Standlake: Other estates

OTHER ESTATES.

Wallingford priory acquired land in Standlake before 1247, when it was apparently let to the four owners of Standlake manor. (fn. 1) In 1528, following the priory's suppression, unspecified lands or rents in Standlake passed to Thomas Wolsey, archbishop of York, who gave them to Cardinal College, Oxford; (fn. 2) the college's successor, Christ Church, seems, however, to have had no interest in Standlake before acquiring separate estates there in the 17th century. (fn. 3) Meadows by the Thames granted in the late 12th century to Eynsham abbey by Anketil and John de Grey were retained as part of the abbey's Shifford manor until the Dissolution. (fn. 4)

An estate centred on Standlake Manor, a house on the south side of High Street so called from c. 1860, (fn. 5) was built up from the later Middle Ages by the Cornewell or Cornwall family and by their successors the Yates, following the marriage before 1487 of Margaret, daughter and heir of John Cornwall (fl. 1480), to Edmund Yate (d. c. 1516) of Charney Bassett in Longworth (then Berks.). Edmund Yate's estate, not all of it derived from the Cornwalls, descended to John (d. 1545), Robert (d. 1554), James (d. 1608), and Francis Yate (fl. 1613); (fn. 6) he or another Francis sold it in 1647 to Richard Hyde (d. 1665), gentleman, from whom it passed to William Hyde (d. 1717) and his relict Mary (d. 1733), to their son Richard (d. 1741), and to Richard's relict Elizabeth and son Richard. (fn. 7) Most Yates and some Hydes seem to have resided, (fn. 8) though the resident Mary Hyde let the estate and may have occupied a different house. (fn. 9) Ownership passed to the non-resident Newmans before 1785 and c. 1792 to the Tomkinses of Abingdon, who let the house and land to farmers. (fn. 10) In 1860 executors of William Tomkins's son-in-law G. W. Anstie sold it with 228 a. as the 'Manor House and farm', and it remained a farmhouse until 1896 when most of the land was sold. (fn. 11) Quitrents to Standlake manor remained due in 1860. (fn. 12)

The house's timber-framed main range, aligned along the street, is of the 15th century, and was built perhaps by John Cornwall. (fn. 13) Though of three bays in the 20th century it formerly extended further west, the surviving end bay having apparently formed part of a larger hall which was open to the roof. The roof itself has intermediate curved scissor trusses similar to those at the rectory house, and its western bay, above the former open hall, is wind-braced. An evidently re-used ceiling, to which a badge with part of the Yate family arms (fn. 14) was nailed, was inserted into the hall in the later 16th century or early 17th; about the same time a stack was built into the north-west corner of the surviving central bay, the rest of which became a cross passage, and a twostoreyed porch was added against the northern doorway. The overmantel of the ground-floor fireplace to the former hall is also re-used and is decorated with quatrefoils enclosing heraldic shields of arms, among them the Tudor rose and crown and other, unidentified, devices. (fn. 15) On the first floor, the two eastern bays appear to have formed one large room. The gable created by the removal of the western end of the hall was long exposed to the weather before a rubblebuilt wing was added in front of it in the earlier 19th century; timber framing on the street frontage, presumably rendered by 1860 when the house was said to be of brick and tile, was exposed and restored in the mid 20th century. (fn. 16)

A freehold centred on Gaunt House was built up apparently from the later 15th century by the Gaunt family and their descendants the Walwyns. Spurious claims in the late 16th century and early 17th that the estate was a manor were successfully challenged by Magdalen College, which asserted that Gaunt House was a cottage held of Standlake manor for quitrent and suit of court. Though quitrents were owed for lands then attached to the estate there seems, however, to have been no rent payable explicitly for the house. (fn. 17) The earliest known owner was John Gaunt, who in 1461 held a different house and half yardland of the Corbets' manor, (fn. 18) and whose wife Joan (d. 1465/6) was commemorated by a brass formerly in Standlake church; (fn. 19) the surname was not recorded in Standlake earlier, and may indicate Flemish origin. (fn. 20) The name Tirletts Court, recorded, as an alternative for Gaunt House, from the 16th century, (fn. 21) may refer to an earlier owner.

From John (d. c. 1473) the estate passed to his son Simon (d. c. 1506), (fn. 22) perhaps to Simon's relict Alice, (fn. 23) and to his son George (d. s.p. c. 1516) and daughter Ann. Ann married George Walwyn and in 1544 settled it on their son Edward Walwyn. (fn. 24) He sold some of the land (fn. 25) and settled the rest c. 1580 on his son George (d. 1609), whose relict Mary (d. 1626) was in 1623 leasing it to George's son and heir Edward. (fn. 26) Edward's brother John (d. 1628) left it to his sister Dorothy Gascoigne with reversion to her son Stephen Gascoigne, (fn. 27) who sold it in 1638, including lands in Standlake, Northmoor, and Shifford, to Samuel Fell (d. 1649), dean of Christ Church, Oxford; (fn. 28) from him it passed to his relict Margaret and son John (d. 1686), later bishop of Oxford, who left it to Christ Church to found a bursary for poor students. (fn. 29) Small additions were made in 1715 and 1889, when the Standlake part of Christ Church's estate totalled 67 a. (fn. 30) From the mid 17th century the estate was let to local farmers, notably the Marchants and their descendants the Burfords and Gileses; (fn. 31) Christ Church sold it in 1955. (fn. 32)

