A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



after crossing Ermine Street, runs north-west to join 

 the Great North Road at Baldock. At the junction 

 of these two roads is situated the town of Bunting- 

 ford, which extends into the four parishes of Layston, 

 Throcking, Aspenden and Wyddial. 



The older settlement in the parish lay near 

 St. Bartholomew's Church, which stands about half a 

 mile east of Ermine Street alone in the fields,' almost 

 hidden by the thick trees which surround it. 



Records of Buntingford are found in the early I 3 th 

 century.^ It was described as a hamlet in I 288.' In 

 1 292 there was a chapel there, which stood where the 

 present chapel of St. Peter stands, on the west side of 

 Ermine Street, north of the point where it crosses the 

 river. The rector of Aspenden is said to have built 

 an oratory near the king's highway about 1333. Five 

 years later there was complaint that this was an 

 inconvenience to travellers who passed through the 

 town on foot in winter time, and the oratory was 



Layston Chvrch from the South-east 



taken into the king's hands. It was found by inquisi- 

 tion, however, that it was to the benefit of the 

 town.* Buntingford must have been growing rapidly 

 at this time, and as a centre for trade it had become 

 more important than the neighbouring villages. From 

 1252a market had been held every Friday at New 

 Chipping,' which lies on Ermine Street, only half a 

 mile north of Buntingford. This market was attached 

 to the manor of Pope's Hall in Buckland (q.v.). The 

 manor included lands in Buntingford,^** and in 1360 



the lord of the manor, Elizabeth de Burgh, receired 

 licence to transfer her market to the king's highway 

 in Buntingford, to be held on Friday in the main 

 road by the chapel of St. John and in the two roadi 

 which crossed that road east and west. She received 

 also the grant of a fair to be held in the same place 

 every year on the day and morrow of the Invention 

 of the Holy Cross. '^ 



In 1367 Lionel Duke of Clarence, then holding 

 the manor of Pope's Hall by inheritance, obtained a 

 revocation of the grant of the market and fair at 

 Buntingford, on the ground that they were harmful 

 to his manor of Standon, and at the same time obtained 

 a grant of a market and fair to be held at Standon." 

 The people of Buntingford, however, protested 

 against the revocation of the grant, and claimed that 

 the market and fair had been granted to them by 

 Elizabeth de Burgh, and they petitioned against their 

 removal.*' Accordingly the king granted them the 



right to hold a market 

 in Buntingford every 

 Saturday and a fair 

 there every year on 

 the day and morrow 

 of the Apostles Peter 

 and Paul." This 

 grant was confirmed 

 to the lords and 

 tenants of Bunting- 

 ford by Richard II 

 in 1378," but in 

 spite of this in 1385 

 Richard gave the 

 dues from the market 

 and fair of Bunting- 

 ford to Thomas 

 Stout, groom of the 

 buttery. '"The people 

 of Buntingford again 

 petitioned the king, 

 urging their rights, 

 and in 1387 the 

 grant to Thomas 

 Stout was revoked." 

 The market and fair 

 were confirmed to 

 the inhabitants of 

 Buntingford by 

 Henry IV'* and 

 Henry V." In 1 542 a fresh grant was made by 

 Henry VIII, when Thomas Audley, lord of the 

 manor of Corneybury, the tenants of that manor and 

 the inhabitants of the town of Buntingford received 

 licence to hold a market in Buntingford every 

 Monday and two annual fairs there on the day and 

 morrow of SS. Peter and Paul and on the day and 

 morrow of St. Andrew.^" John Crouch, lord of 

 the manor of Corneybury, who died in January 

 1605-6, bequeathed zos. a year from his stalls in 



* Clutterbuck says that at the beginning 

 of the 19th century it was possible to 

 trace the foundation of houses which had 

 once stood near the church. 



« Anct. D. (P.R.O.), A 1027, 1109. 



' Ibid. B 813. 



' Chan. Inq. p.m. Misc. file 135, no. 3 ; 

 Cal. Close, 135--9, p. 565. The descrip- 

 tion suggests chat it is the above- 

 mentioned chapel that is referred to. 



The chapel, however, was built as early 

 as 1292 (see Advowson). 



* See Cal. Chart. R. 1226—57, p. 404. 



'*■ See below for the fee of Osbern 

 Bishop of Bayeujc in Layston. 



" Chart. R. 34 & 35 Edw. Ill, m. 6, 

 no. 22 j Ahbrru. Rot. Orig. (Rec Com.}, 

 ii, 262. 



" Chart. R. 41 Edw. Ill, m. 2, no. 7 ; 

 Ahhrrv. Rot. Orig. (Rec. Com.), ii, 293. 



78 



" Plac. in Cane, file 4, no. 25. 



" Chart. R. 41 Edw. Ill, m. 2 

 no. 5. 



^' Cal. Pat. 1377-81, p. 283. 



"Ibid. 1385-9, pp. 22, 39. 



" Ibid. p. 287. 



'^ Ibid. 1408-13, p. 293. 



" Ibid. 1413-16, p. 173. 



"" L. and P. Hen. Vlll, xvii, g. 137 

 (4)- 



