A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE 



These 3 hides, as did other lands formerly held by 

 Ulmar of Eaton in Bedfordshire, became part of the 

 barony of Eaton, and were granted in 1 1 20 to one of 

 the house of Beauchamp.'" In 1 1 94 Hugh de 

 Beauchamp claimed the homage of the holder of this 

 land,'' and again in 1284 the same 3 hides were 

 held of Ralph Beauchamp of Eaton." One further 

 reference has been found to the overlordship, when 

 in I 396 Eleanor wife of Reginald de Grey of Ruthyn 

 held a manor in Barford of Thomas Dale." 



Osbern son of Walter had no tenant under him at 

 the time of the Survey, but in 1 1 94 the manor was 

 held of the overlord by Peter de Leyham, who also 

 held the more important manor of Barford." In 

 1284 John de Leyham held it," and from that date 

 till 1380 no further reference has been found to this 

 property. In that year, and again in 1 3 84, Reginald 

 de Grey and Eleanor his wife conveyed Barford 

 manor into the hands of trustees," and in 1396 

 Eleanor wife of Reginald de Grey died seised of the 

 manor, of which further trace has been lost." 



One mill is mentioned in the Survey of Little 

 Barford in 1087. It was valued at 12s. and belonged 

 to Little Barford manor held by Eudo Dapifer." 

 To the same manor was also attached in the seven- 

 teenth and eighteenth centuries a free fishery in the 

 waters of the Ouse, and a view of frankpledge." 



The church of ST. DENIS has a 

 CHURCH chancel 30 ft. 10 in. by 12 ft. 7 in., with 

 south vestry and organ chamber, nave 

 36 ft. by 15 ft. 4 in. with north aisle 7 ft. wide, and 

 west tower 8 ft. by 8 ft. 8 in., all measurements being 

 internal. 



The earliest building of which any evidence 

 remains had an aisleless nave 36 ft. by 15 ft. 4 in. 

 and a chancel probably of the existing width, but 

 shorter. There is no trace of enlargement before the 

 early years of the fourteenth century, though a north 

 aisle may perhaps have existed previously. About 

 1310-20 the present north arcade was built, the aisle 

 being probably somewhat narrower than at present. 

 A south chapel was added to the chancel shortly 

 afterwards, the chancel being probably lengthened or 

 rebuilt at the same time, and the chancel arch is of 

 this date. The east arch of the west tower being 

 also of fourteenth - century work presupposes the 

 existence of a tower at this time, but the present tower 

 belongs to the late part of the fifteenth century. 



In 1834 the church was 'restored,' a three-light 

 east window of the chancel being replaced by a 

 larger window, copied from one in Eaton Socon 

 church, and at the same time the south chapel was 

 pulled down and its arcade blocked up. A window 

 of imitation twelfth-century detail was cut in the 

 south wall of the nave to light the reading desk, and 

 old wooden north and south porches were destroyed. 



In 1869 the chancel was pulled down and rebuilt, 

 the blocked arcade on the south being reopened, and 

 a vestry and organ chamber — the latter in transept 

 form — built. The nave and ijorth aisle were repaired 

 in 1 87 1, and mu-S decoration and View fittings added. 



The high pulpit with a sounding board at the north- 

 east of the nave, and the reading and clerk's desks at 

 the south-east, disappeared at this time. The fifteenth- 

 century screen now in the vestry was till 1 871 in 

 position at the chancel arch. 



The chancel at the present time has three lancets 

 at the east, and two two-light north windows of 

 fourteenth-century style, all being modem. In the 

 south wall is an arcade of two bays, with wide 

 pointed segmental arches, moulded capitals and 

 bases, and shafts of quatrefoiled plan, which opened to 

 the former south chapel, and now to the modern vestry 

 organ chamber. In the south-east angle of the 

 vestry is a fifteenth-century piscina, found in the 

 south wall of the chancel, which is now set to project 

 from the wall face, with the unusual feature of a 

 narrow arched opening in its west side, the head 

 worked in imitation of a ribbed vault. It may have 

 opened originally into a sedile immediately adjoining 

 it on the west, but this cannot now be determined. 

 The screen at the west of the vestry, of mid-fifteenth- 

 century date, has been repainted from indications of 

 the old colour, and has a design of large single roses 

 on the lower panels, open tracery above, and a cornice 

 with paterae, over the central opening bearing a shield 

 with I H s. 



The chancel arch is of early fourteenth-century 

 detail, like the north arcade of the nave, which is of 

 three bays, with octagonal pillars, pointed arches of 

 two chamfered orders, and moulded capitals. The north 

 aisle of the nave shows in its east and west walls the 

 traces of a steeper- pitched roof, which may have 

 belonged to a narrower aisle, and has at the west a 

 small round-headed twelfth-century light, and another, 

 much altered, at the east. Both were perhaps at first in 

 the north wall of the aisleless nave. The north wall 

 of the aisle has no ancient features, door and windows 

 being alike modern. The nave has three windows on 

 the south, the imitation twelfth-century light, a two- 

 light window which is a modern copy of a window 

 of ^. I 320 previously existing, and to the west of the 

 south doorway, and at a rather higher level in the 

 wall, a sixteenth-century window of two uncusped 

 lights under a four-centred head. The south door- 

 way is good work of f . 11 60-70, with a square head, 

 not in its original condition, and perhaps replacing a 

 carved tympanum, under a semicircular arch with a late 

 form of zigzag and an engrailed label which has been 

 copied in the modern window to the east. The arch 

 has nook-shafts with scalloped capitals of advanced 

 style, and close to its east jamb is a holy water stone 

 projecting from the wall, but formerly sheltered by 

 a porch."' In the west jamb is an incised sundial. 

 Till late in the fifteenth century the nave had a high- 

 pitched roof, but a clearstory was then added, and a 

 lower-pitched roof put on, with two two-light 

 windows on each side, the western bay being blank. 



The tower, of three stages, has an embattled parapet 

 and two-light belfry windows with cinquefoiled lights 

 and four-centred heads. In the ground stage is a 

 three-light west window, a good deal repaired, of 



"O F.C.H. Beds.i, 201 5 tee also Temps- 

 ford. 



81 Madojci Formulare Anglicanum, 218. 

 This property is here declared to be of 

 the fee of the Eudo of Domesday. 



'^ Feud. Aid!, i, 3. 



'8 Chan. Inq. p.m. 19 Ric. II, No. 30. 

 Thomas Dale at this time held the larger 



manor in Little Barford, but no previous 

 reference has been found to his over- 

 lordship of the second manor. 



'■• Madox, Formulare Anglicanum, 218, 



6« Feud. Aids, i, 3. 



8» Feet of F. Div. Cos. 3 Ric. II, No. 

 38 ; 7 Ric. II, No. 10. Here the manor 

 is described as J in Beds, and J in Hunts. 



208 



»7 Chan. Inq. p.m. 19 Ric. II, No. 

 30. 



88 KC.H. Beds, i, 229a. 



S9 Recov. R. Trin. 1658 ; Feet of F. 

 Beds. Trin. 4 Will, and Mary ; Trin. 

 S Geo. HI ; Hll. 25 Geo. III. 



"» See Fisher, Collections fir Beds. 

 pi. viii. 



