Parishes: Hazleton

HAZLETON

Hazleton (otherwise Haselton) (fn. 1) lies high on the Cotswolds 14 km. south-east of Cheltenham. The variant spellings reflect variations in the local pronunciation of the name. (fn. 2) The ancient parish, which included the chapelry of Yanworth, (fn. 3) comprised 2,829 a. in two parts. Hazleton, the larger part, occupied a compact but irregular area of 1,566 a. (634 ha.) centred on Hazleton village and bounded on the west, south-west, and south by ancient roads and on parts of the east by streams. Yanworth, 4 km. to the south and separated from the rest of the parish by land belonging to Compton Abdale and Hampnett, was a compact and roughly rectangular area of 1,263 a. (511 ha.) bounded on the south by the winding course of the river Coln and on part of the east by a tributary stream. (fn. 4)

Hazleton and Yanworth were separate manors in the same ownership before the Conquest, but there may have been a more ancient tenurial connexion between Yanworth and its eastern neighbour, Stowell. In 1457 the lords of Yanworth and Stowell adjusted the boundaries between their two manors and released all claims to intercommoning; the 63¾ a. given to Yanworth may have been in the valley of the tributary of the Coln and the 103 a. given to Stowell in exchange had apparently formed a detached part of Yanworth adjoining the Foss way to the south-east. (fn. 5)

Yanworth, the name of which was recorded in 1086 as Tenevrde, (fn. 6) was known as Enworth in the 16th century and later. (fn. 7) Although sometimes regarded as a distinct ecclesiastical parish by the 18th century, (fn. 8) it remained a chapelry of Hazleton until the 20th century but from 1866 it had the status of a separate civil parish. (fn. 9) In 1935 Hazleton civil parish was enlarged to 2,967 a. by the addition of Salperton, to the north, and Yanworth parish was enlarged to 2,114 a. by the addition of Stowell, to the east, (fn. 10) and in 1987 there was a minor adjustment of Yanworth's boundary with Compton Abdale at its south-western corner adjoining the river Coln. (fn. 11) This account of Hazleton relates to the whole area of the ancient parish, including Yanworth. Salperton and Stowell are the subjects of separate articles in this volume.

On the west side of Hazleton the wolds rise to 260 m. on Pen hill in the north-west and to 256 m. on the Puesdown ridge above Compton Abdale in the south-west. On the east side the land falls sharply to c. 160 m. on the floor of the valley called Turkdean before the Conquest. (fn. 12) Drainage is mostly to the east along streams in three tributary valleys. The higher ground is on the Great Oolite and the lower ground on the Inferior Oolite and the intermediate fuller's earth forms an outcrop between them. The underlying Midford Sand is revealed in the valleys on the east side. (fn. 13) Hazleton is largely open farmland and a few years after inclosure in 1764 Rudder observed that exposure to winds from every quarter retarded vegetation; (fn. 14) in the late 19th century several teachers resigned the village school because of the cold. (fn. 15) Although Hazleton's name derives from hazel bushes, (fn. 16) there is little woodland. Hazleton grove, in the north, was a coppice extended at 15 a. in 1542 (fn. 17) and it covered 44 a. in 1826, when there were also two woods made since the inclosure in the east and several other small coppices. (fn. 18) The total area of woodland, which in 1905 remained virtually unchanged at 68 a., (fn. 19) was greater in 1997. Coronation copse was one of two small woods planted east of Hazleton grove in the later 20th century.

In Yanworth the land falls from c. 230 m. in the far north to c. 130 m. at the river Coln in the south. It includes the valley formed by a tributary stream flowing south-eastwards through Oaks bottom and turning south to mark the boundary with Stowell; that stream was presumably the rivulet known as 'the denelake' in 1453. (fn. 20) The higher ground is on the Great Oolite and the lower ground on the Inferior Oolite and the intermediate fuller's earth outcrops in a band across the area. (fn. 21) Yanworth is also mostly open farmland but the slopes in the west above the Coln are clothed by ancient woods surrounding an area once known as Yanworth common. Those woods, represented in 1086 by a wood measuring 3 by 2 furlongs, (fn. 22) contained 82 a. in seven coppices in 1542; the name Stratfield (later Streetfold) given to one of them indicates that at least some of the land had once been cleared for cultivation. (fn. 23) In 1841 the Yanworth woods covered 116 a. and included two small plantations on the east side, one at the bottom of Oaks bottom having been formed after 1812. (fn. 24) The area of woodland remained much the same until the later 20th century (fn. 25) when more trees, including a second wood, were planted in Oaks bottom and a small pond was formed at the source of the stream there. Meadow land in Yanworth is confined to a narrow belt along the bank of the Coln, on the south boundary. Willow trees have long been part of the riverine landscape, the earliest recorded planting, c. 1407, being at Long Acre, a stretch of meadow near the south-west corner. (fn. 26) Organized fox hunting on horseback took place in Yanworth in the early 15th century. (fn. 27) Yanworth manor was stocked with game in 1811 (fn. 28) and the Stowell Park estate continued to employ a gamekeeper in the 20th century. (fn. 29)

In 1086 21 people were recorded in Hazleton and 23 in Yanworth. (fn. 30) Twenty-six villagers in Hazleton and fourteen in Yanworth were assessed for the subsidy of 1327 (fn. 31) and there were ten tenants of Hazleton manor and seventeen of Yanworth manor in 1355. (fn. 32) Yanworth presumably remained the more populous part of the parish in 1381 when 43 people there were assessed for the poll tax. (fn. 33) By 1540 the number of tenants on Hazleton and Yanworth manors had fallen to 6 and 11 respectively (fn. 34) and in 1563 there were said to be 18 households in the parish. (fn. 35) The number of communicants was given as c. 120 in 1551 (fn. 36) and 80 in 1603. (fn. 37) Twenty of the twenty-eight families recorded in the parish in 1650 were in Yanworth. (fn. 38) The parish population, estimated at 100 c. 1710, (fn. 39) had risen to 161 c. 1775 (fn. 40) and to 195 in 1801, by which time a bare majority lived in Hazleton. Apart from a small decline after 1831, the population continued to grow, most of the increase being in Hazleton which in 1871 accounted for 208 of the 337 parishioners. After 1871 the population fell and by 1911 Yanworth once again had the greater share, 108 out of 208 parishioners. In 1931, at the last census before the boundary changes of 1935, the population was 165, of which Yanworth accounted for 92. (fn. 41)

In 1931 the combined population of Hazleton and Salperton was 165. It rose to 185 in 1961 but was smaller in the late 20th century and was 158 in 1991. Yanworth and Stowell had a combined population of 166 in 1931, of 830 in 1951, when there was a school in a large hutted camp in Stowell, and of 138 in 1961. It was smaller in the late 20th century and was 124 in 1991. (fn. 42)

The high downland in Hazleton is crossed by a number of local roads and tracks. One was presumably the highway to Northleach recorded in 1313 (fn. 43) and a road in north-west, running south-eastwards from a salt way and passing by the remains of two adjacent long barrows, (fn. 44) was a way to Northleach in the mid 18th century. (fn. 45) The salt way, linking Droitwich (Worcs.) with the river Thames at Lechlade, followed the route along Hazleton's western boundary to Puesdown where it turned to follow the route along the south-western boundary. (fn. 46) On the west, where it was recorded in 1615, (fn. 47) the salt way was a route to Cirencester and Winchombe in the mid 18th century (fn. 48) and it carried mostly local traffic in the mid 19th century, (fn. 49) but on the south-west it became part of the GloucesterOxford road that ran along the Puesdown ridge and was turnpiked from 1751 until 1870. (fn. 50) A tollgate was erected at the road junction at Puesdown (fn. 51) and there the road was diverted slightly to the south in the later 20th century.

