Parishes: Grateley

GRATELY

Greetanlea (x cent.); Greteleia, Grettelee (xii cent.); Gratele, Grateleghe, Gratelee (xiv cent.); Gratley (xvi cent.).

The parish of Grately at its south-west or narrowest extremity touches the Wiltshire border. Its total area is 1,552 acres, of which 1,018½ acres are arable land, 71 acres permanent grass and 60 acres woods and plantations. (fn. 1) The soil varies, part red woodland and part of the secondary chalk formation. The subsoil is chalk. (fn. 2) The chief crops are wheat, barley, oats, turnips, sainfoin and clover.

Lower Grately Wood and Upper Grately Wood are the southernmost of those broken patches of woodland which cover a considerable portion of the neighbouring parish of Amport. The height above sea level varies from 400 ft. to 320 ft., the general rise of the ground being from east to west.

The village lies at the east end of the parish. Three roads run to it: from Quarley in the north, Monxton in the north-east and Over Wallop in the south. The railway station, on the main line of the London and South Western Railway, is three-quarters of a mile to the south-west. There is a corn-mill between the station and Down Barn Farm.

The Port Way runs through the parish from north-east to south-west, and the modern road, which keeps, roughly, to the same course, is known in one part as Grately Drove.

There was an inclosure award here in 1778. (fn. 3)

Manor

GRATELY is not mentioned in Domesday Book, but in 1130 the sheriff was farming the manor, which had belonged to Robert de Matteom, who was either dead or had forfeited. (fn. 4) William the Chaplain, or as is more probable William the Chamberlain (Camera), that is to say William Mauduit, was holding in 1167 (fn. 5) and the manor remained with the Mauduit family. Thomas Mauduit is named in the Testa de Nevill as holding a knight's fee in Grately of the Earl of Hertford. (fn. 6) As Mr. Round has pointed out under Over Wallop (q.v.) this is clearly an error for the Earl of Hertford, since Grately certainly had the Bohuns for overlords and when the earldom reverted to the Crown the king became overlord. (fn. 7) Thomas Mauduit died in 1270, and four years later his manors of Dean and Grately were in the hands of Sir Alan de Plugenet, who granted them, with certain provisoes, to Sir John de St. Walery from the Thursday after the Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul in 1274. until Michaelmas 1279. (fn. 8) In 1295 licence was granted to Thomas's son Warin Mauduit of Warminster, tenant in chief, to demise Grately and other manors to Bevis de Knovill (fn. 9) for six years. (fn. 10) Warin Mauduit died seised of the manor in 1300, (fn. 11) leaving a son and heir Thomas Mauduit, who is named in the Nomina Villarum of 1316: sed mater tenet in dote. (fn. 12) In 1318 he had a grant of free warren, (fn. 13) but being on the Lancastrian side at Boroughbridge in 1322 he was taken prisoner, his estates were confiscated and himself executed. (fn. 14) Edward III, however, restored the estates to his son John Mauduit, who was lord of the manor in 1332, (fn. 15) and was assessed in the Aid of 1346 as holding half a fee which had belonged to Robert de Bury. (fn. 16) John Mauduit died in 1364 seised of Warminster Manor (though the inquisition makes no mention of Grately), leaving Maud daughter of his son Thomas as his heir, then aged nine. (fn. 17) Juliana widow of John Mauduit was seised of the manor at her death, (fn. 18) after which it passed to the said Maud, then wife of Sir Henry Greene of Drayton (co. Northants.), who had livery of seisin in May 1379. (fn. 19) Sir Henry Greene was a privy councillor to Richard II and high in the royal favour, for which when Henry of Bolingbroke was in the ascendant he lost both his estates and his life. (fn. 20) In the first year of his reign, however, the new king restored the estates to Sir Henry's son Ralph, (fn. 21) who was afterwards knighted and died seised of Grately in 1417. (fn. 22) He was succeeded by his brother John Greene, who is named in the Feudal Aid of 1428 as holding half a fee in Grately, (fn. 23) and in that of 1431 as holding one-sixth. (fn. 24) He died in 1433, (fn. 25) and was succeeded by his eldest surviving son Henry, who was twice married, first to Constance Paulet and secondly to Margaret Ros, but left an only daughter Constance. She carried the manor by marriage to the Lord John Stafford (third surviving son of Humphrey first Duke of Buckingham) created Earl of Wiltshire in 1470. Their son Edward second Earl of Wiltshire died without issue in 1499, when the earldom became extinct. (fn. 26) Grately and the rest of the property inherited from the Greenes reverted to the heirs of Sir Henry Greene's two sisters, Isabel wife of Sir Richard de Vere, and Margaret wife of Sir Henry Huddleston. Margaret was represented by her only daughter Elizabeth wife of Sir Thomas Cheyne; Isabel by the five daughters of her son Sir Henry de Vere of Addington: (1) Constance wife of John Parr, Lord of Horton; (2) Elizabeth wife of John (Mordaunt), first Lord Mordaunt; (3) Anne wife of Sir Humphrey Browne (her second husband) second son of Thomas Browne of Abbess Roding (co. Essex); (4) Etheldreda wife of John Browne son and heir of Sir Wistan Browne of Abbess Roding and Sir Humphrey's nephew (fn. 27); (5) and Audrey de Vere. In 1500, however, Sir Thomas Cheyne and Elizabeth, other estates having been assigned them, quitclaimed Grately to Margaret Countess of Wiltshire and others. (fn. 28) John Parr and Constance were dead without issue a few years later, and Audrey de Vere died unmarried. The manor of Grately was thus divided into three parts among Lord Mordaunt and Elizabeth, Sir Humphrey Browne and Ann, John Browne and Etheldreda, and their heirs. (fn. 29) It was so held until 1577, when George Tuchet twentieth Lord Audley, with his father-in-law, Sir James Mervyn, purchased the whole from the various holders, (fn. 30) who were at that date Lewis third Lord Mordaunt; Wistan Browne, grandson of John and Etheldreda; and Mary wife of Thomas Wilford, Christian wife of John Tufton, and Catherine Browne, the three daughters and co-heirs of Sir Humphrey Browne. (fn. 31) The purchasers and their wives dealt with the manor by fine in 1595, (fn. 32) but it is mentioned in neither the will nor inquisition of Sir James Mervyn, who died in 1610. (fn. 33) From this date onwards the continuous history of the manor cannot be traced. By 1725 it had come into the possession of Richard Carey, who dealt with it by fine in that year. (fn. 34) From the Careys (of Carey Street) it was eventually purchased by Mr. Leonard Pickering who left it to his niece, Miss Pickering of Wilcote Manor (co. Oxon.), now lady of the manor. (fn. 35)

