Hardwicke: Manors and other estates

MANORS AND OTHER ESTATES.

None of the manors in the parish has been found separately recorded before the 12th century. The Domesday estates of Standish, Haresfield, and Rendcomb apparently each included land in Hardwicke.

The land held with Rendcomb in 1086 by Gilbert, son of Turold, (fn. 1) passed with other of Gilbert's lands to the honor of Gloucester. (fn. 2) As lord of the honor, John, then Count of Mortain, granted Rendcomb and Hardwicke to Amselise, wife of William Delamare, and her heirs, as they had been granted to her by her brother Robert, son of Gregory. (fn. 3) Robert was presumably the Robert Delamare (de Mara) who was among the Earl of Gloucester's knights in 1166, (fn. 4) and both Robert and William made grants of land in Rendcomb. (fn. 5) Part of Hardwicke then descended with Rendcomb, and at her death in 1263 Parnel Delamare held 2 plough-lands and rents in Hardwicke from the honor of Gloucester. (fn. 6) The Delamare's fee in Rendcomb and Hardwicke was held in 1403 from Edmund, Earl of Stafford, who had succeeded to part of the honor of Gloucester. (fn. 7) It is likely that that part of Hardwicke continued to be held with Rendcomb, for it was evidently the part belonging to the Guises of Elmore, (fn. 8) who acquired Rendcomb. (fn. 9) In the early 19th century Sir Berkeley William Guise had 75 a. in Hardwicke. (fn. 10)

In 1086 Durand the sheriff of Gloucester held Haresfield. (fn. 11) He also held 3 hides in Standish which his brother Roger de Pitres had received from William FitzOsbern and which the Archbishop of York claimed. (fn. 12) The manor in Hardwicke called PARK manor was held in 1328 of Matthew FitzHerbert, (fn. 13) to whom part of Durand's estates, including Haresfield, had passed, (fn. 14) and in 1610 the same manor, called PARK COURT or HARDWICKE manor, was held as of Haresfield manor. (fn. 15) Hardwicke manor, therefore, was either the Domesday estate of 3 hides in Standish (fn. 16) or, more probably, part of Durand's manor of Haresfield. (fn. 17)

The under-tenants of Park manor took their name from it: c. 1188 William of the Park and his mother held demesne and had villein tenants in Hardwicke. (fn. 18) It was presumably the same William who became a monk c. 1220, to be succeeded by his son Aumary of the Park. (fn. 19) Another William of the Park, who witnessed deeds in 1294 (fn. 20) and 1296, (fn. 21) was said to be grandson of William who received a grant of land from King John. (fn. 22) By 1310 William's daughter, Beatrice, wife of John Butler of Llantwit, had inherited the estate. (fn. 23) John and Beatrice enlarged their estate in Hardwicke: (fn. 24) John had the highest tax-assessment in the vill in 1327, (fn. 25) and when Beatrice died, a widow, in 1359 the demesne of Park manor amounted to 2 plough-lands. John Butler, son and heir of Beatrice and John, (fn. 26) was succeeded in 1362 by his brother Aumary, (fn. 27) whose heirs at his death in 1397 were the children of his two sisters, namely John Kenne, son of Isabel, and Isabel, daughter of Elizabeth and wife of John Trye. (fn. 28) John Kenne (d. 1405), his son John (fn. 29) (d. 1438), and the latter's grandson Robert (fn. 30) (d. 1453) held a small part of the Butler estate in Hardwicke, (fn. 31) but the greater part, including the manor, went to the Tryes.

John Trye, perhaps the son of John and Isabel, made a settlement of his manor of the Park in 1450. (fn. 32) His son William (fn. 33) settled the manor on himself and his wife Isabel in 1481, and died in 1497 leaving his son William as his heir. (fn. 34) The younger William died in 1524, and the manor passed to his son Edward (fn. 35) (d. 1526). Edward's son John (fn. 36) was succeeded in 1579 (fn. 37) by his son John, who was in turn succeeded in 1591 by his son William. William was killed (fn. 38) in 1610, and his son, another William, (fn. 39) died in 1681 having outlived his sons John and Thomas. Thomas's son William (fn. 40) owned 900 a. in Hardwicke and 200 a. in Haresfield in 1699. (fn. 41) William died in 1717, (fn. 42) and in 1726 his son Thomas, under an Act of Parliament authorizing the sale of his estate for the payment of his debts, (fn. 43) conveyed the manor to Philip Yorke. (fn. 44)

