HARLINGTON
Herlingdone (xi cent.); Herlyngdon (xiv cent.).
The parish of Harlington covers an area of 1,904
acres, and has an average height of 300 ft. The
ground rises gradually from the outskirts to the village
in the centre of the parish, where it reaches 365 ft.
The soil is mixed, and the subsoil is partly clay and
partly chalk. The principal crops raised are wheat,
barley, beans and green crops. There are 784¾ acres
of arable land, 1,059¾ of permanent grass, and only
17½ of woods and plantations. (fn. 1)
The village of Harlington consists of three parts,
the main portion being clustered near the church,
not far from the station on the Midland Railway.
Goswell End is situated about a quarter of a mile to
the north of this portion, and East End about the
same distance to the north-east. In the main village is
the manor-house, a 17th-century building with later
additions. Charles II is said to have slept in a room
still pointed out here. It was here, too, that Bunyan
was examined before being removed to Bedford gaol.
The eastern, which is also the principal, front is
stuccoed and rusticated, with large two-light windows
with mullions and transoms of wood. The drawingroom is panelled in oak, and on a door architrave
upstairs is a date 1633, the genuineness of which is
doubtful. The Rising Sun Inn, in the south of the
village, is a half-timber building, remodelled and
new-fronted in brick, while on the eastern outskirts
is the cemetery. At Goswell End is a picturesque
brick and half-timber cottage with tiled roof, and to
the north of the road connecting it with Upper East
End are traces of a moat, probably the site of one of
the manors.
At Upper East End, where the Wingates resided
in the 18th century, is Horsehill Farm, in a field
belonging to which a hollow oak is shown, from which
Bunyan is said to have preached. From here a footpath runs north-east to Harlington Mill, which is still
working, though no flour is now ground here. It is
employed for gristing or grinding barley for pig-food.
On the opposite side of the road is Harlington Grange
Farm, in Streatley parish, an old building with
modern additions. Before the Dissolution the grange
and mill were the property of Woburn Abbey. About
half a mile to the south of the village is Dyers' Hall
Farm. Here is a fine timber barn in good preservation. On one of the uprights of this barn is cut
the date 1769, probably by the occupier of the
property at that time.
The ancient seat of the Astrey family, from 1494
to the beginning of the 19th century, was at Harlington Woodend, a detached portion of the parish to the
west of the village. Their house was burnt down
many years ago, and a farm-house, in which a portion
of the old building was incorporated, has since been
erected on the site.
The parish was inclosed in 1808, but the award is
not printed. (fn. 2)
The following place-names occur in documents
relating to Harlington:—Spannes, Hoshills, Stocks,
Lincolns (xvii cent.).
MANORS
HARLINGTON MANOR at the
time of the Domesday Survey comprised
5 hides of land, and was held by Nigel
de Albini, (fn. 3) to whose descendants the overlordship
belonged, as pertaining to their barony of Cainhoe. (fn. 4)
Ralph Pyrot or his ancestors apparently obtained the
manor of Harlington by subinfeudation from the
Albinis before the early part of the 13th century, (fn. 5) and
held it from them by the services of one knight's fee.
A Ralph Pyrot is returned as lord of the manor in
1276, (fn. 6) and in 1302 as owner of the vill, part of which
was held by the Abbot of Woburn in frank almoigne. (fn. 7)
In 1301 Ralph settled the manor on his son Reginald, (fn. 8)
who held Harlington after the death of his father,
which occurred circa 1315, in which year Reginald
obtained seisin of the manor. (fn. 9)
In 1317 (fn. 10) and again
in 1320–1 (fn. 11) he was summoned to answer a plea of
debt, which in default of payment was to be satisfied by a
levy on his Bedfordshire
estates. This was evidently
the cause of the levying of a
fine on his Harlington property in 1321 in favour of
Nicholas de Boweles, (fn. 12) though
the manor did not pass away
from the Pyrot family till
some years later.
