NEWNHAM
Neuham (xi cent.); Neweham (xii cent.); Newneham (xiv cent.).
Newnham parish, which was originally included in
the hundred of Odsey, (fn. 1) was probably attached to the
hundred of Cashio by the abbot of St. Albans,
together with his other more remote manors in the
twelfth century.
The village of Newnham lies on level ground,
about 180 ft. above ordnance datum, and along a side
road from Radwell to Newnham, branching thence
to Caldecote and Ashwell. It contains two good
brick houses, of which one, the manor-house, is quite
modern; the other, now called Newnham Hall, but
until lately known as Church Farm, has been recently
added to, but the old portion contains some walls of
considerable thickness. It is suggested that these were
originally part of the fabric of a church-house.
Newnham possesses no hamlets, not even an outlying farm, or cottages. The two houses mentioned,
and a few thatched cottages form, with the church
and vicarage, the entire village. On all sides of it
the land slopes slightly upwards.
The springs filling the old manor moat also feed a
little stream called Cat Ditch, which coming from the
north crosses Newnham, and bending south forms
part of the eastern parish boundary. There is
no important road in the parish, but lanes connect it with Baldock, Biggleswade, and Ashwell. (fn. 2)
Baldock is the nearest station, and is about three miles
distant on the Great Northern branch to Cambridge.
The soil is loam and the subsoil chalk, and the chief
crops are wheat, barley, and turnips. There is one
small plantation called Hullockpithill, and a few fine
elms, but the woods altogether cover only 13½ acres,
and grass land about four times this area, while the
arable land is some 800 acres in extent. Some
gravel is dug, but it is poor and hardly worth the
labour.
Between 1420 and 1440 Michael Cheyne, the
cellarer of the abbey of St. Albans, built a house at
Newnham. (fn. 3)
MANOR
NEWNHAM MANOR was held at
one time by Had, a nobleman, and
Christiana his wife, who, apparently in the
reign of Edward the Confessor, gave it to the abbot
and convent of St. Albans, (fn. 4) in whose possession it
remained until the Dissolution in 1539. The men
of the vill seem to have joined in the general rising
against the abbot at the time of the Peasants' Revolt
of 1381, and on 20 June, in company with several
other townships, extorted a charter of liberties from
the convent vi et nequitia. The charter took the form
of a general manumission and pardon for all felonies,
extortions, and other trespasses committed at the time,
whereupon the rustics thought themselves super lineam
regiam generosos, and freed from all customs and burdens, and determined that in future they would
perform no services and pay no rents, and in this
opinion they continued, the
monastic chronicler adds, 'until their principal captains
were slain, and the aforesaid
liberties, which had originally
been granted to them, were
revoked by royal writs, and
they were called, or rather
forced back to their former
state.' (fn. 5)
Rowlatt. Gules a cheveron coupleclosed argent with three lions gules on the cheveron.
On 5 December, 1539, the
abbey of St. Albans and all its
lands were surrendered to the
king, and in May of the following year Newnham manor
was granted to Ralph Rowlatt, a prominent citizen of
St. Albans and a merchant of the Staple of Calais, (fn. 6) on
whose death in 1544 it passed to his son Sir Ralph. (fn. 7)
In the year 1548–9 Sir Ralph settled this estate by
means of a fine on himself and his wife Dorothy for
life, (fn. 8) with remainder to his
sister and co-heir Joan the
wife of Thomas Skipwith. (fn. 9)
In 1581 he died without
issue, (fn. 10) and his property in
this parish passed by his will
to his nephew William Skipwith and his heirs with contingent remainders to Ralph,
Edward, and Henry Skipwith,
brothers of William. (fn. 11)
Skipwith. Argent three bars gules and a greyhound sable with a golden collar running in the chief.
