BIGGLESWADE HUNDRED 



WRESTLINGWORTH 



Bowles to put in a priest to pray for their souls."" 

 The lands with which it was endowed lay in Temps- 

 ford, Everton and Sandy, and were worth at the Dis- 

 solution £^ 6s. %d. at which time the chantry was said 

 to have fallen into decay.'" In 1550 this chantry 

 with the lands and tenements attached was leased to 

 Richard Hacklete for twenty-one years at a rent of 

 £6 I IS. 2j</.,"' and in 1606 it was sold by James I 

 to Richard Cartwright for Xl75-'" 



Tempsford has a Wesleyan chapel built in 1804. 



This parish is possessed of 4. acres 



CHARITIES of grass land known as the Poor's Land, 



allotted on the inclosure in the parish 



in lieu of other lands in the open fields belonging to 



the poor. It is let at £'j a year which is applied in 



the distribution of 4-lb. loaves of bread to about eighty 

 families. 



Unknown Donors' Charities. An annual payment of 

 j£i is made to the rector for preaching a sermon, and 

 5/. a year is distributed in bread. These charges are 

 upon a close of land in the parish of Cardington and 

 are regularly paid. 



In 184.7 Luke Addington by his will left ;^300 to 

 be invested and income applied in the distribution of 

 money for the benefit of sick and needy persons in the 

 parish. The legacy is represented by ^^327 8.r. c,d. 

 consols with the official trustees. 



In 1878 John Jeffries by his will left ^^200 to be 

 invested and dividends paid to the minister of the 

 Baptist chapel. 



W RESTLING WORTH 



Wrastlingewurde (xii cent.) ; Wrestlingforth (xvii 

 and xviii cents.). 



Wrestlingworth is a small rural parish with an area 

 of 1,700 acres lying on the borders of Cambridgeshire. 

 Its contour is somewhat broad in the north, tapering 

 towards a point in the south-east. Of the acreage 

 1, 2 94 J acres are arable land, 2 25 J permanent grass, 

 and 3 woods and plantations.' The land slopes 

 slightly from north to south, the highest and lowest 

 points being respectively 185 and 100 ft. above the 

 ordnance datum. The soil is strong clay, the subsoil 

 clay. The western and southern parts of the parish 

 are chiefly agricultural, the chief crops being wheat, 

 barley, beans and peas. The village of Wrestlingworth 

 lies in the north of the parish, which is traversed by 

 two roads, one crossing the Cambridgeshire border on 

 the south-east running north-west across the parish, 

 the other intersecting it at right angles. At the south 

 end of the village are a few houses forming the hamlet 

 of Waterend, where a small tributary of the River Ivel 

 runs west through the parish. The church with the 

 vicarage adjoining stands to the east on rising ground, 

 approached by a short side street. In the main street 

 to the west of the church stands a picturesque house, 

 H -shaped, of seventeenth-century date, known as the 

 Manor House, and now occupied as cottages. One of 

 the ground-floor rooms contains some plaster panelling, 

 but otherwise not much of the old fittings is left. The 

 street follows the line of the brook, and the houses are 

 set picturesquely on the high bank above it, many be- 

 ing old timber and plaster cottages in rather dilapidated 

 condition. At the north end of the street is a timber- 

 framed gabled farm-house, a very good specimen of its 

 kind, with a moulded brick panel over the door, dated 

 1676. No railway passes through the parish ; the 

 nearest station is Potton, 3 miles to the south-east, 

 on a branch of the London and North Western Rail- 

 way. Biggleswade, on the Great Northern, is 5 miles 



off. The parish was inclosed by Act of Parliament 

 in 1801.' 



The following place-names have been found in 

 Wrestlingworth : Richmondsland, Palmers, Bukleyes, 

 Browntenslond, Downeshousley, Denhousland, Bas- 

 sett, Carlestrelond, Burges, Madde, in the sixteenth 

 century ' ; Burgis, Bluets, BuUis, Brickwell, Rogers in 

 the seventeenth.* 



There is no mention of Wrestling- 

 MJNORS worth in Domesday, but by the early 

 thirteenth century two manors are dis- 

 tinguishable. The first reference to the manor 

 known later as KENDJLS MANOR, which was 

 held of the king in chief, and formed part of the 

 honour of Huntingdon,' is in a charter by which Simon 

 earl of Northants and of Huntingdon {1138-84) 

 granted the manor of Wrestlingworth to Reginald de 

 Dammartin, count of Boulogne." It seems to have 

 been subject to temporary alienation, for in 1212 

 King John restored the same manor to Reginald de 

 Dammartin' ; and again in 1228 Henry III granted 

 the manor to Jolland le Doe until it should be re- 

 stored to the heirs of the count of Boulogne.® 



By 1 2 5 1 it had come into the possession of Stephen 

 de Salinis, who in that ye.ir received a grant of free 

 warren in Wrestlingworth manor.' Between 125 1 

 and 1270 the manor had passed to William de 

 Huntercombe, who died seised of it in the latter 

 year.'" He left as heir a son Walter, who at his 

 death in 1 3 1 3 left the manor to his wife Ellen for 

 life, and at her death to his nephew Nicholas son of 

 Gunnora wife of Richard de Newebond." In 1320 

 Nicholas granted the reversion of the manor to 

 Robert de Kendale and Margaret his wife,'* whence 

 the origin of the name Kendals, often applied to the 

 manor in later documents to distinguish it from the 

 other manor in Wrestlingworth. 



After Robert de Kendale's death, which occurred 



110 Chant. Cert. I, No. 23-4 ;4, No. 18. 



"I Ibid. J ralor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iv, 

 199. 



ua Pat. II Eliz.pt. 6, m. 25. 



"3 Ibid. 4 Jas. I, pt. I, m. 22 ; Add. 

 Chart. 28651. 



1 Returns of Bd. of Agric. 1905. 



3 Acts Priv. and Local, 41 Geo. Ill, 

 tap. 34- 



s Pat. 34 Eliz. pt. 10; Mms. Accts. 

 1-38 Hen.Vin. 



■• Ct. R. bdle. 153, No. 52. 



6 Testa de Nevill (Rec. Com.) 243* ; 

 Chan. Inq. p.m. 9 Hen. V, No. 47. 



6 Add. Chart. 11 23 3. 



' Ibid. II 23 9 ; Round, Studies in Peer- 

 age History, 178. 



8 Cal. of Chart. R. i, 57 ; Cal. of Pat. 

 1225-32, p. 188. 



' Cal. Rot. dart, and Inq. a.q.d. (Rec. 

 Com.), 69. 



" Chan. Inq. p.m. 55 Hen. Ill, 



255 



No. 13 ; Testa de Nevill (Rec. Com.) 

 243 A. 



1' Chan. Inq. p.m. 6 Edw. II, No. 49. 

 Walter made a settlement of the manor 

 during his lifetime on Alan le Chapleyn. 

 (Feet of F. Div. Cos. Hil. i Edw. II ; 

 inq. a.q.d. file Ixi, No. 6), 



" Cal. of Pat. 1317-21, p. 457 ; Feet 

 of F. Beds. 14 Edw. II, m. 15. Plac. de 

 Quo War. (Rec. Com.), 53 ; Chan. Misc. 

 bdle. 47 ; file vi, No. 184. 



