Parishes: Burton Hastings

BURTON HASTINGS

Acreage: 1,488.

Population: 1911, 169; 1921, 197; 1931, 227.

Burton Hastings is a parish in the north-east of Knightlow hundred, 3½ miles south of Hinckley in Leicestershire, the parish reaching to within a few hundred yards of Watling Street, the county boundary. The Soar Brook divides it on the north from Stretton Baskerville, and the River Anker on the west and south from Nuneaton, Bulkington, and Wolvey. The eastern boundary with Wolvey mainly follows the road from that village to Hinckley. The ground slopes from just over 400 ft. along this road to just under 300 ft. near the Anker. The Ashby de la Zouch Canal, a branch of the Oxford and Coventry Canal system, runs through the west of the parish, and near it is the small secluded village, connected by minor roads with the Coventry-Hinckley and Nuneaton-Lutterworth roads. The latter on its west to east course through the south of the parish passes Shelford, now a hamlet of six farms, but formerly a separate manor and as late as 1625 contributing a third part of the payments and levies on Burton parish. (fn. 1) Depopulation probably set in after the inclosures of the early 16th century, Henry Smyth in 1509–10 imparking 30 acres of arable and 100 of woodland and pasture in Shyrford, (fn. 2) now Shelford. (fn. 3) In 1783, 600 acres of Burton Hastings were inclosed. (fn. 4) There is now no woodland in the parish.

Manors

Siward Barn, who held BURTON in the time of Edward the Confessor, was an adherent of Hereward in the Isle of Ely. (fn. 5) In 1086 his lands, assessed at 4 hides and including 2 mills, were held by Ralf of Henry de Ferieres. (fn. 6) In 1235 one knight's fee in Burton and Shelford was held of the Earl Ferrers, (fn. 7) and in 1242 Henry de Hastings held this fee of the same overlord. (fn. 8) In 1266 the castles and lands of Robert de Ferrers were granted to Edmund (Crouchback), son of Henry III, (fn. 9) but the next tenants in chief were the Hastings, Earls of Pembroke, from whom the manor was often, after the beginning of the 14th century, called BURTON HASTINGS; in 1348 Laurence de Hastings, Earl of Pembroke, held one knight's fee, extended at £20 yearly, (fn. 10) as tenant in chief, his tenant being the heir of Nicholas de Turvill, (fn. 11) which Nicholas had been the actual tenant in 1269, when the fee was assigned in dower to Joan, widow of Henry de Hastings (fn. 12) (son of the tenant in 1242). It was again held of the Earl of Pembroke in 1375 at the death of John, 2nd (Hastings) Earl, (fn. 13) who in 1369 had obtained royal licence to settle many of his estates on his cousin Sir William Beauchamp. (fn. 14) The widow of the latter held a knight's fee in Burton and Shelford at her death in 1435, (fn. 15) when the overlordship passed to Sir Edward Neville, husband of Sir William Beauchamp's granddaughter; he held the fee at his death in 1476, (fn. 16) after which date it cannot be separately identified.