From Philip Yorke, who became Lord Chancellor and took the title of both his barony and his earldom from his Hardwicke estate, the manor descended to successive Earls of Hardwicke (fn. 45) until 1808, when it was sold under an Act of Parliament. (fn. 46) In 1776 the estate had amounted to 1,350 a. (fn. 47) Part of the estate, comprising the manor, the chief house, and 305 a. in Hardwicke and Haresfield, was sold in 1808 to William Parker, (fn. 48) from whom in 1815 (fn. 49) the manor was bought by Thomas John Lloyd Baker (d. 1841). Baker enlarged his estate in Hardwicke: in 1834 he had 1,000 a. in the parish, of which nearly a third was leased from the Bishop of Gloucester, and by 1850 his son, T. B. Ll. Baker, owned much the greater part of the land of the parish. (fn. 50) T. B. Ll. Baker, the founder of the Hardwicke Reformatory for Boys, (fn. 51) was succeeded in 1886 by his son G. E. Ll. Baker, who assumed the additional surname of Lloyd in 1911, and died in 1924. The manor then passed to Lloyd-Baker's granddaughter, Miss Olive Katherine Lloyd Lloyd-Baker, (fn. 52) who owned Hardwicke Court in 1967, but was transferring most of the land to her cousin and heir, Mr. Charles LloydBaker (formerly Murray-Browne). Miss LloydBaker's uncle, Lt.-Col. A. B. Ll. Lloyd-Baker, who lived in part of Hardwicke Court, was for many years Chairman of the Gloucestershire County Education Committee. (fn. 53)

Hardwicke Court stands in a park which was evidently in existence and contained a house in the late 12th century, when the lord of the manor was William of the Park. (fn. 54) It was presumably there that stood the hall, with 3 chambers, a kitchen, a granary, a gateway with a chamber over it, and a stable, which in 1310 Joan de Vivonia was alleged to have pulled down while Beatrice Butler was her ward. (fn. 55) The house appears to have been continuously occupied by the descendants of Beatrice. In 1378 Aumary Butler was accused of wrongfully imprisoning his enemies there. (fn. 56) The site was enclosed by a rectangular moat; an angled channel surviving in 1967 may have been part of a medieval moat, though it was evidently not part of the moat recorded in the early 18th century. The house was apparently rebuilt in the 16th century, though it may have retained some of the medieval fabric in the central hall block. The central block had in the middle of its west front a gabled, two-storied porch with an arched doorway; on one side of the porch the central block had two stories, on the other three. A new roof was put on c. 1700. Two wings running eastward from the main block made a three-sided courtyard behind. (fn. 57) In the late 17th century, with 14 hearths, the Tryes' house was much the largest in the parish. (fn. 58)

Lord Chancellor Hardwicke for a while used Hardwicke Court as a seat, but not towards the end of his life, and in 1775 it was being let as a farmhouse. (fn. 59) After 1815 the old house was pulled down, and a new house, of ashlar on a rectangular plan, was built on the site, to the design of Robert Smirke. (fn. 60) The owners have occupied the house since 1819. (fn. 61)

The abbey of Gloucester had extensive lands in Hardwicke which afterwards passed to the bishops of Gloucester. The lands were comprised in what was described from the 17th century as the single manor of RUDGE AND FARLEY, (fn. 62) but earlier there had been two separate manors. (fn. 63) The lands in Rudge may have formed part of the abbey's ancient estate of Standish, (fn. 64) for in 1112 Thomas of St. John gave the abbey his land of Rudge, described as lying in Standish. (fn. 65) Part of the abbey's estate in Rudge is likely to have derived from the Domesday estate held by Durand the sheriff, for the gift to the abbey of 40 a. near the monks' court of Rudge by Roger Little (parvus) and his wife or mother Margaret was made with the consent of the Earl of Hereford, the successor to part of Durand's estate, and was confirmed before 1179 by Gilbert de Mynors, (fn. 66) one of the earl's knights. (fn. 67) The abbey acquired further land in Rudge from Robert of the Field, by gift and exchange, before 1218. (fn. 68) The estate was described as the manor of RUDGE in 1215, when the abbey apparently had some land there in demesne. (fn. 69) In 1525 the rent for the farm of Rudge manor was paid to the abbey cellarer. (fn. 70) The manorhouse or court of Rudge mentioned before 1179 was evidently in the area of Hockley Hill; a grove or wood lay between it and the king's highway, (fn. 71) and the house is likely to have been on the site of Hardwicke Farm. (fn. 72) Behind the early-19th-century farmhouse building is a long and low range with an inserted upper floor, in which two intermediate cruck-frame trusses are partly visible; in a shed near-by are some smoke-blackened roof-timbers, apparently re-used, including a purlin with curved wind-brace and an arch-braced collar.