Pyrot. Quarterly fessewise indented or and azure.
Some time previous to 1330, in consequence of the
death of Reginald Pyrot and the minority of his heir,
John St. Amand, his overlord, assumed the wardship
and took the issues of the lands, enjoying the same
until his own death, when they were seised by the
escheator as the right of the king, but were restored
on proof being made that the manor was not held of
the king in chief, (fn. 13) and on attaining his majority
Ralph, the heir of Reginald Pyrot, entered into possession.
In 1336 he alienated the manor to his overlord,
Almaric St. Amand, (fn. 14) who held this knight's fee in
Harlington in 1346, (fn. 15) and by a feoffment of 1369
settled Harlington Manor on trustees to hold for
himself and his issue. (fn. 16) The following year he was
compelled to pay a fine of £20 for the alienation
made without royal licence. (fn. 17)
Almaric died in 1381, and Harlington Manor, then
valued at £10 per annum, passed to his son, another
Almaric. (fn. 18) He was twice married, and by his first
wife had a daughter Eleanor, who married Sir Gerard
Braybrooke, and died in her father's lifetime, 1387,
leaving a son Gerard. (fn. 19) By his second wife Eleanor,
who survived him and held a third part of Harlington
as dower until her death in 1426, (fn. 20) he had a daughter
Ida, who married Thomas West. (fn. 21)
The younger Almaric, who died in 1402, left as
heirs to his estates the above-mentioned grandson
Gerard and daughter Ida, (fn. 22) and the former inherited
the share of the latter on her death without issue in
1416. (fn. 23)
In 1422 Gerard St. Amand settled his two-thirds
of the manor and the reversion of the remaining
one-third held in dower by his grandmother on
trustees, who on his death shortly afterwards (fn. 24)
obtained by a fine of 40 marks licence to acquire
the manor for his daughters and co-heirs Elizabeth,
Maud and Eleanor, then minors. (fn. 25) Elizabeth, the
sole survivor and eventual heir, married Sir William
Beauchamp in 1443, and he was later summoned to
Parliament as Baron St. Amand, 'jure uxoris,' until
his death in 1457. (fn. 26)
St. Amand. Or fretty sable and a chief sable with three bezants therein.
Beauchamp, Lord St. Amand. Gules a fesse between six martlets or with the difference of a border argent.
Richard Beauchamp, their son and heir, succeeded
his father in the barony, and in 1483 was attainted.
He was restored to his honours by Henry VII, (fn. 27) and
on the death of his mother in 1491 inherited her
estates. (fn. 28) Between 1491 and 1517 there was an
alienation of Harlington Manor in moieties, of which
one passed to John Broughton, lord of Toddington,
and the other to Cecily Marchioness of Dorset. (fn. 29)
Henry, son and heir of Cecily, held a moiety of
the manor in 1542, (fn. 30) but the following year he
exchanged his Harlington estate and that of Marston
(co. Sussex) with the king for the manor and advowson
of Beaumanor (co. Leicester). (fn. 31)
In 1548 Harlington was granted to Sir Thomas
Palmer, (fn. 32) who was attainted in 1553 for his adherence to the cause of Lady Jane Grey, (fn. 33) and the
following year Queen Mary granted this moiety to
Sir Thomas Cheyney, (fn. 34) who also held the other half
of the manor, with that of Toddington, by marriage
with one of the daughters and heirs of John Broughton. (fn. 35) From this date Harlington Manor follows the
descent of Toddington Manor (fn. 36) (q.v.).
A portion of Harlington held by the Abbot of
Woburn in 1302 (fn. 37) was part of the lands granted to
that monastery by Ralph Pyrot in the reign of
Henry II, (fn. 38) and formed part of the estate afterwards
known as Pulloxhill alias Greenfield alias Harlington
Grange, whose history has been traced under Pulloxhill (q.v.). It included, besides the grange, a watermill, (fn. 39) which also shares the same descent and still
exists within the parish.
