KENSWORTH
Canesworda (xi cent.); Keneswurda (xii cent.);
Ikenesworth (xiii cent.); Kenisworye and Keynesworth
(xiv cent.); Kneysworth (xvi cent).
The parish of Kensworth was transferred to Bedfordshire in 1897, but was originally in the hundred
of Dacorum in Hertfordshire. The Watling Street
forms its boundary on the north-east, and in the west
the parish extends to the Dunstable Downs. The
land at the highest point in the north is 764ft. above
the ordnance datum, but in the east its height is only
about 449 ft.
The parish is divided into three distinct parts,
Church End, the Lynch, and Kensworth Common.
Church End, comprising Burystead and Church
End Farms, and a few cottages, stands in the north;
Burystead farm-house, once the manor-house, has
been much altered, but a little of the old oak panelling remains. Church End Farm has a large cellar
under the house, which is said to have been a hidingplace of Dick Turpin. From this hamlet a long
narrow beech-shaded road leads down to the Lynch,
in the south-east. In the Lynch are three important
houses. A modern one of white stucco called Lynch
House is the residence and property of Mr. Benjamin
Bennett. The house was built by the previous owner
to fit the windows and staircase brought from a house
in Ealing, in which the late Queen Victoria when a
little girl lived for a time. Mr. Bennett owns also
the large red-brick house called The Lynch, now
tenanted by Miss Beresford-Hope. In 1798 The
Lynch was called the Mansion House of the Howard
family. The third house of importance is Lynch Lodge,
tenanted by Mr. Palmer, which stands near the point
where the Lynch Road branches off to meet the Watling Street. A few smaller houses with the Pack
Horse Inn, at which the manor-courts are now held
triennially, complete the Lynch. South of the parish
is a double line of houses on either side of the Dunstable high road. This hamlet is called Kensworth
Common. It lies high, and is divided from the rest
of the parish by a valley running east and west. The
houses which stand back from the road mark the old
edge of the common. Those close to the road began
to be built some 100 years ago, when the common
was inclosed. (fn. 1)
There is a large farm in the north-west called
Downs Farm, where Mr. F. T. Fossey, the owner,
lives. He owns also a great part of the old manorial
estate. On an iron fire-back here is represented King
Charles on horseback. This was taken from a
little house called Cantling's, near the old church,
which is about 160 years old. Mr. Fossey used to
live at Bleak Hall, which was formerly a workhouse.
It is now the residence of Mr. W. Hoyland Jackson.
The older houses are of a dull red brick, with tiled
roofs, but the more modern are poorly built and
slated. The soil is clay with flints and an occasional
brick earth. (fn. 2) On the south of the common, where
tradition says there was once a Roman camp, are now
brick-fields. The subsoil is chiefly chalk, though an
outlier of the Reading Beds occurs to the south of
Kensworth village. (fn. 3) The whole parish covers an area
of some 3,131 acres, of which, in 1905, 1,935 acres
were arable land, 408 acres permanent grass, and 45
acres woodland. (fn. 4) The greater number of the population are employed in agriculture, and a little strawhat making is done by the women.
One feature of this village is the great depth of the
wells. At three of the farms, two of which are at
Church End, donkeys are employed to raise the water.
They walk in large wooden wheels in tread-mill
fashion. One of the wheels, which is more carefully
worked than the others, bears the date 1688.
The following are among the ancient place names:
le Styperesdon, Puthamstude, Aveldone or Aldone,
Spondene, Felmerlane, Hawbynstresse, Kyxdell, Dradlynche, Antheley Cross, Thefwey, Flexwey, Huckesho
Lane, Tittenhanger Close.
MANORS
The manor of KENSWORTH, like
the neighbouring manor of Caddington,
was held of King Edward the Confessor
by Lewin 'cilt,' and the two estates seem to have
passed together to the canons of St. Paul's, London,
by whom they were held at the time of the Domesday
Survey. (fn. 5) From this time forward their history has
been almost identical; the court rolls, surveys, and
leases in the possession of the Dean and Chapter of
London show that both manors were frequently
farmed together, and the same customs and liberties seem
to have been claimed on both. With but one short
interruption both have been held by the Dean and
Chapter of St. Paul's from the day when they were
presented to the church by Lewin, until the year
1872, (fn. 6) when they were taken over by the Ecclesiastical
Commissioners. The interruption occurred during
the Commonwealth, when, under the 'Act for the
Sale of Dean and Chapters' Land,' Kensworth manor
was sold in 1649 to William Barbour of Redbourn, (fn. 7)
only to be restored to the Dean and Chapter in
1660.
