

 2nd Lord Burghley in 1598, after he had 

 parted with Cransley, and was created Earl 

 of Exeter in 161 5. 



3 On 22 August 1708 he refers to a 



visit to Mrs. Robinson of Cransley, where 

 they 'were building a new front of five 

 windows to the old part of the house*, and 

 on 20 May 1709 he mentions a man being 

 killed by the falling of a wall, 'the second 

 man killed in the new building'. 



4 Robinson impaling a bend charged 

 with 3 eagles, for Ernley. 



162 



5 Mr. Rose also altered the drive, and 

 made the present road to Broughton, the 

 road being formerly much closer to the 

 house: ex inf. Major A. H. Thurbum. 



* f^.C.H. Northants. i, 306a. 



7 Ibid. 347*. 8 Ibid. 3Sia. 



' Ibid. 382*, 383a, q.v. for discussion of 

 redistribution. 