Members of the family of Harding were tenants of
the manor of Harlington in the 15th and 16th
centuries. (fn. 40) A property consisting of a capital messuage
called HARDINGS PLACE, with appurtenances in
Woodend in Harlington, was acquired by William
Harding on a twenty-one years' lease from the lords
of the manor in 1530, and in 1538 the lease was
extended thirty-one years from that date. In 1548
William Harding sold the remainder of the lease to
Ralph Astrey, also of Woodend in Harlington, (fn. 41) who
appears to have purchased the reversion in fee of an
estate in Woodend from Sir Thomas Cheney shortly
afterwards. (fn. 42) On the death of Ralph this Woodend
estate passed to his son and heir Henry, (fn. 43) who in
1612 married Mary daughter of William St. John
of Bletsoe. (fn. 44) In the inquisition taken on the death
of Henry in 1630 his lands are described as a capital
messuage in Harlington, and lands formerly Hardings,
with other tenements, late parcel of Harlington
Manor. (fn. 45)
The Astrey family held the manor of Wadlowe in
the neighbouring parish of Toddington, under which
the family is traced; but Harlington Woodend
continued to be their place of residence until the
close of the 18th century. (fn. 46)
A capital messuage with lands, afterwards known as
the 'manor' of BLUNDELLS in Harlington, was held
of the lords of Harlington Manor by John Morecote
in 1517. (fn. 47) At the close of the 16th century half of
Blundells Manor was purchased by Ralph Astrey of
Thomas Dickens and Eleanor his wife, who held it
in right of the heirs of Margaret Arnold deceased. (fn. 48)
It probably formed part of the customary lands of
Harlington Manor, which he purchased of Sir Thomas
Cheney a little later, and was included in his estate
afterwards known as Harlington Woodend.
The remaining moiety of Blundells 'Manor' may
be identical with Blundells Farm, which in 1624 was
in the hands of Jonas Hatton, and in the same year
was settled by him on his daughter Anne wife of
John Laurence. (fn. 49) No later history can be assigned
to this holding.
Another family which settled in Harlington in the
17th century, (fn. 50) and afterwards obtained considerable
property there, was the Wingates, the first of whom record
is found in connexion with
this parish being John Wingate. He died in 1643,
leaving a messuage with dovehouse and other lands, known
as Gosling End Green (fn. 51) and
Springs, to a son and heir
Francis, (fn. 52) who in 1651 complained that his Harlington
property had been wrongfully
sequestered for the delinquency of Lord Wentworth, lord of Harlington
Manor. (fn. 53) Edmund Wingate the mathematician, and
tutor of Henrietta Maria in Paris, resided here during
the Protectorate. (fn. 54) In the Magna Britannia of 1720
two seats in this parish are ascribed to the Wingate
family—one to Arthur Wingate and the other to
Lady Wingate, residing at Harlington East End.
Wingate. Sable a bend ermine cotised or between six martlets or.
At the beginning of the 19th century the Wingate
estate belonged to their representative Mr. John
Wingate Jennings, (fn. 55) but since that date the family
has left the neighbourhood.
A deer park formed part of the demesne of Harlington Manor in 1292, when Ralph Pyrot complained that certain persons 'stretched nets and other
engines there, and took deer.' (fn. 56) It was included in
the division of the manor between the Broughtons
and the Marquess of Dorset in the early 16th century,
and in 1542 the proceeds of the annual sale of the
wood and underwood of one moiety amounted to
£8 5s. 11¾d. (fn. 57) In 1639 Harlington Wood, with an
extent of 200 acres, was worth £33 6s. 8d. (fn. 58)
annually, and was leased by the Earl of Cleveland to
Sir Christopher Wray for ninety-nine years. (fn. 59) Mention
occurs of the park in documents as late as 1791, (fn. 60) but
since that date the timber must have been cut down,
as at the present day there is no park and only 17 acres
of woodland in the whole parish.