In the reign of Henry II half of Burton Hastings was granted by Geoffrey le Abbe and Emma his wife, with the consent of their heirs Richard le Abbe and Ralph de Turvill, who was son of Emma, to the priory of Nuneaton. (fn. 17) The grant was confirmed c. 1170 by Earl William de Ferrers. (fn. 18) In 1316 Fulk de Orreby granted his lands in Burton to William de Herle, (fn. 19) who, with the prioress of Nuneaton, was the immediate lord of Burton with its members in the same year. (fn. 20) William heads the list of contributors to the subsidy in 1332. (fn. 21) His son Robert de Herle was licensed in 1344 to grant additional land in mortmain to Nuneaton priory, (fn. 22) and in the following year was appointed a justice of the peace. (fn. 23) He died in 1364, when his holding in Burton (of Agnes, Countess of Pembroke, as of her dower), was valued at £4 and passed to his nephew Sir Ralph de Hastings, of a cadet branch of the Hastings, Earls of Pembroke, tenants in chief at this time. (fn. 24) His grandson, another Ralph, was beheaded in 1405 for his part in Archbishop Scrope's rebellion, (fn. 25) but his brother Richard obtained restitution of his estates in 1410 (fn. 26) and was sheriff of Warwickshire at various dates between 1414 and 1433. (fn. 27) In 1428 the land in Burton and Shelford formerly held by Robert de Herle and John de Sherford was reckoned as half a knight's fee. (fn. 28) At Richard de Hastings's death in 1436–7 his holding in Burton consisted of 6 messuages, 9 virgates of land, 2 cottages, and a water-mill, (fn. 29) which he left to his widow Elizabeth, with succession to his brother Sir Leonard Hastings. At her death in 1447 she was stated to hold the manor of Burton near Wolvey in dower, of Edmund, Lord Grey de Ruthin, whose grandfather was heir general of the last Hastings, Earl of Pembroke. (fn. 30) Sir Leonard Hastings was sheriff in 1453–4. (fn. 31) His son Sir William was created a baron by Edward IV, (fn. 32) but was beheaded for high treason in 1483, (fn. 33) when his son Edward, aged 17, succeeded. (fn. 34) Edward's son George was created Earl of Huntingdon in 1529 (fn. 35) and sold the manor to Thomas Harvey, merchant, (fn. 36) after whose death the manor became divided amongst his four daughters and coheiresses, of whom the youngest, Lucy, married Thomas Cotton of Conington (Hunts.). (fn. 37) In 1565 they obtained two other quarters from Francis Haslerig (fn. 38) and Thomas and Anne Croftes, (fn. 39) and in 1570 they were dealing with three-quarters of the manor. (fn. 40) Burton came into the possession of Robert Cotton, one of Thomas's younger sons, who died without male issue in 1586, when it passed to his brothers Philip and John jointly, and on the death of the latter in 1636 to Sir Thomas Cotton, 2nd baronet, son of the antiquary. (fn. 41) Sir Thomas conveyed his three-quarters of Burton manor in 1637 to William Fitton, (fn. 42) and, in association with Richard Perkins, senior and junior, and Rebecca the wife of the latter, to Gilbert Fitch and William Perkins junior in 1650. (fn. 43) In 1708 the Cottons sold their share to Thomas Perkins, and he in 1714 to Sir Nathan Wright, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, (fn. 44) who died in possession in 1721. (fn. 45)

The remaining quarter of the manor was granted in 1597 by William and John Nowell to Michael Parkyns, (fn. 46) and by the latter in 1605 to Thomas Gilbert and Richard Orton; (fn. 47) it is perhaps to be identified with the 'manor' of Burton of which Thomas Poughfer (1749–56) and John Finch (1784) were lords. (fn. 48) John Finch Simpson and others conveyed this manor to Charles Thomas Hudson and James Morrice in 1799. (fn. 49)

By 1744 the Wright portion had passed to the Aston family, who were lords till 1760. (fn. 50) In 1777 Philippa, widow of John Grove, joint lord of Shelford, was lady of Burton manor, (fn. 51) which in 1783 became united with Shelford under William Cooper of Hinckley (Leics.). (fn. 52)

In 1900 Mrs. Barrs of Odstone Hall, Leics., was lady of the manor. (fn. 53)

