Baigent Crondal Records

INTRODUCTION.

THE Hundred of Crondal forms the north-east part of the county of Hants, and

extends on the north and east sides to the Blackwater River, which separates

Hampshire from the adjacent portions of the counties of Berkshire and Surrey.

It comprises a large tract of land extending over an area of nearly 29,000

acres, and was given to the Cathedral Church of Winchester as far back as

Anglo-Saxon days towards the support of the Bishop and monks. It was formed

previous to the Conquest into an ecclesiastical district, and placed entirely

under the supervision of the Rector of Crondal, with the exception of a small

portion on the east side, containing about 2200 acres, forming the parish of

Farnborough, which was taken out of its area and constituted a separate

parish, retaining its own tithes. The remainder of this large district had in

course of time to be provided with chapels in the outlying portions, and sub-

divided into tithings, though of late years the districts of these chapels

have obtained the designation of parishes instead of tithings. The district

forming the northern portion is called Yateley, and contains 10,036 acres; the

southernmost, Aldershot, contains 4144 acres; the western portion, Long

Sutton, contains 2267 acres; and the name of Crondal is localized to the

portion south of Yateley and west of Aldershot, and bounded by Long Sutton on

the west, containing 9614 acres. The chapelry of Yateley included the

tithings of Yateley, Hawley, Bremshete, and Southwood, as well as Minley and

Cove. The district of Crondal included the tithings of Crokeham, Swanthrop,

and Dippenhall, the manor of Itchel or tithing of Eweshot, and the Badley

estate now called Clare Park. The chapelry of Aldershot had no subdivisions,

although it contained certain exempted lands belonging to Waverley Abbey,

annexed to their grange of Tongham. The chapelry of Long Sutton had three

divisions. The most important of these was the northern half of the district

or parish, which extended along its entire length from ((Page xvi)) east and

west; and it is presumed that the shape and extent of this division led to its

distinctive appellation of Long Sutton. The southern portion consisted of two

manors: the western one ultimately acquired the name of Sutton Warblington,

owing to its having passed into the hands of the Warblington family,{1. This

was the earlier form of the surname given as Warbelton, in pp. 31, 32, 39,

425, and in p. 43. as Warblyngtone, and Warblyntone in p. 427.} although a few

years afterwards it came again into the hands of the Cathedral Priory. The

third or remaining portion was called the manor of La Welle, and was held by

military service in the 13th century by the St. Martin family, and afterwards

by the Byflete family.

The entire hundred was for the most part a vast tract of heath and gorse

lands, with portions of land here and there brought into cultivation, by the

irrigation of the Blackwater River and the favourable proximity of a number of

small streams; and another stream from Borley Hill which wended its way to a

low tract of land called La Fleet, formed the two large ponds known as the

Fleet ponds. This part of Hampshire attracted but little attention, until the

Government resolved to increase and perfect, as far as was possible, their

military forces by the formation of camps for the drilling and practising of

large bodies of troops. The wide areas of heath and common land at Aldershot,

and extending into the parishes of Crondal, Farnborough, and Yateley, were

deemed most fitting for the purpose; and 1854 the Government purchased these

large tracts of land, and established a military camp on a very extensive

scale, the camps proper being divided into two portions, distinguished as the

North Camp and the South Camp, consisting of ranges of wooden huts in parallel

lines; to the south of which permanent barracks were erected, and various

other buildings suitable for the accommodation of the troops. Besides all

this, in 1890, extensive building operations were commenced for the

construction of new barracks in the South Camp, and nearly a million and a

half of money is to be spent in new structures and in rebuilding and enlarging

the old barracks and huts. The village has since grown into a considerable

town, consisting of several streets, well paved, and lighted with gas, and has

also the accommodation of a large railway station, schools, and other public

buildings. The ((Page xvii)) other parishes of the hundred of Crondal have also

participated in the general prosperity attendant upon an increasing

population. The erection of numerous villas in the different hamlets and

tithings, as well as district Churches, has changed the appearance of the

neighbourhood in every direction, so that the outline map is intended to

indicate its past rather than its present appearance; large portions of land

marked as waste being now covered with buildings, or allotted out as building

sites, fenced in, and connected by new roads.{1. The population of Aldershot

in 1851 was 875; in 1861 it was 16720; and now, in 1891, ((*blank*)). Crondal

and its tithings in 1851 contained a population of 2431, and in 1881, 3188;

