A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



He died in 1 178 as rector of Wootton and bishop- 

 elect of Dunkeld, Scotland.' Later ones are Jeremiah 

 Stephens, literary coadjutor of Sir Henry Spelman; 

 James Fortescue, rector 1764-77, poetical writer; and 

 Thomas Lathbury, ecclesiastical historian (died 1865), 

 for a time curate here. Jeremiah Stephens quarrelled 

 with his parishioners; many of them, aged and poor, 

 trudged to London to petition against his oppression. 

 The Committee of Sequestrations replaced him before 

 1647 by the popular Puritan divine Daniel Rogers, 

 and in 1656 Lemuel Franklin was intruded. Stephens 

 returned at the Restoration and died here 1665.* 



The Wesleyan Reform chapel at Townsend was 

 registered for marriages in 1871.^ 



The Reverend Christopher Crouch 

 CHARITIES by will dated l August 1735 devised 

 a piece of meadow ground in Harding- 

 stone, the rent to be paid to i o poor people of Wootton 



and 10 of Holcot. The land is now let and the rent 

 distributed among poor persons by the ministers of the 

 respective parishes. 



John Langford by will dated in 1658 charged certain 

 land in Wootton with a yearly sum of ;^i 10/. to be 

 given to the poor at the discretion of the minister and 

 churchwardens. The rent-charge is received and applied 

 in accordance with the trusts. 



Town Houses (or Poor's Houses) and Town Lands 

 (or Poor's Allotment). By an Award dated 23 June 

 1779 made under an Inclosure Act, six cottages with 

 appurtenances and land containing z a. 3 r. 12 p. were 

 vested in the rector, churchwardens, and overseers in 

 trust for the residence, use, and benefit of the honest and 

 industrious poor of the parish. The endowment now 

 consists of the land and seven cottages. The cottages 

 are let to poor and aged people and the rent of the land 

 is applied in accordance with the trusts. 



YARDLEY HASTINGS 



Gerdelai (xi cent.); Gerdeleia, Jerdele (xiii cent.); 

 Yerdele Hastinges (xiv cent.). 



The parish of Yardley Hastings lies on the border 

 of Buckinghamshire on the road from Bedford to 



l> 



Site of Great Hall 

 The Screens 



GROUND FLOOR 

 K) 5 O 



10 



20 



30 



FIRST FLOOR 

 <0 SO 



Scale of Feet 



Plan of Yardlev Hastings Manor House 



Northampton. The soil is clayey on a subsoil of clay 

 and limestone and the chief crops are cereals. The area 

 is 4,187 acres of land and 3 of water. The population 

 in 1931 was 796. The village lies to the north chiefly 

 between 200 ft. and 300 ft. and southwards the land 

 rises to about 370 ft. Yardley Chase, in the southern 

 half of the parish, consists of a deer park and a number 

 of woods noted for their timber including oaks of great 

 size ; most of these have been cut down in recent years, 

 but Cowper's Oak,"* associated with the poet, and Gog 

 and Magog still stand. 



The rectory house was rebuilt in 1701 by the Rev. 

 Humfrey Betty. It is a large stone house with well- 

 designed red brick front, standing at the north end of 

 the village, but was sold in 1935, and a new house 

 erected on another site. A cottage on the south-west side 

 of the churchyard bears a tablet inscribed R. W. 1676, 

 and in the village is a large stone barn dated 1 699. s 



The remains of the old manor-house, which stand 



immediately to the north of the church, show that it 

 was a house of some importance. They consist of what 

 were evidently the buttery and pantry, with a large 

 room over them, forming the southern end of the 

 original house. To the im- 

 mediate north of the present 

 building was the entrance 

 \ \ passage or 'screens' and be- 

 yond this, northwards, was 

 the Great Hall, which has 

 entirely disappeared. Exca- 

 vations show, however, that 

 it must have been some 45 

 ft. long, by 30 ft. wide,* 

 the width of the rooms that 

 are left, the whole building 

 being roofed in one span. 

 The original roof remains 

 over what is left. The 

 jambs of the doors of the 

 entrance passage have sur- 

 vived and show that the main 

 entrance door was on the west front, as this jamb is well 

 moulded, while that of the door at the opposite end is 

 only double-chamfered. In the right-hand wall of the 

 passage, that is the north wall of the remaining building, 

 are four doorways, of which the two in the middle are 

 handsomely treated and opened into the buttery and 

 pantry. Of the other two, one, of plainer character, led 

 to a wooden staircase to the upper chamber; the other 

 at a lower level (and apparently of later date) served 

 some steep stone steps down to a cellar. 



So far the arrangement accords with the customary 

 plan. The entrance, or screens, had the kitchen depart- 

 ment on the right and the great hall on the left. But 

 there are no remains of the kitchen itself. However, 

 there are indications that a portion of the east wall of 

 the ruin has been rebuilt, and it is quite possible that 

 the kitchen was approached through this wall after 

 passing through the pantry. The upper floor presents 

 an unusual feature, for it consisted of one large room 



* Anderson, Early Sources of Scottish 

 Hist, ii, 259 n. 



2 Did. Nat. Biog.; Hist. MSS. Com. 

 Rep. iv, App. i, 74, 86; ibid, vi, ziSi; 

 Cal. S.P. Dom. 1633-4, p. 9 (2); ibid. 



1656-7, pp. 96, 107; Chan. Proc. (Ser. 

 2), bdle. 453, no. 24. 



^ Land. Gaa. II July 1871. 



'* See frontispiece to this volume. It was 

 also known as 'Judith', having traditionally 



196 



been planted by the Countess Judith: 

 V.C.H. Northants, ii, 351. 



5 It is about 35 yards long, but is with- 

 out buttresses or architectural features. 



^ Assoc. Arch. Soc. Rep. xxvii, 406. 



