A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE 



The church stood in the park, about 40 ft. from the 

 terrace on the west side of the house. 



About 100 yds. east of the house, and on a higher 

 level, due to the natural slope of the ground, is the 

 old bowling-green bounded on the west by the 

 remains of a fine yew hedge. The old kitchen garden 

 adjoins this on the north, separated from it by a wall 

 of flint and Totternhoe stone, which seems to be the 

 original wall. In the garden are some ancient apple- 

 trees, with long branches carefully trained on wooden 

 stakes, and still bearing fruit. The stem of one of 

 these trees measured 18 in. in diameter, one foot 

 from the ground. 



In the old inn called the ' Five Horse Shoes ' in 

 Markyate Street there was in the bar-parlour a beam 

 spanning from front to back walls, about 12ft. long, 

 which was literally a tree as felled, with only the lower 

 segments roughly axed off, leaving the trunk about 

 I ft. 6 in. across, and gradually widening out to about 

 3 ft. at the base of the root. The building in 1900 

 was in a state of decay, and the licence was renewed 

 to new premises.™ It has since been pulled down, 

 and ' Cell Dene,' now occupied by Mr. Henry 

 Simons, was built upon the site. 



It is said that in 1 804 the Pedleys by exchange 

 with the dean and chapter of St. Paul's received the 

 estate of CJDDINGTON HALL for Zouches Farm. 

 At the date of the exchange there was, it appears, a small 

 house on the property which the Pedleys pulled down, 

 and built the present residence on the site." In 

 1873 it belonged to Anne wife of Arthur Mac- 

 namara who had inherited from John Pedley. Anne 

 died in 1876, when the estate came to her eldest son 

 Arthur, who sold it about 1902 to Mr. Arthur 

 CoUings Wells, who had been residing at Caddington 

 some five years before it passed into his possession. 

 John Macnamara, half-brother of Arthur, who died 

 issueless in 1 906, still owns a considerable amount of 

 property in Caddington." 



The hamlet of HUMBERSHOE (Humbrichesho, 

 xiii cent.) was in the thirteenth century included in the 

 vill of Chalgrave, which was held in 1284 and 1316 

 by Peter de Lorenge or Loring." In 1260— I William 

 Lorenge granted a messuage, land and rent in Hum- 

 bershoe to Bartholomew le Jeuene or Jeune and 

 Isabella his wife, to be held by them and their heirs 

 of William and his heirs for ever.'* This tenement 

 appears to have subsequently become known as 

 the manor of Humbershoe, and remained in the 

 family of Le Jeune or Juveni until the middle 

 of the fourteenth century. Bartholomew Juveni 

 held it in 1273, and he and his son Richard ob- 

 tained licence from the prior of Dunstable to have 

 a chantry in their chapel at Humbershoe. 'This 

 chantry,' the chronicler remarks, ' will soon cease after 

 their death.' " Bartholomew died in 1277," and was 

 succeeded by his son Richard, who held the manor in 

 1290." Giles le Jeune and Agnes his wife held it in 

 1347-8, and settled it upon themselves and the heirs 

 of their bodies.™ A Giles le Jeune, living in 1 366-7, 

 probably held the manor at this time, as he is called 



Giles le Jeune of Humbershoe." The priory of 

 Markyate at the time of the Dissolution held certain 

 rents of assize in Humbershoe, which were afterward* 

 granted to George Ferrers, with the manor of Mark- 

 yate,"* in 1548, and from this time the descent of the 

 manor is identical with that of Markyate (q.v.) until 

 it was bought of the Coppins, in 1 794, by Mr. Lam- 

 bert." He devised it to his wife Jane and his son 

 John, who sold it in 1802 to William Shone, of 

 whom it was afterwards purchased in 1 804 by Edmund 

 Thomas Waters. It was sold by his assigns in 1 8 1 4 

 to Thomas Stirling." 



The hamlet of Humbershoe has since 1877 formed 

 part of the parish of Markyate. 



The church of ALL SAINTS con- 

 CHURCHES sists of chancel with modem north 

 vestry, nave with aisles, and west tower. 

 The western angles of an aisleless nave are to be seen 

 in the west wall, and represent the earliest state of which 

 any evidences remain. Whether they are older than the 

 jambs of the chancel arch or the masonry of the south 

 doorway, c. 1 180-1200, it is impossible to say ; but 

 the church to which they belonged had a nave 2 3 ft. 

 wide with walls 3 ft. thick, and probably of the same 

 length as at present, 5 2 ft. within the walls. Nothing 

 remains of its chancel, but it was probably of much 

 the same width (15 ft. 4 in.) as that now existing, 

 which seems to have been built in the second half of 

 the thirteenth century, c. 1 2 70, and has a very marked 

 inclination to the south, about 2 ft. 4 in. in a length 

 of 3 5 ft. 



There is no evidence of an enlargement of the 

 aisleless nave before c. 1330, when a north chapel of 

 two bays was added to it, and in the fifteenth century 

 the west tower was built, the north chapel lengthened 

 westward to make a north aisle, and the south aisle 

 added. The tower was in existence by 1458, being 

 mentioned in the report " of the visitation by the dean 

 of St. Paul's and Master Richard Ewen on 20 Sep- 

 tember of that year. The south aisle is apparently the 

 latest part of the fifteenth-century work, and belongs to 

 the closing years of the century." At its building the 

 twelfth-century doorway was reset in its present 

 position, and the window next to it on the west 

 probably also came from the old south wall of the 

 nave. The south arcade is not set on the line of the 

 old south wall, but within it, and is consequently out 

 of centre with both the chancel and tower arches. Its 

 eastern arch, which springs from the wall without a 

 respond, is thus in line with the south wall of the 

 chancel, and the abutment so obtained may have dic- 

 tated its position. The church was much repaired in 

 1876, and most of the external masonry is new. The 

 chancel has in the east wall three lancet windows 

 under one arch, with a moulded rear-arch with a label 

 and mask stops, and at the springing moulded capitals 

 without shafts. The stonework is much patched, but 

 the window is coeval with the chancel. In the north 

 wall is a single cinquefoiled light of the fifteenth cen- 

 tury, perhaps taking the place of a thirteenth-century 

 lancet, and towards the west end of the chancel a 



70 Home Co. Mag. 1900, 163. 



71 Information given by Rev. Thomas 

 Bates, vicar of Caddington. 



72 Burke, Landed Gentry (1906), and 

 information supplied by Mr. A. CoUings 

 Wells. 



'» Feud. Aid. i, i and 21. 



'* Feet of F. Beds. 54 Hen. Ill, No. i. 



■' Ann. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), iii, 257. 

 7« Ibid. 277. 

 " Ibid. 365. 



?8 Feet of F. Divers Cos. 21 Edw. Ill, 

 No. 17. 



7» Feet of F. Beds. 40 Edvf. Ill, No. 2. 

 «• Pat. 2 Edw. VI, pt. 2, m. 29. 

 " Clutterbuck, H/jf. of Herts, i, 348. 



82 Ibid. 



8* Printed by the Camden Soc : Nos. 



3i 55. 98- 



** The report (ibid.) speaks of a ' latus ' 

 of the church, as if there were only one 

 at the time. This would accord with 

 the architectural evidence, if the word 

 may bear the meaning of ' aisle.' 



