YAVERLAND
Ewerelande (vii cent.); Evreland, Everelant
(xi cent.); Awerlond, Ewerlaund (xiii cent.);
Yoverlond, Everlond (xiv cent.).
Yaverland, containing 894 acres of land, water
and foreshore, doubtless at one time included in
Brading, forms the southern part of the Bembridge
peninsula. The village consists of a few cottages on
either side of the road from Sandown and the small
farm-house of Little Yaverland. The road rises
gradually from the Sandown level, and beyond the
village enters a deep 'shute' or cutting between the
high wooded banks of the rectory which lies on the
right, and about 100 yards further on passes the
church and manor-house, which here make a most
picturesque grouping, and joins the main road from
Brading to Bembridge.
There is a fort at Yaverland and a battery at the
Redcliff, now disused and in ruin owing to a settlement in the cliff.
The soil is loam with a subsoil of clay, chalk and
sandstone, and in 1905 the parish included 301 acres
of arable land, 237 acres of permanent grass and
15 acres of woodland. (fn. 1)
The Rev. Legh Richmond, the well-known author
of moral stories, was curate in charge of Yaverland,
1797–1805.
MANOR
Thirty hides at YAVERLAND are
said to have been given by Ine, who succeeded, as king of the West Saxons in
689, to the church of St. Swithun, Winchester. (fn. 2) It
is not known how or when the church lost this land,
but it came into the possession of Edward the Confessor and was held before the Conquest in two parts.
One part the king held in demesne, and the other
part was held under him by Ælmer and Soartin.
The first part was held by King William in 1086,
but the second had passed to William son of Azor. (fn. 3)
The two manors probably included the whole of the
peninsula, as it was of the considerable value of £10.
The whole of Yaverland, which was held of the
honour of Carisbrooke, (fn. 4) seems to have passed to the
Aula family. (fn. 5) Thomas de Aula is mentioned in a
deed of 1228, (fn. 6) and in 1254 his son Roger de Aula
obtained a grant of free warren
at Yaverland. (fn. 7) Thomas de
Aula is mentioned as lord of
Tothill in 1267. (fn. 8) Before the
end of the century the manor
passed to William Russell by
his marriage with the daughter
of Thomas de Aula. (fn. 9) William
died about 1310–11, leaving
a son Theobald. (fn. 10) A third of
the manor was assigned as
dower to William's widow
Katherine, who afterwards became the wife of Simon de
Harcourt. (fn. 11) Theobald settled
the manor on himself and
Eleanor his wife in 1330–1, (fn. 12) and died about 1341. (fn. 13)
His widow Eleanor was holding the manor in 1346. (fn. 14)
In 1375 Sir Ralph Russell their son (fn. 15) died seised of
the manor, leaving a son and heir Maurice (fn. 16) and a
widow Alice, who died in 1388 seised of one-third
of the manor which she had held as dower. (fn. 17) Sir
Maurice Russell conveyed his property to feoffees, (fn. 18)
evidently in trust for his daughters Isabel and Margaret
by his first wife Isabel. (fn. 19) After his death these trustees
conveyed it in 1432 to his two daughters: Isabel, then
wife of Stephen Hatfield, (fn. 20) and Margaret wife of John
Kemes. In November 1436 the manor was settled
on Stephen Hatfield and his wife for life, with reversion to John Cottesmore in tail. (fn. 21) In 1461 Stephen
Hatfield died, his wife Isabel having predeceased him
in 1437, (fn. 22) and Sir John Cottesmore must have entered
on possession of the manor, for he died seised of it in
1482. (fn. 23) His son and successor Sir John Cottesmore
demised the manor for life to Margaret Wittenstall,
his father's widow, and she died in possession of it
about eight months after her husband. (fn. 24) Sir John
Cottesmore seems to have been succeeded before 1488
by a son John, who was involved in that year in a
lawsuit, finally settled in his favour in 1498–9, against
John Gilbert and Joan his wife as to this and other
manors. (fn. 25) It was probably he who as Sir John
Cottesmore died seised of the manor in 1509, (fn. 26)
leaving a son and heir William. William died in
1519, leaving a son John, (fn. 27) but Yaverland probably
passed to Sir William's younger sons Thomas and
Morgan in turn, as they were patrons of the church. (fn. 28)
The manor subsequently passed to Thomas Umpton
or Unton, who married Anne daughter of John
Cottesmore last above mentioned. (fn. 29) Thomas held it at
his death in 1542, (fn. 30) and by his will dated 19 September
1542 bequeathed the reversion in tail-male to his
cousin Thomas Hyde, who entered after the death of
Umpton's widow Anne and died seised in 1561. (fn. 31)
A life interest in a third of two parts of the manor
was sold by Richard Coningsby and his wife Elizabeth
in 1562–3 to William Grimston, (fn. 32) and in 1567
German Richards, a retainer of the Earl of Lincoln
and Vice-Admiral of the Isle of Wight, who lived
at Brading, (fn. 33) died seised of a third of the manor of
Yaverland. (fn. 34) His son Edward succeeded and acquired
the other two-thirds of Richard Hyde in 1573, (fn. 35) and
died seised of the whole in 1627. His son Sir John
having died in 1626, (fn. 36) the manor passed to his grandson John, who held the manor in 1638, (fn. 37) and was
still in possession in 1672. (fn. 38) The Edward Richards
who held the manor in 1698 (fn. 39) was probably his son.