SHELFORD or SHERFORD. Early in the 13th century Thomas Trove granted lands in Sherford to Combe Abbey, styling himself lord of Sherford. (fn. 54) Later in that century, one Simon attested a deed as lord of Sherford, (fn. 55) and in 1304 Joan de Bristol, Prioress of Nuneaton, leased land to John, son of Simon de Schireford, and Ellen and their sons Simon and Edmund. (fn. 56) In 1327 John de Shirford granted to his son John, with contingent remainder to Eleanor, Margaret, and Catherine, sisters of the latter, property in Sherford, including a mill, (fn. 57) and in 1346 John de Shirford, with Robert de Herle, held land assessed at half a knight's fee in Sherford and Burton. (fn. 58) By the end of the 14th century the Sherford property had passed to the Purefey family, Philip Purefey of Misterton (Leics.) having married Margaret de Shirford, (fn. 59) no doubt the Margaret mentioned above. In 1394 William Purefey obtained lands in Sherford, reckoned as a third of the manor and perhaps representing the portion of one of the other two coheiresses Eleanor and Catherine de Shirford, from Thomas Bosevyll and Katherine his wife, (fn. 60) who had been wife of Simon de Shirford. (fn. 61) John Purefey, brother of Henry, released the manor in 1472–3 to John Denton and Isabel his wife; (fn. 62) in 1491, John and Henry Purefey being both dead, Denton was given the keeping of their lands in Berks., Bucks., Leics., and Warwickshire, with the wardship and marriage of their cousin and heir Nicholas. (fn. 63) This Nicholas, with Alice his wife, conveyed the manor in 1507 to Sir Richard Emson and others. (fn. 64) By 1515 it had apparently been leased to the Smyth family of Coventry, when at the death of Joan Stafford, late wife of Henry Smyth, it was held by her son Walter, aged 14; (fn. 65) two years previously she had been granted the wardship of Walter, or of Henry his brother in the event of Walter's death. (fn. 66) The manor was finally sold to Sir Walter Smyth in 1545 by Nicholas Purefey, presumably the son of the previous Nicholas, and Katherine his wife. (fn. 67) Sir Walter was murdered in 1554 by his wife Dorothy, daughter of Thomas Chetwynd of Ingestre (Staffs.), (fn. 68) when his son Richard, who was originally to have been betrothed to Dorothy, was 22 years of age. Richard conveyed Sherford manor in 1564 to Sir Edward Lyttleton and others, (fn. 69) and died in 1593 leaving a son John aged 13, (fn. 70) to whom he intended to leave the manor in default of issue of the marriage of his daughter Margaret with William Lyttleton. But, according to Dugdale, (fn. 71) he was tricked by Sir John Lyttleton, William's father, and the manor actually passed to George, William's brother, who married Margaret Smyth after William's death, with reversion to the eldest brother Gilbert, who died in 1599. (fn. 72) The manor passed to the Crown on the attainder of John Lyttleton, Gilbert's son, for his share in the conspiracy of the Earl of Essex, but was granted back to Muriel Lyttleton his widow by James I. (fn. 73) In 1605 she and Edward Bromley leased it to Sir Thomas Cornewall and Ann his wife, (fn. 74) and shortly afterwards sold it to Sir John Hele, the lawyer, who disposed of it to his five sons. Dugdale may be right in connecting these frequent changes of ownership with the insecure title passed by the Lyttletons to the Heles, and refers to litigation between the Hele sons. The manor seems to have passed finally to Sir Francis, the second son, who died seised in 1623; (fn. 75) his son John was vouchee in a recovery in 1632. (fn. 76) The last mention of the Heles, by origin a Devonshire family, in connexion with this manor is in 1664, when Sir John Hele was vouchee in a recovery. (fn. 77) At this time Jane, Sir Francis's granddaughter, and her husband Sir Edward Hungerford (whose sister also had married into the Hele family) (fn. 78) were dealing with the manor. (fn. 79)

By the marriage of Mary, niece of Sir Francis Hele, to Thomas Hooke of Flanchford (Surrey) (fn. 80) the manor passed to her son Sir Thomas Hooke, bart., who dealt with it in 1664, (fn. 81) as did his son Sir Hele Hooke and his wife Hester in 1687. (fn. 82) On Sir Hele's death in 1712 it passed to his three sisters as coheiresses and so by their marriages to the Grove, Dyer, and Hamond families. (fn. 83) John Grove, Hele Dyer, and William Hamilton (? Hamond) were joint lords in 1765, (fn. 84) and the first-named with Michael and Elizabeth Heathcote and William Watson in 1766. (fn. 85) By 1778 the manor had apparently become reunited in the hands of William Cooper of Hinckley (Leics.), (fn. 86) who from 1783 also held Burton manor.

The half of Burton Hastings given to Nuneaton priory in the 12th century was valued at £5 17s. 8d. in 1535, (fn. 87) and in 1540 was granted to Sir Marmaduke Constable, junior, of London, (fn. 88) being confirmed to Robert Constable and his heirs by letters patent in 1561. (fn. 89) It passed with Stockingford (q.v.) (fn. 90) to Anne daughter of Sir Henry Willoughby (fn. 91) and presumably by her marriage to Sir Thomas Aston came to that family. It apparently lay in the Shelford portion of the parish, as Sir John Hele, who purchased the manor of Shelford at the beginning of the 17th century, held it of the heirs of Marmaduke Constable as of the manor of (Nun)eaton. (fn. 92)

The portion of Shelford granted to Combe abbey was the subject of legal proceedings in the middle of the 15th century between Richard, Abbot of Combe, and William Purefey. (fn. 93) Probably it was sold to the Purefeys before the Dissolution, as it is not mentioned in the Valor.

