CLIFTON HUNDRED 



ARLESEY 



son sold Arlesey Bury Manor to Messrs. Lycett, Inskip 

 & Co. Arlesey Bury House with 40 acres of land 

 was bought by Colonel Fyler who died in 1903, and 

 has since been purchased by Mr. Howard Carter, who 

 lives there.*' 



The nucleus of LJNTHONr MANOR is to be 

 found in the 3 J virgates of land which Nigel de 

 Albini owned in Arlesey at the time of the Domesday 

 Survey, and which were held of him by a certain 

 Erfast." The next mention is to be found in a 

 charter of King John to the prior of Lanthony in 

 Gloucestershire, which confirms the gift of Nigel son 

 of Hordfast (the Erfast of the survey) made with the 

 permission of his overlords Henry de Albini and 

 Robert his son." This manor remained with the 

 priory till the Dissolution, when it passed to the crown. 

 A valuation taken in the reign of Philip and Mary 

 assesses it at 38/. ^\d}^ By 1559 it had been granted 

 to Thomas Henneage to whom Arlesey Bury (q.v.) 

 belonged, and in this manor it becomes henceforward 

 merged.'" 



Dealing with the land of the burgesses of Bedford 

 the survey states that Ulsi, a prebendary of the king, 

 held two-thirds of a virgate of land in Arlesey." 

 This holding is probably to be found again in the 

 half-hide of land which, as stated in the Testa de 

 Nevill, Warin de Claidich held from the king at a 

 yearly rental of 4/.*' 



In 1302 John de Claidich was holding the same 

 land of the king," and an inquisition taken in 1356 

 states that one John de Claidich, who died three years 

 previously, had held a messuage 

 and land in chief at a rental 

 of 4/." He left a son John 

 Claidich, but no further trace 

 has been found of this fee. 



During the fourteenth and 

 fifteenth centuries the Greys 

 of Wilton held property in 

 Arlesey. John de Grey (who 

 died in 1323) received 9/. 41/. 

 yearly rent from freemen there, 

 and also two pounds of pepper 

 valued at 9,/." In 1371 his 

 grandson Reginald de Grey of 

 Wilton died seised of an annual 

 rent of 9/. o\d., a clove and a 



quarter of a pound of pepper in Arlesey appertaining 

 to the manor of Eaton." His son Henry held the 

 same rents at his death in 1 3 96," as did also his son 

 Richard in 1442, but no further history has been found 

 of this property." 



The lord of Etonbury manor, and the abbot of 

 Waltham, as lord of Arlesey Bury, both obtained 

 charters granting them free warren, the former in 

 1 307,'" the latter in 1253." They also both included 

 view of frankpledge among their manorial privileges." 



Grey or Wilton. 

 Barry argent and azure 

 •with three roundels gules 

 in the chief and a label 

 argent. 



The Survey specially states that the lord of the 

 manor of Arlesey (afterwards Etonbury) possessed a 

 market which was valued at los.^" In 1270 the lord 

 of the manor, Stephen de Edworth, obtained a grant 

 confirming a weekly market on Wednesday, and a 

 yearly fair on the vigil of the feast and morrow of 

 Sts. Peter and Paul.™ In 1820 Samuel Bedford 

 Edwards, lord of the Arlesey manors, claimed, as 

 attached to his property, the right to hold two fairs 

 and six markets,"' but there is no evidence of such 

 having been held since the thirteenth century. 



Three mills are mentioned in Arlesey at Domesday. 

 Of these one, which was then I os. in value, belonged 

 to the land of William d'Eu and was held by Bur- 

 nard.*' This mill was still in existence during Walter 

 de Langton's tenure of Arlesey manor," but at the 

 death of his successor Edmund Peverel in 1332 the 

 water-mill is mentioned as having fallen into decay, 

 and is not again referred to." 



In the early thirteenth century Henry son of Odo 

 Burnard ' for the health of his soul and those of his 

 predecessors and successors,' granted to the men of 

 Arlesey and all those passing by those p.Tts a piece of 

 land for a free road, 1 2 feet broad, between his 

 messuage and that of Henry de Wennesli.*' 



A messuage in Arlesey called Poyntells originally 

 belonging to Walth.im Abbey passed at the Dissolu- 

 tion to John Smythe. His grandson Jasper Smythe 

 sold it in 1556 to Michael Cowper for ^^88.™ A 

 few years later John son of Michael Cowper sold it 

 to John Luke who owned Arlesey Bury manor, with 

 which it thus became absorbed.^' 



The church of ST. PETER consists 

 CHURCH of a chancel 26 ft. by 16 ft., nave 

 64 ft. 6 in. by 1 7 ft., north aisle 1 o ft. 

 wide, south aisle 9 ft. wide, south porch and a 

 modern western tower 1 2 ft. square, all measurements 

 being internal. 



The earliest details in the church belong to the 

 first twenty years of the thirteenth century. At some 

 time in that period the first bay of the north arcade 

 of the nave and the four complete bays of the south 

 arcade were built, pointing to the enlargement of a 

 previously aisleless nave, probably of twelfth-century 

 date, by the addition of a north-east chapel and a 

 south aisle. The nave after the alterations was about 

 5 5 ft. long, and may perhaps have been lengthened in 

 the process. The chancel seems to have been rebuilt 

 soon afterwards, outside the lines of the former 

 chancel, which was then entirely removed. At some 

 time also in the thirteenth century the north chapel 

 was lengthened a bay westward, and a second arch in 

 consequence added to the north arcade. It is of a 

 wider span than the east arch, and rather clumsily 

 built, with its springing a little lower than that of 

 the earlier bay. The reason of the difference in span 

 can only be guessed at ; perhaps it was regulated by 



48 Information supplied by the Rev. 

 R. C. F. Scott. 



« F.C.H. Beds, i, 245*. 



<5 Cart. Antiq. B. 26 ; Dugdale, Mon. 

 vi, 137. 



« Harl. Plut. xlv, F. 



*! Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), cxxii. No. 

 I. In 1820 Lanthony is mentioned as 

 appurtenant to Arlesey Bury (Recov. R. 

 Hil. 60 Geo. Ill, rot. 358). 



"8 r.CH. Beds, i, 263a. 



49 Testa de Nevill (Rec. Com.), 243. 

 Warin de Claidich was granting land to 



Waltham Abbey about the same time 

 (Add. Chart. 17644). 



5» Feud. Aids, i, 12. 



'1 Chan. Inq. p.m. 29 Edw. Ill (ist 

 Nos.), No. 15. 



'^ Mini. Accts. bdle. 11 19, No. 2. 



™ Chan. Inq. p.m. 44 Edw. Ill, No. 30. 



^* Ibid, 19 Ric. II, No. 29. In this 

 inquisition the jurors state that they have 

 not been able to discover by what service 

 the rents were held. 



55 Ibid. 20 Hen. VI, No. 23. 



55 Chart. R. 35 Edw. I, No. 100. 



263 



J5- 



' Cal. Rot. dart. (Rec. Com.), 77. 



> Plac. de Quo. War. (Rec. Com.), 8, 



' V.C.H. Beds, i, 238a. 



' Cal. of Chart. R. 1257-1300, p. 149, 



^ Recov. R. Hil. 60 Geo. Ill, rot. 558. 



> F.C.H. Beds, i, 233*. 



' Chan. Inq. p.m. 1 5 Edw. II, No. 44. 



' Chan. Inq. p.m. 5 Edw. Ill, No. 46. 



' Add. Chart. 17647. 



' Coll. Topog. et Gen, vi, 233, 



' Ibid. 234 ; Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser. 2), 



c ii, No. 177. 



