Winstone: Manors and other estates

MANORS AND OTHER ESTATES.

In 1086 the manor of WINSTONE was held by Ansfrid de Cormeilles who had received it on his marriage to a niece of Walter de Lacy, (fn. 1) although Walter's son Hugh may have held the estate at some stage. (fn. 2) The overlordship of the manor descended with the honor of Cormeilles, (fn. 3) passing in the early 13th century, at the division of the honor among the daughters of Walter de Cormeilles, to Godfrey of Craycombe who married Alice. (fn. 4) From 1303, however, the earls of Hereford were regarded as overlords of Winstone manor, (fn. 5) possibly by virtue of a grant of the overlordship of the honor of Cormeilles made by the Empress Maud to Miles of Gloucester in 1141. (fn. 6)

Henry of Pembridge, a member of a family which was a Herefordshire tenant of the honor of Cormeilles, (fn. 7) held land at Winstone in 1177 or 1178, (fn. 8) and in 1216 the lands of Ralph and Henry of Pembridge at Winstone were placed in the custody of William de Cauntelo, Henry being with the king's enemies. (fn. 9) The lands must have been restored to the family by 1236 when a Henry of Pembridge held 19 / 20 of a fee at Winstone. (fn. 10) Henry of Pembridge, probably the heir of the above, sided with Simon de Montfort against the Crown, and in 1264 his lands were taken by John Giffard. (fn. 11) Henry was probably dead by 1276 but his son, Henry (d. 1279), although admitted to the king's peace in 1268, does not seem to have held land at Winstone, which estate may have been held in dower by his mother Elizabeth. (fn. 12) Winstone had probably reverted by 1298 to another Henry of Pembridge, who presented a kinsman to the living. (fn. 13) In 1303 Henry sold a wood and lands in the western part of the parish to Hugh Despenser (fn. 14) and in 1310 conveyed the manor of Winstone to Geoffrey of Pulham, (fn. 15) who sold it to Despenser later that year. (fn. 16) Subsequently it descended with the part of Bisley manor that Despenser acquired, reverting to the Crown on the death of Catherine Parr in 1548. (fn. 17)

The Crown sold the manor in 1553 to Sir Anthony Hungerford (fn. 18) of Down Ampney. It had passed by 1561 to his son Henry Hungerford (fn. 19) (d. 1580), who was succeeded by his son Anthony. (fn. 20) Anthony conveyed Winstone to his kinsman Anthony Hungerford of Garsdon (Wilts.) in 1602, (fn. 21) and Thomas Hungerford was lord of the manor in 1608. (fn. 22) Thomas sold the manor to Sir William Sandys in 1622 (fn. 23) from which time it has descended with Miserden manor. (fn. 24)

The former manor-house, later called Manor Farm, (fn. 25) dates from the late 16th century when a member of the Hungerford family of Down Ampney probably rebuilt the house and placed the family arms over the porch. (fn. 26) The house, built of rubble and roofed with Cotswold stone, has two storeys with attic dormers and is of five bays. The house was probably only lived in for a short while, if at all, as a manor-house and became a farm-house, which appearance it retains. Sometime after 1779 the porch was removed, and in the mid 20th century the farmhouse was divided into four cottages for workers on the Miserden Park estate. (fn. 27)

In 1599 Thomas Estcourt of Shipton Moyne died seised of property in Winstone, also referred to as the manor of WINSTONE, which he held of Anthony Hungerford, lord of Winstone. (fn. 28) This reputed manor corresponded to the land at Winstone bought by Estcourt in 1580 from Peter Warburton and Thomas Corbett, (fn. 29) but no further account of it has been found and it probably merged with the chief manor.

Among the smaller landowners in the parish the Haviland family was prominent. William Haviland took copyhold and leasehold estates from the manor in 1745, and in 1777 his son William purchased a freehold estate from the lord of the manor and also bought the reversion in fee of his father's estates. The elder William died in 1786 and the younger conveyed his estate to trustees in 1790 for a sale to clear his debts. It was bought in 1793 by Richard Haviland of Upton St. Leonards, who sold it to Joseph Pitt of Cirencester in 1797. In 1800 Pitt sold the estate to William Stephens (d. 1820), who devised it to his nephew, also William Stephens. In 1833 the younger William sold the estate to William Penn Gaskell of Cheltenham, who sold 175 a. to John Rolt, lord of the manor, in 1863. (fn. 30) The farm-house of the estate was Townsend Farm, a 17th-century, coursed rubble building at the west end of the village. (fn. 31)

Part of an estate held by John Haviland the elder in 1782 comprised 83 a. in the open fields, (fn. 32) which had been sold to the Cotswold Park estate in North Cerney by 1796. (fn. 33) The residue of his estate passed to his son, Edward Painter Haviland (d. 1811), who left his lands to his daughters by his second marriage. The greater part of the property, known as the Old House estate, passed to his daughter Elizabeth while his daughter Anne received a small estate. Elizabeth died unmarried in 1830 so that the property was united in the hands of her sister Anne, who married Charles Stevens. Anne died without issue in 1854 when the heirs to the estate under her father's will were the children of her half-sister Mary, who had married Robert Sutton. (fn. 34) The estate was put up for sale in 1857 when part, comprising Croft Farm and 76 a., was acquired, or possibly retained, by Charles Sutton, (fn. 35) and the Sutton family apparently kept that land until 1881. (fn. 36) Croft Farm, on the south side of Church Lane, is a small, coursed rubble, 18thcentury house, renovated at various dates. Two 18th-century barns survive among the out-buildings.