Church

The church of ST. BOTOLPH consists of chancel, nave, south porch, and west tower. It is built of cream-coloured sandstone and the chancel is roofed with bluish tiles; the nave and tower roofs, of slight pitch and concealed behind parapets, are covered with lead. Only the chancel and perhaps a portion of the tower masonry appear to date back to the 14th century. The present nave was rebuilt about the beginning of the 16th century, followed by the rebuilding of the tower. During modern restorations the whole church has been re-roofed, the exterior walls partly renovated, with the new south porch added, and the interior (particularly the chancel) refitted.

Much of the east chancel wall has been refaced. Each diagonal buttress has two weathered offsets, the upper moulded, and the plinth, which returns round its base, also has two offsets, plain and moulded. Above a modern string-course a moulded parapet leads up to a modern gable-cross. Both mullions and all the tracery have been replaced in the three-light east window, of which the 15th-century hood-mould has a chamfered top and bottom and the fillet is widened at the springing into square stops enriched by rosettes. The jambs have two chamfered orders, the outer narrow, and each light has a trefoiled ogee head with a vertical bar over, dividing the window-head into trefoiled panels.

The side walls of the chancel are ancient, except for the modern parapet, and the plinth is continuous, stopping on the south side against the projecting walls of the nave. On the north it stops against a modern pier set in the re-entrant angle, which contains the modern heating flue and ends in a blue-brick stack at the parapet. A single two-light 14th-century window pierces the north wall in the west half. It has a square head, which has two chamfered orders, like the jambs, divided by a single fillet, and no hood-mould; the lights have trefoiled ogee heads. The south wall has two windows, that to the west being only 2 ft. from the nave, and of one light, similar to the opposite window, with its sill immediately above the plinth; the other, to the east, is two-light and similar, except that the square head is of greater height, having a quatrefoil above the trefoiled light. (fn. 94)

The nave plinth is 6 in. deeper than that of the chancel; its upper moulding is crude and there is hardly any offset, but two plain offsets are spaced out below. It returns round the four buttresses at the angles; they each have two weathered offsets, but they are disposed differently. That at the north-east angle is diagonal; the opposite east buttress is less in height and is set between square and diagonal, to avoid blocking the adjacent chancel window, the surface of the east gable twisting slightly into the east side of the buttress. Both west buttresses are set square. A modern moulded parapet runs the whole length of the north side; the east end stops against the embattled parapet (fn. 95) of the east gable, which rises 2 ft. 6 in. higher and is then pitched at the slope of the roof with a hollow string-course beneath it. The latter returns round the north end the thickness of the gable parapet (9 in.) but continues with the embattled parapet along the south wall to stop against the tower. The walls, which contain a few blocks of red sandstone, are pierced by three openings. On the north side is an original three-light window with a four-centred head, set in the eastern half. It has two orders, the inner a shallow hollow and the outer an ovolo. The detail is crude and the hoodmould is cut into the voussoirs, terminating in small elongated heads. Each light has a two-centred head without cusps and the mullions, continuing to the window head, embrace a quatrefoil. In the west half there was a doorway which is now blocked flush with masonry. On the south side there is a door and a similar window. The doorway has a two-centred head without imposts, a wave-moulding forming the single order. Both the doors and the porch are modern, the latter is timber-framed with unglazed openings above a stone base 3 ft. 6 in. high, (fn. 96) and it carries a tile roof, above which is a square sundial of slate dated 1867 (fn. 97) immediately below the string.

The square tower is divided into two stages by a string-course at two-thirds of its height, and it stands on a plinth which returns round two diagonal buttresses at the western angles, having two offsets, the upper moulded and the lower hollowed. It rises 1 ft. higher than the nave plinth. (fn. 98) The buttresses extend 2 ft. above the string-course, and each has four chamfered offsets, spaced at increasing intervals towards the plinth. The east angles are plain except for separate horizontal lengths of splayed moulding facing east, 3 ft. below the string, matching the second offsets from the top of the west buttresses. There is a top hollow-moulded stringcourse surmounted by an embattled parapet with small crocketed and gabled pinnacles on the angles. On the south and west faces a lead spout projects from a vent piercing the moulded string. Two-light belfry windows occur on each face immediately above the stringcourse; each has two chamfered orders and two-centred heads. (fn. 99) The west face is also pierced by a three-light window, set low, the chamfered sill being raised one stone course only above the plinth. It has two chamfered orders, the outer one being deep and carried over as a depressed four-centred head. The centre light, like the others, is trefoiled but is stilted to reach the head. There is a small dripmould with head-stops. The two other windows are unglazed, small, and rectangular, with chamfered surrounds, one immediately above the window last described, and the other lighting the tower vice on the south side, 6 ft. above the plinth and close to the west buttress.