A road which branched from the salt way near a place called Fleetgo (fn. 52) and marked Hazleton's southern boundary (fn. 53) was known in 1615 as the London way. (fn. 54) The turnpike trust established in 1751 took responsibility for the road (fn. 55) but by 1764, when the road was described as the old Gloucester–Oxford highway, (fn. 56) most Oxford traffic followed the salt way as far as Hangman's Stone, in Hampnett, and from there took a course through Northleach town. (fn. 57) The route along Hazleton's south boundary carried local traffic in the 19th century (fn. 58) but it was later abandoned and in 1997 it was a broad green lane closed to vehicles. The route designated a highway to Cirencester at inclosure in 1764 was evidently that running west to the GloucesterOxford road from the south end of Hazleton village. (fn. 59)

In Yanworth there are traces of ancient terraced routes on the side of the Coln valley west of the village, (fn. 60) and a ridgeway (rugweie) was recorded there in the early 13th century. (fn. 61) A green way that in the mid 13th century linked the village with Gothurst, (fn. 62) a hamlet located on the Chedworth side of the river, (fn. 63) may be represented by one of the lanes running south from the village.

The 12th-century parish church stands in the centre of Hazleton and overlooks a shallow valley to the south. The Glebe House, on a terrace immediately below the churchyard, was originally the rectory house and from the 18th century a farmhouse. (fn. 64) Manor Farm, west of the church, was one of Hazleton's principal postinclosure farmsteads and it presumably occupied the site of an ancient farm. John Humphris, the farmer, rebuilt the farmhouse (fn. 65) c. 1840 on a slightly different site and with a three-storeyed south front. Other farm buildings erected in the mid 19th century included a barn and a windmill to the north, on the opposite side of the lane. (fn. 66) Hazleton (formerly Haselton) House, further west, was built in 1861 as a new rectory house. (fn. 67)

The greater part of Hazleton village grew up to the south across the valley from the church. In the mid 14th century a cross may have stood at a road junction there. (fn. 68) Interspersed among the existing dwellings are several abandoned house sites, some of them used as paddocks. The Priory, the southernmost house, was formerly a farmhouse which, together with building platforms and other earthworks lower down to the south, represents the site of a substantial medieval farm. (fn. 69) A spring to the south-west remained the source of the village water supply in 1997. (fn. 70) The farmhouse was rebuilt in 1883 (fn. 71) and stone fragments incorporated in its garden wall to the north seem to include the head of a small twolight window probably of c. 1200 and pieces from a 17th-century house. Among the extensive ranges of outbuildings is one of the late 18th century. On the lane north of the Priory two short rows of cottages, which in the late 19th century had thatched roofs, were restored in the 1950s with tiled roofs and gabled attic windows. (fn. 72) A range to the west was rebuilt as a village institute and reading room in the early 20th century and was a private house in 1997. (fn. 73) Further north, on the hillside opposite the church, a house facing west away from a lane was built in the late 16th century or the early 17th on a lobby-entry plan with a bakehouse range at the north end; additional first-floor windows were inserted in the 17th century. (fn. 74) A barn to the north-west was demolished c. 1884 and replaced by a schoolroom. (fn. 75) To the east, and set back from a lane known in 1615 as Town Well Lane, (fn. 76) a one-bayed cottage with a broad upper cruck truss, erected perhaps in the 16th century, (fn. 77) was extended eastwards by a bay in the 17th century; a north-west bay had been added by 1826, when the cottage was occupied as three dwellings. (fn. 78) Lower down to the east four pairs of estate cottages facing south with dripmoulds over their principal doorways were built in the mid 19th century. (fn. 79)

In the later 20th century, although some cottages were amalgamated to form larger dwellings, the number of houses in the village almost doubled as a result of new building and the conversion of redundant farm buildings. Most of the new dwellings were in the northern part. There several bungalows were built on the lane north-east of the church in the 1950s and 1960s and outbuildings at Manor Farm were converted as dwellings in the 1980s and 1990s. (fn. 80)

Few houses and cottages have been built out- side Hazleton village. A water mill operating in the mid 15th century probably stood east of the village near the spot where Lower barn was built after the inclosure of 1764; (fn. 81) the place was known in 1824 as Botany Bay. (fn. 82) In the far southeast at Hill barn, on Cookham hill, a range of two cottages built by 1826 (fn. 83) was a single dwelling in 1997; the barn, part of a group of late 18th-century farm buildings to the north-east, is dated 1800. (fn. 84) In the mid 20th century two bungalows were built as outlying farmhouses, one at Lower barn in the 1930s (fn. 85) and the other in the south-west at Shipton Downs Farm, near the Gloucester–Oxford road, in the 1950s. (fn. 86) In the north a farmhouse was built east of Hazleton grove in 1994 and 1995; the outbuildings to the north are older and include a barn erected on the rector's glebe in 1794. (fn. 87)

In 1826 the only building on the Hazleton side of the Gloucester–Oxford road was the turnpike keeper's house at the road junction at Puesdown. (fn. 88) By 1841, however, an inn had been built on the road. (fn. 89) It stood some way to the south-east, near the junction of the old London road, and became known as the Puesdown inn. (fn. 90) It was extended in the later 19th century and remained an inn in 1997.

Yanworth village is 2 km. west of the Foss way with its 12th-century church in a secluded position some way above the river Coln on the west side of the tributary valley. Although a cottage in Yanworth was described in 1355 as being at a castle (fn. 91) and a spur north-east of the church overlooking the side valley was known later as Castle hill (fn. 92) there is no direct evidence of a castle being built in Yanworth in historic times. The chaplain's or curate's house recorded next to the churchyard from the 14th century (fn. 93) was perhaps to the west on the site of a small building demolished in the early 20th century. (fn. 94) Other medieval buildings near the church may have included a large farm building which Winchcombe abbey extended by a bay c. 1420 (fn. 95) and a dwelling used as a church house in 1540. (fn. 96) In 1997 the buildings next to the church comprised a former farmhouse (Church Farmhouse) to the south and two stone barns and a cottage to the east. The former farmhouse, occupied as two dwellings, dates probably from the early 18th century and has been enlarged. The older barn, restored following a fire in 1986, (fn. 97) possibly dates from the rebuilding of an earlier barn in the late 17th century or the early 18th century; the fabric includes a pointed arch from a much older building. The other barn dates from the late 18th century. The cottage was described as new in 1923. (fn. 98)

The main part of the village stands higher up to the west along a lane running from east to west. The oldest buildings, the earliest dating from the 17th century, are at the east end and there are several house platforms among medieval remains lower down to the south. (fn. 99) In the early 19th century the village's upper part comprised a farmhouse and several cottages and farm buildings on the lane. (fn. 100) The farmhouse, on the south side, was a private house (Yanworth Farmhouse) in 1997; it dates from the late 17th century and was enlarged in the 18th century. Some early cottages have also survived but most dwellings date from the later 19th century, when the village, then part of the 3rd earl of Eldon's Stowell Park estate, (fn. 101) was enlarged. Among new cottages to the west were five pairs in a row north of the lane; the three easternmost pairs were apparently built in 1859 and the others soon afterwards. (fn. 102) A farmhouse built south of the lane and west of the old farmstead in 1870 (fn. 103) was known as the Laurels in the early 1880s (fn. 104) and as Yanworth House in 1997, when it was a private house. A schoolroom was erected at the east end of the village in 1874 and a reading room towards the west end in 1901. In 1962 a bungalow was built at the west end using stone from an abandoned cottage in Oaks bottom, (fn. 105) and in the mid 1960s two pairs of estate cottages were built at the east end, at the top of the lane down to the church. (fn. 106)

To the south-west below the village, the river Coln passes a house at the site of a mill recorded from 1086. (fn. 107) In the south-west corner of Yanworth a solitary cottage stood on the edge of Yanworth common next to a wood in Compton Abdale in 1811. (fn. 108) In the north a cottage built in Oaks bottom, south-east of Hill barn, (fn. 109) in 1858 was abandoned in the 1950s. (fn. 110) Another outlying cottage of the mid 19th century, in the valley on the eastern boundary adjoining Dean grove, (fn. 111) was evidently abandoned earlier. (fn. 112)

For many centuries Hazleton had no resident gentry but in the mid 19th century the Wallers, lords of the manor, made regular payments to support a schoolmaster in the village and to pro- vide coal at Christmas for the poorer inhabitants. (fn. 113) In the 1840s a friendly society in Hazleton had an annual celebration (fn. 114) and in 1879 one was meeting at the Puesdown inn. That society and its branch for younger people were dissolved in the mid 1890s (fn. 115) and another society met at the inn in 1910. (fn. 116) In the early 20th century the landowner J. E. McPherson founded an institute and reading room in the village; (fn. 117) its premises, in the south part of the village opposite the Priory, remained a reading room in the early 1930s. (fn. 118) In 1938 the former schoolroom near by became the parish hall (fn. 119) and in 1997 it was the village's principal meeting place. Yanworth also had no resident landowner but the influence of the owners of the Stowell Park estate, notably the 3rd earl of Eldon, was reflected in village life in the 19th and 20th centuries. (fn. 120) An institute and reading room built in 1901 (fn. 121) and enlarged, by the Hon. Samuel Vestey, in 1938 (fn. 122) became the village hall after the Second World War. In the late 1930s the former village schoolroom was the village hall. (fn. 123)

Several houses in Yanworth were ransacked during the civil disturbances following Edward IV's coronation in 1461. (fn. 124)

Manors and Other Estates.