Farnborough 477, and in 1881, 3538; Yately 2156, in 1881, 3043; Long Sutton

339, in 1881, 310. The assessments were in 1851 about as follows:- Aldershot

#2195, Crondal #8319, Farnborough #3028, Yateley #2743, Long Sutton #2080, and

in 1891 they had respectively increased to #51,452; #18,196; #16,594; #21,013;

and #1972. A return made in 1882 states that the War Department owned 1205

acres of land in Aldershot, in Crondal 1165, in Cove 1167, in Farnborough 636,

and in Hawley and Minley 200 acres; and the rateable value as #16,473.}

Some early entrenchments exist on the range of chalk hills on the south

side of Crondal and Aldershot; and there is also an ancient encampment, called

Caesar's camp, upon an elevated plain, which recalls the time when the country

was occupied by the Romans. That they were quietly and peacefully settled in

the neighbourhood was proved by the discovery, in 1817, of the remains of a

large villa and a beautifully executed tessellated pavement in a field hard by

Badley pound-farm. In the year 1828, about a mile or a little more below the

range of hills, at a place on the heath not far off the line of the ancient

road from Winchester to London, was discovered a collection of Merovingian and

other gold coins, over a hundred in number, with the remains of the purse in

which they had been enclosed. These coins were either lost or deposited there

by the owner, probably a moneyer, when crossing the heath in the seventh or

eighth century.

From this early period we pass on to the records and documents contained

in the present volume. The earliest written notice of Crondal occurs in the

will of King Alfred, A.D. 880-885, and it is mentioned among the lands which

he bequeathed to Elthelm his nephew. The next document is, apparently, the

will of Bishop AElfsige, who held the See of Winchester from 951 to 958, and

contains the bequest of the reversion of Crondal to Winchester Cathedral:-

"and I grant the land at Crundele, after my life, to AElfheah, and after his

life ((Page xviii)) let it go to the Old Monastery." A few years later we have

the will of AElfheah, or Elphege, the beforementioned legatee, stating that he

gives the land at Crondal to the Old Monastery; and thus it is that the

ancient list of "The names of the founders and benefactors of the Church of

Winchester and of the monks there serving God," records that "Elphege, the

prefect, gave Crondal with its appurtenances." After this, we have in 976,

the solemn gift, or rather a royal confirmation, of Crondal to the Old

Monastery, by King Edgar, which sets out not only its extent, but also its

boundaries. The boundaries are minutely detailed, and we hoped at one time

that they would have been traced out for us, in such a manner as to enable us

to map them out; but in this we have been disappointed. The perambulation

appears to begin on the west side; but whether it included Sutton is doubtful.

It then went up by Dogmersfield and Elvetham to Hartford Bridge flats, called

Hnaef's shelf: then westward by the side of the road, and then up by Eversley

and Dudda's Brook. Thence it follows the course of the river Blackwater right

along down to Ash-bridge; thence round by Aldershot; and then south and west

by Crondal and Sutton; and so round to the starting place, called Isenhurst

gate. In 979 we have King Ethelred's grant (or rather, his charter),

restoring Long Sutton to Winchester Cathedral. It states that it was formerly

included in Crondal, and that it was to be united again to it, as one

property. The boundaries of the land are set out, though they afford little

or no assistance as regards identification of them. To a later date still are

to be assigned the few lines which describe the boundaries between Crondal and

Elvetham. The next document seems to refer to a release - a sort of quit-

claim, or extinction of some indirect or reversionary right - in order to

perfect the title of the Cathedral Monastery to the Crondal lands. It

testifies that, on Palm Sunday, 13th April, 979, one, Elnoth, came to

Winchester, and in the presence of Bishop AEthelwold placed on the altar of

the Blessed Peter, at the Old Monastery, the charter which his brother Ulric

had granted of the manor of Crondal, and that this gift or restitution of it

should remain without suit or contention unto the same holy place for ever.

Our next particulars about Crondal are derived from Domesday Book. Here

we have something more definite, ((Page xix)) as it does those precise details

which give to this well-known survey its distinctive character and value. It

states that Bishop Walkelin held Crondal for the support of the monks of his

Cathedral Church; and that Itchel and Cove, assessed at eight hides, were held

under the Bishop by the tenure, known not long afterwards, as military or

knight service; also that there was a small estate at Badley held by socage or

service tenure. Long Sutton was held by two tenants under a similar tenure to

that of Itchel and Cove. And Odin de Windsore held Farnborough in like

manner, under the Bishop, and it was assessed at three hides.

