A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE 



LANGFORD 



Langeford (xi cent.). 



The parish of Langford, covering an area of 2,070 

 acres, lies south of Biggleswade. It is watered by the 

 River Ivel, which forms its southern and western bound- 

 ary. The surface is almost level, what slope there is 

 being from west to east of the parish. The soil is chiefly 

 gravel, and the subsoil gravel. Of the acreage 1,589 

 acres are arable land, and 246! are permanent grass.' 

 The south of the parish is given over to agriculture, and 

 here are situated the Vine, Langford Hill, and Park 

 farms. There are also brickworks close to the Great 

 Northern Railway. The long straggling village lies in 

 the north-west of the parish, on both sides of a road 

 which runs northwards to Biggleswade. On the west 

 flows the River Ivel, at first some distance off, but grad- 

 ually approaching the road until opposite the Methodist 

 chapel, river and road almost meet. The road then 

 takes a turn to the east, and the distance between the 

 two increases considerably. More than half-way up the 

 street a short branch road on the west leads down to 

 the river, on which is situated a corn mill, and on the 

 north of this road is the church of St. Andrew, stand- 

 ing back from the main street. On the east side of 

 the street at this point are the church and manor farms, 

 separated by the infant school. Higher up the road, 

 near the parish boundary, is the vicarage, inclosed in 

 its own grounds, and beyond are the Ivel meads. 

 Denny cottages on the same side mark the parish 

 boundary. The Great Northern Railway m.iin line 

 runs due north through the parish, the nearest station 

 being at Biggleswade, 2 miles distant. Prehistoric im- 

 plements and also ancient British coins of copper 

 and brass have been found here.'' 



Among place-names may be mentioned the follow- 

 ing : — Scroop's meadow (recalling the fourteenth- 

 century holder of Holme cum Langford manor), 

 Marriners, Ballance, Stanners Close, Slingsby, in the 

 seventeenth century, Hesmore End and Hamonds in 

 the eighteenth."" 



There are at the present day three 

 MANORS manors in Langford, of which two — the 

 manors of Holme with Langford and 

 Langford Rectory — may be termed offshoots of the 

 principal manor of LANGFORD. At the date of 

 the Domesday Survey this manor, assessed at ten hides 

 and originally held by Lewin, a thegn of Edward 

 the Confessor, was in the possession of Walter Flem- 

 ing, founder of the WahuU family.' This family 





Wahull. 

 crescents gules. 



Or three 



continued to hold the manor in chief in an almost 

 direct line of succession till the later half of the 

 sixteenth century. Simon, grandson of Walter the 

 Fleming, was succeeded by a son Walter,' who died 

 without issue, and whose nephew Saer, son of his 

 brother Simon, was lord of Wahull at his death in 

 1250.* Walter, son of Saer, 

 succeeded his father,' and the 

 succession of father and son 

 was maintained unbroken from 

 this time till the death of 

 Nicholas de Wahull in 1367.° 



He left two infant daughters, 

 Elizabeth and Eleanor, to suc- 

 ceed him, who both died be- 

 fore 1377, and the manor 

 therefore reverted to Nicholas 

 de Wahull their great uncle.' 

 Again for more than a century 

 and a half the manor continued in the direct 

 male line,' till the death of Anthony Wahull, 

 in 1 541,' when it passed to his daughter Agnes, 

 seventeen days old at the time 

 of his death.'" She married 

 twice, first Richard Chete- 

 wood, and secondly Sir George 

 Calverly, and on her death in 

 1576 her son Richard Chete- 

 wood succeeded her." He 

 married Anne daughter of Sir 

 Valentine Knightley," and by 

 his alienation of the manor to 

 Charles Nodes in 1628, it 

 finally passed from the family 

 in whose hands it had remained 

 since the Conquest." The 



Nodes were still holding the manor in 1 704, in which 

 year George Nodes transferred it to John Draper," 

 who in 1 7 1 6 conveyed it to Thomas Browne," and 

 from that date until the beginning of the nineteenth 

 century its descent is the same as that of Etonbury 

 manor in the parish of Arlesey (q.v.).'° 



The present lord of the manor is Mr. Gumey. 