The manor of HAZLETON had its origins in an estate held before the Conquest by Goda (or Godgifu), sister of Edward the Confessor and wife of Eustace, count of Boulogne. Goda died in 1057, and in 1086 the estate, extended at 10 hides, belonged, together with estates in Yanworth and Hawling, to Sigar of Chocques; William the Conqueror had exempted 3 hides in Hazleton from tax. (fn. 125) In the later 12th century the three estates, together with Sigar's estate at Gayton (Northants.), were held by the lords of Bethune, his descendants, who as hereditary advocates of the church of St. Vedast, Arras (Pas-de-Calais), were often styled advocates of Bethune. (fn. 126) Robert of Bethune, who granted the three Gloucestershire estates to his clerk, Walter of Hazleton, for life, (fn. 127) was assessed at 5 knights' fees for them in 1162. (fn. 128) He died in 1191 and his eldest son Robert c. 1194, (fn. 129) and Hazleton and presumably the advocate's other English estates were in the hands of the Crown as escheat. (fn. 130) William of Bethune, son of the elder Robert, was granted seisin of most of his father's English lands c. 1200 (fn. 131) and he granted the three Gloucestershire estates to Winchcombe abbey c. 1201 reserving a rent of £20. (fn. 132) He reduced the rent to £10 in 1208 and his son Daniel of Bethune reduced it to £9 in 1212. (fn. 133) Daniel's brother Robert of Bethune granted the rent, together with Gayton, to Robert of Guines c. 1242 and the latter quitclaimed it to Winchcombe abbey a few years later. (fn. 134) The abbey, to which Walter of Gayton quitclaimed land in Hazleton in the later 13th century, (fn. 135) was granted free warren on its demesne land in 1251 (fn. 136) and it retained Hazleton and Yanworth manors, comprising probably the whole parish, until the Dissolution. (fn. 137)

In 1541 Henry VIII granted the two manors to Thomas Culpepper the younger (fn. 138) but later that year took them in hand again on Culpepper's conviction and execution for adultery with his cousin, Queen Catherine Howard. (fn. 139) The King granted Hazleton manor to Richard Tracy in 1544 (fn. 140) but Culpepper's elder brother, also called Thomas, who under the grant of 1541 had a residual interest in the estate, recovered it in 1551. (fn. 141) The elder Thomas, of Bedgebury, in Goudhurst (Kent), was succeeded in 1558 by his son (Sir) Alexander (d. 1599), whose son and heir (Sir) Anthony (fn. 142) settled the manor c. 1614 probably on his son-in-law Henry Crispe (d. 1663) of Quex, in Birchington (Kent). (fn. 143) Under Sir Anthony and his father the manor had been leased to members of the Robins family. (fn. 144) By 1633 the manor was held by John Rogers (fn. 145) (d. 1639), presumably under the lease which his widow Sibyl (d. 1643) left to her son William Rogers (d. 1651). (fn. 146) In 1659 Henry Crispe settled the manor in reversion on Thomas Crispe, (fn. 147) his nephew, and in 1666 Thomas, then of Quex, granted it to his son-in-law Edwin Wyatt of Horton (Kent). In 1683 Edwin sold it to (Sir) William Bannister, (fn. 148) who later inherited a large freehold estate in Hazleton (fn. 149) and a manor in Turkdean. After Sir William's death in 1721 both manors were sold to Edmund Waller of Beaconsfield (Bucks.), (fn. 150) and after Edmund's death in 1771 Hazleton descended with his Farmington estate in the Waller family until 1900; (fn. 151) Maria, widow of the Revd. Harry Waller (d. 1824), had a life interest in land in Hazleton. (fn. 152) In 1900, when William Noel Waller sold the Hazleton land, Manor farm (608 a.) (fn. 153) was bought by G. L. F. Harter. (fn. 154) Harter, who bought the Salperton estate in the same year, (fn. 155) sold his Hazleton farmland in 1914 to the brothers Evan Thomas Hughes (d. 1915) of Ruthin (Denb.) and Samuel Hughes of Northop (Flints.). (fn. 156) Samuel died in 1961 (fn. 157) and his family, headed by Hugh Trevor Hughes, (fn. 158) remained owners of a large part of Hazleton in 1997.

At the sale of 1900 John Ewen McPherson bought Priory farm (742 a.) in Hazleton and Turkdean and a number of cottages. (fn. 159) McPherson, of Newcastle upon Tyne, sold the farm in 1910 to George Wood (fn. 160) (d. 1931), from whom it passed in turn to his wife Marian (d. 1942) and his son George (d. 1971). (fn. 161) After the latter's death about two thirds of the farm was divided between his daughters Marian, wife of David Tongue, and Mary Dun, wife of Leslie Ray (d. 1987). The remaining third, including the land in Turkdean, was acquired a little later by Mrs. Ray (d. 1986) and was sold by her daughter and successor Diana Ray to Mr. S. L. Winwood of Lower Dean Manor, Turkdean. (fn. 162) The glebe (c. 275 a.), owned by the Wood family from 1920, (fn. 163) was given to Mrs. Tongue before her father's death and, together with c. 75 a. acquired by her husband in the adjoining part of Turkdean, was owned in 1997 by her son Richard George Tongue. (fn. 164)

It does not appear that any owner of Hazleton manor maintained a residence there. Manor Farm, west of the parish church, may represent the site of Winchcombe abbey's farm buildings. (fn. 165)

Holdings by knight service at Hazleton included that of Robert Hall (de aula) (fl. 1275), (fn. 166) who was the tenant of Walter of Gayton until Walter quitclaimed the holding, together with Robert's service of a pair of spurs, to Winchcombe abbey. (fn. 167) Later Richard Hall, who held 5 yardlands 'of the fee of Gayton' from the abbey, and Walter Freeman of Hazleton, who held 4 yardlands from the abbey, were assessed for scutage. (fn. 168) Richard was succeeded by his son John, a minor, (fn. 169) who was presumably the John Hall holding two messuages, four cottages, and eleven yardlands freely from the abbey for a cash rent and a pair of spurs in 1355. (fn. 170) That estate descended, perhaps through William Hall (fl. 1466), (fn. 171) to Robert Hall, at whose death in 1505 13 yardlands held from the abbey by knight service passed to his son William, (fn. 172) and possibly to Thomas Hall, a landowner in the parish in 1522. (fn. 173) In 1540 the 13 yardlands and 4 messuages were held by Giles Bannister (fn. 174) of Apperley, in Deerhurst. Giles (d. 1543) was survived by his sons William, Thomas, and John, to the last of whom he left the reversion after six years of a tenement in Hazleton. (fn. 175) The same or another William Bannister (d. 1604), who bought a manor in Turkdean, (fn. 176) was succeeded in that manor and in a principal house and 10 yardlands in Hazleton by his son Thomas and left 4 yardlands in Hazleton with a house there called the Nether House to a younger son George. (fn. 177) Thomas (d. 1633) was succeeded by his brother Richard (fn. 178) (d. c. 1640), whose successor was his nephew William Bannister, (fn. 179) son and heir of George (d. 1637). (fn. 180) After William's death in 1685 his estate was evidently merged in Hazleton manor that his eldest surviving son William had bought in 1683. (fn. 181) The Halls' medieval residence was probably on the site of the earthworks on the south side of Hazleton village near the house called the Priory. (fn. 182) The location of the Nether House, apparently also known as Watkins House, (fn. 183) is not known; in 1672 one of the Bannisters was assessed for tax in Hazleton on only a single hearth. (fn. 184)

