CHUTE FOREST
Chute Forest parish adjoins Hampshire c.
5 km. north-west of Andover. (fn. 19) Its land, which
formed a rough quadrilateral, was the demesne
wood of the Wiltshire part of Chute forest
until it was disafforested in 1639, (fn. 20) and it was
extra-parochial. Its inhabitants relieved their
own poor from c. 1780 (fn. 21) and it was a civil parish
in the 19th century. (fn. 22) A church was built in
1870-1, and from 1875, when the church was
consecrated and the civil parish was assigned to
it as a district, (fn. 23) Chute Forest was also an
ecclesiastical parish. Between 1820 and 1839
an eastern projection of c. 150 a. at the south
end of its east side, which was the Hampshire
part of Chute forest in the earlier 17th century,
was added to, or acknowledged to be part of,
the parish, (fn. 24) presumably because the overseers
of Chute Forest began to relieve paupers living
on it. Thereafter the parish measured 1,973 a.
(798 ha.) until 1987, when it was increased to
825 ha. by a transfer of land to it from Ludgershall. (fn. 25)
The boundary of the parish as it was in 1820,
most of which, as the boundary of Chute forest,
was recited in 1300 and 1330, was from the early
17th century or earlier almost entirely marked by
roads on its north and east sides, and mainly by
roads on the other two sides. (fn. 26) On the east the
boundary follows the bottom of a dry valley, as it
does for a short distance on the west; elsewhere
it ignores relief.
Chalk outcrops over the whole parish, across
which no stream flows. The land falls from north
to south and is broken by north-south dry
valleys, one of which, called Cadley bottom in the
north and Soper's bottom in the south, is straight
and runs across the middle of the parish. There
are deposits of clay-with-flints on the ridges between Soper's bottom and Long bottom, west of
Long bottom, and in the eastern projection, and
of gravel in Soper's bottom and the valley east
of it. The land reaches 185 m. on the northern
boundary, 107 m. on the southern. (fn. 27) In the
Middle Ages much of the parish was presumably
woodland; (fn. 28) in the earlier 17th century much of
it was farmland. (fn. 29) From the 18th century to the
20th, although there was a park and some woodland, c. 85 per cent of the parish was farmland,
and in the earlier 19th century mainly arable. (fn. 30)
Chute Forest had 99 inhabitants in 1801, 144
in 1821. The population had fallen to 110 by
1831, after which it rose steadily to reach its peak
of 188 in 1871. It had fallen to 119 by 1891, risen
to 152 by 1911, fallen to 98 by 1951, (fn. 31) and risen
to 145 by 1981. The parish, which was slightly
enlarged in 1987, had 146 inhabitants in 1991. (fn. 32)
No major road crosses the parish, access to
which, as a royal forest, may for long have been
restricted, and roads ran along its boundaries. (fn. 33)
None was of more than local importance. In the
later 18th century a north-south road across the
parish ran through Cadley bottom and Soper's
bottom; where it ran across the park in the centre
of the parish it had been partly obliterated by
the 19th century, (fn. 34) but its course remained a
public bridleway in the late 20th. Also in the
later 18th century a road crossed the north-east
part of the parish, and between that and the road
along the south boundary a road led across the
parish to serve the mansion called Chute
Lodge; (fn. 35) both were public roads in the late 20th
century. That serving the mansion, which also
served Chute Forest village in the 20th century, (fn. 36)
was called Lodge Lane on the north-east; its
south-west end skirted the park.