CHURCH
The church of ST. MARY THE
VIRGIN is a well-proportioned building
having a chancel 32 ft. by 16 ft. 10 in.,
with a north vestry, nave 55 ft. 8 in. by 18 ft. with
aisles 7 ft. wide and a south porch, and a west tower
9 ft. 4 in. by 11 ft. 7 in. The nave and aisles
are fine early 14th-century work, and the chancel
probably a little later. There seems to have been no
tower to this design, and the present tower was added
in the 15th century, being built against the west
buttresses of the nave. Externally the church is not
very interesting, being largely plastered over, and the
interior is somewhat disfigured by dust and whitewash; but the nave arcades are fine examples of their
kind, tall and slender, with simple and effective
details—very like the work at Houghton Conquest
Church. The aisles have unfortunately lost all their
original windows but one in the east wall of the
north aisle, and the remains of a similar west window
now blocked; the rest have been replaced by dull
uncusped 16th-century windows, of four lights in the
east bays of the aisles, and elsewhere of three. In
the 15th century the aisle walls were heightened and
flat-pitched roofs put over nave and aisles, the lines of
the high 14th-century nave roof still showing on the
west tower.
The chancel has a three-light east window with
flowing tracery of original date, c. 1350, flanked by
fine contemporary gabled and pinnacled niches, that
on the north being richer than the other; in the
north wall are two two-light windows equally spaced,
with a 15th-century vestry door between them, and
on the south two similar windows set close together at
the east end of the wall, with a south door further
to the west, and at the south-west a small squareheaded low side window, all of original date and all
having moulded rear arches of the same section.
There are a piscina with tracery in the head, a plain
seat below the south-east window, and a locker in the
north wall, which are also original work. The jambs
of the chancel arch have towards the nave clustered
half-responds of the same build and detail as the nave
arcades, but towards the chancel are rough blocks of
masonry, perhaps the remains of the side walls of an
older and narrower chancel, against which the 14th-century work was built. The upper stones of the
outer order of the arch on the chancel side appear
below the chancel ceiling, which hides the rest of the
order; they are worked with a deeply-cut 13th-century section, quite unlike the simple work on the
west side, and, unless they are older work re-used,
their position is difficult to understand.
The nave has 14th-century north and south doorways of simple moulded detail, the latter under a
restored 15th-century porch, and in the tower is a
third doorway in the west wall.
The tower opens to the nave by a fine moulded
arch of two orders with shafted jambs, and has a
two-light west window. The staircase is at the southwest angle.
The chancel roof is modern, but the 15th-century
roofs of the nave and aisles have simply-moulded
timbers with bosses at the intersections, and wall
posts, originally resting on stone corbels, of which
only four out of ten remain; on one of them is a
man leading a dragon by a rope round its neck, and
attacked by another dragon—perhaps St. Armiel is
meant.
At the west of the nave are several rows of late
Gothic benches with buttressed ends and fronts and
moulded rails; but otherwise the woodwork of the
church is modern, except for a 17th-century chest in
the vestry and a chair dated 1601.
The font, at the west end of the nave, is good
early 14th-century work, with a stem of eight small
shafts and an octagonal bowl, each face set back from
a moulding above and a curious stepped cresting
below, and having shields on which are incised simple
heraldic charges, cheverons, bars, bends, &c., but
these seem to be of modern date.
There are no monuments except a small marble
tablet on the south wall of the chancel to Katherine
Arnold, 1681, with the verse:
'Short was thy life
Yet livest thou ever
Death hath his due
Yet diest thou never.'
But in the north aisle is a flat arched recess, apparently
of early 17th-century date, which must once have
held a monument.
There are five bells: the first is inscribed 'Coom
Coom and Praie,' with stamp of a floreated cross; the
second is of 1715, recast in 1900 by Taylor; the
third bears 'Chandler made me 1697'; the fourth is
inscribed 'In multis annis resonet campana Johannis'
in black letter, with a stamp of a floreated cross;
the fifth by William Watts (no date).