Gloucester Abbey held FARLEY manor, apparently including some demesne land, in 1215. (fn. 73) About the same time the abbot granted to Walter de Croilli, in fee, all the land in Farley which Walter's father Richard had held. (fn. 74) Walter's estate was later divided between his three daughters, of whom Margery de Croilli (in 1243) and Joan of Farley, both as widows, gave the greater part of their portions to the abbey. The portion of the third daughter, Lettice of Farley, was given to the abbey by her daughter Bennett, wife of William of Farley (or the chamberlain) between 1263 and 1284; William also gave the abbey the holding in Farley of the abbey's fee which his father, Luke the chamberlain, had given him. (fn. 75) The chief house of Farley manor is represented by Farleys End Farm. (fn. 76) It is a rectangular house comprising four cruck-framed bays of which the two middle bays once formed a single-story hall; the roof has massive curved windbraces. The hall was given an intermediate floor in the 17th century, dormer windows were added, and a chimney was built against the central truss. One wall was later rebuilt in brick and the others were rough-cast. Near-by is a large barn of six cruckframed bays, and a smaller building of two bays with two surviving cruck-trusses.

In 1541 the Crown granted Rudge and Farley to the new bishopric of Gloucester, (fn. 77) and the grant was repeated in 1552. (fn. 78) In 1649 the manor of Rudge and Farley included over 500 a., (fn. 79) and in 1839 the land held by lessees of the Bishop of Gloucester, including Madam's End, Velthouse, Hardwicke, Farleys End, and Pleasure farms, amounted to 637 a. (fn. 80)

Reynold de St. Valery, who died c. 1166, (fn. 81) granted lands, described in 1185 as at Rudge and held by Robert of the Field, to the Knights of the Temple. (fn. 82) It has been suggested, for reasons that are not clear, that the Templars' estate is to be identified with the one hide in Standish that Hugh, Earl of Chester, held in 1086. (fn. 83) It is possible that the land granted by Reynold de St. Valery was associated with that in Rudge granted to Gloucester Abbey by Thomas of St. John, for c. 1160 Reynold claimed land in Rudge against the Abbot of Gloucester, who said that the land was part of the vill of Standish, (fn. 84) and in 1138 Reynold held lands in Oxfordshire jointly with John of St. John. Reynold's son, Bernard of St. Valery (d. c. 1191), (fn. 85) was said in 1329 to have given the Templars their land in Rudge. It was held from the manor of Guiting by service of 60s. a year, (fn. 86) and the overlordship passed with Guiting from Pancius de Controne to William de Clinton, Earl of Huntingdon, in 1340, (fn. 87) was held by John Clinton, Lord Clinton, in 1486, (fn. 88) and belonged in 1535 to Corpus Christi College, Oxford, which received a rent of 60s. from an estate called Quedgeley, part of Guiting manor. (fn. 89)

Robert of the Field, the tenant of the Templars' estate in 1185,was succeeded by others of the same surname who held what was called, by the mid 15th century, the manor of FIELD COURT. (fn. 90) The house of Ernulphus (or Eulphus) of the Field was recorded before 1179; (fn. 91) Robert of the Field had land in Rudge at the end of the 12th century, (fn. 92) and Gilbert of the Field had land near-by in 1221. (fn. 93) Robert of the Field lived in the neighbourhood c. 1240, (fn. 94) and Robert of the Field, son and heir of Robert, (fn. 95) died in 1308 or 1309 holding as of Guiting manor a chief house, 120 a. of arable in demesne, and other property in the Field by Quedgeley. His heir was his son, another Robert, (fn. 96) who was recorded as one of the lords of Hardwicke in 1316 (fn. 97) but whose son John, with the second highest tax-assessment in Hardwicke, had succeeded him by 1327, (fn. 98) and perhaps by 1326. (fn. 99) John of the Field was described as of Hardwicke in 1332, (fn. 100) and in 1333 Margery of Dean released to him all her rights in lands and a rent in Hardwicke. (fn. 101)

