A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE 



jjui-lmjfe 



E I4*Centujy 

 M /Aodem. 



had formerly been held of King Edward the Confessor 

 by Ulvric." This land was granted in 1204. by Peter 

 Cokerel to Warine abbot of Warden and his successors," 

 and the grant was confirmed in 1207-8 by Robert de 

 Bruce, son of Isabella de Bruce.'' The abbey con- 

 tinued to hold the land until the Dissolution." The 

 land was then probably granted to Sir Michael Fisher, 

 who had been chief steward of the abbey at a yearly 

 wage of j^2 13/. 4</.," as he died seised of land in Clifton 

 in 1 54-9, called Orwelle Meade, which had formerly 

 belonged to the abbey of Warden.'* The land then be- 

 came held with the manor and followed a like descent. 



The abbey of Ramsey also owned lands in Clifton, 

 which amounted to i hide at the time of the Great 

 Survey (1086), and which were held of the abbey by 

 Leofwine or Lewin both before and after tTxe Conquest." 

 This land is mentioned again in 1 184—9 ^' belonging 

 to the abbey, but after that date 

 no further trace of the holding 

 can be found.** 



There were two mills worth 

 40/. in the manor of Clifton 

 which William de Caron held 

 ofEudoDapiferin 1086." The 

 Knights Hospitallers in 1 338 

 possessed one fulling mill worth 

 £2 in their manor of Clifton, 

 probably one of those men- 

 tioned at Domesday as the estate 

 apparently descended to them." 

 The priory of Chicksands had 

 temporalities in Clifton in 1535 

 worth 30/.," and two water- 

 mills, called Tythe Mills, in 

 Southill and Clifton, formerly 

 belonging to the priory of Chick- 

 sands, were granted in 1606 to 

 Sir Francis Ventris for forty 

 years at £6 1 6/. d;/. annual rent."^ 



In 1 6 1 1 these same mills were 

 granted to Felix Wilson and 

 to Robert Morgan and their 

 heirs for the same rent ; " they probably conveyed them 

 to Richard Welbey who was in possession in 1698 and 

 1 702." There is further mention of two corn water- 

 mills and two com windmills, the property of Henry 

 Vernon in 1 790," and three corn windmills and three 

 corn water-mills the next year, belonging to Ann Con- 

 nolly,™ but these were very likely in Harlington and 

 Toddington as the location is not specified. 



The church of ^LL SJINTS has a 

 CHURCH chancel 21 ft. 6 in. long by 16 ft. wide, 

 north chapel of the same length and 1 8 ft. 

 wide, with a vestry to the north of the chapel, nave 

 39 ft. by 22 ft. 6 in., north aisle of the same length and 

 1 7 ft. wide, south porch and western tower 1 4 ft. square, 

 all the measurements being taken within the walls. 



The building is a very interesting example of a 

 small fourteenth-century church, c. 1320, of admira- 

 ble proportion and detail, and worthy of careful study. 

 As first built it consisted of nave, chancel, west 

 tower, and south porch ; it was enlarged about the 

 middle of the fifteenth century by the addition of a 



north aisle and chapel, and the tower seems to have 

 been rebuilt, except its eastern arch, in the same cen- 

 tury. It may, however, have been left unfinished in 

 the first instance and not completed till a later date ; 

 it is just possible that the Black Death may have 

 stopped the work. The north aisle and chapel were 

 rebuilt and enlarged in 1862, the north vestry is 

 modern, and the church has undergone a good deal 

 of repair and refitting, but much of the beautiful 

 fourteenth-century detail is in perfect condition. 

 The height of the walls is very noticeable, and 

 characteristic of the best work of the time, giving a 

 very dignified effect both within and without. 



The chancel has a large east window of five trefoiled 

 lights with net tracery, the main and rear arches being 

 continuously moulded, with labels springing fi-om 

 carved dripstones. The muUions are modern, as are 



Plan of All Saints' Church, Cliftcn 



the dripstones here and throughout the church, except 

 in the tower arch. On the north wall is a window of 

 two trefoiled lights with a quatrefoil in the head, and in 

 the south wall two two-light windows with a doorivay 

 between them, all of original date though a good deal 

 repaired. In detail they are like the east window, 

 but the south-east window has cinquefoiled lights. 

 Beneath it are two sedilia and a double piscina, the 

 latter divided by a modern marble shaft with an 

 alabaster capital and base. It has trefoiled ogee arches 

 with crockets of modern work in the form of lily 

 flowers, evidently cut out of the old foliate crockets. 

 The sedilia have cinquefoiled heads with gabled hood- 

 moulds and similar crockets, the moulded details being 

 of the best. The south doorway has an outer arch 

 with two plain outer chamfers, its rear arch being 

 treated like the rest. Below the south-west window- 

 is a low side window, widely splayed, of two trefoiled 

 ogee lights under a square head with pierced spandrels, 

 and apparently contemporary with the window over. 

 The north window of the chancel opens now into 



« F.C.H. Beds, i, 260. 



52 Feet of F. Beds. 6 John, No. 2. 



53 Cott. MSS. Nero, C. iii, fol. 230. 

 s-" Dugdale, Moit. v, 375. 



'°'' Ibid. V. 374. 



^n Chan. Inq. p.m. 3 Edw. VI, No. 7. 



" F.C.H. Beds, i, 205, 229. 



*^ Cart. Ramesei (Rolls Ser.), iii, 222. 



59 y.CH. Beds, i, 236. 



50 Larking, Knights Hospitallers. 



51 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iv, 194. 

 5» Pat. 4 Jas. I, pt. 13. 



278 



5' Pat. 9 Jas. I, pt. 5. 

 6^ Rccov. R. Mich. 10 Will. Ill, rot. 

 21 S ; ibid. Mich, i, Anne, rot. 149. 

 5' Ibid. East. 31 Geo. Ill, rot. 234. 

 55 Ibid. Mich. 32 Geo. Ill, rot. 270. 



