MANOR AND MANOR FARM
Crawley township was part of Witney manor by 969 and
so remained. (fn. 1) A freehold granted for service of keeping
the bishop of Winchester's wood and providing iron for
7 ploughs nevertheless became a reputed manor during
the late 13th century and the 14th, although owners
never held courts or exercised manorial rights. (fn. 2) In 1237
William of Crawley held half a hide in Crawley for the
service, together with a small assart at Delly End in
Hailey; (fn. 3) Alan of Crawley, presumably his son, held a
whole hide for 17s. 5d. and the same service in 1279,
when he was called 'lord', (fn. 4) and from the early 14th
century a freehold hide in Hailey was occupied with the
estate for a further 8s. a year. (fn. 5) In 1308 Alan's son James
sold his 'manor' of Crawley to Walter Wodelock, (fn. 6) from
whom it passed about 1320 to John of Crawley, and
about 1351, under an earlier settlement, to Alice Hatch
(de Hecche), who that year let it to Richard Doffe.
Thomas Austin, owner of lands in Curbridge and
Caswell, held it in the 1360s and 1370s, and John Lovel
(d. 1408), Lord Lovel, from about 1380. The service of
providing iron for ploughs had by then been partially
commuted at the rate of 1s. 8d. a plough. (fn. 7)
In 1386 Lovel granted the manor to Sir Richard
Abberbury and others, presumably trustees, who in
1392 restored to the bishop of Winchester, in exchange
for lands elsewhere, some 425 a. of arable, meadow,
pasture, and wood, 6 houses and 7 yardlands, a mill, and
£10 rent in Crawley, Hailey, and Witney, together with
keepership of the bishop's wood, chase, and warren. (fn. 8)
The bishop may by then have already recovered all or
part of the reputed manor, however, since in 1387–8 he
let to Simon Hayward a holding formerly belonging to
John of Crawley and Thomas Austin, in return for
guarding the wood. (fn. 9) The manor was not mentioned
later, its land having presumably been absorbed into
other holdings.
Manor Farm
A chief house for the estate, mentioned in 1351 when
Richard Doffe was to maintain a chamber, grange, and
chapel, (fn. 10) may have been a predecessor of Manor Farm at
the village's southern end, which was said to have been
formerly held by Thomas Austin, and which from the
early 15th century was leased with 2 yardlands (perhaps
the half hide of 1237) and 32 a. of assart. (fn. 11) A warren,
with closes called Rokelands formerly attached to
Crawley Mill, was held with the house by the 1430s. (fn. 12)
Later lessees included Thomas Fermor or Ricards (d.
1485) of Caswell (fn. 13) and the bishop of Winchester's
nephew Germayne Gardiner (executed 1543), both of
whom presumably sublet it; (fn. 14) William Hobby was given
a 21-year lease in 1566, (fn. 15) and was succeeded probably
from the 1580s by John Hampshire of Eynsham, a royal
servant whose family lived at Manor Farm in the earlier
17th century. (fn. 16) From the early 18th century both house
and land were let to local farmers, (fn. 17) and were sold from
Witney manor in 1886. (fn. 18)
62. Crawley Manor Farm from the south-east, showing former hall range (right) and cross wing (left).
Building work was noted in 1456–7, when two carpenters worked for 32 days on the 'great chamber', a mason
for two days on its stone walls, and a slater on its roof. (fn. 19)
Late 15th-century lessees were to maintain thatch,
perhaps on outbuildings, (fn. 20) and repairs to the hall and
sheep-house roof were noted in 1479–80. (fn. 21) The existing
house (Fig. 62), on a slope rising steeply from south to
north, is rubble-built with stone-slated roofs, and is
mainly two-storeyed; it forms a T-plan, excluding a
single-storeyed outbuilding at right angles to the
north-west. The three-bay east wing contained the hall,
and has remains of a smoke-blackened arch-braced truss
and principals resting on the top walls. The hall was later
floored, all or part of it probably in the later 16th century,
when an upper floor on a ring beam and chamfered joists
was inserted just east of the truss, together with a chimney
stack; presumably that work was for the Hobbys or
Hampshires. A broad mullioned window was inserted in
the east wall either then or later, and a doorway was
inserted on the north; the window was later replaced, and
the doorway blocked. The northern two bays of the
three-bay cross wing have very thick walling along the east
and north sides, a north stack, and massive joists, and may
have formed the late-medieval chamber wing, though the
southern bay and the wing's elm roof appear to be no
earlier than the late 16th or 17th century. The roof space
was made habitable in the 19th or 20th century when the
house was refenestrated.