MANORS AND OTHER ESTATES.
In 1086 the
manor of WINSTONE was held by Ansfrid de
Cormeilles who had received it on his marriage to a
niece of Walter de Lacy, (fn. 45) although Walter's son
Hugh may have held the estate at some stage. (fn. 46) The
overlordship of the manor descended with the honor
of Cormeilles, (fn. 47) passing in the early 13th century, at
the division of the honor among the daughters of
Walter de Cormeilles, to Godfrey of Craycombe who
married Alice. (fn. 48) From 1303, however, the earls of
Hereford were regarded as overlords of Winstone
manor, (fn. 49) possibly by virtue of a grant of the overlordship of the honor of Cormeilles made by the
Empress Maud to Miles of Gloucester in 1141. (fn. 50)
Henry of Pembridge, a member of a family which
was a Herefordshire tenant of the honor of Cormeilles, (fn. 51) held land at Winstone in 1177 or 1178, (fn. 52)
and in 1216 the lands of Ralph and Henry of
Pembridge at Winstone were placed in the custody
of William de Cauntelo, Henry being with the king's
enemies. (fn. 53) The lands must have been restored to the
family by 1236 when a Henry of Pembridge held 19 / 20
of a fee at Winstone. (fn. 54) Henry of Pembridge, probably
the heir of the above, sided with Simon de Montfort
against the Crown, and in 1264 his lands were taken
by John Giffard. (fn. 55) Henry was probably dead by 1276
but his son, Henry (d. 1279), although admitted to
the king's peace in 1268, does not seem to have held
land at Winstone, which estate may have been held
in dower by his mother Elizabeth. (fn. 56) Winstone had
probably reverted by 1298 to another Henry of
Pembridge, who presented a kinsman to the living. (fn. 57)
In 1303 Henry sold a wood and lands in the western
part of the parish to Hugh Despenser (fn. 58) and in
1310 conveyed the manor of Winstone to Geoffrey
of Pulham, (fn. 59) who sold it to Despenser later that
year. (fn. 60) Subsequently it descended with the part of
Bisley manor that Despenser acquired, reverting to
the Crown on the death of Catherine Parr in 1548. (fn. 61)
The Crown sold the manor in 1553 to Sir Anthony
Hungerford (fn. 62) of Down Ampney. It had passed by
1561 to his son Henry Hungerford (fn. 63) (d. 1580), who
was succeeded by his son Anthony. (fn. 64) Anthony conveyed Winstone to his kinsman Anthony Hungerford
of Garsdon (Wilts.) in 1602, (fn. 65) and Thomas Hungerford was lord of the manor in 1608. (fn. 66) Thomas sold
the manor to Sir William Sandys in 1622 (fn. 67) from
which time it has descended with Miserden manor. (fn. 68)
The former manor-house, later called Manor
Farm, (fn. 69) dates from the late 16th century when a
member of the Hungerford family of Down Ampney
probably rebuilt the house and placed the family
arms over the porch. (fn. 70) The house, built of rubble
and roofed with Cotswold stone, has two storeys with
attic dormers and is of five bays. The house was
probably only lived in for a short while, if at all, as a
manor-house and became a farm-house, which
appearance it retains. Sometime after 1779 the porch
was removed, and in the mid 20th century the farmhouse was divided into four cottages for workers on
the Miserden Park estate. (fn. 71)
In 1599 Thomas Estcourt of Shipton Moyne died
seised of property in Winstone, also referred to as
the manor of WINSTONE, which he held of
Anthony Hungerford, lord of Winstone. (fn. 72) This
reputed manor corresponded to the land at Winstone
bought by Estcourt in 1580 from Peter Warburton
and Thomas Corbett, (fn. 73) but no further account of it
has been found and it probably merged with the
chief manor.
Among the smaller landowners in the parish the
Haviland family was prominent. William Haviland
took copyhold and leasehold estates from the manor
in 1745, and in 1777 his son William purchased a
freehold estate from the lord of the manor and also
bought the reversion in fee of his father's estates.
The elder William died in 1786 and the younger
conveyed his estate to trustees in 1790 for a sale to
clear his debts. It was bought in 1793 by Richard
Haviland of Upton St. Leonards, who sold it to
Joseph Pitt of Cirencester in 1797. In 1800 Pitt sold
the estate to William Stephens (d. 1820), who devised
it to his nephew, also William Stephens. In 1833 the
younger William sold the estate to William Penn
Gaskell of Cheltenham, who sold 175 a. to John
Rolt, lord of the manor, in 1863. (fn. 74) The farm-house
of the estate was Townsend Farm, a 17th-century,
coursed rubble building at the west end of the
village. (fn. 75)
Part of an estate held by John Haviland the elder
in 1782 comprised 83 a. in the open fields, (fn. 76) which
had been sold to the Cotswold Park estate in North
Cerney by 1796. (fn. 77) The residue of his estate passed to
his son, Edward Painter Haviland (d. 1811), who left
his lands to his daughters by his second marriage.
The greater part of the property, known as the Old
House estate, passed to his daughter Elizabeth while
his daughter Anne received a small estate. Elizabeth
died unmarried in 1830 so that the property was
united in the hands of her sister Anne, who married
Charles Stevens. Anne died without issue in 1854
when the heirs to the estate under her father's will
were the children of her half-sister Mary, who had
married Robert Sutton. (fn. 78) The estate was put up for
sale in 1857 when part, comprising Croft Farm and
76 a., was acquired, or possibly retained, by Charles
Sutton, (fn. 79) and the Sutton family apparently kept that
land until 1881. (fn. 80) Croft Farm, on the south side of
Church Lane, is a small, coursed rubble, 18thcentury house, renovated at various dates. Two
18th-century barns survive among the out-buildings.