EDWINSTREE HUNDRED 



BARKWAY 



m 



Fa/or of I 5 3 5. It was probably served by the canons 

 of Holy Trinity, to whom the manor (q.v.) belonged. 

 It is said that on the division of the manor the church 

 remained attached to that part of the manor which 

 became annexed to Westmill, and that, on account of 

 its ruinous condition, it was pulled I'own by John 

 Brograve.'^ The site of the church, however, lies 

 considerably north of Westmill. 



The manor of Wakeley had .1 free chapel of its 

 own, so that it was extra- parochial of Aspenden. 

 The first reference to the church occurs towards the 

 end of the 13th century.'^ In 1291 the church was 

 valued at £^ ip. \d.,^'' and at the same amount in 

 1428, but there were then said to be no inhabitants 

 in the parish.'^ The advowson always remained in 

 the hands of the lord of the manor.^" Richard 

 Morley presented to the church in 1454,'°" but after 

 this no further presentation is recorded. In 1535 

 the free chapel of St. Giles in Wakeley was valued at 

 £\} It was described in I 547 as being not far from 

 the parish church, and it was stated that the parson 

 had for a long time taken its revenues.' The rectory 

 afterwards descended with the manor (q.v.). 



The following charities are rcgu- 

 CHJRITIES lated by a scheme of the Charity 

 Commissioners of 30 November 1877, 

 as varied by a scheme of 2 1 July 1 908, namely : — 



I. The charity of John Boldero, founded by will 

 (date not stated), consisting of a dwelling-house and 



six cottages situate at the Folly in this parish, let on lease 

 for ninety-nine years from 24 June 1 860, at £j a year. 



2. Charity of William Freeman for bread, will, 

 1623, originally a rent-charge of j^io 8/., now ;C4i6 

 2^ per cent, annuities, with the official trustees, 

 producing j^io 8/. yearly. 



3. Charity of Elizabeth Freeman, founded in 1630, 

 consisting of ^^5 a year received from the Haber- 

 dashers' Company, London. 



4. Joan Sanbach, will, 1605, originally a rent- 

 charge of £z, now £So z\ per cent, annuities, with 

 the oflicial trustees, producing £z a year. 



5. The Poor's Land, consisting of 3 r. 15 p., part 

 of a field known as 'Twelve Acres,' let at £1 a year, 

 and an amount of tithe. 



The distribution of the income derived from these 

 sources is made in bread and in gifts to the coal and 

 clothing clubs. 



For the Free School see article on Schools.' The 

 school and its subsidiary endowments are now regu- 

 lated by a scheme of the Board of Education, 5 April 

 1910. 



The official trustees hold a sum of £1,460 2 J per 

 cent, annuities, as 'The Educational Foundation,' 

 producing £2)^ 10s. yearly, comprising the charities 

 of Mary Cator (£320 stock), William Freeman and 

 Ralph Freeman school charity (£370 stock), Ralph 

 Freeman for clothing (£290 stock), and Bishop Seth 

 Ward's charity for apprenticing (^£480 stock). 



BARKWAY 



[on c- r 

 mii«i'-'' 





Bercheweig, Berchewei (xi cent.) ; Bercweie (xii- 

 xiii cent.) ; Berkwey (xiii cent.). 



The parish of Barkway lies on the Hertfordshire 

 chalk hills in the extreme north-east of the county. 

 Its northern boundary is the Icknield Way, which 

 divides Hertfordshire from Cambridgeshire. East of 

 it are the parishes of Barley, co. Herts,, and Langley, 

 CO. Essex. 



The soil in some parts is clay. Out of a total ot 

 5,211 acres, about three-fifths are arable land, rather 

 more than one-fifth is pasture, and there are 555 acres 

 of woodland.' The names of the woods recall the 

 history of the parish. Scales Park is named from the 

 Lords Scajc:, who held a small fee in Barkway in 

 addition to the manor of Newsells ^ ; Earl's Wood 

 takes its name from the Earls of Hereford, lords of 

 Nuthampstead ; and Rokey Wood, on the road to 

 Reed, preserves the name of a manor now held with 

 the main estate of Newsells. 



The village lies on high ground near the River 

 Quin and forms a single street on the main road from 

 Ware to Cambridge. The church lies to the west 

 of the street, and the house formerly known as Church 

 Farm and now as the Manor House, the residence of 

 Mr. J. W. Sworder, stands close to it on the south. 

 The Manor House was originally an L-shaped build- 

 ing, the main portion running east and west, with a 

 wing projecting southwards, but a wing added in the 

 19th century has made the house almost square on 

 plan. It is of two stories with attics. It appears to 



have been bu'lt early in the 1 7th century of timber 

 framing covered with plaster, part of which remains 

 on the north and west sides, but about the middle of 

 the century most of the external walls were rebuilt in 

 brick. The east end of the main building has a 

 mid- 1 7th-century curvilinear gable, and in each 

 story is a five-light window of brick with cement- 

 covered mullions and square head with moulded 

 label. The lights to the lowest window have four- 

 centred arches ; the large window to the attic story 

 is divided by a transom. The south end of the wing 

 has a hipped roof; the end windows have brick 

 mullions, but they are not placed centrally in the 

 wing. All the roofs are tiled. The modern addition 

 has a gable on the south front to correspond with the 

 old east gable. There are two old chimney stacks, 

 each consisting of a row of detached octagonal brick 

 shafts united at their moulded bases and at their 

 capitals, which are plain oversailing courses star- 

 shaped on plan. The interior of the house has 

 been much modernized, but in some of the rooms is 

 early 17th-century panelling. In an upper room of 

 the south wing is a clunch fireplace with a flat four- 

 centred moulded arch having a square head over deco- 

 rated with billets ; in the entrance hall is another 

 stone fireplace with four-centred moulded arch and 

 carved spandrels. Adjoining the house is an early 

 1 7th-century barn of nine bays with boarded sides. 



There are several old tiled and thatched cottages in 

 the High Street of the village, probably dating from 



'* Chauncy, Hist. Antiq. of Herts. 119. 

 =«Anct. D. (P.R.O.), A7214. 

 " Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 42*. 

 ^ Feud. Aids, ii, 457. 



" Clutterbuck, op. cit. iii, 349. 

 '»» Ibid. 



' l^alor Ecd. (Rec. Com.), iv, 278. 

 ' Chant. Cert. 20, no. 81. 



25 



5 y.C.H. Herts, ii, 100. 



' Statistics from Bd. of Agric. (1905). 



* See below. 