The surviving house, (fn. 33) within a large L-shaped moat, is of coursed limestone rubble, and comprises a central hall range with cross-passage doorways at its eastern end, and two cross wings. That plan, together with the survival of a main post from a timber-framed wall at the house's north-west corner and of a section of timberframed wall in the west wing, suggests an early, probably late-medieval origin, and the hall fireplace, located on the northern, outside wall, may be a later addition. Replacement, in stages, of timber walling by stone appears to have been substantially complete by the early 17th century, the date of several doorways and of windows and plasterwork in the west, parlour, wing; since both Ann Walwyn and her son Edward leased the house (fn. 34) those features may reflect remodelling by George Walwyn, resident from c. 1580, or his successors. (fn. 35) During the Civil War the house was garrisoned and besieged, (fn. 36) but though musket loops were cut in the main door there is no evidence of major damage or rebuilding, and in 1649 and 1654 the Fells reserved for their occasional use the hall and parlour, both with chambers over, the kitchen, and a stable. (fn. 37) Some minor work may have been carried out c. 1669, (fn. 38) and the causeway crossing the moat to the main door is dated 1718, but the house seems to have undergone no further structural alteration. There were two restorations in the later 20th century. (fn. 39)

A freehold of 2¼ yardlands centred on the later Lincoln Farm was sold in 1545 by William Tyrling (d. 1546) to Humphrey Bostocke of Abingdon (then Berks.), draper, who leased it to Tyrling for life and in 1548 sold it to Robert Radborne (d. 1557). (fn. 40) Radborne's son Robert, a London stationer, sold it in 1567 to Lincoln College, Oxford, with scattered cottages and tenements formerly part of Standlake manor, and other small freeholds acquired since the 1540s. (fn. 41) Quitrents to Magdalen College for the former manor lands were compounded for in 1905, (fn. 42) and in 1918 the entire estate, c. 110 a. after inclosure, (fn. 43) was sold piecemeal to tenants. (fn. 44)

Lincoln Farm, formerly Tyrlings, (fn. 45) includes a late medieval hall range parallel to Standlake High Street and a western cross wing, and is two-storeyed throughout. The hall, which has a smoke-blackened roof, was formerly timberframed, but much of the framing has been replaced by rubble walls. A stack was inserted in front of the present cross passage presumably c. 1564, when the lessee was to build a chimney, flue, and freestone mantel in the 'hall house' partly at the owner's expense; there was then a chamber over the parlour, and by 1582 there was a storage chamber over the hall, (fn. 46) though the existing beamed ceiling is of early 17th-century character. The cross wing, also rubble-walled, includes a two-light window of the later 16th century and has an added chimney gable on its west side; traces of ochre paintwork survived on its roof timbers in 1970. (fn. 47) Rooms in 1582 included a buttery and milkhouse evidently beyond the cross passage, storage within a timber pentice at the rear, an apparently free-standing kitchen, and agricultural buildings around a 'court'; most windows were glazed, though one, in the chamber over the parlour, had shutters only, and the parlour had been recently refitted. (fn. 48) The house's east end, beyond the cross passage, was rebuilt in the 17th century. Both Tyrling and the Radbornes apparently occupied the house, (fn. 49) but from 1564 the estate was let to prominent farmers and others, among them Walter Bayley (d. 1592), the queen's physician, who presumably sublet it, Nicholas Dixon (d. 1627), a local man and servant to the earl of Salisbury, who resided, and relatives of the minister Nicholas Shorter (fl. 1650). (fn. 50) The house continued as a farmhouse following the college's sale to its tenant in 1918, but was later separated from the estate. (fn. 51)

A small estate in Brighthampton and Standlake passed from John Fettiplace (d. 1510) of Charney Bassett (then Berks.) to his son Philip, (fn. 52) who in 1524 sold it to Simon Starkey, bursar of Brasenose College, Oxford. In 1529 Starkey conveyed it to John Elton or Baker who granted it to Brasenose, and in 1624 the college acquired an additional tenement in Cokethorpe. (fn. 53) The estate, let to tenant farmers and totalling c. 76 a. after inclosure, (fn. 54) was sold in two parcels in 1911 and 1918. (fn. 55)

Land and cottages belonging to a chantry in Standlake church passed on its suppression to the Crown, which in 1590 sold the estate, much decayed in 1569, to its lessee Walter Bayley. (fn. 56) Bayley's son William sold some parts piecemeal, (fn. 57) and the rest was absorbed into his manor of Northmoor. (fn. 58)