A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE 



of the parish. The village lies on the Bedford and 

 Luton main road, which skirts the park on the west. 

 Some of the houses are old and quaintly gabled, a 

 group being known as West End, near which lies an 

 old quarry ; a footpath leads from here to Windmill 

 Hill, at a short distance away, and is continued until 

 it reaches Thrift Wood. 



The parish of Flitton has a smaller area of about 

 l,o6l acres, of which 41 3i are arable land, and 460! 

 permanent grass.' The soil is sandy with a subsoil of 

 sandstone, and the crops are wheat, barley, potatoes, 

 and beans. There are several sand-pits situated in the 

 parish, which consists mostly of low-lying meadow 

 land, with some scattered timber : to the west and 

 north lie Flitton and Flitwick Moors. The highest 

 ground in the south of the parish reaches an altitude 

 of 296 ft., while in the north, where Flitton Moor 

 stretches, it falls to 205 ft. The village, situated in the 

 north-east, derives its name from the stream which flows 

 close by it, and is distant about one and a half miles 

 from the Bedford and Luton main road. The church 

 stands on a slight mound on the west side of the 

 village, the vicarage being on the opposite side of the 

 road. Parts of the house are, perhaps, mediaeval, with 

 a small central hall and two wings, but the whole has 

 been much altered and added to, and beyond some 

 seventeenth-century panelling in the hall, there is 

 very little old detail. Some pieces of mediaeval 

 glass, probably from the church, are glazed into 

 the windows of the porch. The parish, which is 

 broad in the north, narrows suddenly in the 

 middle before widening out again in the south ; 

 in this narrow isthmus, connecting the two por- 

 tions, is situated the hamlet of Greenfield, which, 

 however, is partly included in Pulloxhill parish, 

 a small detached part of the latter being inclosed 

 in Flitton. 



Among the place-names in Flitton and Silsoe 

 occurs that of a close called Inneland in Worth- 

 ing in Flitton, which Thomas Worthing inclosed 

 in 1428 ;' and among the lands granted in 1551 

 to Edward Warner with the chantry of Silsoe 

 were Kynelfurlong, Waterslade, Coshill, and Hil- 

 tonmede, together with a close called the Chanterie.* 



A gold coin of Cunobelin was turned up by a 

 labourer in Silsoe in 1855, and was afterwards in the 

 possession of Mr. Wyatt.' 



In Flitton there is a piece of ground in the tenure 

 of Mr. Elmore, which is called the Quakers' Burying 

 Ground Corner ; in digging, several human skeletons 

 have been found, and a coffin handle ; but it must 

 have been disused for more than 1 50 years. The 

 Pound still exists, and is inclosed by a stone wall 

 covered with moss, but the Lock-up, a round tower 

 with a stone roof, is no longer used for its original 

 purpose. At Flitton Richard Milward, the editor of 

 Selden's Table Talk, was born in 1609, and was 

 possessed of lands in Flitton and Higham Gobion at 

 his death, which took place in 1680.* 



An Inclosure Act for Flitton and Silsoe with Pul- 

 loxhill was passed in 1809.' 



The manor of WREST in Silsoe, which 

 MANORS has been in the possession of the De 

 Greys, earls of Kent, and their descend- 

 ants for over six hundred years, was held at the 

 time of the Great Survey by Hugh, of Walter, brother 

 of Saher, and was then assessed at 4 hides ; it had 

 been held in the time of King Edward by Leofnoth, 

 a thegn. Half a hide, which three sokemen formerly 

 held, was in the possession of Hugh, who claimed to 

 hold it of the king at the date of the Survey.' 



It is very probable that Walter, brother of Saher, 

 was related to Walter le Fleming, the ancestor of the 

 barons ofWahull. He was possibly the brother of 

 Walter le Fleming's father, for a Saher is alluded 

 to under Southill, as the predecessor of Walter le 

 Fleming in the reign of William the Conqueror, and 

 both these barons had the same English predecessor, 

 the thegn Leofnoth.** This relationship would ac- 

 count for the fact that by 1284 the manor of Wrest 

 was held of the barony of WahuU." It continued to 

 be so held until 1623,'* after which there is no further 

 record of the overlordship. 



Mr. Round considers that the Greys were con- 

 nected with Bedfordshire, and probably with Flitton, 

 a good deal earlier than 1284—6, when Reginald de 

 Grey is found holding one fee in Flitton and Silsoe of 

 John de WahuU.'" He points out that c. 1 240 John 

 de Grey was already holding fees of the Wahull 

 barony in Podington, Lee (in Podington), Sham- 

 brook, Turvey and Henlow,""* and that an important 

 plea of 1234 shows Andrew de la Legha as mesne 

 tenant at Lee between Hugh Fitz Richard and John 

 de Grey with Agnes his wife, from whom Andrew 

 held." In his opinion this plea gives a clue to the 

 means by which the Greys obtained their Bedford- 

 shire estates, that is, by a marriage with an heiress 

 which gave them a local position sufficient for John 

 to be sheriff of the county in the reign of Henry III. 

 Tracing back their fees to 1086, we find that in 

 Domesday, a certain Hugh held of the Wahull fief at 

 Podington, Lee (in Podington), Turvey and Henlow. 

 Mr. Round therefore suggests that these lands de- 

 scended as a whole, and that their Domesday tenant 

 was one and the same man. But we also find a Hugh 

 holding of the Wahull fief of Canons Ashby 

 (Northamptonshire) in 1086, and as a plea of 1227 

 proves that the church of Lee, with some land in 

 Podington, was given to Canons Ashby Priory by 

 Hugh de ' Legha ' two generations earlier,"* we must 

 infer that the Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire 

 ' Hugh' of 1086 were identical also. Mr. Round con- 

 siders that the Hugh de ' Lega ' who held no less than 

 ten fees of the Wahull barony in 1 166 " was his repre- 

 sentative, and that this conclusion gives us the descent of 

 an important group of manors through Hugh and Bar- 

 tholomew his son."" He further suggests that the 

 above Hugh was identical with the Hugh who held the 

 Silsoe manor of Walter, Saher's brother, in 1086, and 

 that this would account for that manor also descend- 

 ing through an heiress or co-heiress to the Greys. 

 The Reginald de Grey who was holding in 1284 was 



" Statistics supplied by Bd. of Agric. 



» Court R. ptf. 153, No. 26. 



■* Pat. 3 Edw. VI, pt. 2, m. 7. 



* Evans, Coins of Ancient Britons, 

 560. 



' Diet. Nat. Biog. 



' Local and Private Acts, 49 Geo. Ill, 

 cap. 91. This manor did not acquire the 



name of Wrest until much later, and in 

 1086 was known as Silsoe. 



^ F.C.H. Beds, i, 251. 



*> Ibid, i, 203. 9 Feud. Aids, i, 7. 



'» Chan. Inq. p. m. (Ser. 2), vol. 476, 

 No. 144. A detailed account of the descent 

 of the barony of Wahull will be found 

 under Langford, 



326 



" Feud. Aids, i, 7. 



10* Testa de Ne-vill (Rec. Com.), 250-1. 



'1 Maitland, Bracton's Note Bi. case 

 838. 



"» Ibid, case 246. 



" Liber Rubeus. 



"* Maitland, Bracton's Note Bi. case 

 Z46. 



