A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



rent ofsomc 29 acres of land which he gave to the use 

 of the poor.'" The other was worth Si. yearly, and 

 arose from 8 acres of land given by John Chapman 

 for that purpose. 1 " 



The School House charity, com- 

 CHJRfTIES prised in an indenture of I 2 December 

 1670, in which it is recited that the 

 house had from time out of mind belonged to the 

 inhabitants and had been used as a dwelling-house 

 for a schoolmaster, is regulated by a scheme of 

 the Charity Commission dated 18 August 1905. 

 The property consists of a cottage and 10 poles of 

 land let for £ 5 yearly, and the scheme directs that 

 the income shall be applied for the benefit of the 





The 



: ia dis' 



1 of about 



. 6d. 1 



ch. 



The Bateman charity, the date of the foundation 

 of which is unknown, but comprised in a deed of 

 8 April 16+4, is regulated by a scheme of the 

 Charity Commission 3 January 1899. The endow- 

 ment consists of 37 a. 2r. [6p. of land in Therfield 

 and 2 roods in Kelshall producing £34 tit. yearly. 

 The net income is applied in the purchase and 

 distribution of coal to the poor. 



In 1772 John Clerke by his will gave £z yearly 

 issuing out of a field called MoneycroCt to be dis- 

 tributed in bread to the poor every three years. The 

 last distribution was made in 1 909. 



WALLINGTON 



Wallingtone (xi cent.) ; Waudlington or Wadling- 

 ton (xii-xiv cent.) ; Wadelington (rv cent.). 



The village of Wallington lies on the northern 

 slope of the chalk hills about 3 miles south-east of 

 Baldock station on the Cambridge branch of the 

 Great Northern railway. 



The single village street lies at right angles to the 

 road from Sandon to Baldock. The village has a 

 plentiful water supply, and the hill on which it 

 stands is almost surrounded by the Cat Ditch, a 

 tributary of the River Beane. At the head of the 

 street, 466 ft. above the ordnance datum, is Walling- 

 ton Bury, and just below it lie the church and rectory 

 faced by the Manor Farm. Below these the street 

 follows the slope of the hill in a north-easterly direc- 

 tion, and at its centre the road to Baldock turns 

 westwards near the school. 1 



Wallingion, like the adjacent parishes of Bygrave 

 and Clothall, is still uninclosed, and it retains a few 

 features of the mediaeval village community. The 

 great open arable field, covering nearly two-thirds of 

 the whole area of the parish (2,043 acres), lies on 

 the sloping ground to the north of the village. Its 

 wide expanse is unbroken by hedge or tree and only- 

 divided from the open fields of Bygrave by the 

 Icknield Way and from those of Clothall by an open 

 roadway. In its centre, at Metley Hill, is a tumulus 

 of unknown date and origin. At the present day 

 the villagers apparently claim no rights over the 

 field, which is farmed by the occupiers of the Manor 

 Farm, Wallington Bury and the Lodge Farm. The 

 cottagers have, however, the right to keep a cow and 

 a calf on the small common pasture in the south 

 of the parish. 5 This district is well wooded and 

 contains inclosed meadows and fields. The per- 

 manent grass increases and the population of the parish 

 diminishes. 3 The inhabitants are almost entirely 

 employed in agriculture. 



In 1401 a house with 360 acres of land in Clothall 

 and Wallington was purchased from Richard Martell 

 of Dunmow by the Prior of Du 



The modem estate or Wallington 

 MANORS was consolidated early in the 16th 

 century by John Bowles, who acquired 

 the three manors of Wallington, Monks and Mont- 

 fitchets. These three were evidently identical with 

 the two holdings of Robert Gernon and Goisbert de 

 Beauvais at the time of the Domesday Survey.' 



In 1086, however, there were three other holdings 

 in Wallington. Wimund held 2 hides less 10 acres of 

 Count Alan of Britanny, lord of the honour of Rich- 

 mond. Before the Conquest this land had been held 

 by two sokemen of Eddcva, ° probably Edith the 

 Fair. 7 It was possibly a part of the 'two hides 

 and one virgate ' in Wallington which with a virgate 

 in Clothall was held in the 12th century by Robert 

 of Abinger [de Habingwurth, de Abblngburne)? The 

 mesne lord of the fee was then Ruald Pincerna. 8 

 The heir of Robert of Abinger was a leper and a 

 minor, and therefore his inheritance was seized by the 

 Crown about 1 185. 10 One part of the fee was then 

 in the occupation of the lords of the manors of Wal- 

 lington and Monks, while Warin de Bassingbourn held 

 a carucatc 'by so much knight's service as pertain) to 

 a hide.' " It appears possible that the first portion 

 became absorbed in the two manors of Wallington 

 and Monks. In 127; the bailiffs of Richmond 

 Honour still took \zd. yearly from the tenement 

 which had belonged to Theobald 'de Mora,' ls and 

 may have been that formerly held by Warin de 

 Bassingbourn. 'William' of Abinger is said to have 

 given two thirds of the tithes of Wallington to the 

 priory of Eermondsey. 13 Evidently this gift was of 

 two thirds of the tithes arising out of the 'Abinger 

 fee' in Wallington. It gave rise to a dispute 

 between- William de Thomtoft, parson of Walling- 

 ton, and the Abbot of St. Albans in 1308. " 



Of the other Domesday holdings, the one belonged 

 to the fee of Hardwin de Scales, of whom it was 

 held by Siward. It included ij hides and 26 acres, 

 and had formerly been held by Wlware, a man of 

 Anschil of Ware. 15 No later trace of this holding 



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