A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



PYTCHLEY 



Pihteslea (xi cent.); Pycseleg, Pyghtesley (xiii cent.); 

 Pistisle, Pytesley (xiv cent.); Piseley (xvii cent.). 



Pytchley is on the road from Higham Ferrers to 

 Kettering; and the village is situated where a branch of 

 the road from Wellingborough, which traverses the 

 parish on its eastern side, crosses the former in the north. 

 It is about 3 milessouth-west of Kettering, and 2 J miles 

 distant from Isham Station on the L.M.S. Railway. The 

 surface of the parish is undulating and well wooded, 

 especially in the north, its height varying from about 

 200 to 400 ft.: it is watered by various streams flowing 

 into the River Nene, the Ise brook dividing it from 

 Isham on the east. 



At the eastern end of the straggling village is the 

 church of All Saints. Excavations carried on during 

 restorations in 1845 disclosed a cemetery of primitive 

 man under the church and churchyard, rough stone 

 coffins, or kistvaens, and skeletons lying with faces to 

 the east and feet to the south.' A little to the north of 

 the church is the vicarage.- 



At the other end of the village is the Manor House, 

 now occupied by Colonel C. H. Heycock, a principal 

 landowner in Pytchley. It is said to have been built 

 by the Washbournes,' and is probably the manor-house 

 referred to by Lewis in 1849 as very dilapidated. 

 Bridges wrote that the old manor-house of the StafFords, 

 lately pulled down in his day by Mr. Washbourne, had 

 adjoined the churchyard;* and that an old manor- 

 house, apparently that of the Engaynes, had stood in 

 the cow-pasture south of the church, where wells, 

 ponds, moats, and other survivals marked its position. 

 Pytchley Hall, of famous hunting memory, built by 

 Sir Euseby Isham in Queen Elizabeth's reign, also stood 

 to the south of the church; but of this beautiful old 

 H-shaped building of native ironstone no trace re- 

 mains, and it is said that a road passes over its site. 5 

 Before its demolition in 1829 a picture of the fine old 

 mansion had been included in Baker's History of 

 Northamptonshire. According to Bridges Sir Euseby's 

 house was designed by the same architect as Holdenby 

 House. The fine gateway was purchased by Lord 

 Overstone and removed in 1843 to Overstone Park, 

 where it can still be seen, and the porch has been rebuilt 

 at Glendon Hall, near Rothwell. The story of the old 

 house after the Pytchley Hunt came into existence in 

 the middle of the i8th century, and it was turned into 

 a club-house, has been told by Mr. H. O. Nethercote.* 

 The kennels are now at Brixworth. To the west of 

 the Manor House is Pytchley House. Pytchley Grange 

 lies by itself at the extreme south of the parish; other 

 outlying properties are Pytchley Lodge, Spencer's 

 Lodge, and Cox's Lodge. 



At the centre of the village is the school (public ele- 

 mentary), originally founded as a grammar school. 

 Near by is one of the two Methodist chapels. A 

 Working Men's Institute and Reading Room was 

 established in 1887. 



The parish has an area of 2,866 acres. Its soil is rich 



Peterborough Abbey. 



Gulet the crossed keys of 



St. Peter or. 



arable ground and its subsoil clay. The chief crops 

 grown are wheat, barley, beans, and roots. Lacemaking 

 was formerly carried on, and shoemaking. There are 

 quarries of building-stone in the north. The population 

 in 1931 was 531. 



Two properties in PYTCHLEY of 5 

 MANORS hides and i virgate and li hides respec- 

 tively were entered in Domesday Survey 

 as held of the Abbey of Peterborough by Azo, with 

 a note that the manor belonged to the monks' farm (i.e. 

 was allotted for their sustenance), 

 and that there was a demesne 

 building. The two formed a 

 manor which had fallen in value 

 since Azo received it from ^^8 to 

 \OQsP In the Northampton Sur- 

 vey it was returned that the Abbot 

 of Peterborough had 5^ hides in 

 Pytchley, but that in the Rolls of 

 Winchester (Domesday Survey) 

 6 hides and 3 small virgates had 

 been held of him.* The deficit of 

 \\ hides is accounted for by an 

 increase of the same amount in the manor of the En- 

 gaynes (q.v.).' In the reign of Richard I Pytchley, with 

 its church and mill, was confirmed to the abbey by Pope 

 Eugenius.'" Similar confirmations were made in 1227 

 by Henry III" and in 1332 by Edward III.'^ The 

 abbey's property (then held by Ralph Basset) was 

 assessed in 1284 at 5^ hides. ■' This manor continued 

 to be held of the abbey until the Dissolution, and the 

 lordship and fee farm were in February 1544 granted 

 to William, Lord Parr of Horton, in tail male."* 



After being held in demesne by the abbey, Pytchley 

 had for tenants members of the great judicial families 

 of Ridel and Basset. Geoffrey Ridel, the justiciar, came 

 to Abbot John in 1 1 17 with other proved men to ask 

 that the manor of Pytchley might be granted to him 

 for life, and the abbot granted it to him for the farm 

 of /^4.'5 After the death of the justiciar in the wreck of 

 the White Ship in 1 1 20, its next tenants were the 

 descendants of his daughter and heiress Maud, who 

 married Richard, son of Ralph Basset,'* her son Geoffrey 

 taking the name of his mother and her son Ralph that 

 of his father. Geoffrey Ridel's son Richard, however, 

 assumed the name of Basset, and in 1201 and 1203 

 appears in a suit instituted against him by Abbot Wil- 

 liam in connexion with 6 carucates of land in Pytchley 

 which he claimed to hold of the church of Peterborough 

 and which that church claimed to hold in demesne.'^ 

 Richard Basset was holding at his death a messuage in 

 Pytchley and 6 virgates of land and paid for the said 

 manor 10 marks yearly.'* His son and heir Ralph made 

 an agreement in 12 18 with Abbot Robert, recognizing 

 that Pytchley was the right of the church of Peter- 

 borough, and the abbot confirmed this land to Ralph 

 and his heirs, to hold at fee farm, saving the advowson 

 of the church, for 10 marks." In 1218 Ralph Basset 



' V.C.H. Northants. i, 1+3; Arch. J. 

 iii, 105. 



^ This is said to have been a public 

 house called the 'Queen's Head' until about 

 1 790 : ex inf. the vicar. 



3 Lewis, Topog. Diet. 



* Hist, of Northants. ii, 121. 



i N. & Q. Northants. 1886-7, p. 9. 



' The Pytchley Hunt, 18S8. 



' F.C.H.Northants.\,i\6. 



8 Ibid. 383. 9 Ibid. 



'° Dugdale, Mon. Angl. i, 390. 

 " Cat. Chart. R. 1226-57, p. 21. 

 *^ Ibid. 1327-41, p. 275. 

 " Feud. Aids, iv, i . 

 't L. &f P. Hen. Fin, %h,{i), 141 (75). 



'5 Reg. Robt. de Swaffham, fols. xli, 

 cxiii. 



'^ Sloane Ch. xxxi, 4, 26. 



" Cur. Reg. R. ii, 52, 261. 



'8 Book of Deeds belonging to Ishams of 

 Lamport (records relating to the Griffin 

 family). 



•9 Reg. Robt. de Swaifham, at fol. ccvii. 



208 



