MANORS AND OTHER ESTATES.
None of the
manors in the parish has been found separately
recorded before the 12th century. The Domesday
estates of Standish, Haresfield, and Rendcomb
apparently each included land in Hardwicke.
The land held with Rendcomb in 1086 by Gilbert,
son of Turold, (fn. 90) passed with other of Gilbert's
lands to the honor of Gloucester. (fn. 91) As lord of the
honor, John, then Count of Mortain, granted Rendcomb and Hardwicke to Amselise, wife of William
Delamare, and her heirs, as they had been granted
to her by her brother Robert, son of Gregory. (fn. 92)
Robert was presumably the Robert Delamare (de
Mara) who was among the Earl of Gloucester's
knights in 1166, (fn. 93) and both Robert and William
made grants of land in Rendcomb. (fn. 94) Part of Hardwicke then descended with Rendcomb, and at her
death in 1263 Parnel Delamare held 2 plough-lands
and rents in Hardwicke from the honor of Gloucester. (fn. 95) The Delamare's fee in Rendcomb and
Hardwicke was held in 1403 from Edmund, Earl of
Stafford, who had succeeded to part of the honor of
Gloucester. (fn. 96) It is likely that that part of Hardwicke
continued to be held with Rendcomb, for it was
evidently the part belonging to the Guises of
Elmore, (fn. 97) who acquired Rendcomb. (fn. 98) In the early
19th century Sir Berkeley William Guise had 75 a. in
Hardwicke. (fn. 99)
In 1086 Durand the sheriff of Gloucester held
Haresfield. (fn. 1) He also held 3 hides in Standish which
his brother Roger de Pitres had received from
William FitzOsbern and which the Archbishop of
York claimed. (fn. 2) The manor in Hardwicke called
PARK manor was held in 1328 of Matthew FitzHerbert, (fn. 3) to whom part of Durand's estates, including Haresfield, had passed, (fn. 4) and in 1610 the same
manor, called PARK COURT or HARDWICKE
manor, was held as of Haresfield manor. (fn. 5) Hardwicke manor, therefore, was either the Domesday
estate of 3 hides in Standish (fn. 6) or, more probably,
part of Durand's manor of Haresfield. (fn. 7)
The under-tenants of Park manor took their name
from it: c. 1188 William of the Park and his mother
held demesne and had villein tenants in Hardwicke. (fn. 8)
It was presumably the same William who became a
monk c. 1220, to be succeeded by his son Aumary
of the Park. (fn. 9) Another William of the Park, who
witnessed deeds in 1294 (fn. 10) and 1296, (fn. 11) was said to be
grandson of William who received a grant of land
from King John. (fn. 12) By 1310 William's daughter,
Beatrice, wife of John Butler of Llantwit, had
inherited the estate. (fn. 13) John and Beatrice enlarged
their estate in Hardwicke: (fn. 14) John had the highest
tax-assessment in the vill in 1327, (fn. 15) and when
Beatrice died, a widow, in 1359 the demesne of Park
manor amounted to 2 plough-lands. John Butler,
son and heir of Beatrice and John, (fn. 16) was succeeded
in 1362 by his brother Aumary, (fn. 17) whose heirs at his
death in 1397 were the children of his two sisters,
namely John Kenne, son of Isabel, and Isabel,
daughter of Elizabeth and wife of John Trye. (fn. 18)
John Kenne (d. 1405), his son John (fn. 19) (d. 1438), and
the latter's grandson Robert (fn. 20) (d. 1453) held a small
part of the Butler estate in Hardwicke, (fn. 21) but the
greater part, including the manor, went to the
Tryes.
John Trye, perhaps the son of John and Isabel,
made a settlement of his manor of the Park in
1450. (fn. 22) His son William (fn. 23) settled the manor on
himself and his wife Isabel in 1481, and died in 1497
leaving his son William as his heir. (fn. 24) The younger
William died in 1524, and the manor passed to his
son Edward (fn. 25) (d. 1526). Edward's son John (fn. 26) was
succeeded in 1579 (fn. 27) by his son John, who was in
turn succeeded in 1591 by his son William. William
was killed (fn. 28) in 1610, and his son, another William, (fn. 29)
died in 1681 having outlived his sons John and
Thomas. Thomas's son William (fn. 30) owned 900 a. in
Hardwicke and 200 a. in Haresfield in 1699. (fn. 31)
William died in 1717, (fn. 32) and in 1726 his son Thomas,
under an Act of Parliament authorizing the sale of
his estate for the payment of his debts, (fn. 33) conveyed
the manor to Philip Yorke. (fn. 34)
From Philip Yorke, who became Lord Chancellor
and took the title of both his barony and his earldom
from his Hardwicke estate, the manor descended to
successive Earls of Hardwicke (fn. 35) until 1808, when it
was sold under an Act of Parliament. (fn. 36) In 1776
the estate had amounted to 1,350 a. (fn. 37) Part of the
estate, comprising the manor, the chief house, and
305 a. in Hardwicke and Haresfield, was sold in 1808
to William Parker, (fn. 38) from whom in 1815 (fn. 39) the manor
was bought by Thomas John Lloyd Baker (d. 1841).