He died without male issue about 1729, (fn. 40) and left
the manor to his daughter Anne in tail-male, with
remainders to John Wright and his brother Henry
and to the rector and scholars of Exeter College,
Oxford. (fn. 41) Anne Richards died unmarried in 1771.
John Wright died in 1766, leaving an only son
William, who barred the entail in 1771 (fn. 42) and devised
the manor to his sister Mary Wright in fee in 1781.
In 1796 Mary Wright devised it to her nephew John
Atkins, with proviso of his taking the name of Wright. (fn. 43)
The Wright family (fn. 44) held Yaverland till 1846, when
it was sold by order of the Court of Chancery and
bought by Admiral Sir Graham Eden Hamond, bart.,
whose grandson Sir Graham E. W. Graeme Hamond-Graeme, bart., now holds it.
Cottesmore. Azure an eagle with two heads argent having on his breast a scutcheon gules charged with a leopard's head or.
Yaverland Manor-house and Church
The manor-house is, with the exception of
that at Arreton, the most picturesque in the
East Medine. Its grouping with the church
adds greatly to the effect of its position on the
rising ground above the road. The original house
was a rectangular building probably erected by
German Richards. (fn. 45) In the reign of James I the
two wings were added, and the date over the staircase entry (1620) with the initials I. E. R. (fn. 46) refers to
this addition by Edward Richards, probably on his
son's second marriage with Elizabeth Hungerford.
In 1701 some alterations or repairs must have
taken place under Edward Richards, (fn. 47) who at that
date may have enlarged the drawing room by
encroaching on the great hall. (fn. 48) The panelling
has all disappeared, but the staircase, a remarkably good example of the Jacobean period, still
remains. (fn. 49)
CHURCH
The church of ST. JOHN BAPTIST
was one of the memorial chapel type, an
aiseless nave and chancel separated by an
arch of good Romanesque detail. It was built in the
12th century, probably by one of the de Aula family,
and is primarily all of one date, circa 1150. The
details of the entrance doorway and chancel arch are
worthy of notice. (fn. 50) In the 13th century a chantry
chapel (fn. 51) seems to have been added to the south,
lighted by a small two-light plate traceried window.
In the 15th century a general remodelling took place.
Square-headed two-light windows took the place of
the earlier ones, and a new three-light window was
inserted in the east wall. A rood beam and loft was
put across the chancel arch, the way to which is still
visible, and a hagioscope was cut through the southern
pier. (fn. 52) In the 18th century a square wooden bellcote was added at the west end. (fn. 53) In 1888 an aisle
was added, and a very dubious restoration took place,
which while preserving many interesting features
added others that effectually took much of the
character out of the old building. (fn. 54) Prior to this
the church consisted of a nave 30 ft. by 17 ft. and
a chancel 16 ft. by 14 ft. The arch to the little
south chantry was opened and the plate tracery
window preserved, and a wooden bell-cote with
shingled spire took the place of a 19th-century stone
erection on the western gable.
The bell is modern, of 1885.
The plate consists of a chalice and paten of the
18th century, the former inscribed:
Inscription on chalice
The registers date from 1632.
ADVOWSON
The advowson of the chapel of
Yaverland, which is mentioned for
the first time in 1330–1, was then
appendant to the manor, (fn. 55) and has so remained to the
present day. (fn. 56)
The chapel, which was subject to the church of
Brading, was exempted from taxation on account of
poverty in the middle of the 14th century. (fn. 57) It
seems to have become parochial before 1536, when
it is called a rectory, (fn. 58) but at the end of the 18th
century the inhabitants still buried their dead at
Brading and paid 10s. yearly in acknowledgement of
their dependence on Brading as the mother church. (fn. 59)
It was distinct in 1781, but up to 1810 was served
by a curate from Brading.
At Christmas and Easter the parson with his whole
congregation communicated at Brading, read the first
lesson, and found straw for the seats and candles for
the altar. (fn. 60)
There are no endowed charities in Yaverland.