Church

The church of ST. LEONARD consists of a chancel 24 ft. 5 in. by 17ft. 6 in., nave 36 ft. 9 in. by 17 ft. with a south porch, and a west tower 12 ft. I in. square, all the measurements being internal.

Of the 12th-century building only the nave now remains, and this only retains one of its original windows. The chancel, which was no doubt small, was pulled down in the 13th century and the present one built round it. The tower was added at the same time, but whether on the site of an earlier one or not there is nothing now to show. In 1851 much restoration work was done, including the refacing of the walls and inserting several new windows. The porch is also a modern addition.

The east window is a triplet of lancets, the centre one being higher than the others. The mullions are not flush with the wall inside and the rear arch is double chamfered. In the top of the gable above this window is a small moulded unpierced quatrefoil considerably damaged by the weather. The north wall of the chancel contains two 13th-century lancets which have chamfered and slightly recessed outer jambs and twocentred chamfered rear arches. The south chancel wall contains only a small priest's doorway which has chamfered jambs and pointed arch.

The easternmost window of the north wall of the nave is a small 12th-century light with a semicircular head, and a segmental rear arch which seems a later alteration. Near the west end of the same wall is a 13th-century lancet, wider than those of the chancel. To the east of this is a blocked doorway which has chamfered jambs and a two-centred arch.

There are three modern windows in the south wall of the nave, the easternmost having two plain lights separated by a wide mullion with a large quatrefoil over. The other two are plain lancets and between them is the south doorway which has chamfered jambs and a semicircular head; it seems to be in part of 12th-century date, but a good deal patched with later mediaeval masonry. The south porch has a small window in each side wall and its outer archway has double chamfered jambs and two centred head. In the apex of the gable is a sundial dated 1784.

The tower arch has plain chamfered jambs and pointed arch with a classic abacus at the springing, and in its present state seems to be 18th-century work. In the west wall of the tower is a wide lancet of 13th-century date. The tower is low and finished at the top with a low brick parapet and small pinnacles at the angles. The belfry is lighted by small lancets, two in the east face and one in each of the other faces. On the west face there is another similar lancet lower down and at the same level in the south side there is a small blocked square opening.

The roofs of both chancel and nave are of old timber, that of the chancel having arched braces; both are plastered between the rafters. The weathering of a slightly higher nave roof shows against the east wall of the tower.

The font, which is placed at the west end of the nave, was found at the Manor Farm. It is circular, tapering towards the base, and has been recut. The base is an old stone, but does not appear to belong in this position; it seems to be the base of a cross.

