Monken Hadley: Manor and other estates

MANOR AND OTHER ESTATES.

The hermitage of Hadley was included in the grant of lands made by Geoffrey de Mandeville, earl of Essex (d. 1144), to Walden abbey (Essex) in 1136. (fn. 1) The grant was confirmed in 1248 (fn. 2) and the abbot claimed jurisdiction in Hadley in 1294 (fn. 3) but the manor of HADLEY or MONKEN HADLEY, forming a division of Edmonton manor, (fn. 4) was not mentioned by name until the early 16th century. (fn. 5) In 1538, on the dissolution of the abbey, it was granted to the Lord Chancellor Sir Thomas, later Lord, Audley (1488-1544), (fn. 6) who was licensed in 1540 to alienate it to Francis Goodere of Hadley. (fn. 7) Goodere conveyed it in 1545 to William, later Sir William, Stanford (1509-58), a justice of the Common Pleas. (fn. 8) William's son Robert conveyed the manor in 1569 to Thomas Smallwood, (fn. 9) who in 1571 conveyed it for life to Robert's mother, Alice, and her second husband Roger Carew. (fn. 10) On Alice's death in 1573 Robert Stanford conveyed the manor to William Kympton, merchant tailor of London, (fn. 11) who settled it in 1582 on his son Robert. (fn. 12) Robert Kympton sold it in 1621 to Thomas Emerson of Hadley and Nicholas Hawes of London, (fn. 13) together with a capital messuage, 5 a., and another 30 a. already in Emerson's occupation. Emerson died in 1624 (fn. 14) and in 1627 his son and namesake conveyed the manor to Michael Grigg, (fn. 15) who sold it in 1647 to John Langham, alderman of London. (fn. 16)

By 1651 the manor had passed into the possession of John Masters, who conveyed it to William Ashton (d. 1651). (fn. 17) William's widow Mary, who married Sir Edward Turnor (d. 1676), (fn. 18) Speaker and Chief Baron, (fn. 19) held a life-interest apparently until her death in 1701. (fn. 20) The reversion was held successively by John Hayes and his sons John (d. 1670) and Simon (d. 1692), (fn. 21) from whom it passed under a mortgage of 1684 to Vere Booth of Adderbury (Oxon.). (fn. 22) By will proved 1718 (fn. 23) Booth devised the manor to his brother George (d. 1726), whose executrix Hester Pinney (fn. 24) conveyed the manor in 1737 to her nephew Azariah Pinney of Bettiscombe (Dors.). (fn. 25) Azariah died in 1759, leaving it to his cousin John Frederick Pinney, a West Indies planter (d. 1762). (fn. 26) J. F. Pinney devised the manor to his cousin John Pinney, whose son John Pinney of Blackdown (Dors.) sold it in 1791 to the Radical politician Peter Moore (1753-1828), who fled the country on losing his fortune in 1825. (fn. 27) The manor was conveyed in 1830 by Peter's nephew Stephen Moore to trustees, (fn. 28) who conveyed it in 1832 to John Bonus Child of Hadley (fn. 29) (d. 1832). (fn. 30) Child's widow Frances held the manor until her death in 1855, after which it was sold to Henry Hyde of Ely Place, Holborn (fn. 31) (d. 1877), whose widow Julia, by will proved 1887, ordered it to be sold. (fn. 32) It was purchased in 1890 by Emily and Rhoda Wyburn (fn. 33) and in 1934, on Rhoda's death, by East Barnet U.D.C. (fn. 34)

The manorial estate consisted in 1621 of the manor-house and 50 a., 30 a. of which was in hand, along with several houses in the village. (fn. 35) Most of the land was leased in 1724 to Percival Chandler (fn. 36) and in 1737 the lord retained no more than 14 a. (fn. 37) After the house and the last of the land had been sold in 1795 to Sir Charles Pole, Bt., as trustee for Eleazor Philip Salomans, (fn. 38) the lordship consisted merely of rights over Hadley Green. (fn. 39) Frances Child (d. 1855) held 37 a. east of Hadley Green, including some land which had formerly been part of the manorial estate. (fn. 40) Her estate remained intact until it was bought, together with the manor, by East Barnet U.D.C., who incorporated most of it into the open space called King George's field. (fn. 41)