In the reign of King Edward I, AD. 1284, we have some interesting

documents which give us the particulars of the services which the Prior and

Convent of Winchester and their tenants of Crondal had to render to the Bishop

of Winchester, and the services which they owed to the Bishop's manor of

Farnham. Two years later occurs a Royal writ ordering a jury to be summoned

by the sheriff of the county, so that an Inquest might be held at Farnham,

before the King's Justices, concerning the chaces which belonged to the Bishop

of Winchester, and the chaces belonging to the Prior. The result of the

Inquest, as is set forth, states that the Bishop was entitled and that all his

predecessors were accustomed to chase in all the lands and woods of the Bishop

and his men, and in all the lands and woods of the Prior of Winchester and his

men, throughout the County of Southampton. Also, that the Prior was entitled

and that all his predecessors were accustomed to chase, in all the lands and

woods of the Prior and his men throughout the County of Southampton, excepting

the lands and woods which are in the Chace of Crondal and the appurtenant

parts of the same Chace, where the Prior is not entitled neither were his

predecessors accustomed to chase; because the aforesaid Chace of Crondal was

at one time the King's Forest, and up to the time of Bishop Peter de Roches,

formerly Bishop of Winchester, who purchased that Chace from the Lord King.

After that purchase, the aforesaid Peter and all his successors were

accustomed to chase therein; but apart from this fact the Prior or his

predecessors were accustomed to chase in it.

A series of charters and quit-claims, which have survived the wholesale

destruction of muniments in the 16th century, relating ((Page xx)) to lands in

Long Sutton and Crondal, and executed between the years 1220 and 1341, contain

many particulars of local interest. They occupy the next few pages of the

book, and are followed by a transcript of a letter of manumission, dated in

1418, in favour of John Jan, son of a bondsman of the Manor of Crondal; an

account of the knights' fees within the Manor of Crondal, commencing with the

list drawn up in 1165; and other similar returns down to the year 1316. These

lists refer to estates held independently of the Cathedral Priory, and

consequently not named in any of the court, customary, or compotus rolls

belonging to the Priory or the Cathedral Chapter. There are also various

entries of a similar character, down to the latter end of the 15th century,

and some entries of law-suits in the reign of Edward I. A few documents

occur, relating to the earlier owners of the estate now called Clare, in the

parish of Crondal, but anciently included under Badeley, as mentioned in

Domesday Book. In 1364, the Crondal tenants complained to the King that the

Prior and Convent were exacting from them additional services and customs,

which had not been demanded heretofore of their ancestors, the tenants of the

same manor. Writs of right were thereupon issued to the Prior, and to the

sheriff of the county, and a writ for the tenants to give security for the

prosecution of the suit. Finally, in 1398, we have an agreement drawn up

between the Bishop of Winchester and the Prior and Convent of the Cathedral,

as to the attendance of the Crondal tenants at the two Views of Frank-pledge,

held yearly at Blackheathfield, in Farnham.

COMPOTUS DE CRONDAL - This document commences another and distinct

section of the volume, beginning with page 51 and ending with the Sutton

Rental, page 141. It includes two plates, facsimiles, facing pp. 52 and 84.

These plates, besides showing the cramped and abbreviated writing, allow the

comparison of a small portion of the original entries with the printed text.

For this very important section, the reader is indebted solely to the Very

Reverend the Dean of Winchester, who kindly and voluntarily undertook the

irksome task of copying the originals, making the translations, and passing

the pages through the press, as well as contributing the descriptive account

of the Compotus Roll and Glossary, given ((Page xxi)) in the Appendix, pp. 505-

512. We trust, nevertheless, that the following short summary may not be

deemed intrusive.

The Prior's Compotus Roll of 1248 contains the particulars of the

receipts and expenditure of the manor of Crondal for the year ending 29th

September, 1248, classed under the headings of rents, acquittances, defaults,

and the payment of a pound of cumin seed; the sums of money received from

incidental resources, from the sale of corn, and from perquisites;

disbursements, expenses - necessary and extraordinary, and sundry payments:

the receipts and outgoings of the grange, in wheat, rye, barley, oats, beans,

peas and vetches; live stock, - cart horses, horses, colts, oxen, cows,

heifers, twinters and yearlings, calves, ewes, rams, muttons, hoggets, and

lambs; skins, wool, cheese, pigs, honey, ploughshares, hens, chicken bacon and

meat in the larder; cider, geese, and hives. All the particulars under these

headings are given with the characteristic minuteness usual in the compotus

rolls of the early part of the 13th century.

This is followed by a copy of the Compotus of the same year relating to

the Manor of Long Sutton, and the entries are of a similar character to the

Crondal account.