The chancel has a modern oak roof with an octagonal boarded soffit treated with ribs and bosses. The main four-centred ribs divide the length into two bays and are supported on wall-posts above modern carved stone corbels. The roof of the nave is of modern open timber, although the massive tie-beams of the trusses may have been re-used from original 16th-century trusses. All the walls are unplastered, and those of the chancel have an oak-panelled dado, apparently formed out of 18thcentury box-pews and topped by a modern embattled rail. The floors are paved in modern stonework. (fn. 100)

The east window is set between deeply splayed jambs, and the stone sill is formed with square bases to the mullions, having slightly rounded angles. To the north of it is a recess sunk in the stonework and cutting the upper line of the dado; it is 10 in. high by 7 in. wide. There is also a small piscina, 9 in. wide, with an ogee head, immediately below the east side of the south window. The window on the north side of the chancel has an internal head of later date, (fn. 101) consisting of two cambered stones worked into a four-centred profile with a hollow-chamfered edge. The two south windows have been similarly treated; and probably at the same time the splayed jambs were replaced, that next the chancel arch being roughly cut back afterwards to widen the angle of light. The south wall in this corner is cut back high up. (fn. 102)

The chancel arch has a segmental head of two chamfered orders which are carried down into the jambs. Only the inner order carries a capital, which has a hollow mould set between a rounded necking and an abacus of two rolls inset below a square top. The north jamb continues down to the floor, but that to the south has a base with a square lower portion rising 23 in. above the present chancel floor; 18 in. above this the two chamfered orders are combined with an offset into a single splay. The splay on the side of the nave is partly covered by a stone facing in the same plane as the surrounding wall and may have been extended as backing to a small side altar. (fn. 103)

The upper and lower doorways to the vice, leading to the former rood-loft, open onto the nave and pierce the masonry north of the chancel arch, in a splay wall built from the jamb of the arch to the north wall of the nave. Each doorway carries a four-centred head in one block, and a continuous wave-moulded chamfer frames the opening, 20 in. wide; there are chamfered-stop bases to the jambs. Both doors and doorways are modern, these entrances to the vice having been reopened since 1902. (fn. 104) Some of the facing-blocks of the splay wall have indications of red pigment.

The windows in the nave have internal four-centred heads. Both sills are stepped, with the upper steps chamfered in almost the same plane as the mullions, and they are curiously set out of alignment with the walls, the west end of each upper step being 4½ in. back from the inner surface of the wall, and the east end 11 in. Farther west along the north wall the original doorway is blocked by masonry, forming a deep recess; a wrought-iron hinge projects from the re-entrant angle of one of the square jambs and the head is faced internally with two stone slabs, cambered and shaped into a four-centred soffit. A single stone corbel, carved into a human head, projects from this wall close to the west angle and 5 ft. beneath the feet of the rafters.

The south door has square jambs, and the curved head is cut away on the west side to make way for the original single door; the present double doors are modern. Farther east along the south wall (3 ft. from the south-east angle) are the remains of a piscina, 18 in. high. The trefoiled head is mutilated and the original projecting bowl has been cut back. It is only recessed 2½ in., and 18 in. below there is a 12-in. horizontal groove cut into the wall.

The west wall contains a tall four-centred arch spanning the full width of the tower. It has a single wide chamfered order, (fn. 105) plain and without imposts, it stops 3 ft. above the floor level with pyramid-stops above a plain square angle. On each side, 18 in. above the nave floor, there is a roughly chamfered offset, and this plinth is cut off at the jambs of the arch. This work appears to be late 16th century and it is uncertain whether the remainder of the tower was built at this time or earlier in the same century. Traces of a former two-centred west arch can be seen above the present one, (fn. 106) and though its hood-mould has been cut off, it can be traced down to a point one stone course below the present springing.

The tower space has been screened off by an oak screen to form a vestry; it has unpierced panels and a door on the south side. Above the modern ringers' gallery, with its open timber balustrade, light is admitted from the west window into the nave.