CHUTE FOREST 1839
A hoard of early Iron-Age coins found in the
north-east part is the only evidence of prehistoric
activity in the parish. (fn. 37)
A lodge in the Wiltshire part of Chute forest
in 1501 (fn. 38) probably stood near its centre. A house
called Chute Lodge standing in the centre of the
forest in 1632 (fn. 39) was presumably that lodge or a
successor built on or near its site, and a new
Chute Lodge built in the later 18th century
stands on or near the site of that standing in
1632. (fn. 40) Outbuildings stood north of the new
Chute Lodge; in 1839, when some of them were
used for farming, they apparently included a
gardener's cottage. A farmstead, also standing
north of the house in 1839, (fn. 41) was possibly built
in the early 19th century and was later called
Home Farm; the farmhouse had a main north
west front of red brick and other walls of flint
and brick. A church was built further north in
the later 19th century (fn. 42) and that, Chute Lodge
and its outbuildings, and Home Farm were the
only buildings at the centre of the parish until
the 20th century. One of the outbuildings was
converted to a pair of cottages, possibly in the
19th century, and another was apparently converted to a house in the 20th. (fn. 43) At Home Farm
large new farm buildings were erected in the
later 20th century: they and most of the other
farm buildings were demolished in the 1990s, (fn. 44)
and in 1998 the farmhouse was being rebuilt. In
the early 20th century two pairs of cottages were
built beside Lodge Lane, (fn. 45) farm buildings and
c. 15 other houses were built later, and in the
later 20th century the village was given the name
Chute Forest. (fn. 46) From c. 1942 to c. 1950 Chute
Lodge was used as a Borstal institution. (fn. 47)
Most other settlement in Chute Forest parish
has been beside the roads on its periphery. On
the northern boundary at Cadley and Lower
Chute, hamlets which grew up on common
pasture mainly in Chute parish, five cottages and
houses of the 17th and 18th centuries, four of
them thatched, and five 20th-century houses
stand in Chute Forest parish. (fn. 48) A little south of
Lower Chute a lodge was built between 1839
and 1879 beside the old road through Cadley
bottom. (fn. 49) South-west of Lower Chute, Jolly's
House had been built by 1731, (fn. 50) and Jolly's
Farm and Forest Farm had been built by 1773. (fn. 51)
The farmhouse of Jolly's Farm, of flint with
brick dressings, was apparently built in the
earlier 18th century and may be Jolly's House;
that of Forest Farm was replaced in the late
19th century by Forest House, a large, threestoreyed, house of red brick and flint. In the
extreme north-east corner of the parish a small
farmstead built between 1820 and 1839 was
demolished in the mid 20th century. (fn. 52)
Beside the road which marked the south part
of the parish's eastern boundary until the earlier
19th century two farmsteads were built. Pollard's Farm, called Forest Farm or
Mockbeggared in 1773, (fn. 53) incorporates an apparently earlier 18th-century house of flint, brick,
and thatch. Redhouse Farm, including a brick
and flint farmhouse, was built between 1820 and
1839. (fn. 54) In the 20th century farm buildings were
erected on both sites and three bungalows were
built; a new farmstead, incorporating a late
20th-century house, was built 250 m. west of
Redhouse Farm. South of the farmsteads a
cottage, which belonged to the parish in 1839,
had been built on the verge beside the road by
1773. (fn. 55)
Near the southern boundary a house called
Flingly, later Flinty, standing in 1773, (fn. 56) was
apparently built in the 18th century; two pairs
of cottages were built beside it in the mid 19th
century. (fn. 57) North-west of Flinty House a small
farmstead called Soper's had been built by
1773; (fn. 58) the farmhouse was demolished between
1923 and 1942. (fn. 59)
In the south-west corner of the parish Longbottom Farm, the farmstead of the home farm
of the estate on which Biddesden House in
Ludgershall stood, was apparently built shortly
before 1820. (fn. 60) The farmhouse, which had a main
south front of three bays striped in brick and
flint, was extended eastwards and westwards in
the mid 20th century and much altered in the
1990s: West of the house two estate houses were
built in the mid 20th century.
ESTATES.
The Crown owned Chute forest
until 1639, when it granted it at fee farm to Sir
Henry Ludlow, Edward Manning, and Henry
Kelsey. (fn. 61) The forest was inclosed and divided,
apparently about then, and parts of it were
presumably allotted to the lords of manors in
villages around it in exchange for the right of
their tenants to feed animals on it. (fn. 62) The existence in the earlier 19th century of severally
owned small fields, mainly near the south
boundary of the parish, (fn. 63) suggests that allotments were also made to replace cottagers' rights
in the forest.
What came to be called the CHUTE LODGE
estate, including a lodge, agricultural land accounted 286 a., and woodland, was apparently
acquired by Edward Manning c. 1639 and passed
to Richard Manning. In 1650, after Richard's
death, his representatives sold the estate to John
Collins (fn. 64) (knighted 1681, d. 1711), apparently a
non-juror. (fn. 65) By 1691 the estate had been bought
by Sir William Scroggs (d. 1695), who by his
nuncupative will gave it to his wife Anne (d.