The plate consists of a communion cup, the gift of
Mrs. Susanna Astry 1743, the date letter 1742;
a paten 1802, maker G. W. B.; and a pewter flagon
with no marks.
The registers previous to 1813 are in five
books: (1) all entries 1647 to 1717; (2) the
same, 1719 to 1777, marriages only till 1754;
(3) marriages 1754 to 1792; (4) baptisms and
burials 1777 to 1812; (5) marriages (printed)
1793 to 1812.
ADVOWSON
The church of Harlington was
granted to the priory of Dunstable
by Ralph Pyrot before he himself
took the monastic habit at Woburn. (fn. 61)
In 1223 there was a dispute between Richard,
grandson of Ralph, and the prior as to the right of
presentation, the former maintaining that the grant
was made by Ralph after taking the habit and giving
up his right to the lands, and was therefore void,
while the prior claimed that Ralph gave the church
to his priory ten years before he became a monk. (fn. 62)
The latter was successful in his suit, although the dispute was revived in the 13th century by Richard's
heirs. (fn. 63)
In 1291 the church was valued at £10, (fn. 64) and in
1306 the canons of Dunstable obtained licence by
fine of 30 marks to appropriate the revenues for the
support and repair of their priory, (fn. 65) the ordination
of the vicarage at Harlington being recorded in the
Episcopal Registers of 1310. (fn. 66)
At the time of the Dissolution the rectory was
held from Dunstable Priory by William Belfield on
lease at a yearly rent of £12, out of which the vicar
received £4 as stipend. (fn. 67) The lease to William
Belfield was not renewed, (fn. 68) and the Crown retained
both rectory and advowson (fn. 69) until 1578, when they
were granted to Edward Earl of Lincoln. (fn. 70) In 1595
they were acquired by Lady Jane Cheney, (fn. 71) since
which date the rectory and advowson have descended
with Harlington Manor (fn. 72) (q.v.). In the middle of
the 17th century the rectorial tithes were leased at
various times, (fn. 73) and in 1631 the rectory house was
mortgaged to one Diana Bowles, who complained of
its sequestration with the Earl of Cleveland's estate
in 1644 and in 1651. (fn. 74)
At the time of the dissolution of chantries by
Edward VI the annual rent of certain lands in
Harlington, amounting to 12s. 4d. after payment of
6½d. to the king, 2s. to the poor of the parish, and
19d. to the lord of Harlington Manor, was applied
for the support of a light in the church, and the
stock of eleven cows, valued at 106s., for the support
of divers obits. (fn. 75)
CHARITIES
The Town Lands.
The rights of
the poor to certain lands formerly
intermixed with lands held by Sir
Francis Wingate, kt., were the subject of an inquisition under a commission of charitable uses, and by a
decree dated 26 June, 36 Charles II (1685), a lease
to the said Sir Francis Wingate for 1,000 years was
authorized, subject to a fixed payment of £5 9s. a
year for the poor, reduced apparently by land tax to
£4 7s. a year. The annuity was redeemed in 1870
by the transfer to the official trustees of £145 6s.
consols, now producing £3 12s. 8d. a year, which in
1908 was divided among fifty-five families.
The White Bread Land consists of 1 a. 2 r. of
meadow land, let at £2 10s. a year, awarded on
the inclosure in or about 1808 in lieu of land
in the open fields supposed to have been purchased with a benefaction of £10 received in 1684
as a bequest from Sir William Brian, kt. In 1908
342 half-quartern loaves were distributed to fiftyseven persons.
Mrs. Dorothy Astrey in or about 1723 gave the
rent of 1 a. 1 r., known as Cranfield Mead at
Tingrith, for poor widows. In 1907 the sum of
£2 18s. 6d. was distributed among nine widows in
sums of 6s. 6d. each.