Parishes: Cold Aston

COLD ASTON

Cold aston, alternatively Aston Blank, is a rural parish lying beside the Foss way 18 km. east of Cheltenham. The ancient parish contained 2,360 a. (955 ha.) and was roughly rectangular in shape. (fn. 1) The boundaries, some of which were described in a pre-Conquest perambulation of an estate in Cold Aston and Notgrove, (fn. 2) included the river Windrush on the north-east, the Foss way on the south-east, and the course of a stream on the south-west; in the southern corner of the parish that stream joined other headwaters of the Sherborne brook to form Broadwater bottom, (fn. 3) part of the valley called Turkdean in the AngloSaxon period. (fn. 4) On the north-west the division between Cold Aston and Notgrove followed field boundaries and made several sharp turns close to Cold Aston village. (fn. 5) Cold Aston's boundaries were unchanged until 1987 when the parish was enlarged, to 961 ha., (fn. 6) by the addition of a few houses on the north-western boundary and a former mill with some land at Little Aston on the north-eastern boundary, transferred from Notgrove and Upper Slaughter respectively. (fn. 7) The following account deals with the ancient parish. (fn. 8)

In the earliest records the parish was called simply Aston, perhaps to indicate its location east of Notgrove, with which it was held in the mid 8th century. (fn. 9) By the mid 13th century it was usually known as Cold Aston, (fn. 10) the epithet describing its bleak situation on the high Cotswolds. In the Middle Ages the village was sometimes called Great Aston to distinguish it from the hamlet of Little Aston, (fn. 11) which, situated within the parish by the Windrush, was accounted a separate manor and was a separate tithing in the late Middle Ages. The name Aston Pipard, recorded in the early 14th century, incorporated that of the principal landowning family of that time. (fn. 12) Aston Blank, possibly a reference to the land's bareness, (fn. 13) was recorded as a name for the parish from 1535 (fn. 14) and gained official acceptance. (fn. 15) The parish's official name was changed from Aston Blank to Cold Aston in 1972. (fn. 16)

The land of the parish rises from 145 m. in the river valleys on its north-eastern and southwestern sides to over 210 m. in the west. Most of the land is formed by the Inferior Oolite. The underlying Midford Sand and Upper Lias Clay are revealed in the Windrush valley and the higher ground is formed by fuller's earth, capped by the Great Oolite. (fn. 17) The open, rolling farmland drains mostly to the south in valleys formed by streams, which in places follow underground courses. (fn. 18) One stream, rising in Notgrove, flows east of Cold Aston village to Broadwater bottom and another is crossed by the Foss way south-east of the village. Although a spring rising near the centre of the parish at a place called the Ring in 1704 (fn. 19) provided water for several landowners, (fn. 20) irrigation was difficult and much land at the south end of the parish was known as Dryground long before the 18th century. (fn. 21) The downs bordering the Windrush were inclosed long before the rest of the parish, which retained large open fields until 1796. Apart from Aston grove in the south of the parish and several small coppices on the steep side of the Windrush valley in the north-east, there was little woodland in the mid 18th century. (fn. 22) Although some planting took place soon after the inclosure of 1796, (fn. 23) Cold Aston had only 54 a. of woods and plantations in 1905. (fn. 24) Several new plantations were created later in and above the Windrush valley (fn. 25) but the area of woodland returned for the parish in 1986 was 45 a. (18 ha.). (fn. 26)

Cold Aston manor, comprising the whole parish except Little Aston, had 18 tenants in 1309 (fn. 27) and 18 parishioners were assessed for the subsidy in 1327. (fn. 28) The depopulation of Little Aston in the early 14th century reduced the number of parishioners, (fn. 29) of whom c. 32 were assessed in 1381 for the poll tax. (fn. 30) There had been an overall decline in population by 1524 when there were only ten taxpayers. (fn. 31) The number of households in 1563 was said to be nine. (fn. 32) In the later 16th century the population probably remained unchanged, the number of communicants being estimated at 48 in 1551 (fn. 33) and 50 in 1603. (fn. 34) In 1650 there were said to be 14 families (fn. 35) but the hearth-tax return of 1672 named 25 householders. (fn. 36) In the 18th century the population rose gradually, from about 120 c. 1710 (fn. 37) to 216 in 1801. By 1861 it had grown to 325 but for the rest of the 19th century it fell and in 1901 it was back to 214. Thereafter it fluctuated between extremes of 254 in 1911 and 205 in 1931, and in 1991 the number of residents was again 214. (fn. 38)

The Foss way on Cold Aston's south-eastern boundary had probably been disused for some time by the 8th or 9th century (fn. 39) when the AngloSaxon perambulation of the Aston and Notgrove estate failed to mention it. At that time the most important road in the area was an Iron-Age trackway from the west, which descended in the north of Cold Aston to a crossing of the Windrush by the Foss way at the site of the later Bourton bridge. (fn. 40) In the late 16th century that route was the main road between Gloucester and Bourton-on-the-Water (fn. 41) and c. 1980 it became the main road from Gloucester and Cheltenham to Stow-on-the-Wold, traffic being diverted along it from a road further north in Naunton and Lower Swell. (fn. 42) The Foss way, which was described as the great road to Cirencester on an estate map of 1752, (fn. 43) was a turnpike from 1755 to 1877. (fn. 44)

Cold Aston village occupies high ground in the west of the parish, near the north-western boundary, and its healthy situation has been credited with the longevity of its inhabitants, including several vicars. (fn. 45) Several routes run along the village's main street. The road running up from the south-east, from the place on the Foss way known as Gilbert's Grave in 1718, (fn. 46) was part of a route between Burford (Oxon.) and Winchcombe in the early 17th century. At that time a way to Notgrove, branching from it west of the village, (fn. 47) was also an important local road, (fn. 48) but by the mid 18th century, when the junction was at the parish boundary, it was used as a bridleway and the Winchcombe road was the principal way to Notgrove. (fn. 49) The way from Northleach recorded in 1612 entered the village from the south. It was designated a bridleway at inclosure in 1796 when the main route from Northleach followed the road running up to the village from the south-east. (fn. 50) From 1862 Cold Aston was served by a railway terminus 2½ miles from the village in Bourton-on-the-Water. The railway, which was extended through the north end of the parish in 1881 as part of the Banbury and Cheltenham line, (fn. 51) closed in 1962. (fn. 52)

