UPPER GRAVENHURST
Cravenherst (xi–xiii cents.).
Upper and Lower Gravenhurst, which were formerly two parishes, were united in 1888. Together
they cover an area of 1,695 acres, of which 665 are
arable land, 477½ permanent grass, and 136¼ woods
and plantations. (fn. 1) The soil is strong clay, with a subsoil of gault, and the chief crops are wheat, oats, barley,
peas, and beans. The ground falls from the north to
the south; in the north-west it reaches 272 ft. above
ordnance datum, while the lowest part of the parish,
155 ft., is situated outside Lower Gravenhurst village.
The upper village is built upon irregular ground
on a prominent piece of land about 200 ft. above
ordnance datum, with a steep fall to the south. The
church is in the middle of the village close to the
point where a road running north-west from Shillington meets the village street.
With the exception of Wrest Park the country is of
open character, and mostly occupied by fields of large
area. There are many springs, more or less chalybeate, in the parish. The village is equidistant from
the Bedford and Luton main road to the south-west,
and from Shefford town to the north-east, each being
about three miles away.
Manors
The manor of GREAT OR UPPER
GRAVENHURST, otherwise TEWELSBURY, originated in the land held by
the family of Tivill under Ramsey Abbey in Upper
Gravenhurst. The overlordship continued vested in
the abbey until 1266, when the abbot purchased the
ownership in fee of Ralph Tivill, by which act the
over- and under-lordships became merged. It so continued till the Dissolution, when the crown took the
place of the abbey. (fn. 2)
Ralph de Tivill was holding land in the parish as
early as 1212, when he acquired several acres from
Joscelin de Stivecle. (fn. 3) He was also a tenant of the
abbey of Ramsey, holding one-third of a hide from
the abbey in the early part of the thirteenth century,
and again in 1255; (fn. 4) this land the abbey took into its
own keeping in 1264. (fn. 5) These lands were augmented
by a virgate acquired by Ralph from Miles de Mentmore in 1232 at a yearly rent of a load of wheat and
a load of barley. (fn. 6) In 1234 Ralph was granted a tenement in Gravenhurst by his uncle Hugh de Tivill. (fn. 7)
These various lands were apparently sold under the
name of the manor of Gravenhurst to the abbey of
Ramsey in 1266 for 250 marks, (fn. 8) while lands held
formerly by Walter de Holecot, parson, and Elena
widow of Hugh de Tivill, were leased to the abbey
by Ralph for ten years, or until the abbey should
have received ten crops. (fn. 9)
The manor remained in the possession of the abbey
until the Dissolution, when it was taken into the
hands of the king. (fn. 10) The hamlet of Gravenhurst was
leased out in 1318 by the abbey to Sir William de
Herle and others, (fn. 11) and in 1452 the whole manor
was let for £24 5s. 3½d. (fn. 12)
At the court held at the manor in the following
year it was deemed that 'the water running under
the Waterend from the Redie by the Mone to the
Millway was the Lord's, and no one was to fish in
it.' (fn. 13) In 1535 the abbey's possessions in Gravenhurst
were worth £12, (fn. 14) and in 1540 the rent of the manor
was £8 5s. 4d. (fn. 15) In 1542 the manor of Gravenhurst
was granted by the crown to Sir Henry Grey of
Wrest and his wife Ann, together with tenements
called the Copyland in Gravenhurst about 18 acres in
extent, in the tenure of William Maister, and the
tenement called the Shrine, about 40 acres, also in
the tenure of William Maister, both of which had
formerly belonged to Ramsey Abbey. (fn. 16) The manor
remained in the Grey family, whose descendant, Lord
Lucas, holds it at the present day. (fn. 17) It followed from
1542 the same descent as that of the manor of Wrest
in Silsoe in the parish of Flitton (q.v.).
Ramsey Abbey also owned in Upper Gravenhurst
a capital messuage which was known after the Dissolution as the manor of SCHEPEHOO. It is first mentioned in 1212 as lying near land which belonged to
Joscelin de Stivecle. (fn. 18) This family evidently held
this capital messuage from the abbey, for a few years
later, Walter, Joscelin's son, was holding one-third
of a hide from the abbey. (fn. 19) Joscelin's widow Aline
married James Wake, and on her death in 1254 her
dower in Gravenhurst was inherited by Barnabas, son
of Walter, who was then seventeen years old. (fn. 20)
Barnabas died without leaving children, and the messuage passed to his sister Alice, who had married
William le Coynte. William and Alice in 1260
bestowed 36 acres of land, 4 acres of meadow, and
26d. of rent upon the abbey of Ramsey, for which gift
William and Alice and her heirs were to receive the
prayers of the church. One acre of this land lay in
the great culture called Schepehoobrade and pasture
was also granted in the land which extended to the
door of the capital messuage of Schephoo belonging to
William and Alice and their heirs. (fn. 21)
Alice's mother Joan, after the death of Walter de
Stivecle, had married as her second husband William
le Waleis, and in 1262 William le Coynte and Alice
granted to Joan, her husband, and their issue, together
with other lands, one third of the messuage of Schepehoo, (fn. 22) and between 1262 and 1267 the abbey of Ramsey leased to William le Waleis and Joan those lands
which it had of the gift of William le Coynte and
Alice. (fn. 23) Soon after this Joan granted 6 acres of land
to the abbey, (fn. 24) and there is no further mention of
Schepehoo until the Dissolution, when it was granted
under the name of the manor of Schepehoo to Sir
Henry Grey of Wrest, when he received the manor
of Upper Gravenhurst. It was held by the Greys
jointly with the Manor of Upper Gravenhurst until
1613, when Henry, earl of Kent, alienated the manor
to William Whitbread and William Milward as trustees
for the parish of Upper Gravenhurst. (fn. 25) Since then
the estate has belonged to the parish, and it is now
comprised in the Town Farm Charity.