Fixed against the west jamb of the 12th-century nave window is an iron hour-glass bracket. Beneath the cage for the glass is a pendant, and the whole is supported by a scrolled bracket. On the first floor of the tower is a chest which bears the inscription 'ph 17 17 id church wordns' formed by nail heads.

On the top step of the chancel by the altar rails are two patches of old tiles, thirty in each. They are red with slip inlay under a yellow glaze, and the patterns include a fleur de lis, two lions rampant face to face, a lion passant in a circle, a griffin, a six pointed star, and three other geometric forms. All are single pattern tiles. The most interesting thing in the church is the glass, six fragments in the east window of the chancel, and a large medallion in a lozenge frame in the south-east window of the nave. They are relics saved from the wholesale destruction of the 13th-century glass at Salisbury by the miscreant Wyatt. The ground of those in the east window is deep blue with yellow leaf pattern; in it are set geometrical figures outlined in white and having on a red ground floral patterns in green, white and yellow. In the head of the east window is a figure of the archangel Gabriel with his name above him. The medallion in the south-east window is perfect and shows on a blue ground St. Stephen in alb, dalmatic and fanon being stoned by two men with the hideous faces which mark the mediaeval villain. On a band beneath is the inscription stephs orans expirat.

In the churchyard is a tombstone to Joanna Elton, aet. 95, 1782, on the back of which are a set of pretty verses asking that her grave may be always planted with flowers, a request carefully attended to at the present day.

The tower contains two bells, both by John Wallis of Salisbury, 1583, and with the inscription 'God be praysed' on the treble and ' God be our guyd ' on the tenor.

The plate consists of a silver chalice undated, probably of local make, a silver paten undated, a silver flagon of 1902 and a plated tankard-shaped flagon.

The first book of registers contains mixed entries 1624 to 1737, those previous to 1643 being from memory, as the registers were all burnt at that date. The second book contains baptisms and burials from 1741 to 1811 and marriages up to 1754, and the third book has marriages only from 1754 to 1812.

There is a note in the registers that the wood spire was half carried away by wind in 1781, and that it was repaired and the vane regilded in the same year. Since that date it has been removed altogether.

Advowson

The first recorded presentation to Grately Church, early in the episcopacy of Bishop Pontoise, was made by the king. (fn. 36) This, however, was probably only during a wardship, for the advowson belonged from an early date to the lords of the manor, with whom it continued for a considerable period. (fn. 37) Like the manor (q.v.) it suffered division into three parts among the heirs of Sir Henry Greene in the 16th century, being reunited at the sale to Lord Audley in 1577. In 1585 there was a dispute between Sir James Mervyn and John Moody about an intended sale of the advowson. Mervyn, who was seised of the manor only in conjunction with Lord Audley, was then patron. (fn. 38) It would appear, therefore, that about this date the manor and advowson became separated. Edward South of Swallowcliffe (co. Wilts.) and Richard South of Lockerley presented in 1625, Richard South of Salisbury in 1641 and Samuel South in 1699. (fn. 39) From 1731 to 1773 the Rev. Joshua Strother presented. His son George Strother had two daughters and co-heirs of whom Barbara married a Mr. Constable. Their son the Rev. John Constable was patron until 1864, when the living passed into the gift of the Rev. Francis Baron de Paravicini, who had married the daughter and heir of the Rev. William Dodson, Mr. Constable's wife's brother. His son the Rev. Frederick de Paravicini, formerly rector of Grately and now of Abbotts Ann, is the present patron. (fn. 40)

There is a Baptist chapel in the parish.

Charities

The school was built in 1845 for 80 children.

In 1707 Edward Pyle by will gave to the poor for ever an annuity of 15s., issuing out of Drake's tenement on Pottery Common, to purchase coats and waistcoats of a green colour to be distributed on or about St. Luke's Day. The annuity is paid by the Earl of Portsmouth and given towards the purchase of a greatcoat to some person chosen by the parish council.

In 1796 William Benson Earle left (a) 300 guineas, the yearly interest thereof (after deducting a guinea for the clerk for taking care of the flower beds over Dame Joanna Elton's grave in the churchyard) to be used in the purchase of food for the poor; and (b) 100 guineas, the interest to be used towards supporting the Sunday and day schools. The trust funds, which are held by the official trustees, now consist of (a) £374. 1s. 3d. consols and (b) £124 13s. 9d. consols, producing yearly £9 7s. and £3 2s. 4d., applied respectively in the distribution of cheese and beef and to the Grately school.