The exact location of a cross said in the mid 16th century to stand in the middle of the village (fn. 53) is not known. Nearly all the buildings in the village are of stone and the older houses have Cotswold stone roofs. Many houses are grouped randomly on or near a green where the old roads from Bourton-on-the-Water, Burford, and Northleach met. In the mid 18th century there was a well on the green and a pound near by, at the entrance to the Bourton road. A spring on the south-east side of the green (fn. 54) was retained as a public watering place for cattle when some of the adjoining land was inclosed in 1796. (fn. 55) The town well, although said in 1827 to have been filled in, (fn. 56) remained open until a pump was erected over it in 1905. (fn. 57) The parish church stands some way north-west of the green and is set back from the village street; in the late 16th century a small house adjoined the churchyard. (fn. 58) The site of the medieval manor was south-east of the church and the former vicarage house and rectory buildings stand next to each other to the south-west, on the opposite side of the street at the west end of the village. In the mid 18th century a few cottages around the green and in the street were on land belonging to the manorial waste. (fn. 59) Several 17th-century cottages have survived, including one on the west side of the green as part of the Plough inn and two to the south in Chapel Lane. Of the larger houses, Sycamore House, north of the green, was built in the late 18th century on the site of a house destroyed by fire in 1788; it has a pedimented front and buildings at its rear incorporate a former barn dated 1792. (fn. 60) Grove Farm House, to the west, also dates from the late 18th century and had canted bays added to some of its ground-floor windows in the early 19th century; one of its outbuildings is dated 1789. (fn. 61) Both houses were once farmhouses on the manor estate, (fn. 62) the property from 1794 of the Revd. M. H. Noble (later Waller). (fn. 63) Soon after the inclosure of 1796 Noble completed a programme of rebuilding in the village (fn. 64) and in the early 1820s he built a farmhouse (later Manor Farm House) on the site of the manor. (fn. 65) Elm Bank, south-east of the green, is the early 19th-century farmhouse of a substantial freehold estate. (fn. 66)

New buildings in the mid 19th century included a school and schoolhouse built near the church by H. T. Hope, the lord of the manor, (fn. 67) and several cottages. One pair, in Chapel Lane, is in the same gabled style as cottages built probably in the 1860s on the Hope family's estate in Hampnett. (fn. 68) In the late 19th and early 20th centuries at least one new cottage (in 1996 Ridley House) was built at the east end of the village (fn. 69) and an older house there called the Firs (later the Redmans), the home in 1912 of the auctioneer W. B. Fletcher, (fn. 70) was remodelled. Among later changes to the village was the building of a few new houses, including a pair of farm cottages, at the east end in the 1950s and 1960s. (fn. 71) Several farmhouses became private houses and in the 1960s a new farmstead, including a house and a pair of cottages, was established to the south by the former Northleach road. (fn. 72) Within the village some houses and cottages were enlarged, some adjoining cottages were amalgamated to form single dwellings, gables with windows were added to others, and a few barns were converted as residential accommodation. In the late 20th century two houses were built south of the village street and several more at the east end of the village.

The hamlet of Little Aston, in the north of the parish by the Windrush, comprised c. 10 houses in 1300. (fn. 73) It may also have had a church or chapel. (fn. 74) Many of the houses were abandoned in the early 14th century, seven residents having left the hamlet by 1340, (fn. 75) and in the late 18th century the settlement comprised a single farmhouse, known later as Aston Farm. (fn. 76) The farmhouse, (fn. 77) an L-shaped, two-storeyed building with attics, has early 19th-century fronts of dressed stone that conceal much earlier fabric. The oldest, apparently late-medieval, fabric is in the three-bayed north wing, aligned NE.-SW. on the line of the ancient route through the hamlet and parallel with nearby earthworks; (fn. 78) its thick walls have several courses of large rubble exposed at their base on the north-east and north-west. The room at the south-west end, which has a ceiling of large flat joists carried on a large, unmoulded beam, may be the remains of the two-storeyed end of a hall house, perhaps the residence of Arthur Rhodes in the mid 16th century. (fn. 79) A large stack has been inserted at the north-east end of the wing and a staircase at the south-west end. The east wing is mainly of the late 17th century with an open newel staircase of turned balusters that ascends in three flights to the attic; the lowest flight has been altered and the attic subdivided into rooms. The two ground-floor rooms have chamfered beams and joists. The north wing was raised presumably in the early 19th century when the south-east front was refaced and it has a later 20th-century extension to the south-west. In the later 19th century a pair of cottages was built to the east near the river. Shepherd's Cottage, to the south-east, was a tiny solitary cottage occupied by a shepherd in 1851 (fn. 80) and it was much enlarged in the later 20th century.

On the eve of inclosure in 1796 Dryground barn in the south of Cold Aston was the only outlying building outside the Windrush valley. (fn. 81) Following the inclosure the farms continued to be worked from houses in the village, but during the 19th century several cottages were built in the fields next to post-inclosure barns (fn. 82) and one next to Dryground barn. (fn. 83) Some of those cottages were demolished or abandoned in the 20th century but one in the north of the parish, near the Gloucester road, was enlarged in the late 1940s to become a farmhouse (later Windrush Farm) and a pair of cottages was built near by on the road in the mid 1950s. (fn. 84) In the south-east Bangup barn, built by the old Turkdean road on the rectory estate (fn. 85) and recorded as Bang barn in 1824, (fn. 86) was pulled down in the 1980s and some of the stone used later to build a farmhouse there. (fn. 87) A pair of cottages standing next to the barn in 1851 (fn. 88) was a single dwelling in 1996. Several families lived on the Foss way at Gilbert's Grave in 1861 (fn. 89) and there was one house there in 1996. In the north-east of the parish a few bungalows were built along the Foss way on Whiteshoots hill, adjoining Bourton-onthe-Water, in the later 1920s and the 1930s. (fn. 90) A hotel opened further up the hill and a garage at the bottom, at the junction of the old Gloucester road, before the Second World War. (fn. 91) By the early 1930s building had also begun on the south side of the Gloucester road and after 1945 a few more houses and bungalows were built on both roads. (fn. 92) In the mid 1970s there was also a caravan park on the Gloucester road. (fn. 93)

An inn had opened at the south-east end of the village on the road to the Foss way by 1842. (fn. 94) Called the Keeper's Arms in 1856, (fn. 95) it closed in 1959. (fn. 96) In 1852 there was also a beerhouse (fn. 97) by the village green. It had the sign of the Plough in 1881 (fn. 98) and it was the only public house in the village in 1996. A wooden village hall built on the east side of the green in 1925 and 1926 (fn. 99) continued in use in 1996. In 1930 a water tower near the church supplied one or two farms in the parish but most of the village relied on wells. (fn. 100)

A fair or wake on Easter Monday in the later 18th century (fn. 101) was presumably the survival of an ancient custom. Its later history is not known.