The manor of YANWORTH also originated as an estate held by Goda before the Conquest and by Sigar of Chocques in 1086, when William the Conqueror was said to have exempted three of its five hides from tax. (fn. 185) In the 1130s Sigar's descendant Reynold of Chocques granted Yanworth to Gloucester abbey and, perhaps slightly later, Ralph of Sudeley granted his manor of Yanworth to the abbey, which also claimed a rent of 20s. from Yanworth and Chedworth by the gift of Robert of Béthune. (fn. 186) As indicated above, the advocates of Béthune held Yanworth in the later 12th century and William of Béthune granted it, together with Hazleton and Hawling, to Winchcombe abbey c. 1201. William's grant reserved a rent of 20s. to Gloucester abbey (fn. 187) and it was paid out of Yanworth manor until 1320 when, as part of an exchange, Gloucester abbey quitclaimed it to Winchcombe abbey. (fn. 188) Winchcombe abbey received a number of other grants of land in Yanworth from the later 12th century, including land which Robert of Béthune had granted to John of Hazleton, the brother of Walter of Hazleton, and land held in the mid 13th century by Robert of Gayton. (fn. 189) The manor descended with Hazleton until 1544. (fn. 190) In that year the Crown granted Yanworth to Walter Earl, James Paget, and Thomas Stroud and, following Stroud's death, Earl and Paget sold it to William Bush of Northleach. (fn. 191) After Thomas Culpepper of Bedgebury recovered it from Bush in 1554, (fn. 192) Yanworth again descended with Hazleton (fn. 193) until Sir Anthony Culpepper sold it in 1609 to Thomas Lawrence of Cricklade (Wilts.). (fn. 194) In 1612 Thomas, together with his father William and brothers Robert and William, sold the manor to Sir Richard Grobham of Great Wishford (Wilts.). (fn. 195) From Sir Richard (d. 1629) it passed with Compton Abdale and Chedworth manors to his wife Margaret with reversion to a nephew George Grobham. (fn. 196) The manors descended to Sir Richard Howe (d. 1730), Bt., from whom they passed in turn to his wife Mary (d. 1735) and his kinsman John Howe, later Lord Chedworth, becoming part of the Stowell Park estate with which Yanworth then descended. (fn. 197) Lord Vestey of Stowell was virtually sole landowner in Yanworth in 1997.

There is little evidence that any owner of Yanworth manor had a manor house there. The site of the manor, granted under lease to a tenant in 1521, (fn. 198) may have included the house occupied in 1554 by William Bush's son Thomas. (fn. 199) From 1558 a branch of the Lawrence family lived in Yanworth as lessees of the manor place and demesne (fn. 200) and in 1672 one of its members was assessed for tax on three hearths there. (fn. 201)

Economic History.

Ten hides at Hazleton, in the home part of the parish, supported 13 ploughs in 1086. Three of the ploughs were on Sigar of Chocques's demesne, where there were also six servi, and the other ploughs were shared between a priest and 14 villani. A drop in the value of the land suggests that there had been a decline in agriculture over the previous twenty years. (fn. 202) In 1291 Winchcombe abbey had two ploughlands in demesne at Hazleton (fn. 203) and in 1535 its demesne was let at farm for £5. (fn. 204) From 1538 the farmer rented Hazleton grove for an additional 13s. 4d. (fn. 205)

The abbey's rental at Hazleton was 13s. 9d. in 1291 (fn. 206) and £2 16s. 2d. in 1355. (fn. 207) The figures suggest that part of the estate had been acquired after 1291 and added to the tenanted land. A free tenant surrendered his land to the abbey for a number of years in 1253 (fn. 208) and the Hall family's estate, one of two held by knight service from the abbey's manor in the late 13th century, had been formerly held from Walter of Gayton. (fn. 209) By 1355 the number of tenants and agricultural occupiers on the manor had declined. Of the 17 tenant estates several, having lapsed into the abbot's hands, had been granted, either in full or in part, to existing tenants. Of the ten tenants John Hall, apparently the sole freeholder, had an estate including 11 yardlands. The other estate were much smaller and were held for cash rents bearing little relationship to the size of the holdings; they comprised one estate with 3½ yardlands, seven with 2 yardlands, four with 1 yardland, and four cottage holdings. (fn. 210) In 1466 an estate with 3½ yardlands in Hazleton was held by William Nottingham, (fn. 211) a lawyer who acquired many estates in the county. (fn. 212) In 1540 the manor included, in addition to the estate formerly held by the Hall family, four copyholds comprising 7, 4, 4, and 3 yardlands respectively and owing cash rents and heriots in kind or cash. The total rent from the five tenants was £4 9s. (fn. 213) A yardland in Hazleton was reckoned in 1615 to comprise c. 40 a. in the open fields. (fn. 214)

Robert of Béthune included several ploughteams and corn stored at Hazleton in his grant of his Gloucestershire estates to Walter of Hazleton in the mid 12th century. (fn. 215) The corrody Winchcombe abbey awarded its bailiff at Hazleton in 1317 was based on corn and sheep husbandry (fn. 216) and the rector at that time had a sheephouse next to his manse. (fn. 217) Although several large flocks were kept in Hazleton in the mid 15th century, (fn. 218) sheep farming was perhaps not of prime importance in the parish in the late Middle Ages. In 1535 well over half of the rector's income came from tithes of corn and hay and only a small part from tithes of wool and lambs. (fn. 219) In the mid 1580s Richard Robins of Upton St. Leonards, the farmer of the manor, kept a flock in Hazleton during the winter. (fn. 220) In 1587 one Hazleton farmer's livestock included eight colonies of bees. (fn. 221)

Medieval open-field land in Hazleton presumably survived as part of the north and south fields which contained almost equal amounts of the rector's glebe in 1615. Those fields were on opposite sides of the village and the south field perhaps covered a larger area than the north field, which was further away from the village towards Salperton and Hampen. (fn. 222) Later field names indicate that the principal commons were on the downs in the far east of the parish. (fn. 223) After harvest the open fields served as common pastures for sheep and in the mid 15th century several tenants and other men, including in 1452 two from Turkdean, were presented for overburdening the fields with their flocks. (fn. 224) The open fields and downs were inclosed in 1764. The award, which also commuted the Hazleton tithes, was confirmed later by Act of Parliament and dealt with c. 1,211 a. of commonable land and c. 4 a. in two meadow closes. The bulk of the land went to Edmund Waller, with the rector receiving c. 275 a. and the parish clerk, the only other beneficiary, c. 1½ a. for land held ex officio. (fn. 225)

Following inclosure the greater part of the land, belonging to the Waller family, was divided between two farms held by the Minchin and Humphris families respectively. In 1810 those farms comprised c. 710 a. (later Priory farm), partly in Turkdean, and c. 540 a. (later Manor farm). (fn. 226) The other resident farmer employing labour in 1831 (fn. 227) occupied the glebe, just under 300 a., which in 1806 had been occupied by a member of the Humphris family. (fn. 228) In 1871 the sizes of the three farms remained virtually unchanged (fn. 229) but in 1881 Manor farm, which had passed recently to a member of the Minchin family, (fn. 230) comprised 830 a. and Priory farm 731 a. (fn. 231) The glebe was taken in hand in 1883 (fn. 232) and much of the rest of Hazleton was divided between three tenant farms in 1896. (fn. 233) In 1926, when 17 labourers were employed fulltime on the land, there were two large freehold farms, a tenant farm with less than 100 a., and two freehold farms with less than 20 a. each. (fn. 234) In the later 20th century Hazleton remained divided between several farms and in 1986 the two largest, both of them worked by their owners, each had over 247 a. (100 ha.) and two others over 99 a. (40 ha.). (fn. 235)