The manor-house at Hadley, recorded in 1544-5, (fn. 42) had 27 hearths in 1664, when Margaret Hayes was living there. (fn. 43) It was described as the old manorhouse in 1724 (fn. 44) and seems to have been replaced soon afterwards by a large red-brick building, with a main front of five bays and two storeys surmounted by a pediment. The house, on the east of Hadley Green, received a three-storeyed addition to the south, probably later in the 18th century. Soon after its sale in 1795 (fn. 45) it acquired the name Hadley House. The residence known as the Manor House in the 19th century stood farther south, also on the east side of Hadley Green. It was a plain 18th-century building of three storeys, stuccoed, with a Doric porch. It belonged in 1746 to Thomas Chandler (fn. 46) and was occupied in the later 18th century by William Makepeace Thackeray. (fn. 47) After its purchase in 1829 by John Bonus Child (fn. 48) it remained the seat of successive lords of the manor until 1934. It was destroyed by a bomb in 1944. (fn. 49)

The estate in the eastern part of the parish known as Ludgrove or Ludgrave farm passed from John Lightgrave, a London goldsmith, to his son John, who in 1423 quitclaimed it to trustees. (fn. 50) A house called Ludgrave was held c. 1523 by Thomas Green and Laurence Foxley, (fn. 51) and in 1542, with 30 a. of land and 18 a. of wood, it was conveyed by John Marsh, server of the king's chamber, to the Crown, as part of an exchange. (fn. 52) The Crown granted the estate in 1553 to William Herbert, earl of Pembroke, (fn. 53) who conveyed it to Thomas Highgate of Hayes in 1560. (fn. 54) Highgate died seised of the property in 1576, (fn. 55) and it later came into the hands of William Becher, haberdasher of London, who conveyed it in 1596 to John Quarles, draper. (fn. 56) It was sold in 1611 by Cornelius Fish and others to Sir Roger Wilbraham, Master of Requests. (fn. 57) Sir Roger's daughter and heir, Mary, married Sir Thomas Pelham and their son Sir John Pelham sold the estate in 1663 to Ambrose Brunskill of Hadley and Northaw (Herts.), who died in 1670. (fn. 58) Ludgrove passed to Brunskill's eldest daughter, Jane, who married Thomas Walton, and then successively to Walton's elder son Ambrose and his younger son John, (fn. 59) who was living at the Blue House, on the estate, in 1686. (fn. 60) In 1714 John Walton's widow Mary conveyed the estate, consisting of Ludgrove farm with 66 a. in Hadley and 26 a. in East Barnet (Herts.), Blue House farm with 102 a. in Hadley and East Barnet, and a brick house called Cockfosters, to Ephraim Beauchamp of Tottenham. (fn. 61) Beauchamp's widow Lettice conveyed it in 1730 in trust for William Beauchamp, later Sir William Beauchamp-Proctor, Bt., Ephraim Beauchamp's grandson. (fn. 62) The estate subsequently came into the possession of Vice-Admiral Temple West (1713- 1757), (fn. 63) after whose death it passed to his second son Col. Temple West, who died in 1783. (fn. 64) Col. West's widow Jane was in possession of Ludgraves or Blue House farm in 1796. (fn. 65) It was sold on the death of her son C. H. West to Archibald Paris of Beech Hill, Enfield, who held it in 1811. (fn. 66) In 1880 it was in the possession of R. C. L. Bevan of Trent Place, Enfield. (fn. 67)