Manor and Other Estates.

About 740 a.d. Ethelbald, king of the Mercians, granted 20 cassati in Aston and Notgrove to Osred, a member of the Hwiccian royal family. The estate, which apparently had 10 cassati in Aston, was given later, possibly in 743, to the church of Worcester, (fn. 102) and in 1086 Drew son of Pons held ten hides in Aston from the bishop of Worcester's manor of Withington. (fn. 103) Drew remained the tenant in 1095 when, following the death of the bishop, a relief for two knights' fees was expected from him. (fn. 104) Drew's estate evidently descended to his nephew Walter son of Richard son of Pons, for Walter's successors, the Cliffords, (fn. 105) were mesne lords at Aston. Their lordship was not recorded after the later 13th century. (fn. 106) In 1166 the Aston estate was said to be held from the bishop for a knight's fee (fn. 107) and later the bishop's claim to the service of a second knight was denied; (fn. 108) that claim persisted in the 16th century. (fn. 109)

In the late 12th century Hugh de Longchamp held the Aston estate from Walter de Clifford in the right of his wife (fn. 110) Emme de St. Leger. Hugh was dead by 1194 and Walter de Baskerville, Emme's next husband, surrendered the estate in 1196 to her son Geoffrey de Longchamp (fn. 111) (fl. 1223). (fn. 112) In 1284 Ralph Pipard held the estate (fn. 113) and at his death c. 1309 the manor of COLD ASTON passed to his son John. (fn. 114) John reserved a life interest when in 1310 he conveyed the manor to Edmund le Botiller (or Butler) (fn. 115) and he remained in possession until after 1329. (fn. 116) Edmund Butler, who in 1316 was granted free warren on the demesne land in Cold Aston, (fn. 117) died in 1321. In 1328 his son and heir James was created earl of Ormonde (fn. 118) and jointly with his wife Eleanor owned the manor. (fn. 119) James died in 1338 and Eleanor, who in 1344 married Thomas Dagworth (d. 1350), in 1363. (fn. 120) On her death the manor passed to her son James Butler, (fn. 121) earl of Ormonde (d. 1382). (fn. 122) In 1384 James's widow Elizabeth, who had married Robert of Hereford, was granted livery of the manor (fn. 123) and after her death in 1390 it passed to James's son James, (fn. 124) earl of Ormonde. From the younger James (d. 1405) it descended in the direct line with the earldom to James Butler (fn. 125) (d. 1453) and James Butler, earl of Wiltshire. (fn. 126) In 1461 the latter was beheaded by the Yorkists and on his attainder the manor was granted to Walter Devereux, Lord Ferrers. (fn. 127) The manor was later restored to the Butlers, (fn. 128) whose tenant John Slaughter (d. 1486) was also a freeholder in Cold Aston. (fn. 129)

Thomas Butler (d. 1515), earl of Ormonde, was survived by his daughters Anne, wife of James St. Leger, and Margaret, wife of Sir William Boleyn. (fn. 130) Anne held the manor in 1520 (fn. 131) and was succeeded at her death in 1533 by her son George St. Leger, whose son and daughter-in-law John and Catherine (fn. 132) conveyed the manor in 1546 to John Stratford (fn. 133) of Farmcote. Stratford (d. 1553) was succeeded by his grandson Henry Stratford. (fn. 134) On his death in 1558 Henry left the manor to his son John, a minor, (fn. 135) who in 1590 conveyed it to John Carter of Pirton, in Churchdown. (fn. 136) Carter (d. 1627) was succeeded by his son Giles, (fn. 137) who recovered his estates in the mid 1640s following their sequestration on the ground of his royalist sympathies. (fn. 138) From Giles (d. 1665) (fn. 139) the manor passed to his grand-nephew Edward Carter of Alvescot (Oxon.) (fn. 140) and from Edward (d. 1674) to his brother Goddard. (fn. 141) Goddard (d. 1725) left the manor to his daughter Rebecca (fn. 142) and in 1726 it was settled on her marriage to Sir John Doyley, Bt., of Chiselhampton (Oxon.). (fn. 143) Rebecca (fl. 1739) (fn. 144) died before her husband and at his death in 1746 the manor passed, as did the baronetcy, to his son Thomas. (fn. 145) Sir Thomas (d. 1759) left the manor to his wife Mary and at her death in 1780 it passed to William Newcome, bishop of Waterford and Lismore, whose first wife had been the Doyleys' daughter Susanna (fn. 146) (d. 1769). (fn. 147) In 1794, in return for an annuity, William gave the manor to Maria, his only child by Susanna, and her husband the Revd. Mungo Henry Noble of Allenstown (co. Meath). (fn. 148) Noble changed his surname to Waller in 1809 and, shortly after his death in 1831, (fn. 149) Maria, as part of a settlement of the family estates, relinquished the manor to four of their five children. They sold it in 1833 to Henry Thomas Hope of Deepdene, in Dorking (Surr.), (fn. 150) and after his death in 1862 the manor descended with his Hampnett estate until 1911, (fn. 151) when the Cavendish Land Co. sold the Cold Aston estate comprising 1,061 a. to Cyril Grant Cunard of Notgrove. (fn. 152) Following Cunard's death in 1914 his widow Beatrice, who married W. H. Curran in 1918, (fn. 153) broke up the estate over several years by sales to C. Williams, the owner of Elm Bank farm, J. W. Tayler, an auctioneer who had farmed in Cold Aston for some time, and S. E. Nicholas. (fn. 154) In the later 20th century the farms changed hands several times and in 1996 the land remained divided between several owners. (fn. 155)

The manor house was recorded from 1309. (fn. 156) In 1672 the occupant, Richard Moulder, was assessed for tax on five hearths. (fn. 157) The house stood south-east of the church on the north side of the village street and in 1821 it was rebuilt as a farmhouse called the Manor House (later Manor Farm House), (fn. 158) where the manor court met in 1827. (fn. 159)