By the mid 1770s recent innovations in agriculture enabled Hazleton's farmers to gather good harvests from the exposed wolds and to keep large flocks as well as a few dairy and other cattle. (fn. 236) Land was devoted to growing corn and to cultivating roots for animal fodder (fn. 237) and in 1866, when the animals returned included 864 sheep, 156 cattle, and 22 pigs, (fn. 238) about half of the 1,295 a. under rotated crops was down to clover and grass, another 71 a. was fallow, and 78 a. was permanent pasture. (fn. 239) In the later 19th century and the early 20th the area of grassland increased at the expense of the arable and in 1926 881 a. and 239 a. in Hazleton were returned as permanent grassland and rough grazing respectively and only 107 a. as growing corn. Among the animals grazed in 1926 were 810 ewes and 285 cattle. The numbers of both beef and dairy cattle were greater than in 1896 but the number of pigs was much smaller than in 1896. In 1926 there was also small-scale commercial chicken farming in Hazleton. (fn. 240) Although much more land was devoted to cereal cultivation in the later 20th century, the rearing of sheep and of beef and dairy cattle remained important. (fn. 241)

In Yanworth in 1086 there were three ploughs, together with seven servi, on Sigar of Chocques's demesne and five hides also supported seven ploughs shared between 14 villani and two bordars. The value of Sigar's estate was less than it had been twenty years earlier. (fn. 242) Winchcombe abbey's demesne in Yanworth included two ploughlands in 1291 (fn. 243) and was farmed in the mid 1480s (fn. 244) and perhaps much earlier. (fn. 245) Under a lease of 1521, which reserved the Yanworth woods, the rent was increased from £6 13s. 4d. to £7 6s. 8d. and the farmer, William Simpson, was employed as keeper of the woods and warren. (fn. 246) In the 1550s William Lawrence of Minety (Wilts.) acquired a lease of the demesne at the increased rent (fn. 247) and later he and his successors also rented the Yanworth woods and Hazleton grove (fn. 248) and acquired copyhold land in Yanworth. (fn. 249) The Lawrences probably remained the principal farming family in Yanworth until the early 18th century. (fn. 250)

In 1291 the abbey's total rental in Yanworth was given as only 8s. 4d. (fn. 251) but at least one tenant held two yardlands at 12s. rent. (fn. 252) In 1355, when the rental was £10 5s. 11d., there were 17 tenants on the manor but their number had clearly declined for between them they held 29 estates. Among tenants holding more than one estate was John the knight and the free tenants included a priest who had a messuage and 8 a. for a rent of 2s. The customary estates held for cash rents and bedrips comprised one with 3 yardlands, seven with 2 yardlands, three with 1 yardland, and three with ½ yardland; the 2-yardland estates owed 12s. rent and six bedrips and one ½ yardland was held with a mill for 12s. rent and eight bedrips. Of the other estates two had 3 yardlands (of which one was held with 4 cottages) and four 2 yardlands; three of those with 2 yardlands owed 6s. 8d. rent. The smaller holdings included several cottages. Three tenants paid 2d. each for 'foreland', presumably the land most recently brought into cultivation. The customary tenants were expected to make hay in a meadow called Church mead. (fn. 253) The total rent from the Yanworth tenants, including 2s. from one in commutation of his bedrips, was £10 14s. 1d. in 1408. (fn. 254) In 1540 there were ten copyholders, of whom one had 8 yardlands, three had 6 yardlands each, and one had 5 yardlands. Together they owed cash rents totalling £9 10s. 1d. and one yardlander also paid 10s. a year for a quarry he farmed as a tenant at will. (fn. 255) A yardland in Yanworth may have been half the size of that in Hazleton. (fn. 256)

The name Yanworth, in use probably before 1066, might indicate a lambing enclosure. (fn. 257) A sheep farmer from Bourton-on-the-Water had land there in 1220 (fn. 258) and a shepherd lived there in 1381. (fn. 259) In the early 15th century the greater part of Winchcombe abbey's income from Yanworth derived from rents, court profits, and wood sales. The abbey clearly had little direct involvement in farming for it received a substantial amount of corn as a fixed payment or rent and in 1421 it had receipts from grants, presumably leases, of four meadows, namely Church, West, and Edric's meads and Long Acre. The few sheep taken as heriots or strays were sent to the abbey's master shepherd, sometimes to Sherborne. (fn. 260) In 1400 the Yanworth manor court ordered the rebuilding of a sheephouse that had been pulled down and in 1466 a tenant was presented for having failed to repair his sheephouse. (fn. 261) In the early 16th century corn provided the bulk of the rector's income from tithes in Yanworth. (fn. 262)

Yanworth had a two-field system in 1222 with north and south fields; the latter touched or crossed a ridgeway, which presumably ran on the high wolds near the village. (fn. 263) In 1457, in an agreement between the lords of Yanworth and Stowell, Winchcombe abbey gave up 103 a. of arable and meadow (part of its manor of Yanworth) by the Foss way in a field called Southfield Nevylle in exchange for 63¾ a. of more fertile land in Stowell's north field. The agreement also suggests the termination of shared commoning arrangements as the parties mutually released their claims to intercommoning rights in the two manors. (fn. 264) In the early 15th century the abbey's tenants sometimes ran strangers' sheep with their own and overburdened the commons. (fn. 265) In the 16th and 17th centuries there was open-field land in the north-eastern corner of Yanworth and south of the village and it served after the harvest as common pasture for sheep. (fn. 266) In 1705 the open fields were described as north and west fields, and Yanworth common, in the south-western corner above the Coln, was a cow common. (fn. 267) A later field name indicates that there was a horse common in Oaks bottom. (fn. 268) Yanworth retained c. 600 a. of open-field and common land in the mid 18th century (fn. 269) and its inclosure by the early 19th century was presumably a private undertaking for one of the Lords Chedworth. (fn. 270)

By the early 19th century most of Yanworth belonged to one or other of two of the farms on the Stowell Park estate. (fn. 271) Known in 1811 as Lower (later Church) farm and Upper (later Yanworth) farm, (fn. 272) they comprised 700 a. and 500 a. in Yanworth and adjoining parishes in 1851 when they were occupied respectively by Thomas Walker and Joseph Powell. (fn. 273) A third resident farmer employing labour in 1831 (fn. 274) presumably was one of the Brunsdon family, who farmed over 150 a. from Yanworth mill in the mid 19th century. (fn. 275) In 1881 the miller farmed 250 a. (fn. 276) By the end of the century all the farmland in Yanworth had been taken in hand and was managed as part of two separate farms. (fn. 277) The Stowell Park estate, which in 1926 employed 39 men from Yanworth as farmworkers, (fn. 278) continued to work the land as part of two farms throughout the 1930s, (fn. 279) but from the mid 20th century it included the land in a single large unit, which at the end of the century was managed from an office in Yanworth village and farmed from buildings in Stowell. (fn. 280)

In the early 19th century the Yanworth farms grew barley, wheat, and oats and cultivated roots for animal fodder. (fn. 281) In 1866 858 a. was planted with crops, less than half of it with corn, and 125 a. was permanent pasture (fn. 282) and at that time there were enough sheep to employ several shepherds. (fn. 283) In the later 19th century and the early 20th the area of grassland increased at the expense of the arable and in 1926 754 a. was returned as permanent grassland and 305 a. as growing corn. Among the animals returned in 1926 were 462 ewes and 100 cattle. (fn. 284)

Hazleton manor once had a water mill, which a Yanworth miller held for life from 1453. (fn. 285) The mill, in disrepair in 1466, (fn. 286) was presumably east of the village, near the site of the later Lower barn, where the remains of channels and a pond were visible in 1997. A windmill was built on the north side of the village as part of Manor farm after 1826 (fn. 287) and several millers were recorded in Hazleton in the 1840s and 1850s. (fn. 288) The windmill went out of use before 1883 (fn. 289) but the farmer retained a water mill, the location of which is unknown, in the later 1880s. (fn. 290)

In Yanworth the mill attached to Sigar of Chocques's estate in 1086 (fn. 291) and the mill recorded there from 1222 (fn. 292) were presumably south-west of the village beside the road to Chedworth where a mill operated next to the river Coln in later centuries. (fn. 293) In 1355 the miller, John Stockslade, probably derived his living mainly from farming, for his estate included two yardlands, besides a customary half yardland annexed to the mill and another half yardland added for its improvement; (fn. 294) the holding of two yardlands was granted to another tenant in 1367. (fn. 295) In 1540 the mill and an adjoining close formed a copyhold estate, the reversion of which belonged to William Simpson, (fn. 296) and in 1608 the miller was Richard Simpson. (fn. 297) Presumably always a corn mill, it remained part of the manor and by 1802 and until the 1870s it was worked by the Brunsdon family, who were also farmers. (fn. 298) Milling finally ceased there in the early 20th century. (fn. 299) The mill, which remained standing in 1997, was apparently rebuilt in the early 19th century and the adjoining house was enlarged in the later 19th century.