The prioress of Markyate was a tenant of Kensworth,
as of Caddington. She owed suit twice yearly at the
manorial court, and was bound to do fealty to the
farmer of the manor for the time being. In 1297 it
was presented that she might not dig in the wood
without leave or take away trees that were blown down
there. (fn. 8)
The monks of Dunstable had right of common of
pasture in Kensworth, (fn. 9) as well as in Caddington, and
in 1242 a quarrel seems to have arisen between them
and the dean of London with regard to this right.
The monks complained that the dean had taken their
cattle and detained them for eight days. They
delivered them by writ of the king, and so the common
remained to them, and the dean then seized their
cattle at Caddington. The monks again delivered
them, but then William de St. Mere l'Eglise, dean of
London, died suddenly, and the suit was stopped. (fn. 10)
The bishop of Salisbury gave sentence against the
priory, both in Kensworth and Caddington in 1248. (fn. 11)
The inhabitants of Kensworth complained in 1621
that, notwithstanding five verdicts against Henry Cony
and Philip Pherrers, they were still obstructed in
their rights of common. (fn. 12) Twenty years later they
again complained that the Dean and Chapter had
leased a waste called Kensworth Wood, over which
they had right of common. (fn. 13)
The Inge family seems also to have held land here
at an early date. In 1310–11 Edmund Inge received
a grant of free warren in Kensworth, (fn. 14) and if his
property in the parish was anything more than
appurtenant to one of his other estates, it may
probably be identified with the sub-manor subsequently held by the Zouches, and variously called
KEYNESWORTH, DAMSARIES, DAMSERS or
DAMESAYERS. It was held in the sixteenth
century freely by charter, for fealty, suit of court,
and an annual rent of 48s. due to the Dean and
Chapter of London. During the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries it appears to have followed the same
descent as the manor of Zouches in Caddington
parish (q.v.), but in 1544 Richard Zouche, son and
heir-apparent of John Zouche, knt., Lord St. Maur
and Cantelow, conveyed it to Reginald Conygrave
and Joan his wife, (fn. 15) from whom it passed in the
following year to Robert Ameryke or Meryke of
Dunstable, (fn. 16) who appears to have died almost immediately after having made the purchase, and was
succeeded by his son Robert. In 1560 the jurors of
the court baron presented that Robert Meryke held
the manor in socage, at a rent of 48s. a year, and
that he sold it to one 'Trofton' of Stony Stratford. (fn. 17)
Ten years later Richard 'Trowghton' sold the
property to Edward Wingate. (fn. 18)
In 1578 John Alway, who was probably the
second husband of Mary, formerly wife of Edmund,
brother of Edward Wingate, died seised of the manor
of 'Dame Seres,' leaving a son and heir, John, under
age, (fn. 19) but the manor seems to have passed to a younger
son Richard, who died in 1611. (fn. 20) By his will he
left it to a kinswoman, Mary
Burrell, for life, with remainder to the heirs male of
Ralph Alway, brother of
Richard, if any should survive her. Mary was holding
the estate in 1618, (fn. 21) and probably married Thomas Sheafe,
S.T.P. Mary Sheafe devised
this manor to a kinsman,
William Burrell or Burwell,
who sold it in 1642 to
Robert Napier of Luton Hoo. (fn. 22)
His son, Sir John Napier, was
apparently holding the estate in 1669, when he
appears in the manorial rent roll as paying £2 8s.,
and in 1677 he and his son owed suit of court. (fn. 23)
Napier. Argent a saltire engrailed between four cinquefoils gules.
In 1796–7 the manor was conveyed by fine from
Thomas Cooke to George Maddison, (fn. 24) who in 1809
with his wife, Mary daughter of Henry Alington, (fn. 25)
conveyed it to Henry Alington, who may have been
a trustee for Mordaunt Lawson Chennell. (fn. 26) From
this point the history of Damesayers is lost, and its
existence as a manor seems to have ceased. At the
present day there is a little copse known as Dame
Sayers Hill Wood in the Lynch. The site of Dame
Sayers manor-house is not known, but it seems not
improbable it may have been where Lynch Lodge
now stands.
CHURCH
The church of OUR LADY, KENSWORTH, consists of a chancel 33 ft. 4 in.
by 20 ft. 2 in., a nave 47 ft. by 24 ft.
with south porch and a west tower.