Baker enlarged his estate in Hardwicke: in 1834 he
had 1,000 a. in the parish, of which nearly a third
was leased from the Bishop of Gloucester, and by
1850 his son, T. B. Ll. Baker, owned much the
greater part of the land of the parish. (fn. 40) T. B. Ll.
Baker, the founder of the Hardwicke Reformatory
for Boys, (fn. 41) was succeeded in 1886 by his son G. E.
Ll. Baker, who assumed the additional surname of
Lloyd in 1911, and died in 1924. The manor then
passed to Lloyd-Baker's granddaughter, Miss Olive
Katherine Lloyd Lloyd-Baker, (fn. 42) who owned Hardwicke Court in 1967, but was transferring most of the
land to her cousin and heir, Mr. Charles LloydBaker (formerly Murray-Browne). Miss LloydBaker's uncle, Lt.-Col. A. B. Ll. Lloyd-Baker, who
lived in part of Hardwicke Court, was for many
years Chairman of the Gloucestershire County
Education Committee. (fn. 43)
Hardwicke Court stands in a park which was
evidently in existence and contained a house in the
late 12th century, when the lord of the manor was
William of the Park. (fn. 44) It was presumably there that
stood the hall, with 3 chambers, a kitchen, a granary,
a gateway with a chamber over it, and a stable,
which in 1310 Joan de Vivonia was alleged to have
pulled down while Beatrice Butler was her ward. (fn. 45)
The house appears to have been continuously
occupied by the descendants of Beatrice. In 1378
Aumary Butler was accused of wrongfully imprisoning his enemies there. (fn. 46) The site was enclosed by a
rectangular moat; an angled channel surviving in
1967 may have been part of a medieval moat,
though it was evidently not part of the moat
recorded in the early 18th century. The house was
apparently rebuilt in the 16th century, though it may
have retained some of the medieval fabric in the
central hall block. The central block had in the
middle of its west front a gabled, two-storied porch
with an arched doorway; on one side of the porch
the central block had two stories, on the other three.
A new roof was put on c. 1700. Two wings running
eastward from the main block made a three-sided
courtyard behind. (fn. 47) In the late 17th century, with
14 hearths, the Tryes' house was much the largest in
the parish. (fn. 48)
Lord Chancellor Hardwicke for a while used
Hardwicke Court as a seat, but not towards the end
of his life, and in 1775 it was being let as a farmhouse. (fn. 49) After 1815 the old house was pulled down,
and a new house, of ashlar on a rectangular plan, was
built on the site, to the design of Robert Smirke. (fn. 50)
The owners have occupied the house since 1819. (fn. 51)
The abbey of Gloucester had extensive lands in
Hardwicke which afterwards passed to the bishops
of Gloucester. The lands were comprised in what
was described from the 17th century as the single
manor of RUDGE AND FARLEY, (fn. 52) but earlier
there had been two separate manors. (fn. 53) The lands in
Rudge may have formed part of the abbey's ancient
estate of Standish, (fn. 54) for in 1112 Thomas of St. John
gave the abbey his land of Rudge, described as lying
in Standish. (fn. 55) Part of the abbey's estate in Rudge is
likely to have derived from the Domesday estate held
by Durand the sheriff, for the gift to the abbey of
40 a. near the monks' court of Rudge by Roger
Little (parvus) and his wife or mother Margaret
was made with the consent of the Earl of Hereford,
the successor to part of Durand's estate, and was
confirmed before 1179 by Gilbert de Mynors, (fn. 56)
one of the earl's knights. (fn. 57) The abbey acquired
further land in Rudge from Robert of the Field, by
gift and exchange, before 1218. (fn. 58) The estate was
described as the manor of RUDGE in 1215, when
the abbey apparently had some land there in
demesne. (fn. 59) In 1525 the rent for the farm of Rudge
manor was paid to the abbey cellarer. (fn. 60) The manorhouse or court of Rudge mentioned before 1179 was
evidently in the area of Hockley Hill; a grove or wood
lay between it and the king's highway, (fn. 61) and the
house is likely to have been on the site of Hardwicke Farm. (fn. 62) Behind the early-19th-century farmhouse building is a long and low range with an
inserted upper floor, in which two intermediate
cruck-frame trusses are partly visible; in a shed
near-by are some smoke-blackened roof-timbers,
apparently re-used, including a purlin with curved
wind-brace and an arch-braced collar.