The next document is taken from a manuscript volume containing the

rentals and customs of the different manors belonging to Saint Swithun's

Priory, written, in the reign of Edward II, by John de Guildford, a

professional scribe. The portion printed contains the rents, services and

customs of the Manor of Crondal. It is a most interesting record, as it gives

the names of the tenants, the extent of their holdings, with the customary

services, rents payable in money and kind, and many other particulars classed

under the headings of the tithings of Crondal, Swanthrop, Yateley, Bremshot,

and Hawley, Southwood, Aldershot, Dippenhall and Crokeham. This record is

followed by a copy of the rental roll of Sutton for the year 1351 (page 135)

and it is a serviceable addition, as the estate to which it refers is the

Manor of Sutton Warblington, which had only recently come into the hands of

the Cathedral Priory. This brings us to the end of this particular section of

the book.

COURT ROLL.-A copy of the earliest existing court roll relating to the

hundred of Crondal. It gives the particulars of ((Page xxii)) the hundred

court, for the term of St. Martin, held on the 20th October, 1281, and of the

next court, for the term Hock, held on 4th April, 1282. The entries

illustrate the various sources of income accruing to the Cathedral Priory at

the holding of these half-yearly courts.

We now reach the longest and most important record, THE CRONDAL CUSTOMARY

of 1567. It was the proposed publication of this document that led to the

compilation of this collection of records relating to the Hundred and Manor of

Crondal. The existence of the Aldershot copy of the customary, a great bundle

of parchment skins covered with writing, had of late years become generally

known in the neighbourhood to those interested in topographical and parochial

matters, and it was often urged that such an important local record ought

certainly to be published; but nothing definite was done till the year 1887 or

i888, when the Rev. Charles Drummond Stooks, M.A., vicar of Yateley, took the

matter in hand, and obtained subscriptions from the principal inhabitants of

the neighbourhood, and by his zeal, kindly efforts and perseverance, a

sufficient sum was raised to pay for a transcript and translation of this

particular record. This done, an estimate was obtained of the cost of

printing the document. Fortunately, just at this time, the establishment of

the Hampshire Record Society opened a new channel for its publication, and it

was decided to allow it to form a portion of a volume containing a collection

of documents and records relating to the Hundred and Manor of Crondal. At the

same time, in order that its importance should not be diminished by its

incorporation with other documents, its contents have been given as a separate

index, (pp. 523-530).

The Customary is set forth in the indenture, executed between the Dean

and Chapter of Winchester Cathedral of the one part, and of the tenants of the

Manor of Crondal of the other part, and the particulars contained in it are

thus expressed in a brief declaration of the ancient customs of the Hundred

and Manor of Crondal:-

In the schedules annexed to the Indenture or Customary, under the heading

of each tithing, are given the names of all the principal tenants and the sub-

tenants by hallmote; the extent of their holdings, the names of the different

copyholds, fields, and acreage, with the rent and other burdens therefor due.

At the end of the record, we have given in a few pages a summary of the

schedules, containing the names of all the tenants, with the amounts of yearly

rents, fines, and heriots, mentioned in the 196 pages, being the extent of the

printed text of the schedules.

The next document is a statement of the fees payable to the steward and

clerk of the lands, as agreed upon by the steward and tenants of Crondal on

9th September, 1672, with the consent of the Dean and Treasurer of Winchester

Cathedral.

THE YATELEY TITHE CASE. - A transcript of the account of a law suit tried

in 1606 in the King's Court at Westminster, with respect to disputes as to the

extent and manner of collecting the tithes, which had arisen between certain

tenants and the lessee of the tithes. It is a lengthened document somewhat

wearisome to read, owing to the many repetitions and the legal verbiage in

which it is written; yet it is full of interesting details as to the manner

and customs observed in the collection of certain tithes within the parish of

Yateley, and the payment of Easter dues and marriage fees.