The west tower is an addition of the fifteenth
century, and the chancel has been lengthened some
10 ft. in the same century, but with these exceptions
and certain alterations to the windows, &c., the main
structure remains as it was first built, somewhere
about the year 1100, a small but spacious and dignified building, with small windows set high in the
walls, a lofty west doorway, a less important south
doorway, and a wide chancel arch, 11 ft. 6 in. in
span. The east end of the original chancel having
been destroyed, there is nothing to show its form, but
it seems probable that it was square and not apsidal.
The west wall of the nave is 3 ft. 9 in. thick, and the
east wall an inch less, while the north and south
walls are 3 ft. 3 in. The walls are covered with
rough-cast, but a drawing of the north wall of the
nave when partly uncovered shows it to be built of
flint rubble alternating with single courses of stone,
like the walling of the nave of Norton church, near
Baldock. The stone used in the details of doorways
and windows is not of the local clunch formation, but
a coarse polite, resembling Barnack rag, and possibly
coming from Northamptonshire.
The chancel has an east window of three cinquefoiled lights with tracery of fifteenth-century design,
the stonework having been renewed in 1869; on
each side of it is a cinquefoiled niche for an image,
that on the south, contrary to the usual custom, being
the larger. At the south-east angle is a trefoiled
piscina with a modern bowl. In the north wall are
two original narrow round-headed windows, the outer
heads in one stone worked with a sunk roll, and
the jambs having ashlar dressings of small stones
with wide mortar joints. Beneath the western of
these windows is a square-headed fifteenth-century
window of two trefoiled lights, with a flat sill, set
low in the wall.
In the south wall is a modern copy of this window,
in a corresponding position, and to the east of it a
small fifteenth-century doorway, (fn. 27) with a moulded
arch. East of the doorway is a thirteenth-century
lancet, with ugly modern stonework, and towards the
east end of the wall a square-headed window of two
trefoiled lights, the tracery being modern, with its
sill carried down to serve as sedilia.
The chancel arch is semicircular, of two orders,
with a torus on the soffit of the inner order and a roll
on the outer order. The jambs have half-round
shafts to the inner order, with simple scalloped capitals
and moulded bases of early type, and nook-shafts with
cushion capitals to the outer order on the west face.
In the east gable above the arch is a two-light window
inserted in 1854. The fifteenth-century rood-loft
stair remains in the north-east angle of the nave, its
upper doorway being still open, while the lower is
blocked and plastered over.
The nave retains its three original north windows,
which are like those in the chancel, except that two
sunk rolls are cut in the heads instead of one, the
outer roll being in one case ornamented with a zigzag
line. Between the second and third windows is a
blocked doorway, which seems to be fifteenth-century
work, and it is not clear whether it replaces an older
doorway in this position. The original windows in
the south wall have given place to three fifteenth-century windows, each of two trefoiled lights with a
quatrefoil in the head, but the twelfth-century south
doorway remains, with a round arch of two orders,
the outer having a roll between two hollows, while
the inner is square, each voussoir being carved with
shallow diaper patterns, and on the keystone is a
cross. The jambs have nook-shafts in the outer order,
with carved capitals, that on the east showing interlacing patterns, chiefly Stafford knots, while the other
has subjects which have been explained as representations of two fables, those of the wolf and the crane,
and the kite and the snake. The abaci are square,
with interlacing patterns on the chamfer. The porch
over this doorway is modern.
The west doorway is of very similar design, but
much taller, its rear arch being no less than 12 ft. 4 in.
high to the crown, and it is possible that this is a
survival of pre-Conquest tradition. The doorway is
5 ft. 2 in. wide between the jambs of the inner
order, but has been further widened towards the nave
by cutting back the jambs of the rear arch. Its west
face, originally external, is of the same design as the
south doorway, except that there is more variety in
the diaper patterns, two being like degenerate human
figures, while one consists of a cross between four
birds, like the type on one of Edward the Confessor's
pennies, in later days assigned to him as an armorial
bearing, and another shows a dragon, while the keystone, as in the south doorway, bears a cross. The
capitals are plainer, that on the south having a sunk
stair in a circle, while the north capital, which is a
modern copy, has a fret in a circle, and both have
small human heads filling up the angles, and interlacing patterns on the chamfers of the abaci. The
west tower, which was built before 1458, being mentioned in the visitation (fn. 28) of that year by the dean of
St. Paul's, has a four-centred west doorway under a
square head, and over it a west window of three
cinquefoiled lights. It has a vice in a projecting
turret at the south-east angle, and in the belfry stage
windows of two trefoiled lights. It was covered with
rough-cast in 1747, as recorded on its south wall, and
is built mainly of blocks of clunch, which are at least
to some extent old material re-used, as a stone with
remains of two incised sun-dials is to be seen on the
north face of the north-west buttress. (fn. 29)
The woodwork of the roof of the church is not
ancient, nor are any of the fittings, but a seventeenth-century altar-table is used as a credence in the
chancel.
