Norwood, including Southall: Manors

MANORS.

In 1212 William of Southall (de Suhalle) held a knight's fee in Southall of the Archbishop of Canterbury. (fn. 1) This was probably the origin of the manor of SOUTHALL. Alice of Southall conveyed some property in 1223 (fn. 2) and in 1243 she paid scutage on a knight's fee in Hayes after a dispute over payment with the archbishop's bailiff at Harrow. (fn. 3) Harrow, Hayes, and other archiepiscopal manors were frequently organized as one unit. (fn. 4) In 1244 Alice conveyed her fee to William of Cranford, although she retained a life interest. (fn. 5) In 1245 and 1246 William acquired other land from Thomas of Newark and Matthew de la Wyke, (fn. 6) and in 1247 conveyed 70 a. in Southall to Thomas de Castre, who had bought other property in Southall in the same year. (fn. 7) Thomas sold a house, about 76 a., and 49s. rent in Southall to Robert Maynard in 1250. (fn. 8) This property probably passed by 1262 to Lawrence del Brok or Brook, who held at least 2 carucates in Southall which were to pass after his death to William del Brok. (fn. 9) The manor of Southall is first mentioned eo nomine in a lease of 1319 when it was the property of Roger, son of William del Brok. (fn. 10) In 1324 Roger del Brok conveyed the manor to John de Stonore, subject to a life interest granted by Roger de Bloxham (fn. 11) in 1319. Stonore evidently disposed of his interest to Bloxham, as in 1325 the succession to the manor was determined to fall to John and Robert, the sons of John de Bloxham. (fn. 12) In 1336 William, the son of Robert Hykeman of Bloxham (Oxon.), probably the Robert de Bloxham of 1325, granted all his rights in the manor of Southall to John Charlton, a London merchant. (fn. 13) In 1339 Thomas de Bloxham, a clerk, conveyed his interest in the manor to John Charlton, reserving a house and 26 a. (fn. 14) Robert de Bereford, son of John de Bloxham, finally granted the manor to Charlton in 1344. (fn. 15) Associated with Charlton in these and subsequent conveyances was Nicholas Shorediche, who had married Charlton's daughter Juette. Their heirs were to succeed, failing any issue to Charlton. (fn. 16) In 1361 Southall manor was in the hands of Sir Richard de Stanley and his wife Juette, who was almost certainly the widow of Nicholas Shorediche. At the same date members of a Bloxham family were still renouncing some rights in the manor. (fn. 17)

A grant of the manor of Southall, together with the manor of Poplar and lands in Cambridgeshire, in 1368 by Sir William Pulteneye to Nicholas de Louthe and 6 others (fn. 18) appears to have been a settlement of some kind, as in 1433 Robert and Margaret Shorediche were still in possession of the manor. (fn. 19) It was finally sold by Robert Shorediche in 1496 to Edward Cheeseman (d. 1510). The estate was then confirmed by Robert's son George Shorediche to Robert, son of Edward Cheeseman. (fn. 20) A quarter part of the manor appears to have been alienated, as in 1519 Elizabeth Godstone conveyed it without licence to John Makin, (fn. 21) but in 1547 Robert Cheeseman died holding both the manor of Southall and that of Norwood, which together passed to his daughter Anne and her husband Francis Chamberlain. (fn. 22)

Practically nothing is known of the earlier history of the manor of NORWOOD. It is first mentioned in 1481 when John Peke, Master of the London Ironmongers' Company, held a court for Norwood. In 1484 Thomas Grafton and others held a court for the manor and when Edward Cheeseman died in 1510 he was seised of the estate. (fn. 23) Robert Cheeseman held it at his death in 1547 when it passed with Southall to Anne and Francis Chamberlain, and thereafter, save on the death of Anne, Lady Dacre, (fn. 24) it descended with Southall.