Except for two Chippendale chairs in the sanctuary, the furniture is modern. But at the west of the nave are two ancient iron-bound chests; each is made out of a tree-trunk, and is 3 ft. 7 in. long, 18 in. wide, and 16 in. high. The ends are bound with wrought-iron straps and three iron strap-hinges extend over the lids, wrought with tapered ends. Close by in the nave also is a creamcoloured sandstone font. It has a modern stone base but the large block it supports appears to have been carved in the late 15th or early 16th century. The circular top is 2 ft. 4 in. in diameter and the drum tapers slightly downwards, becoming octagonal with round projecting fillets at the angles. At one third of its height the fillets divide, forming eight trefoiled heads over the side panels, and the spaces above are filled mostly with conventional flower-forms. It has a modern timber canopy 2 ft. in height.

The only monuments are a small number of 19thcentury wall-tablets. A single medieval floor tile in a frame is displayed against the base of the chancel arch. It contains a quadrant of a circle decorated by leafpatterns. On the west side of the inner order of voussoirs of the chancel arch are a series of wrought-iron hooks, one at the apex, two (originally three) below to the south and three to the north, the hooks facing away from the void. They are of ancient workmanship and evidently secured the lenten veil above the rood-loft.

On the north wall of the ringers' gallery there is a painted panel depicting the royal arms.

There are five bells, of which three are ancient; two are dated 1657, one by Brian Eldridge and the other by Henry Bagley, and the third, undated, is probably by one of the Newcombes. (fn. 107) Two more were added in 1937.

The registers begin in 1574.

Between the south gate to the churchyard and the chancel there is a single yew tree, and facing the gate, on the opposite side of the lane, is an 18th-century farmhouse with a row of tall yew trees extending along the frontage.

Advowson

There was a priest at Burton Hastings in 1086. (fn. 108) The church was granted to Nuneaton priory in the reign of Henry II by Ralph de Tureville at the request of his mother Emma, who had become a nun in that house. (fn. 109) In 1540 the estates of this priory in Burton, including the advowson, were granted to Sir Marmaduke Constable, (fn. 110) who died in possession in 1560. (fn. 111) The advowson then followed the descent of the manor of Shelford or Sherford, being reckoned as a donative in the 18th century. (fn. 112) In 1769 it was conveyed by John and Philippa Grove, Elizabeth Heathcote, Sir Thomas Dyer, bart., and William Watson (representatives of the families amongst which the lordship of Shelford manor was by this time divided) to Francis Wheler. (fn. 113) Mrs. Grove was patron in 1786, (fn. 114) though the manor had by then passed into other hands. In the 19th century the patronage changed hands several times; G. Greenway was patron in 1831, (fn. 115) the Rev. William Bucknill was patron and incumbent in 1850, (fn. 116) and the Rev. Digby Turpin similarly in 1900. (fn. 117) In 1915 Mr. F. D. Turpin was patron. (fn. 118) Since 1927 the living (with which Stretton Baskerville was merged during the 19th century) (fn. 119) has been in the gift of the Bishop of Coventry, and held with Wolvey. (fn. 120)

The value in 1291 was £5, (fn. 121) and in 1535 the rectory was farmed for 53s. 4d. (fn. 122) and the parish church was served by a stipendiary, who received £4 14s. 2d., plus 9s. 6d. for procurations and synodals. (fn. 123)

Two acres of meadow called Moorishe Meadowe and le Hassocks, in the field of Draycot, were given for the upkeep of a lamp in Burton church. (fn. 124)

Charities

Feoffment Lands. This charity, the endowment of which consists of hereditaments in the parish of Burton Hastings, is regulated by a scheme of the Charity Commissioners dated 1 September 1922. The scheme appoints a body of trustees to administer the charity and provides that the income of the charity shall, after the payment of a yearly sum of £5 to an Extraordinary Repair Fund, be applied primarily for repairing the causeway and streets in the town of Burton Hastings and subject thereto for the general purposes of the town and for the benefit of the inhabitants thereof. The annual income of the charity amounts to £40 (approximately).

Isaac Wells by will dated 22 July 1819 gave £40 to the churchwardens of Burton Hastings, the interest to be annually distributed by them in bread at the church door on Christmas Day immediately after divine service to the poor and indigent persons belonging to the parish. The annual income of the charity amounts to 19s. 8d.