In spite of a statement by Lysons, (fn. 68) there is no evidence that the Ludgrove estate was a manor. Ludgrove House, in 1596 a 'very fair house' in a valley near Enfield Chase, (fn. 69) had 17 hearths in 1672, (fn. 70) when it was used as a school. (fn. 71) No trace of the building survives. The later Ludgrove Hall, belonging to Trent Park college, Enfield, is at Cockfosters, perhaps on the site of the former Blue House. It is a plain early-19th-century stuccoed building, with a large late-19th-century red-brick extension to the south and a still later addition of c. 1900, with a mansard roof, to the north, adjoining the Cockfosters-Hadley bridle-path. Some buildings which survived in 1971 may have belonged to Blue House farm-house, which was situated east of Ludgrove in 1896. (fn. 72)

Capons House, east of Hadley village, belonged in 1635 to Dr. Brett (fn. 73) and in 1686 to William Nicholl. (fn. 74) In 1741 it was held by Samuel Nicholl of Hillingdon (fn. 75) and in 1766 by John Nicholl of Scalm Park (Yorks.), who conveyed it in the same year to Robert Pardoe of Lincoln's Inn. (fn. 76) The estate, 28 a. in 1766, was in the hands of Sir Culling Smith, Bt., formerly of Hadley Grove and Hadley Hurst, in 1807. (fn. 77) The adjacent Bonnyes farm was conveyed in 1613 by Henry Goodere to Francis Kirtland of Holborn, tailor. (fn. 78) The farm-house, which had served as a workhouse, (fn. 79) was conveyed in 1778, together with 24 a., to Sir Culling Smith, (fn. 80) and, with Capons House, was conveyed by him in 1807 to Charles Cottrell of Hadley (d. 1829). (fn. 81) In 1836 Cottrell's nephew Charles Herbert Cottrell of Brighton (Suss.) conveyed the combined estates, which together formed Woodcock or Capons House farm, containing 42 a. in Hadley and 15 a. in Chipping Barnet (Herts.), to Samuel Strong of Hadley. (fn. 82) Strong sold them in 1868 to the British Land Co., which covered the area with suburban houses. (fn. 83)

There was a new house built by Thomas Turpin on the site of the later Folly Farm, between Capons House and Ludgrove, in 1686. (fn. 84) It came in the late 18th century to Francis Barroneau of New Lodge, South Mimms (d. 1814), whose widow Elizabeth (d. 1846) devised the surrounding estate of 67 a. to her nephew the Revd. Robert Francis Wilson. (fn. 85) Robert's son Thomas Percival Wilson conveyed it in 1904 in trust for Edward Hanson Freshfield, (fn. 86) who conveyed the farm in 1913, when it consisted of 53 a., to E. H. Lefroy and the Revd. F. L. Deane. (fn. 87) They sold 22 a. of it in 1919 to S. Maw & Sons, (fn. 88) from whom it passed in 1936 to East Barnet U.D.C. (fn. 89)

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL HISTORY.

The Ludgrove estate, in the eastern part of the parish, had been fully inclosed by 1553 (fn. 90) and all the agricultural land had been inclosed by 1754. (fn. 91) Out of the 340 a. in Monken Hadley 300 a. were meadow or pasture shortly before the extension of the parish boundaries in 1779. (fn. 92) Glebe farm, however, which formed part of the allotment from the Chase in 1779, was chiefly arable: in 1848 only seven of its 53 a. were meadow (fn. 93) and in 1853 few cattle were pastured. (fn. 94) Glebe, Woodcock, and Gothic farms existed in 1866 (fn. 95) and Hadley farm, at Hadley Highstone, was described as a dairy farm in 1913. (fn. 96) Some of the fields south of Hadley Common gave way to suburban housing after the sale of part of Woodcock, or Capons House, farm in 1868, (fn. 97) but a little farm-land survived in 1971.

