CLIFTON HUNDRED 



MEPPERSHALL 



and continued in the hands of the Leventhorpes, un- 

 til by some means it came into the possession of 

 Richard Stringer and Anne his wife, uncle and aunt 

 of Elizabeth Leventhorpe, after the death of the latter's 

 father Thomas in 1 62 1 ; Richard Stringer alienated 

 it by fine in 1627 to William Parsell ;°'' the widow 

 and daughters of the latter alienated it by fine to 

 Robert Lovett in 1649.*° No further mention of 

 the manor has been found until 1 731, when it was 

 in the possession of John Compton or Crompton, who 

 conveyed it in the same year to George, Viscount 

 Torrington and the Hon. Pattee Byng." Lysons, 

 writing in 1805, states that Polehanger manor was 

 then in the hands of Sir George Osborn, bart.,^ 

 from whom it has descended to Sir Algernon Kerr 

 Butler Osborn, bart., one of the chief landowners in 

 Meppershall parish.*' In the nineteenth century the 

 manorial rights probably lapsed as there is no trace 

 of them to-day, but the manor-house is doubtless 

 represented by Polehanger Farm. 



Other lands in Meppershall were held by the priory 



MeppershalL Church. 



± 



Scale of reel:. 



ix,* Centujy. 

 lO^Centujy. 

 is*Centujy. 

 M Modem. 



of Merton (co. Surrey), which acquired 100 acres of 

 land by the grant of Robert son of William le Des- 

 penser. These lands were held of the king by 

 serjeanty, and the grant was confirmed by Henry II, 

 and later by Henry III in 1252.'° In the reign of 

 Edward I the annual value of lands held of the prior 

 in Meppershall, Stokesholt, Astwick, and Dunton was 

 £^ 6s. 2(2'.," and his holding in Meppershall amounted 

 to one carucate." The prior failed to make good his 

 claim to view of frankpledge over tenants in the 

 eighth part of the parish of Meppershall in 1330, 

 when he asserted that the right was granted to him 

 by Richard I and confirmed by a charter of Henry III. 

 The jury shewed that in the reign of Henry Gilbert 

 de Meppershall held the manor of Meppershall, to 

 which there was then no view of frankpledge attached, 

 and the prior had usurped view of frankpledge from 

 the king. The liberties were therefore taken into the 

 king's hand." The last reference to the lands in 

 Meppershall belonging to the priory of Merton occurs 

 in the reign of Henry VI, when William Stanford of 



Meppershall received an acquittance from the prior 

 of Merton for 26/. id. yearly rent for land in 

 Meppershall." 



The church of OUR i^Z)r consists of 

 CHURCH a chancel, a central tower with north and 

 south transepts, and a nave with north and 

 south aisles, everything west of the central tower being 

 modern. The plan of the tower is curiously irregular, 

 the internal width at the west end being 1 5 ft. 8 in., 

 as against 1 3 ft. 8 in. at the east. The tower and 

 transepts are the oldest part of the church, and belong 

 apparently to the first quarter of the twelfth century, 

 the early look of the work being accentuated by the 

 material in which they are built, a dark ironstone 

 which allows only of the simplest detail. 



The transepts have a mean depth of ll ft. 2 in. and 

 an average width of 1 3 ft. 6 in. in the north transept 

 and 1 2 ft. 6in. in the south, and are set out at right 

 angles to the slanting north and south walls of the tower, 

 thus emphasizing the irregularity of its plan. The old 

 nave, like the present, was wider than the chancel, and 

 this fact gives additional 

 probability to the other evi- 

 dence that the church has 

 developed from an early 

 building with an aisleless 

 nave, whose width is still 

 retained in the present nave, 

 and a short rectangular 

 chancel, enlarged in the early 

 years of the twelfth century 

 by building a tower over the 

 chancel, and adding tran- 

 septs and a new chancel to 

 the north, south and east. 

 The eastern angles of the 

 tower were set on those of 

 the older chancel, but its 

 western angles, instead of 

 taking a corresponding posi- 

 tion at the west, were set on 

 the eastern angles of the old 

 nave, thus producing the 

 curious and irregular plan. 

 In the east walls of the transepts were plain semi- 

 circular arches, which spanned shallow rectangular 

 recesses for altars, and did not open to eastern apses, 

 as there are external buttresses, taking the thrust of 

 the chancel arch, in such a position as to preclude the 

 possible existence of such apses in the twelfth-century 

 work. The twelfth-century chancel was of the same 

 width as, but doubtless considerably shorter than, the 

 existing one, which is of the first half of the thirteenth 

 century. Its east wall is irregularly set out, as often 

 happens in such cases, when an addition to an existing 

 building is in question. 



There is little evidence of a change of masonry in 

 the north and south walls, and it is very probable 

 that the chancel was completely rebuilt at this time, 

 none, of the twelfth-century walling being preserved. 



The plan of the church has not been materially 

 altered since the thirteenth century, except of course 

 that the nave has been rebuilt in modern times ; the 

 later mediaeval changes are noted in the detailed 

 description which follows. 



65 Feet of F. Beds. East. 2 Chas. I. 

 «6 Ibid. Mich. 24 Chas. I. 

 W Com. Pleas, D. Enr. Hil. ; Geo. II, 

 m. 3. 



*^ Lysons, Mag. Brit, i, 116. 

 6^ For a pedigree of the Osborns vide 

 Chicksands parish. 



■0 Cal. of Chart. R. 1226-57 3^2. 



291 



71 Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 49. 

 '2 Hund. R. (Rec. Com.), i, 2. 

 '» Plac. de Quo War. (Rec. Com.), 39. 

 7" Anct. D. (P.R.O.), A 5694. 



