Sample extracts from A Little History of Cherington and Stourton

In 1332 there was another Taxation of a Tenth and Fifteenth granted to the Lord King Edward, the third after the Conquest, at Michaelmas.

Chiriton:

Richard de Bybury

Robert de Bybury Nicholas Adam

John de Henynton (*)

William Stalonn

John the Miller

Richard atte halle

Alice le Barouns

Thomas atte Yate

(*) ? Honington

13s.

4s.

1s. 8d

2s

2s. 6d

1s. 6d

2s. 6d.

2s.

3s. 1½d.

Richard le Mason

Robert Jacken Thomas Malkyn Margaret Raunce Thomas Molden Gilbert atte Bury

Walter Gibbes

John Lawrence William Robert

4s. 2d.

1s. 6d.

2s.

3s.

2s.

2s.

1s. 6d.

1s.

1s.

---------

50s. 5½d

Extract from SALE OF THE MANOR, 1680

[ ......... ] Thomas Taylor bought his house and buildings, garden, orchard, barn, and one-and-a-half yardlands for £90. The garden was next that of Richard Tidnam. In 1720 John Taylor, son of Thomas, sold the property. In 1769 it was in the hands of Thomas Snow of Tidmington, and in 1800 the Rev. Thomas Snow sold it to William Dickins. The Schedule, or Terrier, attached to the deed is evidently the original Terrier of 1680 as it gives as boundaries the names of the Cherington Yeomen of that date. The Homestead has "William Meades on the west and the Inclosure belonging to the Parsonage and the Homestall of Richard Tidnam on the east." The Taylors were in Cherington in 1537.

Richard Heming bought one yardland for £60. His family was in the village in 1616.

Richard Tidnam paid £30 for his half yardland. The Tidnams were in Cherington in 1615.

William Steele bought a house, a Water Mill, and a quarter of a yardland for £182. This large sum shows how valuable the mill was. The Steel family was in Cherington in 1332 when the name was spelt Stalonn. In a Court Roll of 1510 it is spelt Staleman and Stele, and in 1598 Raffe Steele was a miller in Cherington. The small house by the gate of Cherington House has a stone with S above and J and A below, and the date 1724. These may possibly be the initials of John Steele and his wife Ann, whose names are in the Register in 1701.

The lane by the Post Office had the name of Steel's Lane in 1706. The house on the right at the top of the lane has a stone with S above and R and M below and the date 1746. The yard behind this house was in 1805 described as "Clark's yard formerly Steel's." In 1774 John Steel, senior, John Steel, junior, and William Steel were all freeholders in Cherington, but the family seems to have moved to Todenham, and in 1784 William Dickins bought a house, garden, and orchard in Cherington from William and John Steel of Todenham.

Extract from GLOSSARY OF HISTORICAL, ARCHAIC & ARCHITECTURAL TERMS

A

acre  approx. 0.4 hectares (1 hectare [100 metres square] = 2.47 acres).

architrave  moulded arch, frame or beam, or the moulding on it.

advowson  right to recommend or appoint clergy to a vacant benefice.

alienation  (of property) transfer by sale, inheritance or other means. Alienation in mortmain meant transfer to an institution such as a religious body, guild or municipal corporation.

B

backside  (location) a small enclosure behind a house: thus defined on p.19.

bailiff  a manorial lord's local manager, appointed from outside the tenantry. Conducted relations with the tenants' representative, the reeve.

Bartholomewtide  the last week in August. The Feast of St Bartholomew is August 24.

behoof  benefit or advantage.

but  (noun) = butt, a remnant or endpiece; cf. Cherington Butts. See buting into.

buttery  larder or store room: thus defined on p.23.

buting into  butting, abutting or bordering on.

C

carucate  of land Basically, like a hide, what an eight ox team could maintain, i.e. what one family could subsist on. As the number of oxen in a team varied in different parts of the country, and ploughing speed depended on the soil and the terrain, it is difficult to estimate in absolute terms. Some authorities give around 170 acres for a carucate and 90 to 120 for a hide, but in places, a hide and a carucate were synonyms, while elsewhere, a hide contained several carucates! On p. 1, a carucate is said to be a variable number of acres, and on p. 47, is given as "about 120 acres".

chantry  endowment for a priest to celebrate masses for the founder's soul, or the priests, chapel, altar etc. so endowed. See p.49 for an example (the 15th century Brailes chantry).

Charter Rolls  records of royal grants of lands or rights to boroughs, churches or families, and related documents.

clerestorey  upper row of windows in a church, above the level of the aisle roofs.

close land  enclosed within hedges, fences or walls; as opposed to the "Open Fields".

Close Rolls  copies of sealed letters giving instructions to royal officers, and of private deeds registered at the royal Court of Chancery.

cockloft  the uppermost room of a house: thus defined on p.23.

constable  the Petty or Parish Constable was the forerunner of the police constable. He was appointed to this honorary position by the manor court, and from the seventeenth century, by the parish vestry.