A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE 



MEPPERSHALL 



Meperteshale, Maperdeshale, Mepertesale (xiii, xiv 

 cent.) ; Mepartyshall, Meppersal (xv cent.). 



The parish of Meppershall has an area of 1 ,96 5 J acres, 

 of which 1,037 ^^^ arable land and 334^ permanent 

 grass.' There are no woods or plantations. The 

 soil is composed of strong clay and gravel, while 

 the subsoil is of gravel and sand. The chief crops 

 are beans and peas. The ground rises regularly 

 from north to south ; the lowest point, 1 3 1 ft., is 

 found at the extreme north boundary on the road 

 running from Bedford to Hitchin, where it passes 

 through the market town of ShefFord ; the highest 

 level, 282 ft., is reached about 300 yards from the 

 furthest point of the south boundary. 



The village of Meppershall consists of scattered 

 houses stretching along a mile of road running north- 

 east to ShefFord, with branch roads from the village 

 to Stondon, Shillington, and Campton. 



The church is at the south end of the village, and 

 next it is the gabled timber and plaster manor-house, 



Meppershall Church from South-east 



now occupied as three cottages. It is apparently an 

 early seventeenth-century building, and has on one of 

 the three projecting gables on its east front a thistle 

 in raised plaster work. Behind it lie the interest! rg 

 eeries of earthworks known as the Hills, of which a 

 plan is given elsewhere in this history.'" 



^ Information from Bd. of Agric. (1905), 



1" F.Ck. Bids, i, 296. 



' Chan. Inq. p.m. 43 Edw. Ill, Add. 

 Noa, No. 6'j, 



' Inq. p.m. 18 Jas. I, vol. 383, No. 88. 



< r.C.H. Beds, i, 255. The manor of 

 Meppershall extended into Herts, as late 

 as 1575, after which date no separate 

 mention is made of lands in Herts. ; in 

 1 33 1 Robert of Meppershall held three 



cottages and 9 acres 

 Inq. p.m. 5 Edw. Ill (ist Nos.), No. 54) ; 

 in 1453 the holding amounted to 3 mes- 

 suages {Cal. Inq. p.m. (Rec. Com.) iv, 253), 

 and remained at that amount (Chan. Inq. 

 p.m. 38-9 Hen. VI, No. 50; ibid. 22 

 Edw. IV, No. 30 i Exch. Inq. p.m. 4 & 5 

 Hen. VII, file 3, No. 6 j ibid. 9 Hen. 

 VII, file 121 8, No. 2 ; Chan. Inq. p.m. 

 8 Hen. VIII, vol. 31, No. 30) until 1557, 



At the north-east of the village is the rectory, the 

 house itself only dating from 1 792, but occupying an 

 old site, and partly surrounded by a moat, with 

 several fishponds, only one of which now contains 

 water, on the west. 



A spring in the garden, which doubtless once sup- 

 plied the moat, is still in use ; and to the south is a 

 large tithe-barn and farm-yard. 



A drawing of the former rectory-house is preserved, 

 showing the moat perfect and a carefully laid-out 

 garden ; while in one of the register books is a copy 

 of Latin elegiac verses, composed about 1706 by a 

 former rector, giving a vivid idea of the charms of 

 the house two centuries ago. 



To the north-east of the village, about a mile dis- 

 tant, is Chapel Farm, on the site of St. Thomas's 

 Chapel Manor, formerly belonging to Chicksands 

 Priory ; an ancient pigeon-house stood till lately on 

 the farm, but is now ruined ; its old door, which 

 worked on a pivot in the head and siU of its door- 

 way, was fastened by an elaborate system of bolts, 

 and is now at the rectory. 



In the north of the parish is Woodhall Farm, the 

 site of the manor formerly belonging to Warden 

 Abbey ; close by is Polehanger Farm, probably the 

 site of the manor which was in the possession of the 

 prior of St. John of Jerusalem. 



The following place names are found : Wyfordhull, 

 Hawkesokes, Desworth, Moldhigges, Wonland,' Crack- 

 well alias Crackneld Wood, Browser furlong, Poulter's 

 Hill, Mowen Close.' 



At the time of the Domesday Survey 

 MANORS M£PP£RSHJLL was assessed partly 

 under Bedfordshire and partly under 

 Hertfordshire : there were 3 hides in Bedfordshire 

 and 3 hides l virgate in Hertfordshire.* Lewin Cilt, 

 a thegn of King Edward, had held the manor in the 

 time of Edward the Confessor, and in 1086 it was in 

 the possession of Gilbert son of Salaman.' The next 

 reference to Meppershall oc- 

 curs in the reign of Henry II, 

 when Robert son of William 

 de Meppershall presented the 

 advowson of the church of 

 Meppershall to the priory of 

 Lenton.* The manor con- 

 tinued for nearly three hun- 

 dred years in the possession of 

 the Meppershalls, who derived 

 their family name from it, 

 passing from father to son 

 without a break in the line of 

 succession. John of Mepper- 

 shall, who died seised of the 



manor in 1230, held it of the king by the serjeanty 

 of the office of king's larderer,' and his descendants 

 continued to hold it of the king by grand serjeanty as 

 Herts. (Chan. 



Meppershall. Ar- 

 gent fretty sable tuilh a 

 chief gules and therein 

 a lion passant or. 



when it was stated to be 6 meiauages 

 (Feet of F. Div. Cos. Mich. 4*5 

 Phil, and Mary), and in 1575 the manor 

 IS stated to have been in Herts. (L.T.R. 

 Memo. R. East. 17 Eliz. rot. 63). 



' y.CH. Beds, i, 255. 



' Cart. Antiq. R. B. 34. 



' Excerpta t Rot. Fin. (Rec. Com.), i. 



