CHELLINGTON
Chelwinton, Chelvynton (xiii, xiv cent.); Chelyngton, Chillington (xiv, xv cent.).
The parish of Chellington contains 1,530 acres, of
which 692 are arable land, 614 pasture and grass
and 23 woods and plantations. (fn. 1) Chellington is
separated from Harrold and Odell by the River Ouse,
and here the land is liable to flood. The slope of
the ground is irregular; the highest point is in the
east, where the ground rises to 296 ft. above the
ordnance datum. The soil is clay save in the
neighbourhood of the river, the subsoil gravel, the
principal crops being wheat. Chellington village,
consisting chiefly of modern cottages, is in the north
of the parish; it is little more than a hamlet of
Carlton, and is so called in 1278–9. (fn. 2) The church
of St. Nicholas stands by itself on Chellington
Hill, in a field some distance from the village,
which local tradition asserts was formerly near the
church. (fn. 3)
There is one main road running north-east from
Felmersham to the south-west of the parish, where it
passes to Carlton. It is said that before the Marriage
Act people used to come to Chellington to be married
on account of its obscurity, but this assertion is not
borne out by the parish registers. (fn. 4) Sir Robert
Darling, whose tomb is in the south-east corner of
Chellington Church, is reported to have kept cows
on Chellington Hill as a boy. He subsequently rose
to be Sheriff of London and Middlesex in 1767, and
in the following year, together with Edmund Burke,
represented Wendover in Parliament. (fn. 5) Chellington
received an inclosure award in 1805. (fn. 6)
MANOR
There is no mention of CHELLINGTON MANOR by name in the Domesday Survey, but guided by feudal evidence
(i.e. the later appearance of the Trailly fee in Chellington) there can be no doubt that it is to be
identified with a certain manor, to which no name is
attached, held by the Bishop of Coutances. This
manor, which contained 4 hides, had been held by
Turbert, a man of King Edward, and the bishop
held it in exchange for 'Bledone,' to be identified
with Bleadon in Somerset, where the bishop held
much land. (fn. 7) Geoffrey, Bishop of Coutances, who
was a trusted friend of the Conqueror, appears to
have held Chellington in a personal, not an official,
capacity. (fn. 8) He took part in the rebellion of the
barons against William Rufus in 1088, but was included in the general pardon granted to them. He
died in 1093, and the overlordship of Chellington
subsequently passed to the honour of Gloucester. In
1257 and again in 1278–9 the manor was held by
service of half a knight's fee, (fn. 9) which by 1290 had
diminished to one-third of a fee. (fn. 10) In 1360 the
land was held of this honour by service of suit at
court twice yearly. (fn. 11) The last reference to the overlordship occurs in 1609–10, when the manor was
held of the king, into whose possession that portion of
the honour to which Chellington was attached had
passed. (fn. 12)
The Domesday tenant of this manor was Geoffrey
de 'Trailly,' who probably derived his name from
Trelly, a few miles south of Coutances, and with
whom originated the Bedfordshire family and barony
of Trailly. (fn. 13) Geoffrey also held a large manor of
10 hides at Yielden in Stodden Hundred, and the
Trailly, family will be found worked out in more
detail under that parish (q.v.). It is not until 1257,
on the death of John de Trailly, that mention has
been found of Chellington Manor by name, (fn. 14) but
from that time onward the manor passed in an unbroken line from father to son until the 15th century.
In 1278–9 Chellington Manor, which was then
held by Philip Burnet for life of the gift of Walter
Trailly, included free tenants of whom Norman son
of Walter held 1 virgate of land at 4s. rent which
went towards sustaining a lamp in the church. John
de Cowe held 1½ virgates at 1d. per annum, including a capital messuage with a fishery in half the River
Ouse from Harrold Bridge to Odell Ford; half
virgates were also held by Godfrey de Carldon and
Richard Bridge respectively. (fn. 15) The manor was
extended in 1290 at 14s. 5d. and ten capons, rent
of assize of the free tenants, and £7 6s. 1d. rent
of customary tenants. Walter de Trailly also claimed
view of frankpledge and other manorial rights in
Chellington in the reign of Edward III and paid a
fine to the king for their exercise. (fn. 16)
In 1359–60 John Trailly acquired the more important manor of Carlton (q.v.), (fn. 17) and from this date
until 1710 Chellington follows the same descent. (fn. 18)
Between that year and 1720 together with the
advowsons of Carlton and Chellington it passed from
the Mordaunts to Sir Thomas Trevor, afterwards
Baron Trevor of Bromham, who was presenting to
both churches at the latter date. (fn. 19) It thus became
merged in what is known as the Bromham estate, of
which it forms part at the present day. In 1805
Thomas second Viscount Hampden was lord of
Chellington, (fn. 20) and this manor, like Bromham, is at
present the property of Mr. Trevor Wingfield. (fn. 21)
CHURCH
The church of ST. NICHOLAS has
a chancel 20 ft. by 14 ft. 6 in., a nave
40 ft. 8 in. by 18 ft. 9 in., north aisle
7 ft. 2 in. wide, south aisle 6 ft. 3 in. wide, and a
west tower 9 ft. 6 in. square, with a tall stone spire.
No part of the church seems older than the 13th
century, the chancel and both aisles of the nave
dating from c. 1250. Both arcades of the nave
seem to have been rebuilt in the 14th century, the
north arcade c. 1330 and the south some thirty
years later. The fine west tower was added about
the middle of the same century, and since then the
building has not altered its plan, though a good deal
repaired in modern times and entirely replastered
within.
