A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE 



pledge in this manor," and also received a grant of free 

 warren by charter of 1385." 



Part of the fifteen hides which Hugh de Beauchamp 

 held in Stotfold at the time of the Survey " went to- 

 wards the formation of a subordinate STOTFOLD 

 MANOR, which belonged to the priory of Chicksands. 

 Simon de Beauchamp {c. 1 1 90) granted the church of 

 Stotfold with all its appurtenances to Chicksands,*' and 

 in 1276 the prior held two carucates of land in Stot- 

 fold," and also claimed view of frankpledge in his 

 manor there.*" At the Dissolution this manor was 

 granted by the crown to Trinity College, Cambridge." 

 The grant was confirmed by James I " owing to some 

 question of the validity of the original grant having 

 arisen, and Trinity College is still in possession. 



At the time of the Domesday Survey Stotfold was 

 unusually well supplied with mills, Hugh de Beauchamp 

 possessing four which 

 were valued at £\.'^ 

 Of these one went to 

 form part of the en- 

 dowment of Stotfold 

 Newnham,** and a 

 confirmation in 1392 

 by Thomas Lord 

 Moubray of the grants 

 of his ancestors to 

 Newnham specially 

 mentions 4J. Sd. year- 

 ly rent from the mill 

 at the ford of Stot- 

 fold," but no further 

 mention of it has been 

 found after the Dis- 

 solution. A second 

 of these mills appears 

 to have been part of 

 the grant of the de 

 Beauchamps to Chick- 

 sands Priory.'' At the 

 Dissolution it was 

 separated from the 

 manor which Chick- 

 sands owned in Stotfold, and was acquired by Edward 

 Butler " who owned Stotfold Brayes and Stotfold 

 Newnham manors (q.v.) as appurtenant to which 

 it is henceforward to be found." Of the other 

 two mills mentioned at Domesday a single reference 

 has been found to one only, when in 1406 John 

 Wedewessen and Alice his wife granted their water- 

 mill in Stotfold to Simon Wedewessen their brother." 

 The church of OUR LADY consists 

 of chancel 40 ft. by 1 5 ft. with a small 

 organ chamber on the south, nave 

 by 2 1 ft. 6 in., north aisle 47 ft. 6 in. by 

 south aisle 42 ft. 6 in. by 13 ft., south 

 porch and western tower, 1 2 ft. 9 in. by 1 1 ft. 9 in. 



The building shows clear evidence of development 

 from an aisleless nave, the main dimensions of which 

 have not been altered, and a chancel of the same 

 width as at present, but perhaps somewhat shorter. 

 This was probably the twelfth-century plan, and it 

 seems to have remained unaltered, with the possible 



exception of the addition of a north transept chapel, 

 till the early years of the fourteenth century. Its 

 north-west angle stands free, and the quoins of its 

 north-west and north-east angles are clearly to be 

 seen. About 1320 a north aisle was added to the 

 nave, and the break in the north arcade between the 

 first and second bays suggests that at the time of its 

 addition there was a wall running northwards at this 

 point, in other words the west wall of a north 

 transept. This transept, as already suggested, appears 

 to have been an addition to the original plan, and was 

 probably of thirteenth-century date ; the arch by 

 which it opened to the nave must have been replaced, 

 shortly after the building of the north aisle, by one 

 which harmonized with the two western bays of the 

 arcade. At what time its area was throvra into that 

 of the aisle is not clear, but it was probably at no 



later 14^c 

 I5*cent. 

 ^ modern 



Church 



Lady, Stotfold 



CHURCH 



46 ft. 

 I oft. 



6 in. 



3 in., 



great distance of time from the building of the 

 aisle. 



The addition of a south aisle to the nave must 

 have closely followed the work just described. There 

 is no evidence of any transept here, and the aisle of 

 two bays was set out from the east end of the nave, 

 leaving some 22 ft. of the western part of the south 

 wall of the nave unaltered. This arrangement still 

 exists at the neighbouring church of Edworth, but 

 here it was soon altered, a third bay being added to 

 the arcade, with the same detail, but separated from 

 it by a short length of walling. Its west wall is 5 ft. 

 from the west angle of the nave, while in the north 

 aisle the west wall is carried up to the angle, but the 

 length of blank wall beyond the west respond of the 

 north arcade, 7 ft., points to the fact that the west 

 wall of the aisle was probably at first in the same 

 relative position as that of the south aisle, and has 

 been carried westward at a later date. In the 

 fifteenth century the chancel, with the chancel arch, 



« Flac. de Qua. War. (Rec. Com.), 29. 



•" Chart. R. 9, 10 Ric. II, No. 22. 



'■^ V.C.H. Bed!, i, 238a. 



48 Ibid. 392 ; Harl. Chart. 4;, I. 18. 



« Hund. R. (Rec. Com.), i, 2. 



'» PUc. de Quo. War. (Rec. Com.), 33. 



" Pat. 38 Hen. VIII, pL 6. 



" Ibid. 3 Jas. I, pt. 17. 



»8 V.C.H. Bed!, i, 238a. 



" Harl. Chart. 45 I. 18. 



M Dugdale, Mon. v, 376. 



" Cf. history of Stotfold manor. 



302 



*? Chan. Inq. p.m. (Ser 2), cxxxiv, No. 

 193, &c. 



'S Ibid, cclxxxT, No. 131 ; ccci, No. 

 103, &c 



" Harl. Chart. 57, fol. 38. 