1746) for the good of her and her children. (fn. 66) It
passed to William Scroggs (d. 1756), who had
sons William and Edward, (fn. 67) and c. 1760 was
bought by John Freeman. (fn. 68) The estate passed
on Freeman's death in 1794 to his son Strickland, (fn. 69) who sold it to William Fowle c. 1805. (fn. 70)
In 1839 Fowle (d. 1840) owned Chute Lodge,
724 a. around it, and an additional 184 a. in
Chute Forest parish. (fn. 71) He devised that estate to
his son the Revd. Henry Fowle (d. 1865), (fn. 72) who
was succeeded in it by his brother T. E. Fowle
(d. 1877). The Chute Lodge estate passed from
T. E. Fowle to his son W. H. Fowle, who c. 1906
sold Chute Lodge, the land around it, and 100
a. of the other land to Alexander Grant-Meek. (fn. 73)
In 1908 Grant-Meek sold the estate to Isabella,
the wife of Lord John Joicey-Cecil, (fn. 74) in 1927
Lady Joicey-Cecil sold it to W. A. Adinsell, and
in 1928 Adinsell owned 902 a. in the parish. In
1942 Adinsell sold his estate there to the
Crown. (fn. 75) About 1950 the Crown sold the estate
to a speculator, from whom John Cherrington
bought Home farm, c. 550 a. In 1962 Cherrington sold the farm to his son Mr. Rowan
Cherrington, (fn. 76) who sold it in 1996. In 1998 the
farm belonged to members of the Guinness
family as part of the estate centred on Biddesden
House. (fn. 77)
A house called Chute Lodge was standing in
1632 and was lived in by Sir John Collins in
1650; a chapel was consecrated in it in 1674. (fn. 78) It
was replaced by a new Chute Lodge, (fn. 79) built on
or near its site c. 1768 for John Freeman to
designs by Sir Robert Taylor. The new house
was one of several compact country houses
designed by Taylor in the 1760s for men who
were connected with the West India Company. (fn. 80)
It was built of red brick with stone dressings, as
a rectangle of seven bays by five, and with a tall
basement faced in rusticated stone, a piano
nobile, and, except above the north-east and
north-west corner bays, an attic storey crowned
with a wide bracketed cornice. The north front,
of five bays, incorporates the main entrance,
which was reached by a pair of curved flights of
steps, in the central bay of the piano nobile; the
three central bays were surmounted by a pediment above the cornice. (fn. 81) On each of the other
three fronts there was a canted bay, that on the
south being of full height, those on the east and
west of two storeys. Exterior details, especially
the vermiculated surrounds to the main windows, are of high quality. Inside the house the
piano nobile has a hall, an octagonal saloon, a
dining room, and a library around an oval
staircase leading to the attic storey and lit from
above. Delicate neoclassical plasterwork, chimney pieces, and doorcases survive in situ. The
only access from the piano nobile to the basement was a staircase in the north-west angle of
the house. The kitchen, below the dining room,
is a double-height room sunk into a sub-basement. In the 19th century the north front of the
house was altered: the two corner bays were
raised by an attic storey, and a level stone
balustrade was added to each; the flights of steps
to the entrance were replaced by a terrace connected to the ground by a straight flight of steps
at each end. The alterations may have been those
made to the house in 1866 to designs by J. L.
Pearson. (fn. 82) The house was greatly enlarged in the
period 1906-8 by the construction of new bedrooms in the roof, in which dormer windows
were made, and by the building of an east wing.
The wing, on an L plan, is almost as large as,
and was built in a style and with materials
sympathetic to, the original house. In the mid
20th century the house, especially the wing, was
altered for use as a Borstal institution and afterwards as a school; by the early 1980s it had been
divided into five dwellings. (fn. 83)
The house built c. 1768 was approached from
the north by a drive leading through a small
plantation. About 150 m. north of the house a
walled garden lay east of the plantation, and
outbuildings stood north of the garden; all that
survived of them in 1998 were 18th-century gate
piers and part of the garden wall. The house
stood in a park of c. 150 a. crossed by the road
through Cadley bottom and Soper's bottom, and
a long north-south plantation stood east of the
road. (fn. 84) Between 1773 and 1795 the park was
altered in the style of Lancelot Brown (fn. 85) and,
presumably at the same time, it was apparently
enlarged in all directions. Belts of trees standing
in 1839, and, with Lodge coppice, enclosing c.
440 a., probably marked the boundaries of an
enlarged park, in which other belts stood in the
south-east part; through the main north-south
and east-west belts there were rides. A new main
drive, screened from the farm buildings west of
it by trees, was made north-east of the house,
the plantation north of the house was enlarged
as a wilderness, and land immediately south of
the house was enclosed by a semicircular haha.