Gloucester Abbey held FARLEY manor, apparently including some demesne land, in 1215. (fn. 63) About
the same time the abbot granted to Walter de
Croilli, in fee, all the land in Farley which Walter's
father Richard had held. (fn. 64) Walter's estate was later
divided between his three daughters, of whom
Margery de Croilli (in 1243) and Joan of Farley,
both as widows, gave the greater part of their
portions to the abbey. The portion of the third
daughter, Lettice of Farley, was given to the abbey
by her daughter Bennett, wife of William of Farley
(or the chamberlain) between 1263 and 1284;
William also gave the abbey the holding in Farley
of the abbey's fee which his father, Luke the chamberlain, had given him. (fn. 65) The chief house of Farley
manor is represented by Farleys End Farm. (fn. 66) It is a
rectangular house comprising four cruck-framed
bays of which the two middle bays once formed a
single-story hall; the roof has massive curved windbraces. The hall was given an intermediate floor in
the 17th century, dormer windows were added, and
a chimney was built against the central truss. One
wall was later rebuilt in brick and the others were
rough-cast. Near-by is a large barn of six cruckframed bays, and a smaller building of two bays with
two surviving cruck-trusses.
In 1541 the Crown granted Rudge and Farley to
the new bishopric of Gloucester, (fn. 67) and the grant was
repeated in 1552. (fn. 68) In 1649 the manor of Rudge and
Farley included over 500 a., (fn. 69) and in 1839 the land
held by lessees of the Bishop of Gloucester, including Madam's End, Velthouse, Hardwicke, Farleys
End, and Pleasure farms, amounted to 637 a. (fn. 70)
Reynold de St. Valery, who died c. 1166, (fn. 71)
granted lands, described in 1185 as at Rudge and
held by Robert of the Field, to the Knights of the
Temple. (fn. 72) It has been suggested, for reasons that are
not clear, that the Templars' estate is to be identified
with the one hide in Standish that Hugh, Earl of
Chester, held in 1086. (fn. 73) It is possible that the land
granted by Reynold de St. Valery was associated
with that in Rudge granted to Gloucester Abbey by
Thomas of St. John, for c. 1160 Reynold claimed
land in Rudge against the Abbot of Gloucester, who
said that the land was part of the vill of Standish, (fn. 74)
and in 1138 Reynold held lands in Oxfordshire
jointly with John of St. John. Reynold's son,
Bernard of St. Valery (d. c. 1191), (fn. 75) was said in 1329
to have given the Templars their land in Rudge. It
was held from the manor of Guiting by service of
60s. a year, (fn. 76) and the overlordship passed with
Guiting from Pancius de Controne to William de
Clinton, Earl of Huntingdon, in 1340, (fn. 77) was held by
John Clinton, Lord Clinton, in 1486, (fn. 78) and belonged
in 1535 to Corpus Christi College, Oxford, which
received a rent of 60s. from an estate called Quedgeley, part of Guiting manor. (fn. 79)
Robert of the Field, the tenant of the Templars'
estate in 1185,was succeeded by others of the same
surname who held what was called, by the mid 15th
century, the manor of FIELD COURT. (fn. 80) The house
of Ernulphus (or Eulphus) of the Field was recorded
before 1179; (fn. 81) Robert of the Field had land in
Rudge at the end of the 12th century, (fn. 82) and Gilbert
of the Field had land near-by in 1221. (fn. 83) Robert of
the Field lived in the neighbourhood c. 1240, (fn. 84) and
Robert of the Field, son and heir of Robert, (fn. 85) died
in 1308 or 1309 holding as of Guiting manor a chief
house, 120 a. of arable in demesne, and other
property in the Field by Quedgeley. His heir was
his son, another Robert, (fn. 86) who was recorded as one
of the lords of Hardwicke in 1316 (fn. 87) but whose son
John, with the second highest tax-assessment in
Hardwicke, had succeeded him by 1327, (fn. 88) and
perhaps by 1326. (fn. 89) John of the Field was described
as of Hardwicke in 1332, (fn. 90) and in 1333 Margery of
Dean released to him all her rights in lands and a
rent in Hardwicke. (fn. 91)
No evidence has been found of John's successors
until 1402, when John Russell and his wife Elizabeth
held his lands. (fn. 92) By 1438 land in Hardwicke was
held from Thomas Deerhurst, (fn. 93) who served as M.P.