LITTLE ASTON farm, sometimes called a manor, was the subject of a suit between the prioress of Westwood (Worcs.) and Geoffrey de Longchamp in 1220 (fn. 160) and belonged to the priory in the early 14th century (fn. 161) and until the Dissolution. (fn. 162) In 1538 the Crown sold the manor to (Sir) Robert Acton (fn. 163) (d. 1558), whose younger son Charles, of Elmley Lovett (Worcs.), (fn. 164) sold it to William Rogers in 1590. From William (d. 1593) the farm passed with Dowdeswell manor to his son William, a minor, (fn. 165) and at the younger William's death in 1640 it passed to his widow Philip for her life. (fn. 166) She died in 1644 (fn. 167) and, the younger William's eldest son Don Rogers having died without issue in the same year, the second son William (fn. 168) inherited the farm. He sold it in 1666 to George Townsend, (fn. 169) who redeemed the farm's corn tithes from the lay rector in 1668. (fn. 170) By will proved 1683 George gave the farm and corn tithes to Pembroke college, Oxford, as an endowment for scholarships for boys from schools in Gloucester, Cheltenham, Chipping Campden, and Northleach. (fn. 171) In 1925 the college sold the farm, then known as Aston farm, to Frank Treasure, a Gloucester solicitor, and in 1945 his son Garnet sold it to A. T. Gaze. C. H. Kleinwort of Sezincote bought it in 1957 and, with the purchase of Camp farm a few years later, owned 491 a. in the parish. (fn. 172) Kleinwort, who was knighted in 1971, died in 1980, (fn. 173) and in 1996 Aston farm, then comprising 750 a. (304 ha.) in Cold Aston, Naunton, and Notgrove, remained part of the Sezincote estate of his daughter Susanna, wife of David Peake. (fn. 174)

St. Oswald's priory, Gloucester, had land in Cold Aston in 1256 (fn. 175) and held a hide there from Ralph Pipard, lord of the manor, in 1299. (fn. 176) In 1520 the prior was thought to hold land in Cold Aston directly of the bishop of Worcester. (fn. 177) By 1291 the priory's land was attached to its estate in Aylworth (fn. 178) and in 1543 part of it was granted with that estate to Richard Andrews and Nicholas Temple and was sold by them to John Stratford. (fn. 179) That land later passed with Cold Aston manor, (fn. 180) which Stratford acquired in 1546. (fn. 181) The other part of the priory's estate in Cold Aston was granted by the Crown to Thomas Reeve and Christopher Bullit in 1558 (fn. 182) and was sold by Anthony Hodgkins to Henry Hurst in 1599. In 1626 it was bought by Giles Tray, whose descendants retained it until the mid 18th century. (fn. 183)

In 1355 Godstow abbey (Oxon.) had land and rents in Cold Aston. (fn. 184) The later descent of that estate is not known.

Cold Aston rectory was owned by Little Malvern priory (Worcs.) in 1275 (fn. 185) and was worth £9 6s. 8d. in 1291. (fn. 186) The priory, which let the estate at farm for £7 in 1527, retained it until the Dissolution, (fn. 187) after which it was leased from the Crown. (fn. 188) Henry Winchcombe of Northleach was the lessee together with John Harthill in 1576 and with Thomas Freeman later. (fn. 189) Richard Taylor held a lease of the rectory at his death in 1627. (fn. 190) Bernard Winchcombe owned the rectory in 1668, when he sold the Little Aston corn tithes to the landowner there, (fn. 191) and at his death in 1684, (fn. 192) and Richard Winchcombe was the owner c. 1703 and until his death in 1717. (fn. 193) The rectory, which in the early 18th century claimed the corn tithes of the whole parish except the vicar's glebe and was valued at £100, (fn. 194) was acquired before 1730 by Edmund Waller (fn. 195) of Beaconsfield (Bucks.). After Edmund's death in 1771 (fn. 196) it passed, evidently with his Farmington estate, to his son Edmund (d. 1788). (fn. 197) The latter's son and heir Edmund acquired some land in Cold Aston, and at inclosure in 1796, when Pembroke college disputed his claim to the Little Aston corn tithes, he was awarded 208 a. for the other rectorial tithes. (fn. 198) Edmund's estate of 244 a. was for sale in 1807, (fn. 199) and it was owned by Edmund Humphris in 1809 and by John Humphris in 1810. (fn. 200) John, a cattle dealer, was declared bankrupt in 1815, (fn. 201) and (Sir) John Bisset bought the estate in 1816. (fn. 202) Bisset, who had been commissary general of the duke of Wellington's army in Spain, died in 1854 (fn. 203) leaving the estate to Elizabeth Booth, (fn. 204) and following her death in 1914 Thomas and Lawrence Acock, together with their sister Amy, bought it. (fn. 205) The Acocks, whose family had farmed both rectory and vicar's glebe for several generations, (fn. 206) purchased over 100 a. of the glebe in 1919. After the deaths of Thomas and Lawrence, in 1923 and 1927 respectively, (fn. 207) the two farms were acquired jointly by George Wood (d. 1931) and his brother James Hall Wood (d. 1939), both of Hazleton. In the 1950s George's son George (fn. 208) conveyed 234 a. together with the principal house (later called Rectory Farm House) to his daughter Mary Dun Ray (d. 1986). She sold most of the land in 1974, some of it to neighbouring landowners. After the death of Mrs. Ray's husband Leslie in 1987 Rectory Farm House passed to their daughter Diana Ray. (fn. 209)

The rectory buildings included a new grange in 1275 (fn. 210) and presumably the house occupied by the vicar in 1339. (fn. 211) Rectory Farm House, south of the later vicarage house, has at its centre a small mid 17th-century house, which was the lay rector's residence. (fn. 212) Beneath that house, a small barrel-vaulted cellar with three chamfered ribs may date from the 15th century. Although only one or two mullioned windows survive externally a single bay of a mid 17th-century house is well preserved within. It has a partly blocked fireplace on the ground floor with an axial staircase, chamfered beams and a fourcentred arched fireplace in the room above, and a roof of tiebeam and collar construction. The house, perhaps that for which a member of the Winchcombe family was assessed on three hearths in 1672, (fn. 213) seems to have been extended to three bays but the end bays were rebuilt and extended and the whole front refenestrated in the 19th century, by which time the house was a farmhouse. (fn. 214) Among the outbuildings is a late 18th-century barn built perhaps at or soon after inclosure.

Economic History.