In 1576 the members of
the Skipwith family all conveyed their interests in the
manor to William, (fn. 12) and the
same year he made a complete
sale of the property to James Dowman, (fn. 13) to whom it
had been previously leased by Sir Ralph Rowlatt. (fn. 14) In
1601 Edward Dowman alienated the estate to Richard
Hale. (fn. 15) He died in 1622 leaving it to Richard his
second son and his heirs and assigns for ever. (fn. 16) The
manor passed to his son and grandson, both named
Robert, (fn. 17) and was sold some time before 1680 to
Sir William Dyer, bart., who died seised of it in that
year. (fn. 18) It passed to his second son William, (fn. 19) who
was holding it up to 1711, (fn. 20) and between that date
and 1715 (fn. 21) it was conveyed to the Hon. Robert
Cecil, (fn. 22) second son of James
third earl of Salisbury. (fn. 23) It
was sold by Elizabeth (fn. 24) his
widow in 1716, the year of
her death, to Mathew Hutton
and his heirs. (fn. 25) The property
was held by his son James, (fn. 26)
and appears to have passed
through his sister Dorothy (fn. 27)
and her son Philip Yorke (fn. 28) of
Erthing to his son Simon Yorke
and Margaret his wife. (fn. 29) They
conveyed it in 1808 to Samuel
Mills, in whose family it
remains, the present owner being Mr. Thomas
Layton Mills.
Hale. Azure a cheveron or battled on both sides.
There are no manorial courts held now. (fn. 30)
A rectangular plot of ground surrounded by a
moat, now a vegetable and
fruit garden, marks the site of
the manor-house. The building itself has been so long
demolished that even the
oldest inhabitant, eighty-seven
years of age, can only vouch
that his father had been told
by a preceding generation of
the existence of a house on
that spot. The moat is perpetually filled by springs.
Dyer. Or a chief indented gules.
Near the site of the manor,
but without the moat, there
is an old building, said to have been once the malting
house of the estate, now converted into four cottages.
CHURCH
The church of
ST. VINCENT (fn. 31)
has a chancel
31 ft. 3 in. by 12 ft. 7 in., a
nave 48 ft. 3 in. by 15 ft. 9 in.,
its west end cut off at 7 ft. 7 in.
from the west by an arch
carrying the east wall of a
small west tower, and a south
aisle with porch.
Yorke. Argent a saltire azure with a bezant thereon.
Externally it presents little
of interest, being covered with
Roman cement, even to the
embattled parapets, and having
low pitched roofs and windows for the most part
renewed, but something of the history of the building
may be deduced from the interior.
The nave is perhaps originally of the twelfth century, (fn. 32) though no features of so early a date are preserved, and the chancel, on the evidence of its north
windows, was either rebuilt or lengthened in the
thirteenth century.
The south aisle was added about 1340, and about
the same time a small tower was added at the west
by cutting off 7½ ft. from the nave by means of a 3 ft.
wall pierced with a wide arch. The tower, set on the
centre line of the nave, was only 9 ft. square within,
and its north and south walls were carried by arches
springing from the new wall and the old west wall of
the nave, within the lines of the existing north and
south walls of the nave. Pairs of buttresses were at
this time added at the western angles of the nave, and
a single buttress on the north to abut the east
arch. Access to this tower seems to have been by a
ladder in the first instance, but in the fifteenth century a vice was added at the south-east angle, and at
a later date, which is difficult to determine, the tower
was widened northward by pulling down its original
north wall, and carrying up the north wall of the
nave to the same height as the rest, the east and
west walls of the tower being extended northward to
meet it. This was clearly done to give more room
for bells. There is a record of repair to the church
by John of Wheathampstead, abbot of St. Albans,
during his first term of office, 1420–40, and the
east window of the chancel, and perhaps the whole of
the east wall, must be part of this work.
The chancel is long and narrow, the impression
being increased by the absence of any responds to the
chancel arch, which is of two chamfered orders dying
into the wall at the springing. It bears little evidence
of date, and may belong to Wheathampstead's repairs,
though an earlier date would suit the case equally
well.
The east window is an interesting example of three
lights with a double-cusped spherical triangle in the
head, the details showing it to be of fifteenth-century
date, in spite of the unusual nature of the tracery.
It is just such an exceptional design as might arise
under the circumstances.