The font stands at the north-west of the nave,
having formerly stood in the middle in front of the
west doorway. It has a round bowl on a round stem
with a central ring and a plain base, and though
ancient is hard to date, perhaps belonging to the
fifteenth century. It has a turned wooden cover with
a finial, of no great age.
In the west window of the nave on the south side
are a few pieces of fifteenth-century glass with foliage
patterns.
In the chancel floor near the south doorway is a
blue marble slab with the indents of the figures of a
man and a woman with an inscription below, probably c. 1500.
There are five bells, all by George Chandler of
Drayton Parslow, 1717.
The plate consists of a silver cup, flagon, large and
small patens, and spoon with perforated bowl, all of
1731, given by Jane Cart in that year, and kept in a
contemporary mahogany chest.
The registers begin in 1615, the first book containing baptisms and burials to 1781, and marriages to
1753. The second book has baptisms and burials to
1812, the third marriages to 1805, and the fourth
the same to 1810.
ADVOWSON
The church of Kensworth was
granted to the dean and canons of
London by Walter bishop of Lincoln
in 1183–4, (fn. 30) and in 1266 the church and vicarage
were ordained by Bishop Richard Gravesend. (fn. 31) By
this ordination the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's
were to have the great tithes and to appoint 'a
literate and honest man' in priest's orders to serve
the church and receive the lesser tithes. At the time
of a visitation of the church in 1297 it was presented
that the building and furniture were in good repair,
that the vicar had a messuage, formerly the rectory,
assigned to him by Master Thomas Inglethorp, late
dean. (fn. 32)
The living is now a vicarage in the gift of the
Dean and Chapter of St. Paul's.
A rent from two acres of land in Kensworth, late
Anderleys, was given for the maintenance of a lamp.
The rent was in 1548–9 in the hands of Anthony
Stubing. (fn. 33)
A tenement called the Church House in Kensworth
was granted in 1588–9 to William Tipper and
Robert Dawe. It had formerly belonged to the
inhabitants of Kensworth. (fn. 34)
Kensworth, previous to the Toleration Act, was
the head quarters of Hertfordshire Baptists, and
thither resorted many who resided in upwards of
thirty villages and towns of Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire. Edward Harrison, vicar of Kensworth in
1645, was a well-known champion of Baptist views,
and John Bunyan was a member of the Baptist church
at Kensworth. The first registration for Anabaptists
occurs in 1690, and a Wesleyan chapel was certified
in 1830.
In 1675 some extracts were made from the
volumes relating to the Baptist church of Kensworth. This book now belongs to the Baptist
church in Dagnal Street, St. Albans, a branch or,
perhaps, the remains of the Kensworth church, for
a tablet in the vestry states that the church was
erected in 1720, having been removed from the
village of Kensworth. (fn. 35)
There is now a Wesleyan chapel at Kensworth.
CHARITIES
In 1754 Richard Burgis and Mary
his wife by deed conveyed to trustees
2 acres in the parish of Caddington,
the rents and profits to be divided among poor widows
and other poor people on St. Thomas's Day, and also
4 acres in the same parish for educational purposes.
The lands by admeasurement contain 6 acres, 3 roods,
18 poles, which are now let at £11 a year.
By a scheme of the Charity Commissioners, dated
6 December, 1892, one-third of the income is made
applicable for the benefit of the poor of Kensworth
in such manner as may seem to the trustees most
conducive to the formation of provident habits,
and two-thirds in the advancement of education
of children attending public elementary schools
in the parish at which religious instruction in
accordance with the principles of the Church of
England is given.
In 1866 Abraham Fossey bequeathed a legacy
for the benefit of the sexton, now represented by
£105 4 per cent. preference stock of the Great
Northern Railway Company and £9 3s. 2d. consols
(both held by the official trustees). By a scheme
of the Charity Commissioners of 3 March, 1893,
the income is to be given to the sexton for the
time being upon condition of his keeping the
churchyard and the walks approaching thereto free
from weeds.