In 1309 the demesne of Cold Aston manor comprised 160 a. arable and some meadow land and pasture; (fn. 215) in 1338 the arable was extended at 200 a. (fn. 216) St. Oswald's priory had 2 ploughlands in demesne in Aylworth and Cold Aston in 1291 (fn. 217) and it farmed out land there in the early 16th century. (fn. 218) The manorial demesne was also farmed in the early 1530s. (fn. 219)

In 1309 the tenants on the manor included six freeholders owing cash rents valued at £1 6s. and some customary payments. Of the customary tenants, from whom £2 was received in tallage, nine owed labour services valued at £3 and no other rent and three were cottars paying rents worth 5s. 6d. (fn. 220) In 1338 the rents and services of the customary tenants amounted to £8 2s. 6d. (fn. 221) In 1291 St. Oswald's priory received £3 17s. 1d. rent from its tenants in Aylworth and Cold Aston and 6 marks from a fee which may have been entirely in Cold Aston. (fn. 222)

There is no evidence that Westwood priory kept any land in demesne in Cold Aston. In the years 1303–5 its estate there yielded a farm of £3 6s. 8d., presumably derived from the rents of the Little Aston tenants. Of the nine tenants recorded in those years only one was among the 18 taxpayers listed in the parish in 1327. (fn. 223) By 1340 seven inhabitants of Little Aston had abandoned their holdings and left the parish (fn. 224) and by the 1350s payment of the farm to the priory had ceased altogether. A farm of £2 was paid in 1383. (fn. 225) Under a lease of 1533 Little Aston was farmed for £5 (fn. 226) and in 1538 it was valued at £15 19s. 4d. (fn. 227)

In the early 13th century Cold Aston had two arable fields and holdings were apparently divided equally between them. (fn. 228) Those fields, in which Little Aston presumably shared, remained extensive (fn. 229) and in the late 16th century the upper field extended to the boundary with Notgrove on the north-west and the lower field to the boundary with Bourton-on-the-Water on the south-east. North-east of the village the fields were divided by the road to Little Aston. If the vicar's glebe was typical, in the early 17th century arable land was held in strips of an acre or less scattered in the fields' furlongs. (fn. 230) There was c. 40 acres of open-field land to a yardland. (fn. 231)

Closes surrounding the village in the late 16th century included one called the Coneygree; (fn. 232) the remains of a warren, a long bank in a field by the stream east of the village, were levelled in 1957. (fn. 233) There was meadow land by the river Windrush, and the 30 a. of meadow belonging to the manorial demesne in 1309 (fn. 234) probably included the meadow upstream of Little Aston known as Bowman's Hay by 1663. (fn. 235) A lot meadow recorded in the mid 16th century (fn. 236) may have been by the stream on the parish boundary upstream of Broadwater bottom: in 1752 the Cold Aston bank of the stream was in 10 small closes, each of less than an acre. (fn. 237) There were also scattered areas of meadow land within the open fields. (fn. 238) Common pasture was recorded from 1309 (fn. 239) and land near Broadwater bottom and Aston grove was among areas used as common in the late 16th century. (fn. 240) The principal commons, some of which were recorded in 1612, were on Vint hill (110 a.) in the south of the parish by the Foss way, Coarsers hill (58 a.) in the east by the Foss way, Grove hill (59 a.) in the south-west on the side of the tributary valley of Broadwater bottom, Longbrook hill (37 a.) north of the village, and the steep side of the Windrush valley (77 a., described in 1752 as a cow common) in the far north of the parish. (fn. 241)

In the later Middle Ages, when there was evidently some inclosure at Little Aston, (fn. 242) there may have been an increase in sheep flocks in the parish. Sheep rearing was of considerable importance in the early 16th century, when well over half of the vicar's income came from wool tithes, (fn. 243) and one parishioner was described as a shepherd in 1608. (fn. 244) In the later 17th century the usual stint of common was 60 sheep and 3 cow pastures to a yardland. (fn. 245)

In 1650 Little Aston farm comprised meadows by the river Windrush and pieces of land in the lower (or east) field (fn. 246) but as a result of exchanges of land completed in 1675 it had its own separate fields occupying the north-east corner of the parish. (fn. 247) Some consolidation of open-field strips also took place before 1684 in an area called the Loaches, (fn. 248) lying north-east of the village on either side of the way to Little Aston. The enlarged holdings were inclosed with hedges but those closes were accounted part of the open fields. (fn. 249) There were also early closes in the south of the parish in the valley leading into Broadwater bottom. (fn. 250) In the early 18th century the two open fields were reorganized as four fields. (fn. 251) The change may have taken place in 1715 when the stint of common for sheep and cows was reduced by a third. (fn. 252) In 1752 the open fields covered 1,161 a., nearly two thirds of the farmland in the parish, and the common pastures 388 a. (fn. 253) The parish remained chiefly arable in the later 18th century (fn. 254) and sheep farming retained its importance. In 1793, when the open fields and commons contained 1,461 a. and 140 a. respectively, there were pasture rights for 1,474 sheep. (fn. 255)

It seems that copyhold tenure had virtually ceased to exist on Cold Aston manor by the late 17th century when many tenants held leases for a term of 99 years or three lives. The principal tenements comprised several yardlands; (fn. 256) one of 4½ yardlands was divided into three separate holdings in 1696. (fn. 257) In 1752 there were eleven tenants on the manor, all but one of them with 29 a. or more and four with 103 a., 121 a., 181 a. (at rack rent), and 202 a. At the same time, excluding the vicarial glebe and Little Aston farm, there were in the parish five freehold estates with 14 a. or more, the largest having 151 a. and 188 a., and three much smaller freeholds. (fn. 258) In the later 18th century the number of landholders decreased and, excluding the glebe and Little Aston farm, in 1793 there were six tenants of the manor, four freeholders, and one freeholder and tenant with land in Cold Aston. The principal tenants, of whom two had two farmhouses each, had 370 a., 243 a., and 235 a., the freeholder and tenant had 303 a., and one freeholder had 200 a. (fn. 259)

By the mid 1790s 690 a. in the parish, including 446 a. at Little Aston, had been inclosed. (fn. 260) The remaining open-field and common pasture land was inclosed in 1796 under an Act obtained at the instigation of the Revd. M. H. Noble, the lord of the manor. Noble paid most of the cost and sold outlying parts of his estate, at Bourtonon-the-Water and Hampen, to raise money. The award, which dealt with 1,549 a. including a few old closes, allotted Noble 738 a., including 173 a. in which Ann Paxford had a life interest until 1805. Edmund Waller received 239 a. for land and the rectorial tithes and the vicar 113 a. for glebe and tithes. Of the other freeholders one was allotted 205 a., two joint holders of an estate were given 201 a., and another received 17 a. Under the award some lands were exchanged and a division was made of the joint estate. (fn. 261)