In the north wall are two small lancet windows,
which, though much restored in common with much
of the detail in the church, belong to the first half of
the thirteenth century, and in the south wall are two
windows of two trefoiled lights with an opening in
the head of fourteenth-century style, but doubtful
date. Between them is a small doorway. (fn. 33)
The nave has on the north two square-headed
fifteenth-century windows, each of two cinquefoiled
lights, and a blocked pointed doorway with a chamfered head of one order. Above are three two-light
clearstory windows, also of the fifteenth century. The
south arcade is of four bays, c. 1340, with arches of
two chamfered orders and octagonal shafts with
moulded bases and capitals; over them are three
clearstory windows of the same kind as those on the
north. The south aisle is lighted by two south
windows with modern tracery of fifteenth-century
style, and a square-headed west window of two
cinquefoiled lights, the east window being blocked
with masonry.
The south doorway is perhaps contemporary with
the arcade, and has a plain chamfered arch and a
segmental rear-arch; close to its east jamb on the
outside are traces of a holy-water stone. The porch
is of the fifteenth century, with stone seats along the
sides, and a four-centred outer arch under a square
head, with blank shields in the spandrels.
The east arch of the tower is tall and wide, with
details of arch and responds like those of the arcade,
except that it has a label; against its south respond,
on the west side, is set the inserted fifteenth-century
vice, giving access to the belfry and roofs. The
belfry has square-headed windows of two trefoiled
lights, those on east and west being thrown out of
centre by the northward enlargement already noticed.
The tower, like the rest of the church, is covered
with Roman cement, and is embattled, with a flat
roof, as is the stair turret which rises to the full height
of the tower.
The roofs of the church are not ancient, nor any
other woodwork except the south door, which is
probably of fifteenth-century date, with its original
wrought-iron strap hinges.
There are a few quarries of fifteenth-century glass
in the west window of the south aisle.
The font, at the west end of the nave, is a fine
example of fifteenth-century date, octagonal, with
panelled bowl and shaft, the panels on the bowl being
quatrefoiled, with feathered cusps, and inclosing blank
shields. The shaft has panels with cinquefoiled heads,
and buttresses on the angles.
At the east end of the chancel are two slabs with
brasses, one to Joan Dowman, 1607, having a large
figure with the figures of one son and seven daughters
below, each with a name attached, and bearing on a
shield Barry of eight a quarter ermine a crescent for
difference. The other slab has the figures of a
civilian and his two wives, temp. Henry VII, beneath the second wife being one son and three
daughters, while the brasses of the first wife's children
have been lost.
There is only one bell in the tower, though there
are pits for four. It has a meaningless inscription,
but belongs to a group of three, the other two being
at Clothall and Norton, in the immediate neighbourhood, and all are doubtless the work of the same
hand. They probably date from the end of the
sixteenth century, and must have been cast by some
local or itinerant founder, whose identity is as yet
undiscovered.
The plate consists of a cup and cover paten of
1568, the cup having a band of incised ornament
below the lip, and another round the lower part of
the bowl. The paten has lost its rim, and is in a
battered condition. There are also a plated flagon
and almsdish dated 1871.
The first book of the registers begins in 1677, and
contains baptisms to 1798, burials to 1805, and
marriages to 1753. The second has marriages from
1755 to 1832, with a gap from 1815 to 1831, the
entries for these years being contained in a third
book. The fourth book has baptisms from 1802 to
1812, but the burials between 1806 and 1812 seem
to be missing.
The inclosure award is not preserved.
ADVOWSON
The church here was of old, (fn. 34) it
seems, appropriated to the abbey of
St. Albans and a vicarage ordained
and endowed, the abbots being patrons till the Dissolution. The descent of the advowson is identical
with that of the manor.
There is an inquisition of 1657 in connexion with
the church which is interesting as showing the smallness of the parish at that date. Newnham and
Caldecote were then both under the patronage of
Robert Hale, and it was said that it was the desire of
the patron and inhabitants that they should be
united, as there were but six families in Caldecote
and twenty-seven in Newnham. And since the
church in the former was small and not so fit to receive
both congregations as the latter it was deemed best
that the church of Newnham should serve for both. (fn. 35)
There seems no record of this plan having been
carried out, but since 1894 (fn. 36) one clergyman has served
both churches.
There is a certificate of 1806 of a place of worship
for Protestant Dissenters, and there is now in
Newnham a Wesleyan chapel. (fn. 37)