The manor of HOLME WITH LANGFORD was 

 an appurtenance of Langford manor, and was originally 

 held of the WahuUs by service of a twelfth part of 

 a knight's fee." The first holder of whom mention 

 has been found is Peter de Richmond who, early in 



Nodes. Sable a pile 

 argent 'with three trails 

 sable thereon. 



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



^''y.C.H,Bids,i, 146, 173, 



ll" Close, 1652, p. 56, No. 14; MSS. 

 Westm. bdle. 6. > V.C.H. Beds, i, 250*. 



8 Cott. MSS. Nero E. vi ; Harl. Soc. 

 Pub!, xix, 68. In 1236 Agnes de Wahull 

 claimed as dower two carucates of land 

 in Langford worth ,^40, part of the 

 barony of Wahull. She was wife of a 

 John de Wahull (Feet of F. Div. Cos. 

 7 Hen. Ill, No. 26), and is also described 

 as sister (probably in law) of Walter de 

 Wahull {Harl. Soc, Publ. xix, 68), and 

 subsequently married three husbands, 

 Robert de Basingeham, Robert Agylon 

 (Testa de Ne-vill [Rec. Com.], 251), and 

 Walter son of Warin (Maitland, Bracton's 

 Note Bk. Case 1182). 



•• Cal, of In J. p.m. Hen, III, i, 49. 



' Feet of F. Beds. 53 Hen. Ill, m. 7. 

 'Feud. Aids, i, 3, 19, 23; Feet of F. 

 Beds. 14 Edw. Ill j Cal. of Close, 



'333-7i P- 605 i 'bid. 1346-9. P-372> 

 Cal. of Pat. 1338-40, p. 517; Close, 23 

 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 23 ; 39 Edw. Ill, 

 pt. 3, m. 27; Chan. Inq. p.m. I2 Edw. Ill, 

 No. 45 ; 22 Edw. Ill, No. 45 ; 41 

 Edw. Ill, No. 62. 



' Chan. Inq. p.m. 50 Edw. Ill, No. 69. 

 The manor was at this time worth ,f 35 

 per annum. 



8 Harl. Soc. Publ. XIX, 68. 



' Chan. Inq. p.m. 10 Hen. IV, No. 4 ; 

 12 Hen. IV, No. 16 ; 6 Hen. VI, No. 

 22 ; 12 Hen. VI, No. 57 ; 15 Edw. IV, 

 No. 2ij Cal.ofInq.Hen.yiI,\,z6i. The 

 manor was worth £ii, and held of the 

 king by service of J of a knight's fee ; 



Feud. Aids, i, 37 ; Feet of F. Div. Cos. 

 Trin. 2 Edw. FV ; Close R. 15 Edw. IV, 

 m. 5. 



" Chan. Inq. p.m. 34 Hen. VIII, m. 66. 



" Feet of F. Div. Cos. Trin. 3 El z. j 

 Pat. 3 Eliz. pt. 8 i Chan. Inq, p.m. 

 (Ser. 2), clxxiii. No. 7. 



" Feet of F. Beds. East. 9 Jas. I, in 

 which Richard Chetewood conveys Lang- 

 ford to Sir Valentine Knightley prelimi- 

 nary to a marriage settlement. 



" Ibid. Mich. 4 Chas. 1 5 Recov. R. 

 Mich. 4 Chas. I. 



" Feet of F. Beds. Mich. 3 Anne. 



'5 Ibid. 3 Geo. I. 



"Ibid. East. 4 Geo. Ill ; Hil. 15 

 Geo. Ill ; Add. MSS. 9408 ; Lysons, 

 Mag. Brit, i, 103. 



'■^ Chan. Inq. p.m. 32 Edw. Ill, No. 22. 