Following the inclosure Noble carried out a number of improvements, (fn. 262) divided his estate into three main farms, (fn. 263) and raised his rental from £276 to £852 by 1798. (fn. 264) In the 1820s Manor farm comprised 353 a. (fn. 265) and another farm 617 a. The rectory estate (240 a.) was leased from 1796 as a single farm, (fn. 266) the tenant in 1827 being Thomas Acock, (fn. 267) and the vicar rented his glebe (112 a.) to a local farmer. (fn. 268) In 1831 seven farmers living in the parish employed labour, (fn. 269) and in 1851 some 55 men were employed on six farms ranging in area from 200 a. to 606 a. (fn. 270) In the later 19th century Manor and Grove farms on the Hope family's estate were combined to create a holding of c. 970 a. and Street farm, the other farm on the estate, retained c. 205 a. after it was leased to Arthur Acock in 1871. The rectory estate and the vicarial glebe were combined in a single farm worked by the Acock family (fn. 271) and in 1896 most land in the parish belonged to one of six farms. (fn. 272) In 1926 seven farms and a smallholding were returned for Cold Aston. Of the farms five had over 300 a. each and three of those were occupied by their owners. Together the farms provided employment for a total of 33 farm labourers. (fn. 273) Of twelve holdings returned for the parish in 1956 three had over 300 a., another three over 150 a., and the rest under 50 a. Together they gave regular employment to 24 labourers. (fn. 274) In 1986 two farms had over 741 a. (300 ha.) and another two over 247 a. (100 ha.) and there were four smaller holdings. Two farms were run by managers and five were worked part-time, and three labourers were hired regularly on the land. (fn. 275) In 1996 the farms were worked primarily by labour contracted from outside the parish. (fn. 276)

The land remained mostly in tillage after the inclosure of 1796 (fn. 277) and the principal crops on 1,025 a. recorded as arable in 1801 were wheat, barley, oats, and turnips. (fn. 278) Corn and sheep husbandry remained the basis of the farming economy and, as part of the crop rotation, large crops of grass and clover were grown. In 1866 1,802 a. was returned as arable compared with 137 a. as permanent grassland. (fn. 279) Four shepherds lived in the parish in 1851 (fn. 280) and 1,364 sheep were returned in 1866, along with 208 cattle, including 37 milk cows, and 85 pigs. (fn. 281) In the later 19th century fewer cereal crops were grown and the area of grazing land increased, 491 a. being returned as permanent grassland and 75 a., presumably rough grazing, as mountain or heath land in 1896. (fn. 282) In the late 19th century a small area in the village was turned over to allotment gardens. (fn. 283) Cereal cultivation continued to decline in the early 20th century and the area returned as under corn or fallow in 1926 was 429 a. compared with 925 a. of permanent grassland and 136 a. of rough grazing. During the same period fewer sheep were kept, there was an increase in stock rearing, and pig farming continued, with 456 ewes, 327 cattle, and 117 pigs returned in 1926. Poultry farming was represented in that year by 495 fowls, 392 ducks, and 50 geese. (fn. 284) In 1956, when 542 a. was described as permanent grassland, at least 958 a. was used for grazing and 564 a. for growing corn and 22 a. was fallow. The animals returned that year included 394 ewes, 544 beef and dairy cattle, 91 pigs, and 1,219 fowls. (fn. 285) In 1986, when two farms were given over primarily to cereal production and another to pig rearing, 533 ewes, 259 cattle, and 402 pigs were returned for Cold Aston. (fn. 286) In the early 1920s watercress was cultivated in beds by the Windrush upstream of Bowman's Hay (fn. 287) and in 1996, although the beds were no longer commercially managed, cress was still gathered there. In 1996, when arable farming was predominant, Aston farm also had a small herd of beef cattle and elsewhere there were cattle and sheep. (fn. 288)

In 1303 a miller was among Westwood priory's tenants at Little Aston, where a mill on the north-eastern side of the river Windrush belonged to Lower Slaughter manor. (fn. 289) A water mill recorded on Cold Aston manor in 1309 and 1338 (fn. 290) was possibly on the stream east of the village where the sites of a building south of the road to Bourton-on-the-Water and of ponds on the line of the stream are indicated by earthworks. (fn. 291)

Stone was quarried in the parish in the later Middle Ages, at least one quarry being let with the manorial demesne in the early 1530s. (fn. 292) According to field-name evidence in 1795 there was once a limekiln at Little Aston. In 1796 eight places in different parts of the parish were designated quarries to provide material for road repairs. (fn. 293) Although none of the parishioners listed in 1608 was apparently a tradesman or craftsman (fn. 294) several villagers in the early 18th century had non-agricultural occupations, including a baker (fn. 295) and, in 1708, a blacksmith. (fn. 296) A carpenter was recorded in 1757 (fn. 297) and a malthouse in 1767. (fn. 298) Building trades were represented by two stonemasons in the mid 1790s. (fn. 299) In 1811 and 1831 about a quarter of the families in the parish were supported by trade or some other non-agricultural work, (fn. 300) and in 1851 residents included a blacksmith, several wheelwrights and carpenters, a baker, a shoemaker, a tailor, several masons and slaters, and a woodcutter. (fn. 301) A gamekeeper appointed in the early 19th century was responsible for protecting the lord of the manor's fishing rights in the river Windrush. (fn. 302) In the later 19th century three Cold Aston villagers were employed solely in maintaining dewponds in an area extending far beyond the parish. (fn. 303) Many trades died out in the early 20th century but the village blacksmith continued in business just after the Second World War. (fn. 304) A building business established at Cold Aston by Herbert Mustoe in the mid 20th century was one of two building firms in the village in 1974. In 1996 it was run, together with a building firm in Northleach, by John Mustoe (fn. 305) and a carpenter and joiner had a new business in the village. In 1852 the keeper of the beerhouse (later the Plough) on the village green ran a shop (fn. 306) and in 1856 there was also a village post office. (fn. 307) In 1974 the village shop was kept at the former Keeper's Arms and the post office at the Plough. (fn. 308) The shop remained open in 1996.

Thomas Acock had established an auctioneer's business in Cold Aston by 1795. (fn. 309) Run after his death in 1845 by his son Arthur, (fn. 310) it organized most of the land and livestock sales in the surrounding countryside in the later 19th and the 20th centuries. The firm, in which W. B. Fletcher partnered J. W. Tayler in the early 20th century, (fn. 311) retained an office at Sycamore House in Cold Aston after the Second World War (fn. 312) but in 1996 it was based in Stow-on-the-Wold.

Local Government.