Further south of the house two circular plantations were made in the park. The road through
Soper's bottom was apparently closed. In 1839
a long drive led from the house southwards
across the park: where it left the park a lodge
was built between then and 1879, and where
it met the road along the south boundary of the
parish gate piers survived in 1998. The semicircle within the haha was planted with trees
between 1839 and 1879. In 1839 and later only
c. 110 a. around and south of the house was
preserved as a park; except for the woodland, the
rest of the enlarged park was used for agriculture. In the 20th century the wilderness and the
semicircle within the haha were cleared of trees,
and belts of trees south and south-east of the
house were grubbed up. (fn. 86)
Land in the south-west part of the parish, near
Biddesden House, was probably allotted to the
lord of Biddesden manor when Chute forest was
inclosed, apparently c. 1639. (fn. 87) In 1780 the children
of Thomas Humphreys, jointly lord of Biddesden
manor, held an estate in the parish, and in 1839
J. H. Everett, the lord of that manor, held 240
a. in the south-west part. (fn. 88) That land, as Home
later LONGBOTTOM farm, continued to pass
with Biddesden manor and, with Home farm,
Chute Forest, in 1998 belonged to members of
the Guinness family. (fn. 89)
Land in the east part of the parish belonged
in 1780 to John Freeman, the lord of Chute
manor and the owner of Chute Lodge. It passed
to his son Strickland, who sold it c. 1805 to
Thomas Everett, the lord of Biddesden manor. (fn. 90)
It passed with that manor to Everett's son J. H.
Everett, who in 1839 held it as REDHOUSE
farm and Forest later POLLARD'S farm, a total
of 348 a. About 1868 J. H. Everett's son Henry
Everett sold the two farms to T. E. Fowle, (fn. 91) the
owner of Chute Lodge. They passed with Chute
Lodge until c. 1927, when they were apparently
sold by Lady Joicey-Cecil. Redhouse farm, 273
a., belonged to A. E. Potter in 1928. (fn. 92) It was later
bought by Mr. M. K. B. Colvin, who in 1993
sold 160 a. of it to Mr. and Mrs. A. J. Hutchinson, the owners of that land in 1998, and himself
owned c. 70 a. in Chute Forest in 1998. (fn. 93) The
descent of Pollard's farm from c. 1927 has not
been traced.
In the north-west part of the parish Jolly's
House, and probably the land later called FOREST farm on which Forest House and Jolly's
Farm stood, belonged in 1731 to Richard Earle, (fn. 94)
whose estate may have passed successively to his
sons Charles (d. c. 1758) and John, and by 1770
had passed to his daughter Elizabeth (d. unmarried 1780). Elizabeth Earle settled the estate in
turn on Edward Poore (d. 1780 after her) and
his daughter Charlotte Poore (fn. 95) (will proved
1829), a descendant of the lessee of Jolly's House
in 1731, who devised it to Sir Edward Poore, Bt.
By 1831 it had passed, presumably by sale, to
William Fowle (fn. 96) (d. 1840), who held 184 a. in
the north-west part of the parish as Forest farm
in 1839. That land descended with Chute Lodge.
About 1906 W. H. Fowle (d. 1942) sold 100 a.
of it with Chute Lodge. (fn. 97) He retained Forest
House and 83 a. apparently until his death. (fn. 98) In
1998 Mr. G. B. Lambert owned c. 200 a. in the
north-west part of the parish as part of Standen
farm based in Chute parish. (fn. 99)
Land in the north-east part of the parish was
owned by Evelyn Medows, the owner of Conholt
House in Chute parish, from 1801 or earlier. In
1839 his successor Henry Manvers Pierrepont
owned 69 a. there, (fn. 1) most of which passed with
Conholt's land until c. 1897. (fn. 2) Its descent has not
been traced further.
From 1780 or earlier to 1880 or later 31 a. in
the west part of Chute Forest parish descended
in the Holt and Pollen families with the manor
of Fyfield (Hants). (fn. 3)
A charity endowed by Henry Rogers (will
proved 1672) to relieve poverty in Fyfield and
Thruxton (Hants) bought 30 a. in Chute Forest
c. 1813. (fn. 4) It sold it c. 1964. (fn. 5)
In the later 19th century or early 20th 50 a.
in the parish was bought by an almshouse at
Ewelme (Oxon.). (fn. 6) The almshouse owned the
land in 1998. (fn. 7)
The tithes of Chute forest were taken by
Salisbury cathedral, probably from the 12th
century as tithes from other forests in Wiltshire
were. (fn. 8) In the early 19th century the dean and
canons were entitled to all tithes from the whole
parish. In 1839 the tithes were valued at £460
and commuted. (fn. 9)
ECONOMIC HISTORY.