Stone has been quarried at various places in Hazleton. (fn. 300) In 1615 parts of the south field were called quar furlong and mortar pit furlong (fn. 301) and in 1883 a farmhouse was rebuilt with stone quarried on its land. (fn. 302) In the later 20th century there was an open quarry on the north side of the village; it closed several years before 1997. None of Hazleton's residents listed in 1608 was identified as a tradesman or craftsman (fn. 303) and in the early 19th century only one or two families depended chiefly on trade or crafts for a livelihood. (fn. 304) In the 1820s residents included a corn dealer, two masons, and a baker (fn. 305) and in the mid 19th century several other village trades, including that of blacksmith, were practised. (fn. 306) The Puesdown inn, the keeper of which traded also as a carpenter in 1851, (fn. 307) had by 1856 been taken over by the village blacksmith, William Cove, and his family were in business there as carriers and coal merchants in the late 19th century and the early 20th. (fn. 308) George Wheeler was village blacksmith in 1871 (fn. 309) and his family operated the smithy until the early 20th century; (fn. 310) it had closed by the early 1930s. (fn. 311) There was a village shop in 1835 (fn. 312) and the Wheeler family ran it by the end of the century. The village had a post office in 1870 and until at least the Second World War. (fn. 313) In the later 20th century Cleanacres, an Andoversford firm dealing in agricultural sprays, built a small factory in the south-west of Hazleton, next to Shipton Downs Farm, for the production of spraying machinery. The factory employed people from outside Hazleton in 1997. (fn. 314)

In the mid 13th century one resident landowner in Yanworth was named Nicholas Merchant. (fn. 315) None of the Yanworth residents named in 1608 was, with the exception of the miller, identified as a tradesman or craftsman (fn. 316) and in the early 19th century only one or two families depended chiefly on trade or crafts for a livelihood. (fn. 317) A carter and a carpenter were recorded in the later 1820s. (fn. 318) A malthouse established in the village before 1811 (fn. 319) was perhaps in operation in 1863. In 1878 one resident was a watchmaker. (fn. 320) Yanworth had a village shop in 1863 and a post office in 1870; it retained both until at least the Second World War. (fn. 321)

Buildings erected in Yanworth by Winchcombe abbey in the early 15th century evidently used roofing slates produced elsewhere on the Cotswolds. (fn. 322) A quarry rented for 10s. on the eve of the Dissolution (fn. 323) and in the mid 1540s (fn. 324) was presumably on Yanworth common, (fn. 325) where there were abandoned as well as newer workings in the late 19th century (fn. 326) and where quarrying continued after the First World War. (fn. 327) West of the village a field was known as the clay pits in the early 19th century (fn. 328) and there was an old limekiln near by in the late 19th century. (fn. 329) The woods near Yanworth gave employment to several men in the later 19th century (fn. 330) and a head forester was among Stowell Park estate employees at Yanworth in the later 20th century. (fn. 331) An estate yard established by the mid 19th century on the west side of Yanworth next to the woods and the river (fn. 332) included a joinery. (fn. 333) Saw mills operated there after the Second World War (fn. 334) and timber for fencing and firewood and Christmas trees were sold there in 1997.

Local Government.

By an agreement made with Winchcombe abbey in 1249 Cirencester abbey, as lord of Bradley hundred, held view of frankpledge once a year in Hazleton and Yanworth and had jurisdiction over thieves apprehended in both places. The view, the profits of which belonged to Winchcombe abbey, (fn. 335) was held at Martinmas and in the later 14th century and the early 15th perhaps only at Yanworth, where Cirencester abbey's steward was given overnight hospitality. (fn. 336) By the same agreement all other pleas in Hazleton and Yanworth, including bloodshed and hue and cry but excepting Crown pleas, belonged to Winchcombe abbey. (fn. 337) A few court rolls covering the period 1341–1466 show that Winchcombe abbey held courts in Hazleton and Yanworth generally on the same day but sometimes in one and not the other, and usually once or twice a year but not at any regular time. Although the rector was impleaded in the Hazleton court in 1358 for a variety of causes, the courts' business was usually confined to tenurial and agrarian matters and perhaps the enforcement of the assize of ale. (fn. 338) A book recording courts of survey held for Hazleton and Yanworth manors on consecutive days in 1540 also survives. (fn. 339)

In 1358 Hazleton had three churchwardens (procuratores ecclesie). (fn. 340) Later two churchwardens were appointed for Hazleton (fn. 341) and, by 1540, two for Yanworth, (fn. 342) but by the late 17th century the two churches each had only one warden. (fn. 343) Yanworth, which was regarded as a separate parish for poor-law purposes in 1676, (fn. 344) had its own constable in 1715. (fn. 345) No records of parish government are known to have survived but it was because Hazleton and Yanworth each had its own overseers of the poor and poor rates that they eventually became separate civil parishes. (fn. 346) Between 1776 and 1803 expenditure on poor relief in Yanworth more than quadrupled to £182, while in Hazleton, where less was spent, the rate of increase was even greater. In Yanworth 27 people received regular relief and 23 occasional relief in 1803. In Hazleton 12 received regular relief and 2 occasional relief. (fn. 347) In 1813, although fewer people were receiving regular help, the cost of relief was greater but in the next two years it fell, in Yanworth from £231 to £123 and in Hazleton from £154 to £118. (fn. 348) In 1825 expenditure on relief in Yanworth was £148 and in Hazleton £72 and the greater cost continued to be in Yanworth until 1834 when there it was £91 and in Hazleton £106. (fn. 349) Hazleton and Yanworth were both included in Northleach poor-law union in 1836 (fn. 350) and they were part of Northleach rural district from 1895 (fn. 351) and of Cotswold district from 1974.

Churches.

Hazleton had a priest in 1086 (fn. 352) and the fabric of the parish church dates from the 12th century. The advowson was part of the estate acquired by the advocates of Béthune and was retained by them until 1217 or 1218 when Daniel of Béthune granted it to Winchcombe abbey. (fn. 353) The living, recorded as a rectory from 1291, (fn. 354) remained in the gift of the abbey, (fn. 355) and in 1546 the first vacancy following the abbey's dissolution was filled by patrons under a grant for one turn by the abbey. (fn. 356) The Crown, which resumed the advowson after granting it to Thomas Seymour, Lord Seymour, in 1547, (fn. 357) filled later vacancies and the Lord Chancellor acted on its behalf in the mid 18th century and later. (fn. 358) From 1938, when Hazleton was united with Compton Abdale, the Lord Chancellor and the dean and chapter of Bristol cathedral had alternate rights of presentation (fn. 359) and 1952 the Lord Chancellor became sole patron of the united benefice. (fn. 360) As a result of later reorganizations Hazleton was united with Compton and Salperton from 1953, (fn. 361) with Salperton and Shipton Oliffe with Shipton Solers from 1962, (fn. 362) and with Compton and Withington from 1975. (fn. 363) In 1997, when a priest-in-charge served Hazleton from Withington, the Lord Chancellor had the right to present at one in every three vacancies in the united benefice and the bishop had the other turns. (fn. 364)