We now reach the last section of the book. This division gives an

account of the manor of Itchel and Cove, a large ((Page xxv)) freehold estate,

divided into two parts, and ultimately regarded as separate manors, held of

the Bishops of Winchester by military service until the abolition of that form

of tenure by statute in 1660. In the reign of Henry III this estate came into

the hands of Walter Giffard, Bishop of Bath and Wells, and afterwards

Archbishop of York. Its proximity to Dogmersfield, the favourite resort of

the Bishops of Bath and Wells,{. The manor of Dogmersfield was granted to the

See of Bath by Henry I, and continued in the possession of the Bishops of Bath

and Wells till the year 1548. when it was alienated by the notorious Bishop

Barlow, and granted to Thomas Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton.} no doubt led

to its acquisition by Bishop Giffard, probably with the intention of adding it

to the episcopal property of the Bishoprick of Bath and Wells, or perhaps as

an endowment for a chantry. But, being shortly afterwards translated to the

Archiepiscopal See of York, he ceased to take any further interest in the

Bishoprick of Bath and Wells; and at his death the property passed into the

hands of his brother, Godfrey Giffard, Bishop of Worcester, and was afterwards

inherited by John Giffard, his nephew and heir,

In 1379 Sir John Giffard obtained permission of the Bishop of Winchester

to enlarge the park at Itchel; and, as the conditions attached to this

concession are somewhat singular, they seem to deserve a passing notice:- He

undertook for himself and his heirs or assigns, to pay and render to the said

Bishop, and to his successors the Bishops of Winchester, at their Castle of

Farnham, yearly, on the feast of St. Peter called Ad vincula (1st August), a

good bow, new, competent, comely, and sufficient, with a suitable string, and

six barbed arrows, new, competent, and sufficient, well winged with peacock

feathers; and in like manner, between the first day of December and the first

day of February, in each year, a competent fallow deer from the aforesaid

park, when the same John, his heirs or assigns, shall be reasonably called

upon to do so, by the servants of the Bishop or his successors, and the said

John, his heirs or assigns, were to capture at their own cost the aforesaid

fallow deer and send it to the Castle of Farnham, there to be delivered to the

Bishop's servants.

The Itchel estate continued in the hands of the Giffard family till the

reign of Queen Elizabeth, when it was acquired ((Page xxvi)) by Henry

Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton (who at that time was engaged in erecting a

large mansion at Dogmersfield), for the purpose of adding it to his

Dogmersfield estate. The Earl is stated to have died at the manor house of

Itchel on the 4th October, 1581, in the thirty-sixth year of his age. The

subsequent descent of the manor is briefly stated on page 468.

In the time of the Commonwealth the manor of Crondal, which included all

the parish except the tithing of Eweshot, was sold to Nicholas Love, Esq., the

eldest son of the Warden of Winchester College; but, at the Restoration, the

Dean and Chapter recovered possession of it, and it continued in their hands

until within the last few years, when it passed with the other capitular

estates into the hands of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners.

There is a large manor or tithing in the parish of Yateley, called

Minley, belonging to Mr. Bertram Woodhouse Currie, the boundaries of which are

set out from a perambulation made in 1516.{1. p473} Documents relating to the

Fleet Ponds, so well known from their contiguity to the South Western Railway,

and their covering about 110 acres of ground, are given, which show that from

the early part of the sixteenth century they were leased out by the Cathedral

authorities, from time to time. The earliest lease,{2. p451} A.D. 1505-6,

contains a clause, exacting as rent for the fishery of the ponds, a hundred of

the fishes, - pikes, tenches, perches, breams, and roaches, which were to be

caught at the costs of the lessees, and taken and delivered at Saint Swithun's

Priory, Winchester, in a good and fresh state, yearly, in the time of Lent, or

between the feasts of Easter and Pentecost. In subsequent leases a yearly

payment of 20s. for the fishery is exacted in lieu of the hundred fishes, and

this amount shows that the fish delivered must have been of large size to have

represented a similar value.

The last document given is the assessment of a lay subsidy granted to the

King James I, in 1621. It is a transcript of all the entries appertaining to

the hundred of Crondal. The total assessment amounts to #50. 10s. 4d.,

including the Liberty of Bentley,{3. Bentley Liberty contains 2288 acres of

land, and the population in 1851 was 732} which is inserted in this return

among the tithings and parishes situated within the hundred of Crondal.

((Page xxvii))

THE APPENDIX (pp. 481-512), is a valuable and useful contribution, - a

catalogue of the documents relating to Crondal manor, in the possession of the

Dean and Chapter of Winchester. For this important addition to the volume, we

are indebted to the kindness of the Dean of Winchester. Although it occupies

but a few pages, the labour bestowed upon it, and the time consumed in its

compilation and passing it through the press, must have been very great, and

the difficulty and tediousness of the work a trial of patience.

For the two indices, we are indebted to the Rev. G. W. Minns, LL.B.,

vicar of Weston, near Southampton, to whom we tender our sincere thanks for

this kindness, and all the trouble taken in their compilation; for a good

index is a very important feature in a work of this character.

F.J.B.

WINCHESTER,

26th May, 1891.