Although Chute
forest was not disafforested until granted by
the Crown in 1639, (fn. 10) the part of it north-east
of the lodge which in 1632 stood near the
centre of what became Chute Forest parish
was apparently used for agriculture by the
lessees before then. In 1642 corn was grown
over much of the former forest, and in 1650 c.
286 a. of agricultural land in nine closes was
held with Chute Lodge. (fn. 11) By 1665 allotments
of land had replaced rights to feed animals on
the former forest: most allotments were small,
especially in the south where one consisting of a
close of 1¾ a. in respect of a tenement and 10 a.
in Appleshaw (Hants) may not have been untypical. (fn. 12)
By 1773 five or more farmsteads had been
built beside the roads on the periphery of the
parish; Forest Farm and Jolly's Farm stood in
the north-west, Soper's, Flinty, and Pollard's in
the south-east. Longbottom Farm and Redhouse Farm were built in the earlier 19th
century. (fn. 13) In 1839 Chute Forest had c. 1,494
a. of arable and c. 169 a. of meadows and
pastures. Along the southern boundary many
of the allotments made before 1665 remained
small rectangular fields. In the centre of the
parish the owner of Chute Lodge kept in hand
428 a., of which 408 a. lay around Chute Lodge
and was bounded south, east, and west by belts
of trees. The 428 a. included 155 a. of arable,
the park of Chute Lodge and other pasture, c.
150 a., and woodland, and the agricultural land
was worked from buildings north of Chute
Lodge. The farmstead later called Home Farm
also stood in the centre of the parish north of
Chute Lodge: in 1839 it was part of a mainly
arable farm of 294 a. lying in the north-east
part of the parish. In the south-west part of
the parish Longbottom Farm and 240 a., of
which 222 a. was arable, were then kept in
hand by the owner of Biddesden House. Of the
other farms in Chute Forest parish Forest had
184 a. and included Jolly's Farm, Pollard's had
202 a., Redhouse had 146 a., and Soper's had
31 a. (fn. 14)
In the later 19th century land in the parish
was converted from arable to pasture, and on
farms worked from the parish fewer sheep and
more cattle were kept. (fn. 15) In the 1930s and 1990s
the parish was mainly arable. (fn. 16) In 1910 woodland and 186 a., probably all parkland, were held
with Chute Lodge. Home farm had 445 a.,
Redhouse farm 205 a., Pollard's farm 118 a.,
Jolly's farm 76 a., and Soper's farm 66 a.; 129
a. in the parish was worked from Cadley. Longbottom Farm and 250 a. were part of the home
farm of the Biddesden estate, and other land,
mainly in the south and east, was worked from
outside the parish. (fn. 17) In 1928 Home farm had 417
a., Redhouse farm 273 a. (fn. 18)
Most of the buildings of Home farm were
demolished in the 1990s, (fn. 19) and in 1998 three
sets of farm buildings in the south-east corner,
on and near the sites of Redhouse Farm and
Pollard's Farm, were the only ones in the
parish. The land formerly worked from Longbottom Farm, Home farm, Forest farm, and
much of what had been the park of Chute
Lodge were worked from outside the parish and
were mainly arable. North-west of Home Farm
large houses for poultry were built in the later
20th century. (fn. 20)
In the Middle Ages what became Chute
Forest parish was the king's demesne wood, (fn. 21)
and much of it was presumably covered with
trees. In the earlier 17th century the woodland
in what became the parish stood as five coppices, 484 a., in the north and west parts, and
trees grew on much of the land in the south.
Most of the woodland was grubbed up, possibly in the 17th century, (fn. 22) and in 1839 there
was 146 a. of woodland in the parish. The
largest wood in 1839 was Lodge coppice, 18 a.
north of Chute Lodge, a remnant of a wood of
that name accounted 92 a. in 1650. Most of the
other woodland in 1839 stood immediately
north-west of Chute Lodge, in the belts along
the boundary of the land held with Chute
Lodge, in circular plantations in the park, and
in north-south linear plantations in the park
and east of Lodge coppice. (fn. 23) The woodland
immediately north-west of the house was removed in the mid 20th century; the southern
boundary belt, the south part of the eastern
boundary belt, and the linear plantations in the
south-east part of the park were removed in
the later 20th century. (fn. 24)
A malthouse standing in 1785 (fn. 25) was probably
at Cadley. In 1839 a malthouse stood there, a
brickworks 300 m. north-west of Chute Lodge,
and a lime kiln 850 m. west of Chute Lodge. (fn. 26)
The brickworks apparently remained in use until
the late 19th century. (fn. 27)
LOCAL GOVERNMENT.