Yanworth church was built in the 12th century presumably as a chapel to Hazleton church for it was not a separate living in 1217 (fn. 365) and it was dependent on Hazleton in 1299. (fn. 366) In the early 14th century it had its own chaplain, (fn. 367) one of a succession of clergy whom, according to a judgement of 1366, the rectors of Hazleton had long appointed to perform all services except burials at Yanworth. (fn. 368) Although its church acquired burial rights before 1546 (fn. 369) and a man was described as the parish priest of Yanworth in 1413, (fn. 370) Yanworth remained a chapelry of Hazleton (fn. 371) until 1938 when it became a chapelry of Hampnett. (fn. 372) In 1964 Yanworth, together with Stowell, was made an ecclesiastical parish in a united benefice including Chedworth. (fn. 373) In 1975 Coln Rogers and Coln St. Dennis were added to the united benefice with the Lord Chancellor sharing its advowson in alternation with the dean and chapter of Gloucester and Queen's College, Oxford. (fn. 374) By 1997, when a priest-incharge served Yanworth from Chedworth, the Lord Chancellor had acquired the dean and chapter's turn. (fn. 375)

In 1291 Hazleton church was valued at £5 13s. 4d. (fn. 376) A judgement of 1299, given papal sanction in 1301, required the rector to cede the demesne tithes of Hazleton and Yanworth, together with tithes of cattle bred there and of newly broken land, to Winchcombe abbey. (fn. 377) In 1313 the bishop, acting as arbiter between rector and abbey, confirmed to the rector most of his land (of which a ploughland was said to have been held only on sufferance from the abbey), the houses occupied by himself and the Yanworth chaplain, the same common rights in the parish as other landholders, and payments arising from his duties in the church and its chapel, and awarded him some of the tenants' tithes, including those of wool, lambs, and hay. The abbey, which under the bishop's award had the remainder of the rector's land and the tenants' corn tithes, (fn. 378) was later confirmed in possession of the demesne tithes several times. (fn. 379)

The rector's glebe included 3 yardlands in the Hazleton open fields and c. 12 a. in the Yanworth fields in the late 16th century; (fn. 380) his share of the Hazleton fields was measured at 119 a. in 1615 (fn. 381) and at 82 a. on the eve of inclosure in 1764. (fn. 382) In 1615 a farm in Hazleton and another in Yanworth were exempt from corn, hay, and wood tithes (fn. 383) and later they paid yearly moduses of £4 and £2 2s. 6d. respectively for their small tithes. (fn. 384) The Hazleton tithes were commuted for land at inclosure in 1764, after which the glebe had 289 a. in Hazleton and 12 a. in Yanworth. The rector in the late 18th century and the early 19th repeatedly refused to accept the Yanworth modus for small tithes and he greatly increased the living's value. (fn. 385) The Yanworth tithes were commuted for a corn rent charge of £254 in 1840. (fn. 386) The benefice, which was farmed for £15 6s. 8d. in the early 16th century, (fn. 387) was valued at £19 5s. 4d. clear in 1535, (fn. 388) £76 in 1650, (fn. 389) and £100 in the early 18th century (fn. 390) and was said to be worth c. £500 in 1856. (fn. 391)

The rector's dwelling in 1313 (fn. 392) presumably stood south of Hazleton churchyard on the site of the later rectory house, (fn. 393) a two- and threestoreyed rubble building with a stone-slate roof and a three-gabled, ashlar-faced south front of several dates. In 1615 the house was described as having eight bays, (fn. 394) about four of which may survive as the north range of the present rectangular main block; the north-west room has a moulded bridging beam and a north stair-tower. Of the two gabled bays forming the main block's south range, the western may be contemporary with the north range and the eastern, which is larger and has mullioned and transomed windows, may have been added in the later 17th century, perhaps after 1672 when the rector was assessed on four hearths. (fn. 395) The west service wing, of one and a half storeys, probably dates from the 18th century, when the house became a farmhouse; (fn. 396) plain mullions were inserted in some windows and a new barn was built to the west. In the early 1840s the rector H. P. Jones added a bay in 17th-century style on the east as accommodation for his curate. (fn. 397) Later the curate's door, on the east, became the principal entrance to the farmhouse, a through passage was made and a new staircase inserted, and the south door in the central bay was blocked.

In 1861 the rector W. H. Stanton built himself a much larger residence, in a Tudor style to designs by Medland and Maberly, on the west side of Hazleton village. (fn. 398) That house was sold in 1938 following the union of Hazleton with Compton Abdale. The old rectory house had been sold in 1920 together with most of the glebe. (fn. 399)

A house occupied by the Yanworth chaplain in 1313 (fn. 400) had been built by the rector of Hazleton and stood next to Yanworth churchyard. (fn. 401) It was represented by two bays of building on the glebe in the late 16th century (fn. 402) and a small cottage for which the rector was exempted from hearth tax in 1672. (fn. 403) The cottage, called the parsonage house in 1705, (fn. 404) remained part of the glebe in the 19th century. (fn. 405)

In 1332 John of Aston acquired the rectory and he was dispensed to be non-resident for two years; (fn. 406) in 1337 he was licensed for a year to study letters in England. (fn. 407) Henry Benn, rector in 1357, became embroiled in several disputes, (fn. 408) including one with Winchcombe abbey over his duty to appoint the Yanworth chaplain and maintain the chancel at Yanworth, obligations that were confirmed by the bishop's official in 1366. (fn. 409) In 1425 John Walcote, a lay pastor of Hazleton, was accused of Lollardism but, after lengthy interrogation in Winchcombe church, he abjured heretical beliefs. (fn. 410)

Walter Turbot, rector of Hazleton from 1546, (fn. 411) was a former monk of Winchcombe abbey; (fn. 412) he later also served Stowell and in 1564 was dispensed to hold two benefices. In 1572 he was failing to preach quarterly sermons at Hazleton, (fn. 413) where his successor, another pluralist, (fn. 414) also neglected to preach and was ordered early in 1577 to give a sermon before Lady Day. (fn. 415) The next rector was entirely unlearned and was said in 1584 to be guilty of simony; (fn. 416) his successor was a graduate and a preacher. (fn. 417) The chaplains or curates paid by the rectors to serve Yanworth (fn. 418) presumably included the minister who exhibited indifferent knowledge on matters of doctrine and Scripture in 1551. (fn. 419) In 1576 the curate, who also served Compton Abdale, (fn. 420) was presented for failing to hold services at proper times and for not reading the homilies and teaching the catechism. (fn. 421) The curate in 1593 was a sufficient scholar but not a preacher. (fn. 422)

Thomas Whittington, rector of Hazleton from 1604, (fn. 423) was also rector of Great Rissington (fn. 424) and he employed curates at Hazleton and Yanworth. (fn. 425) In the 1640s both rectories were sequestered for Whittington's support of the royalist cause (fn. 426) and in 1650 Bartholomew Dobson, a preaching minister, served Hazleton. (fn. 427) Dobson had been ejected by 1654, when John Dunce or Wolgrave was presented by the Lord Protector, (fn. 428) but he regained the living after the Restoration. (fn. 429) The minister serv- ing Yanworth had been ejected probably along with Dunce. (fn. 430) Under Charles Seward, rector 1675–1716, Hazleton and Yanworth were served in succession by father and son Thomas and Stephen Brice, (fn. 431) assistant masters of Northleach grammar school; (fn. 432) Thomas was also rector of Church Lench (Worcs.) and Stephen was later stripped of his teaching post for neglect of his duties and constant drunkenness. (fn. 433) Successive non-resident rectors from 1727 usually employed one curate for both churches (fn. 434) and in the 1740s the Sunday service at Hazleton, and presumably Yanworth, was alternately in the morning and the afternoon. (fn. 435) Between 1750 and 1784 the rector was John Rawlins, a schoolmaster in Evesham (Worcs.). (fn. 436) James Preedy, rector 1785–93, was living at St. Albans (Herts.) in 1786. (fn. 437) His successor Harry Waller, the rector of Farmington, (fn. 438) served Hazleton church in person in the early 19th century (fn. 439) and became the principal landowner there. After his death in 1824 (fn. 440) Hazleton rectory went to his last curate at Yanworth, who continued to serve Yanworth in person from Chedworth and later from Rendcomb. (fn. 441) Henry Prowse Jones held Hazleton in plurality with Edgeworth from 1840. William Henry Stanton, his successor at Hazleton in 1860, was resident (fn. 442) and remained rector until 1910. (fn. 443)

