MANORS AND OTHER ESTATES.
King Edgar
in 972 confirmed to Pershore Abbey various lands
and privileges, including 5 mansi at Longney. (fn. 87)
That was evidently the same estate as the 5 hides
which Elsi, one of the king's thegns, held in 1066
and 1086. (fn. 88) Elsi died or forfeited the estate in 1086
or 1087, for Osbert son of Pons later held it by grant
from William I. (fn. 89) Osbert may have been aware of
Pershore Abbey's former title, for c. 1115 he granted
to the abbey, where his son Ralph was a monk, a
fishery in Longney and the reversion of the church
there. (fn. 90) Pershore continued to hold land and fisheries
in Longney, (fn. 91) but in 1127 (fn. 92) Osbert gave Longney,
with the church and all appurtenances, to Great
Malvern Priory, (fn. 93) which retained the manor of
LONGNEY
(fn. 94) until the Dissolution. (fn. 95) In 1591 the
Crown granted the manor to Richard Lewknor and
others, (fn. 96) on behalf of John Lumley, Lord Lumley, (fn. 97)
and the same grantees in 1592 acquired the remainder of a lease made in 1591. Between 1597 (fn. 98) and
1602 Henry Smith was joined with Lord Lumley as
lord of the manor, (fn. 99) and in 1604 Lumley and others
conveyed the manor to Smith. (fn. 1) Smith, an alderman
of London who died in 1628, used the manor as part
of the endowment of the charity which he founded
for the benefit of various parishes, mostly in Surrey. (fn. 2)
Smith's trustees held the manor and over 1,200 a. in
1968. (fn. 3)
Manor Farm presumably stands on the site of the
manor, the hall of which may, by 1327, have given
Richard atte Hall his surname. (fn. 4) The surviving house
was built of brick in the earlier 18th century. A
dovecot belonging to the house was recorded in
1291 (fn. 5) and c. 1553. (fn. 6)
The rectory estate of Longney, held by Wulfwin
the priest c. 1115 when it was granted in reversion
to Pershore Abbey, (fn. 7) passed with the manor in 1127
to Great Malvern Priory, (fn. 8) to which it was confirmed
by the pope in 1216. (fn. 9) In 1606 Francis Moore,
possibly a descendant of William Moore, who held
the rectory by lease from Great Malvern Priory at
the Dissolution and in 1564, (fn. 10) received a grant of
the rectory, but not the advowson of the vicarage,
in fee farm from the Crown. (fn. 11) Between 1628 and
1633 the trustees of Henry Smith's charity bought
the rectory from Ralph Horniold, Edmund Barnes,
and Thomas Suffield, (fn. 12) and the estate, including
15 a. allotted in place of tithes at inclosure in 1815, (fn. 13)
became merged with the manor.
Although Pershore Abbey lost the reversion of
Longney church, it received from Osbert son of
Pons, perhaps in compensation, two fisheries called
Hineweir and Boneweir and ½ hide of land which
four villeins held, apparently in Longney. Walter
son of Richard son of Pons, later called Walter
Clifford, confirmed his uncle Osbert's gift to
Pershore of the two fisheries and ½ hide, and also of
the church of Longney which had by then passed
to Great Malvern Priory. Ralph son of Ernisius held
a yardland in Longney for which he owed the abbey
1 mark a year and hospitality for the abbot and
cellarer or kitchener on their visits to Longney; (fn. 14) in
1221 he settled half the yardland on Ellis Bythewater and Edith his wife for their lives. (fn. 15) In 1273
the abbot had two free and four unfree tenants in
Longney. (fn. 16) The abbey appears to have received only
fixed rents amounting in 1291 to 40s., (fn. 17) the same as
in 1535. (fn. 18) That fact and the hospitality owed by one
of the tenants make it likely that the house in
Longney where the Bishop of Worcester spent a
night in 1340 was not the Abbot of Pershore's
manor-house (fn. 19) but the house of one of the abbot's
tenants or the manor-house of the Prior of Great
Malvern.