In addition to Hadley Green the parishioners also enjoyed common rights in Enfield Chase. There were frequent disputes, as in 1581 when proceedings were taken against William Kympton, lord of the manor, for letting his sheep graze to the detriment of the poor and the Chase. (fn. 98) Parishioners were often condemned in the 16th and 17th centuries for poaching within the Chase, and their own claims were periodically threatened. During the Interregnum Monken Hadley joined Edmonton and South Mimms in petitioning to retain the right to pasture animals and take wood, (fn. 99) and in 1703 several inhabitants contributed to a fund for defending the rights of common. (fn. 100) After Hadley Common had been granted to the parish in 1779 to replace common rights over the whole Chase, (fn. 101) the curators made a small annual profit from the sale of bushes and faggots. Any attempt to clear and till the land, as happened elsewhere in the former Chase, was resisted, although in 1789 there were so many new trees that some had to be felled. (fn. 102) In 1799 the vestry imposed new rules, later amended, for the management of Hadley Common: a maximum of 150 loads of bushes or 10 a. of underwood was to be sold each year, while each occupier of more than 3 a. in the parish was allowed to keep cattle, according to a prescribed stint, but not to graze horses, pigs, bulls, or sheep. (fn. 103) A new pound was built there in 1799 but a replacement was requested, from the lord, in 1835. A common keeper was appointed in 1826 (fn. 104) and cattle were still being grazed on Hadley Common in 1876. (fn. 105) The practice died out as Londoners began to resort there and in 1970 the area was used solely for recreation. (fn. 106) Grazing also continued on Hadley Green, which the vestry likewise preserved as an open space. (fn. 107) In 1827 the constables were ordered to prevent bathing in the ponds, (fn. 108) which in 1970 were used only for angling. (fn. 109)

Maltmen were living in the parish in 1447 and 1449, (fn. 110) and there was a tile-kiln in 1573. (fn. 111) Inhabitants c. 1615 included tailors, carpenters, oatmealmen, and weavers. (fn. 112) A brewery was established in 1700 (fn. 113) and in 1795 it moved to a site by the Great North Road, at the northern end of Hadley Green, (fn. 114) where it was rebuilt as a four-storeyed yellow-brick building in 1890. (fn. 115) Retail trades have long been concentrated in the south-western corner of the parish, on the outskirts of Chipping Barnet, which contained most of Monken Hadley's butchers, carpenters, grocers, and shoemakers c. 1832. (fn. 116) There were several shops, a post office, and a dairy at Hadley Highstone and by the green in 1908 (fn. 117) but most had disappeared by 1971, when Chipping Barnet was the nearest shopping centre.

In 1635 a windmill stood a few yards inside what was then part of Enfield parish, by the Great North Road, a little north of the modern Dury Road. (fn. 118) It disappeared between 1740 and 1777 but presumably gave its name to Mill Corner and the Windmill inn. (fn. 119) Another windmill stood on Beacon Hill, near the site of Mount House, in 1629 (fn. 120) but had gone by 1735. (fn. 121) Both mills were within Enfield Chase and were held of Enfield manor. A third windmill was erected on Hadley Green west of the Great North Road in 1821. (fn. 122) It was replaced in 1827 by a mill which later came into private ownership (fn. 123) and which disappeared between 1866 and 1897. (fn. 124)

Londoners owned land in Monken Hadley at least from the early 15th century (fn. 125) and later settled there in large numbers. (fn. 126) By the 20th century there were many wealthy residents and, in contrast to neighbouring parishes, neither new factories nor large housing estates. In 1961 self-employed business and professional persons formed a third of the population of Hadley ward in East Barnet U.D. (fn. 127) and they, together with most other inhabitants of the old parish, worked outside the boundaries.

A piece of ground near Hadley served as a bowling alley in 1658 (fn. 128) and in 1748 there was a coffee house near the windmill by the Great North Road. (fn. 129) There was a rifle range on the south-western slopes of the parish in 1866. (fn. 130) An iron building was erected in 1896 at Hadley Highstone to serve as a reading room (fn. 131) and in 1971, renamed Hadley memorial hall, constituted a meeting-place for local societies.