As recorded in 1299, the bishop of Worcester's court at Withington exercised frankpledge jurisdiction in Cold Aston. (fn. 313) For the purposes of the court Little Aston was a separate tithing in the late Middle Ages, its tithingman making his last known appearance in the court in 1544. (fn. 314) The Withington court, in which a murder in Cold Aston was presented in 1547, elected a constable for the parish in 1575 (fn. 315) and went on swearing in his successors until the early 19th century. (fn. 316) Cold Aston manor court, recorded in 1309, (fn. 317) was held until at least 1827, when presentments to one session dealt with encroachments on waste and other land, the inhabitants' right to have a village pump, the retention of gates across the principal roads out of the village, and the appointment of a constable and hayward. (fn. 318) In 1796 a mare was forfeit as a deodand to the lord of the manor. (fn. 319) Westwood priory held a court for Little Aston and court rolls for the years 1303–5 have survived. (fn. 320)

There were two churchwardens for Cold Aston in 1543 and later (fn. 321) and their surviving accounts begin in 1768. (fn. 322) The amount spent by the parish on poor relief rose from £34 in 1776 to £138 in 1803, when 15 people received regular and 19 occasional assistance, (fn. 323) and to £329 in 1813, when similar numbers were helped. (fn. 324) By 1825 it had fallen to what it had been in 1803 and, in following years, it usually remained under £166. (fn. 325) Several of the parcels of land set aside at inclosure in 1796 to supply stone for repairing the parish highways (fn. 326) were let as gardens or allotments and the rents used for highway repairs and for church purposes by the 1860s. (fn. 327) In the mid 1830s Cold Aston was one of several parishes policed by an officer employed by an association set up at Bourton-on-the-Water. (fn. 328)

Cold Aston became part of Northleach poorlaw union in 1836 (fn. 329) and was included in Northleach rural district in 1895 (fn. 330) and in Cotswold district in 1974. A parish meeting established in 1894 was replaced in 1948 by a parish council, which continued to meet regularly in 1996. (fn. 331)

Church.

Cold Aston church dates from the 12th century and is first found recorded c. 1220. (fn. 332) It was appropriated by Little Malvern priory (Worcs.) before 1275 (fn. 333) and a vicarage was ordained before 1289. (fn. 334) The living, which remained a vicarage, (fn. 335) was united with Notgrove in 1908. (fn. 336) Turkdean was added to the united benefice in 1967. (fn. 337) From 1986 Cold Aston was among several parishes served by a priest-incharge based in Northleach. (fn. 338)

In the late 13th century the vicarage was in the gift of Little Malvern priory. (fn. 339) Although the advowson was included in a settlement of the manor in the mid 15th century, (fn. 340) the priory retained the patronage (fn. 341) until the Dissolution, when it passed with the rectory to the Crown. (fn. 342) At a vacancy in 1616 Richard Winchcombe claimed the advowson under an alleged grant of Elizabeth I to his father but the Crown's presentee was instituted. (fn. 343) From the early 18th century the patronage was usually exercised for the Crown by the Lord Chancellor. (fn. 344) He was sole patron of the united benefice from 1908 (fn. 345) until 1967 when the bishop, as patron of Turkdean, acquired the right to present at every third turn. (fn. 346)

In 1291 the rectory was valued at £9 6s. 8d. and the vicarage at £4 6s. 8d. (fn. 347) The vicar's portion included tithes of hay, wool, and lambs and other small tithes (fn. 348) and those tithes were claimed from the whole parish in 1612 and 1704. (fn. 349) At inclosure in 1796 the vicarial tithes were commuted for 88 a. and, for those of Little Aston, a corn rent charge of £18 17s. 11d. (fn. 350) In 1340 the vicar evidently held two yardlands in addition to his glebe, (fn. 351) which in the later 16th century comprised c. 37 a. in the open fields, presumably with the associated common rights, and a few acres in closes. (fn. 352) It was described as a yardland in 1612. (fn. 353) A gift of £200 from Dorothy Vernon in 1757 to augment the living was used, together with an equal sum from Queen Anne's Bounty, to buy 11 a. in Bourton-on-the-Water in 1763. (fn. 354) After the inclosure of 1796, when the vicar was awarded a rent charge of 1s. 2d., the glebe included 112 a. in Cold Aston. (fn. 355) That land was sold in 1919 (fn. 356) and the Bourton land in 1920. (fn. 357) The living was valued at £6 14s. 5d. in 1535, (fn. 358) £25 in 1650, (fn. 359) £30 in 1750, (fn. 360) and £153 in 1856. (fn. 361)

The vicar's house, recorded in 1339, (fn. 362) was on the south side of the village street next to the rectory buildings. (fn. 363) In the late 16th century its gardens included one known as the bee garden. (fn. 364) The present house, which was retained as the residence of the united benefice in 1908 and 1967 (fn. 365) but was sold following the death of the incumbent in 1986, (fn. 366) incorporates the house for which the vicar was assessed on four hearths in 1672. (fn. 367) It was a two-storeyed house with attics on a T plan with two or three rooms on each floor and, in a west projection, a staircase rising from an arch-vaulted cellar under the north part of the house. The house's south end, which has a large chimneystack, a beam with a broach stop, and a two-centred headed doorway, may be older. By the mid 19th century the west projection had been extended westwards and a brewhouse and laundry were accommodated in a wing running south from the south gable wall. In 1858 John Clifford of Stow-on-the-Wold enlarged the house for the vicar Thomas Townsend. He added an east pile of rooms higher than those of the earlier house and containing, on the ground floor, dining and drawing rooms flanking a staircase hall; the new threebayed east front was plain with stone mullioned windows. Service additions were made north and south of the west wing and a new brewhouse was built at the west end of the south service wing; (fn. 368) the old brewhouse was later taken down leaving the wing detached. North of the house an outbuilding, perhaps a small 17th-century barn, was adapted as a coach house and stables.

The vicarage was given to a former monk from Great Malvern (Worcs.) in 1541. (fn. 369) From the mid 16th century the vicars were often pluralists and served Cold Aston with nearby churches. The vicar instituted in 1550 (fn. 370) was unable to repeat the Ten Commandments; (fn. 371) he served in person in 1563 when he was nonresident. (fn. 372) Ambrose Hurst, vicar from 1570, was non-resident and employed a curate in 1576; (fn. 373) Hurst, who was among those clergy deemed in 1584 neither graduates nor preachers, retained the vicarage until after 1612. (fn. 374) Between 1629 and 1667 the vicarage was held successively by Joshua and Samuel Elliott, father and his son. (fn. 375) Between 1667 and 1888 there were only six vicars, (fn. 376) including Edward Iles (1667–1725), who was for many years also curate of Salperton, (fn. 377) John James (1748–1800), Wadham Huntley (1802–44), who during part of his incumbency was also rector of Eastington near Stonehouse, (fn. 378) and Thomas Townsend (1845–88). (fn. 379) A weekly Sunday service was conducted in the church in 1996.