In 1547 both manors were held from Sir Edward North and his manor of Hayes by Anne and Francis Chamberlain. (fn. 25) Their son, Robert Chamberlain, sold the manors in 1578 to Gregory Fiennes, Lord Dacre, and his wife Anne. (fn. 26) Dacre died in 1594 and his widow in the following year, when 38 a. of Norwood were sold to Francis Awsiter of Southall by Anne's executors. (fn. 27) In 1602 they sold the manor of Norwood to Awsiter, and two months later he bought the manor of Southall from Gregory's sister and heir Margaret, Lady Dacre, and her husband Sampson Leonard. (fn. 28) Francis died in 1627 and was succeeded by his son Richard Awsiter. The manor was then said to be held of the manor of Dudley, Lord North, in Harrow. (fn. 29) The Awsiter family held the manors until 1754 when John Awsiter, who was in financial difficulties, sold both of them to Agatha Child of Osterley, the widow of Samuel Child. (fn. 30) In 1757 Agatha settled them on her son Francis Child, (fn. 31) on whose death they passed to Robert Child. Thereafter the descent of both manors follows that of Hayes manor, which passed in turn to the Earl of Jersey and the families of Blencowe and Mills. (fn. 32)

The manor-house on Southall Green was built or rebuilt by Richard Awsiter in 1587. The house of this date is a timber-framed structure consisting of a central hall range of two stories flanked by gabled cross-wings of unequal width. Projecting from the hall range on the entrance or west front are a twostoried porch and a two-storied bay window, both surmounted by gables. The front is of close-studded timbering, much restored. A north-east wing was added to the house in the early 17th century and part of its north front with twin gables and restored decorative framing can still be recognized. This wing was extended westward in the 18th century, the extension being later faced with imitation timbering. There are many 19th- and 20th-century alterations to the house, particularly at the rear, but two original chimneys have survived. The interior contains fireplaces and panelling of the late 16th and early 17th centuries. (fn. 33) The house was not included in the sale of the manors to Mrs. Child in 1754, but by 1816 it was unoccupied and decaying. (fn. 34) By 1821 the house, together with the remaining Awsiter estate, had been bought by William Welch, (fn. 35) and in 1847-8 it was extensively restored. (fn. 36) The house was again restored in the 1920s when it had been acquired by the Southall-Norwood U.D.C., (fn. 37) and in 1961 it was occupied by the Public Health and Infant Welfare departments of Southall Borough Council.

The manor-house of Norwood on Frogmore Green is first mentioned in 1754. (fn. 38) It may have been so styled because John Awsiter had retained the Southall manor-house in his hands after the sale of the manors. A building called the Manor Farmhouse is marked on the inclosure map on the west side of Norwood Road, approximately on the site of the present police station. (fn. 39) In 1821 the manor-house was owned by the Earl of Jersey and was occupied by Thomas Walton. (fn. 40) It is not mentioned again and had been demolished by the mid 19th century. (fn. 41)

The manor of DORMAN'S WELL seems to have developed in the late 16th and 17th centuries from the house and estate of Gregory Fiennes, Lord Dacre. It is said to have taken its name from the medicinal chalybeate springs in the neighbourhood. (fn. 42) A Ralph Dorman is mentioned in 1294 (fn. 43) but nothing further is known of the family. In the early 16th century the Archbishop of Canterbury claimed some lands as part of Hayes manor from Thomas Burbage, probably a member of the Cowley and Hayes Park Hall family. (fn. 44) Among these was a house called Dormans, later called Burnt House, together with 21 a.; the archbishop claimed that the title deeds went back to 1401-2. (fn. 45) In 1554, however, the land belonging to this house was said to be in Botwell fields, (fn. 46) so it may have been unconnected with Dorman's Well. At all events the large house called Dorman's Well was in the possession of Robert Cheeseman on his death in 1547. (fn. 47) Cheeseman left the house or 'great hall' to Alice his relict as long as she remained a widow. The house descended as the manor of Southall, and became the seat of Lord and Lady Dacre, who had an inclosed park surrounding the house. (fn. 48) It was devised by Anne, Lady Dacre, together with Norwood, to Sir Edward Fenner and her other executors and when Fenner died in 1612 he was found to hold for his life the house called Burnt House. (fn. 49) Thereafter Dorman's Well followed the same descent as Norwood manor. In 1770 the land comprising Dorman's Well Farm, amounting to nearly 108 a., was principally arable. (fn. 50) By 1816 it was described merely as a farm. (fn. 51) There is no indication that the estate was styled a manor before the late 18th century. (fn. 52) In the early 16th century it probably formed the manor-house and demesne of Southall manor, and perhaps adopted the style of a manor after Southall manor-house, built by the Awsiters, had become divorced from its manor. There was a chapel, possibly a domestic one, at Dorman's Well in 1547. (fn. 53)