Pershore Abbey's estate in Longney was linked
with that in Cowley, and was granted with it to the
Dean and Chapter of Westminster in 1542, 1556,
and 1560, being regarded as a manor or part of a
manor. (fn. 20) In the early 17th century the dean and
chapter's income from the estate was still 40s. (fn. 21) The
principal holding on the estate was described in 1788
as a copyhold of 37½ a. called BRIDGEMACOT
manor. (fn. 22) In 1678 a yardland called Bridgemacot was
occupied by Anselm Howman, (fn. 23) and in 1689 it was
granted to Anne Lysons. Daniel Lysons of Hempsted (d. 1736) (fn. 24) held Bridgemacot by copyhold in
1705 and 1733, and his son Daniel (d. 1773) in 1749;
the younger Daniel's son, also Daniel (d. 1800), held
both Bridgemacot and another copyhold of the
Westminster estate in 1788, and his title passed to
his nephew Samuel Lysons (d. 1819), who apparently bought the freehold of both estates between
1804 (fn. 25) and 1812. (fn. 26) Samuel's nephew, Samuel Lysons
(d. 1877), sold Bridgemacot manor to S. A. Beck in
1846. (fn. 27) In 1848 the farm was in the hands of B.
Land, (fn. 28) and Joseph or Mary Land was presumably
farming it in 1856. In 1869 it belonged to Richard
Vimpany, the farmer in 1885; Richard Land
Vimpany, farming Bridgemacot in 1935, died in
1938, when Annie Vimpany, apparently his daughter,
sold it to J. C. Camm, of Elmore Farm, (fn. 29) whose
widow owned it in 1968. (fn. 30) The farm-house, which
was then let without any land, was built of brick in
1770 with a Lias stone extension of 1848. (fn. 31) A
timber-framed part of the house extant in 1803 (fn. 32)
was not visible in 1968.
John Hathemere, recorded as a taxpayer in 1327, (fn. 33)
had a freehold estate of a house and yardland in
1356, when John Hathemere the younger and Robert
Hathemere had each a smaller estate. All three
estates were held of the Prior of Great Malvern,
and all three passed to John Hathemere, fishmonger
of London, from whom William Saunders held them
at farm in 1383. (fn. 34) John Hathemere's sister and heir
Janet married Thomas Gorst and had a daughter
Agnes, wife of Lawrence Prowe, whose daughters
Joan and Cecily married respectively John Lawrence
and Robert Dowdeswell. The Lawrences' only child
Thomas died without issue; the Dowdeswells' son
Edmund (fl. 1461) had two daughters, of whom one
died childless and the other married Robert Foswell
and had a daughter, wife of Thomas Farr or Currer
and mother of Richard Farr or Currer, who as a
kinsman and heir of Walter Hathemere (perhaps a
predecessor of the John Hathemere of 1327) quitclaimed his estate in Longney to Corpus Christi
College, Oxford, in 1545. (fn. 35) In 1801 and 1808 the
college leased a house and land called Hamars to
Richard Land, (fn. 36) who in 1815 held 39 a. of college
land. The farm-house was Hill Farm, (fn. 37) called
Halmer's Farm in 1880. (fn. 38) The college agreed to sell
the farm to Urbane Land Hawkins, the occupier in
1885, (fn. 39) at whose request it conveyed the farm in
1887 to Thomas Hawkins. In 1920 Thomas Hawkins
sold Hill Farm with 69 a. to R. C. and G. F. Butt,
who in turn sold it in 1926 to Henry Chamberlayne,
whose grandson, T. H. Chamberlayne, owned and
occupied Hill Farm with c. 75 a. in 1968. (fn. 40) The
two-storied house, long and rectangular on plan and
having a central chimney between the entrance
doorway and the staircase, was built in the earlier
17th century; most of its timber-framing has been
hidden by brickwork, but it retained its thatch in
1968.