In the 14th century, but after the building of the
tower, the aisle walls were heightened and the pitch
of the roof altered, and it seems that the 13thcentury roof ran unbroken over nave and aisles. The
clearstory is a 15th-century addition.
The chancel is built of freestone rubble, with small
ashlar quoins; its east window (c. 1370) is of four
lights with net tracery and vertical lines in the head,
and on each side of it are stone brackets for images,
that on the south side being broken, and in the
north-east angle there is a locker. In the north wall
there is a 14th-century window of two lights with
flowing tracery and a label with dripstones now of
Roman cement; there is a similar window opposite
to it in the south wall. In the north wall near the
chancel arch there is a small low-side window with a
square head but semicircular rear arch, and in the
east end of the south wall there is a cinquefoiled
ogee-headed piscina. A square-headed priest's door
and a second low-side window in this wall have been
built up. The chancel arch is a very pretty piece
of 13th-century work, of two orders, both being
chamfered on the east side, but the outer has deeplycut mouldings towards the nave. The roof is of
steep pitch and is modern.
The nave arcades are of four bays. The north
arcade, which is the earlier of the two, has piers of
four engaged shafts and half-octagonal responds; the
capitals and bases are moulded, and the arches are of
two orders, with plain and hollow chamfers separated
by a hollow, while those of the south arcade are of
two plain chamfered orders with octagonal columns
and moulded capitals and bases much renewed.
Above each arcade is a clearstory with three similar
windows a side, each of two trefoiled lights under a
square head. The roof is modern, the principals
being supported by plain stone corbels, and the nave
walls finished with a modern parapet. Both aisles have
13th-century lancets in the west wall, and the north
aisle also in the east; the east window of the north
aisle is set in an arch of the full width of the aisle
and partly overlapped by the east respond of the
north arcade, which seems to be thicker than its
predecessor; the same thing is to be seen in the
south aisle. There is a trefoiled piscina in the south
wall of the north aisle, between the east end and the
respond of the nave arcade, and an aumbry in the
north wall, and further west a rebuilt 15th-century
window like those in the north aisle at Carlton, of
three cinquefoiled lights with flowing tracery, and
an internal as well as an external label. Further to
the west in this wall is a narrow two-light 14th-century window with a square head and trefoiled
lights, with a trefoil over. The north doorway is a
very good piece of 13th-century work, though now
blocked. It is set within a gable mould, and is of
two moulded orders with a line of dog-tooth and
pairs of shafts in the jambs. West of the doorway is
a second 14th-century window of two lights, with a
new mullion. The aisle has an original cornice with
mask corbels, and pairs of buttresses at the angles.
Under the east end of the aisle was a charnel, the
openings to which may still be seen. The east end
of the south aisle has been restored and all the west
part of its south wall rebuilt. It has a cornice and
buttresses like the north aisle, and at the south-east a
14th-century two-light window, also like those in the
north aisle. The south porch is plain and probably
not ancient, and the south doorway is 14th-century
work clumsily reset. There is a small trefoiled piscina
at the south-east, and below the cornice of the aisle is
a 17th-century sundial inscribed with ut hora fugit
vita. At the south-east of the nave are the rood-loft
door and the remains of a spiral stone staircase which
led to it.
The 14th-century tower is in three stages, with
pairs of buttresses at the western angles. There are
cinquefoiled niches on the north, west and south on
the ground stage outside, doubtless for images. On
the west is a two-light window with trefoiled heads,
and in the second stage plain lancets on the north
and south. The belfry windows are of the same
type as the west window below, and are all in modern
stonework The broach spire has also had its upper
half renewed, and all its spire lights are modern.
The tower arch is in three chamfered orders. In
the south aisle there is a late 13th-century circular
font on a square stem, with chamfered angles and
four detached shafts with moulded capitals and bases.
There are some broken pieces of 17th-century Flemish
glass in the tracery of the east window. Most of
the pewing is modern, but there are some 17thcentury benches in the aisles and a 17th-century oak
pulpit, altar table and chest.
Chellington Church from the South
There are four bells, the tenor being cracked.
The treble is by John Hodson, 1654; the second,
of 1630, is inscribed 'Prayse ye the Lord'; and
the third is a 15th-century London bell, with
the initials of John Danyell and the legend 'Sancta
Katerina ora pro nobis.' The tenor is by the
Buckingham founders, W. Atton and Robert Atton,
1611.
The same plate is used as for Carlton Church.
The registers previous to 1813 are in three books,
the first containing all entries 1567 to 1778, the
second baptisms and burials 1778 to 1812, and the
third marriages 1754 to 1811.
ADVOWSON
The first mention that has been
found of Chellington Church is in
1278–9, when it was attached to
the manor and endowed with one messuage, a croft
and 3 roods of land. (fn. 22) It has followed the same
descent as Chellington Manor (q.v.), with which it
is always found associated. In 1291 it was worth
7½ marks, and was assigned as part of the dower of
Eleanor widow of Walter de Trailly. (fn. 23) In the Liber
Regis Chellington rectory is valued at £10, (fn. 24) and in
1769 it was consolidated with Carlton Rectory by
Act of Parliament. (fn. 25) The advowson is now in the
gift of and held by the Rev. William Henry Denison.
CHARITIES
In 1790 Henry Sharp by his will
bequeathed £100 consols, the dividends—subject to the payment of 5s.
a year to the sexton for keeping his family graves
in order—to be applied in the distribution of bread
to poor indigent parishioners of Chellington.