No evidence has been found of John's successors until 1402, when John Russell and his wife Elizabeth held his lands. (fn. 102) By 1438 land in Hardwicke was held from Thomas Deerhurst, (fn. 103) who served as M.P. for Gloucester and for Gloucestershire in the period 1433-49 (fn. 104) and was described as of Hardwicke in 1443 (fn. 105) and 1451. (fn. 106) Thomas Deerhurst's son John (fn. 107) was lord of Field Court in 1469 (fn. 108) and died in 1484 leaving an infant son Thomas. (fn. 109) Thomas died in 1505, having settled Field Court or Deerhurst Court on his wife Margery, who as Margery Cheyne, widow, died in 1510. Their son and heir Thomas (fn. 110) apparently died childless in 1511, and the manor passed, directly or indirectly, to Richard Barrow (or Berewe), son of John, son of Walter Barrow and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Deerhurst the M.P. (fn. 111)

Richard Barrow was in possession of the manor in 1525, (fn. 112) and died in 1563. (fn. 113) His son Edmund died in 1570, (fn. 114) and was succeeded by his son James, who was in turn succeeded by his son Edmund (fn. 115) in 1606. (fn. 116) Edmund died in 1641; his eldest son William died before him, (fn. 117) his youngest son Richard in 1651. (fn. 118) Field Court had apparently passed to another of Edmund's sons, Thomas Barrow, (fn. 119) by 1670; Thomas was succeeded in 1683 by his son, Thomas Barrow of Field Court, who died in 1736 and whose daughter and heir Eleanor married Thomas Savage (d. 1760), (fn. 120) Vicar of Standish. George Savage, son of Thomas and Eleanor, died childless in 1793, and in 1794 John Mills, who had married Margaret, one of the sisters and coheirs of George, (fn. 121) acquired the whole of Field Court manor by buying the interests of the other coheirs. (fn. 122) Mills was succeeded in 1825 by his daughter Elizabeth, who sold the greater part of the estate, including the manor-house, to John Curtis-Hayward (fn. 123) in 1831. (fn. 124) Field Court then descended with the Curtis-Haywards' estate in Quedgeley. (fn. 125) The farm, for a time used as a home farm, amounted to 271 a. (fn. 126) It was sold in 1939, and in 1958 was bought by Mr. S. T. Cole, who owned it with 204 a. in 1967. (fn. 127)

The house of Ernulphus of the Field, recorded before 1179, (fn. 128) was presumably on the moated site of Field Court; Richard Barrow's house was called by that name in 1528. (fn. 129) Thomas Barrow's house had 6 hearths in 1672. (fn. 130) The house was usually the home of its owners up to the mid 18th century, but from then or slightly later until the mid 20th century it was occupied by tenants or servants. (fn. 131) The north wing of the house has a north gable-end of large squared blocks of oolite; the side walls are of roughcast coursed Lias rubble, and the east wall has two tall mullioned and transomed windows, each of two lights with quatrefoil tracery, one with pointed the other with trefoil-headed arches. Between the two windows and in the west wall were found the remains of similar windows. (fn. 132) The north wing was apparently a 15th-century open hall which was given a new roof of the original pitch in the 19th century; an upper floor was inserted at the level of the window tracery, perhaps in the early 17th century at the same time as the long cross-wing was built across the south end. The cross-wing has coursed Lias rubble for most of the ground-floor walls, timber-framing for the upper floor, the whole rough-cast except where the large quoins and some ground-floor walling of oolitic ashlar are exposed. A new entrance porch and window were added at the west side of the north wing c. 1840, but in the porch, apparently reset, are a decorative plaster panel, which might be the frieze from a fireplace or a door of the early 17th century, and two stone corbel-heads, which might have supported a central truss in the 15thcentury hall. The moats, which in the early 19th century had a total length of ¼ mile, (fn. 133) had been filled by 1967.

St. Bartholomew's Hospital, Gloucester, owned land in Hardwicke, including land called Grove End, from the later 13th century. (fn. 134) Although in 1387 the hospital exchanged a house and 10 a. there for a shop in Gloucester, (fn. 135) a house and land were held at farm from the hospital in 1535. (fn. 136) In 1839 the estate was represented by 2 cottages and 31 a. held under lease from Gloucester Corporation. (fn. 137)

In the later Middle Ages the great tithes of Hardwicke belonged, with those of Standish, to the abbey and later to the bishopric of Gloucester. (fn. 138) In 1839 they were commuted for a corn-rent of £385. (fn. 139) Standish manor included some customary holdings in Hardwicke, (fn. 140) and 376 a. in Hardwicke belonged to Standish manor in 1612. (fn. 141) In the 19th century the Niblett family of Haresfield Court had a large estate in Hardwicke, (fn. 142) where 265 a. belonged to D. J. Niblett in 1839. (fn. 143) The land was later added to the Hardwicke Court estate. (fn. 144)