Hazleton parish church, which is dedicated to ST. ANDREW, (fn. 444) has a chancel, a nave with north aisle and south porch, and a west tower. The chancel and nave survive from the 12thcentury church and are divided by an arch of two orders with chevron ornament on responds with scallop capitals. Twelfth-century shafts with scallop capitals in the eastern corners of the chancel may have once supported a vault. A 12th-century corbel head has been reset outside on the chancel north wall. The south doorway also has chevron ornament and scallop capitals. The porch was added in the 14th century. The tower was added in the 15th century and has a blocked west doorway with casement and roll mouldings and carved spandrels. Its Gothicstyle tracery probably dates from c. 1670 when, ten years after two of its four bells had been taken down to prevent its collapse, the tower was rebuilt. In 1722 surplus funds were assigned for paving the church and making new doors, pews, and wainscoting. (fn. 445) Poor lighting was a matter of concern in 1807. (fn. 446)

In 1866 the church was extensively restored and enlarged by the addition of the two-bayed aisle, all to designs by the firm of Medland, Maberly, and Medland. (fn. 447) The north windows of the aisle have deep gables which penetrate its lean-to roof internally and its end walls both contain re-used cusped lancets, possibly from the former north wall. The chancel fenestration was evidently renewed at the same time.

New fittings introduced in 1866 included wooden pews and a circular pulpit of Painswick stone. (fn. 448) Among the older fittings retained is a large 13th-century octagonal font with blind arcading. The sill of the porch's east window (now blocked) is formed of part of a slab decorated with a foliated cross. There are few monuments inside the church, that to the Revd. Bartholomew Dobson (d. 1670) having been reset outside on the chancel south wall. (fn. 449) Several windows contain memorial glass, the earliest installed during the restoration of 1866. (fn. 450) Two bells, including the sanctus, were rehung in the tower c. 1670 and the other two remained in the church in 1721 when a faculty was obtained for replacing those in the tower. (fn. 451) One bell in the tower in the late 20th century was cast by Abraham Rudhall in 1721 and the other, the sanctus, was cast by Thomas Mears in 1840. (fn. 452) In 1576 the church's chalice was replaced by a new cup and cover. In 1708 the cup and cover were refashioned (fn. 453) and in 1866 they were converted as a chalice and paten. (fn. 454) A small lead chalice possibly of the 11th or 12th century was found in a grave in the churchyard before 1914. (fn. 455) In the churchyard, south of the tower are the remains of a medieval stone coffin and to the west are small groups of richly carved tombchests and headstones, most of them of the 17th and 18th centuries; an earlier tomb is capped by a thick stone displaying a cross on a stepped base. The parish registers survive from 1597 but are incomplete before the 18th century. (fn. 456)

Yanworth church bore a dedication to ST. MICHAEL in 1743; (fn. 457) it, or a chantry in it, may have been dedicated to St. Mary in 1355. (fn. 458) The church is built of finely jointed ashlar and comprises a chancel and a nave with north transept or chapel, south porch, and small west tower. A continuous moulded plinth confirms that the transept was part of the original late 12th-century plan and the north walls of the chancel, transept, and nave retain round-headed windows. The 12th-century south doorway has chevron mould- ing, keeled shafts, and carved capitals. The simple chamfered doorway in the north wall of the nave has been blocked, as has a priests' doorway in the south wall of the chancel. The chancel arch, which has a billeted hoodmould, is in a 12th-century style but is largely late 19th-century work. The transept arch was rebuilt in the 14th century or perhaps in the 15th century when several alterations were undertaken. As parts of that work the nave and transept were reroofed, a parapet was erected, the tower was remodelled, or perhaps inserted in the west end of the nave, and new windows were placed in the nave west wall and the transept east and west walls. The upper part of the tower and windows on the south side of the nave appear to have been altered in the early 18th century.

In 1899 the 3rd earl of Eldon had the church restored at his own expense to designs by C. Hodgson Fowler of Durham. During that work, carried out by the earl's workmen and using stone from his estate, the church was reroofed and the east window replaced. Part of the transept was screened off to form a vestry and the chancel screen and other wooden fittings, including a new pulpit and pews, were installed. (fn. 459)

The church retains its 12th-century font, which has cable moulding around the rim and stands on a 19th-century base. The communion rails date from the early 17th century. The walls at the west end of the nave display traces of postReformation decoration revealed during the restoration of 1899. (fn. 460) Most of the windows in the eastern half of the church contain patterns formed by fragments of coloured glass, some of it medieval. The head of an early medieval cross is kept in the church (on a window sill in the transept in 1997). The only wall monument in the church dates from the later 19th century. Outside, the chancel south wall displays two small memorial plaques of the mid 18th century. The two bells were cast by Abraham Rudhall in 1713 (fn. 461) and the plate includes a chalice and paten made, and acquired by the church, in 1721. (fn. 462) The surviving church registers begin in 1695. (fn. 463)

Nonconformity.

A single nonconformist was recorded in Hazleton and Yanworth in 1676. (fn. 464) No other mention of nonconformity in either village has been found before 1835 when a group led by James Smith, a Baptist minister in Cheltenham, (fn. 465) registered a house in Hazleton as its place of worship. (fn. 466) That meeting was evidently short lived and missions to Hazleton by Wesleyan Methodists in the mid 1840s and by the Northleach Congregational church in the late 1850s failed to take root. (fn. 467)

Education.

A Sunday school had been established in Hazleton by 1818 with the support of the principal residents. (fn. 468) In 1833, when it taught 40 children, Hazleton also had a day school which taught c. 11 children at their parents' expense. (fn. 469) The Sunday school, which affiliated to the National Society c. 1837, (fn. 470) received a subscription from the non-resident rector in 1841. (fn. 471) In 1847, when it was held in the church, it taught 31 children and a dame school supported partly by subscriptions taught 10 children on Sundays as well as weekdays. (fn. 472) In 1851 the wife of an agricultural labourer was a schoolmistress and in 1861 the wife of a gardener had the same occupation. (fn. 473) From 1862 W. H. Stanton, the rector, ran a day school and the Sunday school with the help of voluntary contributions and occasional grants from the National Society, and in 1864 H. E. Waller provided a schoolroom. The day school had an average attendance of 17 in 1875, (fn. 474) and mixed and infants classes were held in the schoolroom, the loft of a coach house at Manor Farm, in the late 1870s and early 1880s. (fn. 475) A larger schoolroom, designed by James Medland in partnership with his son (fn. 476) and built on land in the south of the village given by Edmund Waller, (fn. 477) opened in 1885. Known as Hazleton National (later C. of E.) school, the day school had an average attendance of 30 in 1885 but it remained small and its teacher rarely remained in post for more than two or three years. (fn. 478) Attendance averaged 16 in 1904 (fn. 479) and 25 in 1910 (fn. 480) and there were only 9 children on the roll in 1914. (fn. 481) The school closed in 1916. (fn. 482) The schoolroom reopened in 1938 as a Sunday schoolroom and parish hall and in 1954 the parochial church council bought it. (fn. 483)

Yanworth had a Sunday school in 1825. (fn. 484) It taught 31 children in 1833, when the teacher's salary was paid by the lord of the manor, Lord Stowell, and books were supplied by the rector, (fn. 485) and 15 children in 1847. (fn. 486) There was probably a dame school in the village in 1851. (fn. 487) A day school recorded from 1863 (fn. 488) was run together with the Sunday school by the Revd. W. H. Stanton. (fn. 489) Re-established in 1875 (fn. 490) in a new schoolroom built behind a schoolhouse (fn. 491) by the 3rd earl of Eldon, the day school was known as Yanworth National school and was supported principally by voluntary contributions. The pupils, of whom there were c. 20 on the roll in 1876, (fn. 492) included children from Stowell. (fn. 493) The average attendance was 30 in 1885 (fn. 494) and almost the same in 1904 (fn. 495) and fell from 41 in 1910 to 27 in 1922. (fn. 496) The school closed in 1928 (fn. 497) and the schoolroom served for a few years as a village hall. (fn. 498)

Charities for the Poor.

None known.