In the early 13th century Geoffrey de Longchamp granted the monks of Winchcombe abbey the rent of a house and land in Cold Aston to provide 12d. a year for a lamp in the parish church. (fn. 380) That endowment may have been represented by the rent of 12d. used for a lamp until the mid 16th century. (fn. 381)

The church, which may have borne a dedication to St. Mary in 1545, (fn. 382) was dedicated to ST. ANDREW by the late 18th century. (fn. 383) It comprises chancel, nave with south porch, and west tower. The chancel and nave date from the 12th century, the nave south doorway being of three ornamented orders. The nave north doorway has a badly worn tympanum and was blocked before 1857. (fn. 384) There is also a blocked 12th-century window in the north wall of the chancel. The other medieval windows are 13thcentury trefoiled lancets; contemporary with them are the remains of a pillar piscina and credence shelf in the chancel. The chancel east wall is windowless and has the remains of a 14thcentury reredos with canopied niches. In the north wall is an aumbry in a similar style. The chancel was apparently the responsibility of the vicar in 1339; (fn. 385) it was later maintained by the owners of the impropriate rectory or their lessees. (fn. 386) The tower and the nave parapet and roof corbels were built in the 15th century, the tower having a tierceron vault.

About 1820 the church was repaired (fn. 387) and some new seating was provided. (fn. 388) The chancel arch, which was apparently rebuilt before 1857, (fn. 389) was widened in 1876 during restoration work to plans by J. E. K. Cutts. In that work the church was reroofed, the porch rebuilt, and some of the fenestration renewed, including two new large 15th-century style windows in the nave. Architectural fragments found at that time, including parts of a Saxon cross and a 14thcentury piscina, were reset in the porch west wall. Among new fittings and furnishings introduced in 1876 were a stone bowl for the font and a wooden altar, pulpit, lectern, and pews. (fn. 390)

There are wall monuments in the nave to Giles Carter (d. 1665) and the vicar Samuel Elliott (d. 1667) (fn. 391) and the chancel windows have been filled with glass memorials to Arthur and Martha Acock (d. 1903 and 1904). (fn. 392) The church had three bells in 1681 (fn. 393) and it later acquired a ring of five cast by Abraham Rudhall in 1717; one bell was recast in 1796 and another in 1880. (fn. 394) The plate includes a chalice of 1717 acquired the following year. (fn. 395) The parish registers survive from 1727. (fn. 396)

Nonconformity.

William Truby, a parishioner not attending church in 1682, (fn. 397) subscribed to the building of the Baptist meeting house licensed in Bourton-on-the-Water in 1701. (fn. 398) In the early 18th century other parishioners were also members of one or other of the Baptist meetings in Bourton. (fn. 399) In 1780 Baptists registered a house in the parish for worship (fn. 400) and in 1795 at least 12 parishioners were members of the Bourton church. (fn. 401) In the early 19th century some attended the Naunton chapel. (fn. 402) In 1845 a group including the Bourton minister registered a room (fn. 403) which had been built in Cold Aston apparently not long before as a chapel. It had an evening congregation of c. 70 in 1851. (fn. 404) No record of the meeting in the later 19th century has been found, but in 1902 the Bourton church built a new chapel in the south of the village for its mission. (fn. 405) That chapel remained open in 1962 (fn. 406) but it was occupied by a firm of builders and decorators in 1974 (fn. 407) and was a house in 1996.

Education.

In 1683 the vicar Edward Iles was licensed to teach in a school in the parish. (fn. 408) By will proved 1725 Goddard Carter left a rent charge of £5 as a stipend for teaching poor children of the parish reading, writing, and arithmetic, the teacher and the children to be chosen by succeeding lords of the manor. (fn. 409) Under that bequest in the mid 1750s a woman taught ten children, selected by the vicar and the churchwardens on behalf of the absentee lord of the manor. (fn. 410) In the 1820s the stipend of the charity school's teacher was paid by the principal farmer on the manor estate. (fn. 411) A Sunday school started by the vicar in the early 19th century taught 48 children in 1818. (fn. 412)

Although the charity school continued until at least 1856 (fn. 413) a new day school was much wanted in 1847 (fn. 414) but was not opened until 1861. Accommodated in a new building provided by H. T. Hope and incorporating a schoolhouse, it was run on the National plan and in 1878 it was supported by voluntary contributions, pence, and the payment from Carter's charity. (fn. 415) The average attendance was 44 in 1889 (fn. 416) and 53 in 1910; (fn. 417) children from Notgrove were among the pupils from 1903. An infants' classroom was built in 1913 (fn. 418) but the average attendance fell to 24 in 1938. (fn. 419) The school, which was granted controlled status in 1949, (fn. 420) later also taught children from Turkdean and in 1996, as Cold Aston C. of E. Primary school, it had 75 children from a wider area, including Bourton-on-the-Water, on its roll. The Carter charity had long ceased to benefit the school; (fn. 421) in the mid 20th century it had been used to buy prayer books but in 1970 no payment had been made for several years. (fn. 422)

Charities for the Poor.

In 1683 the vicar and another man held £20 given for the relief of the poor and paid interest on it; earlier the gift had been lent out on mortgage. (fn. 423) The charity, which may have been started by Mary (d. 1700), mother of Edward and Goddard Carter, (fn. 424) was later said to have been founded by Goddard Carter. (fn. 425) In the late 18th century it had an annual income of £1 (fn. 426) and in the early 19th, when the principal was held by the lord of the manor's agent, it was distributed at Christmas. (fn. 427) The distribution took place until at least 1827 when the agent died insolvent and his executor paid the interest. (fn. 428)

In 1796 the inclosure commissioners allotted 30½ a. by the Foss way in trust to purchase fuel for the poor. (fn. 429) The rent from the land, £33 in 1821 (fn. 430) and £40 in 1854, was used for an annual winter gift of coal to over 30 households in the mid 19th century. The charity, known as the Poor's Lot charity, had fewer recipients after the First World War. After 1952, when it was renamed the Fuel charity and the land was sold, the charity gave fuel, usually coal, and occasionally groceries to a handful of people and from 1994 it was dispensed in cash, with nine residents each receiving £30 in 1996. (fn. 431)