ODSEY HUNDRED 



The Ardeley charity estates are 

 CHARITIES regulated by a scheme of the high 

 court of Chancery, 2 March 1836, as 

 varied by schemes of the Charity Commissioners 

 dated respectively in 1887 and 1897. They com- 

 prise :— 



t. A piece of copyhold land called Plaistowe's or 

 Town Close, containing 1 a. 2 r. 6 p., granted by the 

 lords of the manor of Ardclcy Bury in 1630. 



2. The Poor's Acre, copyhold of the said manor, 

 granted in 1630. 



3. Pearson's gift, being a close called ' The Ainage,' 

 containing 3 a. 3 r. 14 p., the rents and profits to be 

 applied in bread to the poor, one half on the first 

 Sunday in January and the remainder on the first 

 Sunday in February. 



4. Robert Austin's gift, founded by deed 1 647, and 

 consisting of a piece of land called Churchfield, con- 

 taining 1 a. 1 r. 33 p. 



5. Edward Hoad's gift, founded by will 1655, 

 under which the testator gave £ 20 to be laid out in 

 land, the interest to be applied in apprenticing poor 

 children. The endowment consists of a piece of 

 land now called the Apprentice Land, containing 



ASHWELL 



6. Henry Chauncy's gift, founded by will 

 8 February 1680, and consisting of Iwo small cottages 

 containing two rooms each called 'Kcedings' with 

 garden of 16 poles, and the Pightle containing 

 1 a. 2 r. 



7. The Town Stock arising from subscriptions 

 made in I 807 and consisting of £(i<) 61. I if/, consols 

 in the name of the official trustees, producing 

 £ 1 14;. 8</. yearly. 



The income arising from Pearson's gift shall be 

 applied in bread in accordance with the will of the 

 donor. 



The rents from the Apprentice Land shall accumu- 

 late until there is sufficient money to place a poor 

 child out as apprentice to some trade or business. 



The ' Reedings ' shall be used for poor people to 

 live in rent free, and two loads of fuel, to be provided 

 out of the rent of the Pightle, shall be delivered 

 at the ' Reedings ' at Michaelmas and Christmas. 



Frc 



the 



smg 



from the 



property a sum of £$ yearly shall be applied towards 

 the support of the master or mistress of a school, and 

 the residue for the general benefit of the poor. 



The gross income from the estates in 1907 was 

 £,5 9,. u. 



ASHWELL 



Aescwelle, Eswell, Assewell, Asshewell. 

 The parish of Ashwell has an area of about 4, 1 08 

 acres. The ground slopes down towards the north, 

 the height in the south varying from zoo ft. to 

 300ft. (with Claybush Hill attaining 328 ft.) and in 

 the north from 100 ft. to zoo ft. above the ordnance 

 datum. The northern portion lies between the 

 River Rhee or Cam — which has its source in springs 

 in Ashwell village and flowing north-west and then 

 north forms the north-western boundary of the 

 parish — and a small stream which flows northward 

 and forms the eastern boundary, ultimately joining 

 die Rhee at the junction of the three counties. 

 On the south-west the parish is bounded by another 

 tributary of the Rhee, and on the south-east, for about 

 three-quarters of a mile, by the Icknield Way. Shire 

 Balk divides Ashwell from Cambridgeshire on the 

 north-east. 



The soil consists entirely of chalk, except where 

 the Rhee enters the Gault formation along the western 

 boundary, and there are some chalk-pits at the 

 junction of the lower with the higher level. There 

 are in the parish 3,692 acres of arable land, 398 of 

 permanent grass and 20 of woods and plantations.' 

 The extensive common fields called Ashwell Fields 

 covered the southern part of the parish. 



An indosure award was made in 1862.* The 

 Cambridge branch of the Great Northern railway 

 crosses the parish in the extreme south-east, but 

 Ashwell station is over the Cambridgeshire border, 

 about 2 miles from the village. 



Arbury Banks, about three-quarters of a mile south- 

 west of the village, is a prehistoric camp of the 

 hill-fort type, now nearly obliterated. Within t.ie 

 parish of Ashwell a copper coin of Cunobeline has 



been found, also a barbed flint arrow. Roman coins, 

 pottery and glass have been found in the neighbour- 

 hood. There is a tumulus at Highley Hill, and at 

 Mobs Hole near Guilden Morden, Love's Farm, 

 Bluegates Farm and Westbury Farm are homestead 



The village of Ashwell is situated rather more than 

 a mile from the Icknield Way. The ancient road 

 called Ashwell Street enters the parish from Steeple 

 Morden on the east. This if continued in a straight 

 line would skirt the village on the north, but the 

 present continuation of it called Ashwell Street Way 

 makes a bend and passes the village on the south and 

 then ends. Branching off from the Icknield Way a 

 little beyond the eastern boundary of the parish is a 

 road running north through Steeple Morden, and 

 from this a road branches westward, runs through 

 Ashwell, where it is called Station Road, skirts the 

 village on the north, then as Northfield Road runs 

 parallel with the Rhee until within about 250 yards 

 of the Cambridgeshire border, where it turns sharply 

 north-west and crosses the river into Bedfordshire at 

 Whitegate Bridge. Two other roads connect the 

 village with Newnham to the south-west and 

 Hinxworth to the north-west. It was probably the 

 means of communication afforded by the neighbour- 

 hood of the Icknield Way and of Ashwell Street 

 (which may have originally joined the Roman Stane 

 Street further to the west) that made Ashwell a place 

 of some importance in the I ith century. The 

 Domesday Survey records the presence of fourteen 

 burgesses, the borough dues — which fell to the 

 Abbot of Westminster — amounting to 49/. \d. a 

 year. 3 Evidence of this small prescriptive borough 

 exists in occasional references to burgage tenure in 



.fAgric-Ogo;). 



