BROADWATER HUNDRED 



jilt,' and gardens and orchards lately planted, 

 he 'half-acre or 3 roods in Sandridge was then 

 lown as Penly Park. 80 



The school, referred to in deeds of 



RARITIES ii May 1837 and 26 March 1872, 



was erected by Lionel Ljde, and en- 



AYOT ST. PETER 



dowcdby the Rev. John Olive, who died in 1S51, with 

 £1,000 consols, which is now held by the official 

 trustees. The annua! dividend, amounting to £25, 

 is applicable in the instruction of children of the 

 Sunday and day school in the doctrines of the Church 

 of England, 



AYOT ST. PETER 



Little Ayot or Ayot Montfichet, Aiete (xi cent.) ; 



'ate, Hayate (xiii cent.) ; Ayete <xv cent.) ; Eyott 



nvi cent.). 

 The parish of Ayot St. Peter has an area of 

 093 acres, of which 666 acres are under cultivation, 



4o£ are grass and 2| wood. 1 The elevation of the 



arish above the ordnance datum is from 30 



)ft. 



t the 



■. situated. Tl 

 e the little Riv 



.00 ft., rising to just over 400 

 ifhere the church and rectory 

 owest point is on the north, w 

 Vlimram forms the boundary for some distance. 

 The subsoil is chalk and gravel and the surface soil 

 iialk; there are several chalk-pits in the parish. 

 The manor-house, church of St. Peter and the rectory 

 are situated on a branch road, half a mile north-west 

 of the village, which is on the main road at Ayot 

 Green. Ayot Place, now a farm-house, was probably 

 built by Sir George Perient, lord of the manor, as it 

 bears his arms and the date 1615. It is a 17th- 

 rentury house of timber and plaster (now partly 

 :ased with brick) with a tiled roof and is of the 

 . plan, though much repaired in the 19th century. 

 The wing facing north contains the entrance with 

 »nd living rooms, the wing facing east corn- 



s' used as the kitchen, 

 ive shields bearing the 

 nd Boteler quartering 

 the middle. There are 

 ted shafts and moulded 

 : seat of Sir Alfred James 

 1 old house, much altered and 

 lall park. 



irises the hall with a gallery 

 )n a frieze in the hall are 

 rms of Perient, Brockett 

 [ilpee and the date 161 5 ir 

 no chimney stacks with tw 

 ipitals. Ayot Bury, the 

 leynolds, J. P., i; 

 n larged, stand in) 



There is a railway station at Ayot, opened in 1 877, 

 a the Luton and Hatfield branch of the Great 

 Forthern railway. The main road between Hitchin 

 id London passes through Ayot Green, and forms 

 le boundary at the south-east corner of the parish, 

 arge farms in this parish are Linces Farm, Rycfield 

 arm and Ayot Place Farm. 



Place-names occurring in the 16th century are 

 fncesfeld or Fincheleyfeld, Smy the s croft, Dryvers 

 id Okkelmedc.' 3 



There was a great flood in the parish in February 



795, owing to the overflow of the Lea and Mimram. a 



King Edward the Confessor granted 



ANORS the manor of AYOT ST. PETER or 



AYOT MONTFITCHET to two of his 



upon 



thegns, but after the Conijiicst it formed part of the lands 

 of Robert Gernon, and was held as i\ hides by William 

 his man, who is said to have taken it ' by encroach- 

 ment to the king's wrong, but he called on his lord 

 as warrantor.' 3 The estates of Robert Gernon were 

 granted in the reign of Henry I to William dc 

 Montfitchet, 4 in whose family 

 Ayot St. Peter descended in 

 the same manner as Letch- 

 worth (q.v.), and came to 

 Richard Montfitchet, who 

 died without issue about 1258. 

 His heirs were his three sisters 

 —Margery, who married 

 Hugh de Bolebek, Avelina 

 the wife of William de Forti- 

 bus, last Earl of Albemarle, 

 and Philippa wife of Hugh 

 de Pleys. s The manor of 

 Ayot St. Peter fell to the 

 share of Margery and Hugh de Bolebek, and 1 

 the partition between their four daughter 

 second, Margery, the wife of Nicholas Corbet, who 

 held the manor in 1277-8/ Nicholas died in 

 1280, 8 and the king took Ayot St. Peter into his 

 hands with the other Corbet lands, but Margery 

 received Ayot back in the following year upon the 

 plea that the Montfitchet lands were her own in- 

 heritance. 9 Margery married secondly Ralph Fitz 

 William, 10 and they in 1286 conveyed the manor 

 to Robert Burnell, Bishop of Bath and Wells,' 1 a 

 quitclaim having previously being made to him by 

 John de Zelaund, ls whom they had enfeoffed of the 

 manor. 13 The bishop probably conveyed the manor 

 to Robert de Lacy, for Amice de Lacy his widow was 

 assessed for it in 1303. 14 In 1307 an action was 

 brought by John de Lancaster, the son of Margery 

 Fitz William's eldest sister Philippa, who claimed that 

 Ralph and Margery had exceeded their rights in 

 granting more than half the manor to John de 

 Zelaund, ls but there is no evidence that he made good 

 his claim to the other half. 



Upon the death of Amice or Avice de Lacy lc 

 the manor was divided between her daughters Joan 

 and Amice. The name of Ayot Montfitchet was kept 

 by the moiely which fell 10 Amice the second daughter, 

 who married John Poleyn. He is referred to as lord 



* Hera. Gtn. and Antiq. ii, 71, 



1 Statistics from Bd. of Agric. (1905}. 



''Add.R. 3S3aS-35330- 



Ciusans, op. at. Broadwater Hund. 

 =■ 3 r.C.H.lhra. i, 323a. 



1 y.C.H. E, !t x, i, 347. 

 1 Wrottesley, Ptd.from she Pica R. z. 

 1 Close, ;i Hen. Ill, m . S. 



Cal. Inq. p.m. Ediu. I, ;o8 ; Assize 

 313. The other three daughters of 

 gh de Bolebek were Philippa wife of 