Chute Forest was
extra-parochial and paupers born there were
presumably unrelieved until, c. 1780, the inhabitants began to relieve them. In the three years
to Easter 1785 Chute Forest spent an average of
£56 to relieve its poor. In 1802-3 it spent £101
on regular relief for 15 adults and 22 children
and occasional relief for 3 people. (fn. 28) At £235
spending was high in 1812-13, when 9 adults
were relieved regularly and 6 occasionally, and
at £113 low in 1813-14, when there were still 9
adults receiving regular relief and 4 received
occasional relief. Between 1813-14 and 1823-4
spending exceeded £200 in only one year, between 1823-4 and 1833-4 in all years but one.
It reached a peak of £311 in 1829-30. (fn. 29) Chute
Forest joined Andover poor-law union in 1835 (fn. 30)
and was transferred to Pewsey union in 1879. (fn. 31)
The parish became part of Kennet district in
1974. (fn. 32)
CHURCH.
Chute Forest church was built in
1870-1. (fn. 33) In 1875 it was consecrated, (fn. 34) a district
was assigned to it, (fn. 35) and an incumbent called a
vicar was licensed. (fn. 36) In 1924 the vicarage was
united with Chute vicarage (fn. 37) and in 1954 the two
parishes were united. (fn. 38) Chute Forest church was
closed in 1972, and in 1974 it passed to the care
of the Redundant Churches Fund, later the
Churches Conservation Trust. (fn. 39) In 1979 the
united benefice became part of Wexcombe
benefice. (fn. 40)
In 1875 the incumbent was nominated by T.
E. Fowle (d. 1877), the owner of Chute Lodge. (fn. 41)
The patronage passed in turn to his relict Sarah
Fowle (d. 1901) and son W. H. Fowle (d. 1942),
who from 1924 shared the patronage of the
united benefice. From 1942 the share was held
by W. H. Fowle's son W. T. Fowle (d. 1968). (fn. 42)
No member of the Fowle family sat on the board
of patronage for Wexcombe benefice. (fn. 43)
The incumbency was endowed in 1875 by the
Ecclesiastical Commissioners, who gave their
tithe rent charge on 594 a. of the parish, and by
T. E. Fowle. (fn. 44) No house was built for the
incumbent, who from 1889 or earlier lived outside the parish. From 1903 the vicarage was held
in plurality with Chute vicarage, and the incumbent lived in the vicarage house at Chute; from
1924 that house was lived in by the incumbent
of the united benefice. (fn. 45)
The church of ST. MARY was built to
designs by J. L. Pearson. (fn. 46) It is of patterned
brick and flint and consists of a chancel with
north vestry and south transept and a nave with
north and south aisles, each with an east chapel,
and south-west porch; above the transept there
is a tower with a pyramidal spire. The chancel
and the nave are undivided and each of two bays.
Their roof is of trussed timber divided into bays
by brick diaphragm arches; the vestry has a
wagon roof. Inside the church the walls, piers,
and arches are of brick, the reredos, pulpit, and
font are of stone, and the seats are wooden. (fn. 47)
In 1875 T. E. Fowle gave a rent charge of £5
as a repair fund for the church. (fn. 48) In the 1920s
insurance and occasional repairs were paid for
from the fund. (fn. 49)
Two chalices, two patens, and a flagon, all of
silver gilt, were given in 1875. (fn. 50) The church had
six bells, all cast by Mears & Stainbank in 1871; (fn. 51)
they were rehung in Chute church in 1976. (fn. 52)
NONCONFORMITY.
A Methodist chapel
straddling the boundary with Chute parish was
built between Cadley and Lower Chute in 1844
and closed in 1990. (fn. 53)
EDUCATION.
The children of inhabitants of
Chute Forest attended schools in other parishes. (fn. 54) Chute Lodge was used as Staddles
preparatory school from c. 1951 to 1970. (fn. 55)
CHARITY FOR THE POOR.
None known.