for Gloucester and for Gloucestershire in the period
1433-49 (fn. 94) and was described as of Hardwicke in
1443 (fn. 95) and 1451. (fn. 96) Thomas Deerhurst's son John (fn. 97)
was lord of Field Court in 1469 (fn. 98) and died in 1484
leaving an infant son Thomas. (fn. 99) Thomas died in
1505, having settled Field Court or Deerhurst
Court on his wife Margery, who as Margery Cheyne,
widow, died in 1510. Their son and heir Thomas (fn. 1)
apparently died childless in 1511, and the manor
passed, directly or indirectly, to Richard Barrow (or
Berewe), son of John, son of Walter Barrow and his
wife Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Deerhurst
the M.P. (fn. 2)
Richard Barrow was in possession of the manor in
1525, (fn. 3) and died in 1563. (fn. 4) His son Edmund died in
1570, (fn. 5) and was succeeded by his son James, who was
in turn succeeded by his son Edmund (fn. 6) in 1606. (fn. 7)
Edmund died in 1641; his eldest son William died
before him, (fn. 8) his youngest son Richard in 1651. (fn. 9)
Field Court had apparently passed to another of
Edmund's sons, Thomas Barrow, (fn. 10) by 1670;
Thomas was succeeded in 1683 by his son, Thomas
Barrow of Field Court, who died in 1736 and whose
daughter and heir Eleanor married Thomas Savage
(d. 1760), (fn. 11) Vicar of Standish. George Savage, son
of Thomas and Eleanor, died childless in 1793, and
in 1794 John Mills, who had married Margaret, one
of the sisters and coheirs of George, (fn. 12) acquired the
whole of Field Court manor by buying the interests of the other coheirs. (fn. 13) Mills was succeeded in
1825 by his daughter Elizabeth, who sold the greater
part of the estate, including the manor-house, to
John Curtis-Hayward (fn. 14) in 1831. (fn. 15) Field Court
then descended with the Curtis-Haywards' estate
in Quedgeley. (fn. 16) The farm, for a time used as a home
farm, amounted to 271 a. (fn. 17) It was sold in 1939, and
in 1958 was bought by Mr. S. T. Cole, who owned it
with 204 a. in 1967. (fn. 18)
The house of Ernulphus of the Field, recorded
before 1179, (fn. 19) was presumably on the moated site
of Field Court; Richard Barrow's house was called
by that name in 1528. (fn. 20) Thomas Barrow's house had
6 hearths in 1672. (fn. 21) The house was usually the home
of its owners up to the mid 18th century, but from
then or slightly later until the mid 20th century it
was occupied by tenants or servants. (fn. 22) The north
wing of the house has a north gable-end of large
squared blocks of oolite; the side walls are of roughcast coursed Lias rubble, and the east wall has two
tall mullioned and transomed windows, each of two
lights with quatrefoil tracery, one with pointed the
other with trefoil-headed arches. Between the two
windows and in the west wall were found the remains
of similar windows. (fn. 23) The north wing was apparently
a 15th-century open hall which was given a new roof
of the original pitch in the 19th century; an upper
floor was inserted at the level of the window tracery,
perhaps in the early 17th century at the same time
as the long cross-wing was built across the south end.
The cross-wing has coursed Lias rubble for most of
the ground-floor walls, timber-framing for the
upper floor, the whole rough-cast except where the
large quoins and some ground-floor walling of
oolitic ashlar are exposed. A new entrance porch
and window were added at the west side of the
north wing c. 1840, but in the porch, apparently
reset, are a decorative plaster panel, which might
be the frieze from a fireplace or a door of the early
17th century, and two stone corbel-heads, which
might have supported a central truss in the 15thcentury hall. The moats, which in the early 19th
century had a total length of ¼ mile, (fn. 24) had been filled
by 1967.
St. Bartholomew's Hospital, Gloucester, owned
land in Hardwicke, including land called Grove
End, from the later 13th century. (fn. 25) Although in
1387 the hospital exchanged a house and 10 a. there
for a shop in Gloucester, (fn. 26) a house and land were
held at farm from the hospital in 1535. (fn. 27) In 1839
the estate was represented by 2 cottages and 31 a.
held under lease from Gloucester Corporation. (fn. 28)
In the later Middle Ages the great tithes of
Hardwicke belonged, with those of Standish, to the
abbey and later to the bishopric of Gloucester. (fn. 29) In
1839 they were commuted for a corn-rent of £385. (fn. 30)
Standish manor included some customary holdings
in Hardwicke, (fn. 31) and 376 a. in Hardwicke belonged
to Standish manor in 1612. (fn. 32) In the 19th century the
Niblett family of Haresfield Court had a large estate
in Hardwicke, (fn. 33) where 265 a. belonged to D. J.
Niblett in 1839. (fn. 34) The land was later added to the
Hardwicke Court estate. (fn. 35)