There is mention of another manor in Upper
Gravenhurst, but its legal status is very problematical.
In 1375 William de Risceby the elder was granted
for his life a rent issuing from lands, demised in feefarm by Ramsey Abbey to William le Waleis and
Joan in Great Gravenhurst, (fn. 26) and in 1377 this same
William de Risceby was stated to be holding for life
the manor of LAHYDE in Great Gravenhurst, which
belonged to Agatha, the wife of Henry Barker of
Hitchin. After the death of William this manor
was to pass, according to agreement, to Gerard Braybrook and his heirs. (fn. 27) The manor, however, apparently continued in the possession of the Risceby
family, for in the reign of Henry VI, John Risceby,
probably a son of William, left it to his wife Alice,
who had married as her second husband John
Cavendish. John Cavendish bought the reversion of
the manor, but notwithstanding this, the feoffees, John
Meppershall, William Snowe, and others, granted the
reversion of the manor to Lord Grey de Ruthyn. (fn. 28)
There is no further trace of the manor, but it is likely
that the Greys retained it, holding it in conjunction with
their other manors, into which it was probably absorbed.
The Inclosure Act for the parishes of Upper and
Lower Gravenhurst, passed in 1820, has not been
printed. (fn. 29)
Church
The church of ST. GILES has a
modern chancel and north vestry with
organ chamber, nave 33 ft. 10 in. by
18 ft. 2 in. with modern south porch and a west
tower 10 ft. square inside. Before the late repairs
there was a brick chancel and south porch of no
interest. The oldest part of the church is the nave,
the walls of which, together with the north doorway
and voussoirs of the chancel arch, belong to the
second quarter of the twelfth century. The tower is
a late fifteenth-century addition, and for the rest the
architectural history of the church has been obliterated, though it is probable that the walls of the nave
were heightened when the present low-pitched fifteenth-century roof was put on. The modern chancel
is embattled, and has tracery windows of fifteenth
century design. The chancel arch is a round-headed
twelfth-century arch of two orders with a single line
of zigzag on the outer order, the springers being
modern additions giving it a slightly stilted form. It
rests on pairs of modern circular shafts with scalloped
capitals replacing wooden pillars of Jacobean date, and
flanked by small modern round-headed arches of two
orders which throw the chancel almost entirely open
to the nave. These latter take the place of squareheaded openings probably of the same date as the
oaken pillars. The present arrangement is, of course,
structurally sounder than the former, whose disappearance must, however, be regretted for other
reasons.
The nave is lighted by windows of two cinquefoiled
lights, one on the north and one on the south, of
fifteenth-century style. The north doorway of the
nave is blocked and is round-headed, of two square
orders. The south doorway has a plain four-centred
head of the fifteenth century, and opens to a modern
porch.
The tower is of three stages, its embattled parapet
having been rebuilt, and has belfry windows of two
trefoiled lights with a quatrefoil over and a west
window on the ground story of three trefoiled lights
with tracery. At the south-east is a stair turret
which projects as a half octagon from the wall and
dies into it below the belfry stage, being finished with
a pyramidal capping, at the base of which is an embattled moulding. The font is plain and twelve-sided,
and has a twelve-sided shaft with a base of fifteenthcentury date. The roof of the nave is of low pitch
with curved braces to the tie-beams resting on stone
corbels, the intermediates springing from the figures of
angels with outspread wings holding musical instruments. There are carved bosses at the intersections
of the timbers, and traces of colour decoration are to
be seen on the principals. The pews are modern
imitations of former fifteenth-century seats, a little old
work being used up in them, and under the tower are
two ancient wooden chests. All the other wooden
fittings are modern.
At the north-east angle of the nave, on the outside
of the wall, is a masonry projection some 3 ft. in
height, which may have been the base of the turret
containing the rood stair, but there is no evidence of
this within the church.
There are five bells, the treble, second and fourth
bearing only the initials M.G. roughly scratched in.
These may denote Miles Graye of Colchester, but are
more probably the work of some lesser founder, as it is
unlikely that so practised a man as 'Colchester Graye'
would have produced such rough work. Each bell
bears the impress of three coins. The third bell is
by Richard Chandler, 1693, and the tenor by William
Emerton of Wootton, 1772.
The plate consists of a communion cup of 1569
with a modern paten and a pewter flagon and plate.
The first book of the registers runs from 1567 to
1733, and is the parchment copy made in 1598. The
second book contains all entries from 1736 to 1812.
Advowson
Upper Gravenhurst had no parish
church, and to supply the need of
the inhabitants a chantry was founded
before 1189 for a priest to administer sacraments and
bury the dead. Licence was granted by the archbishop of Canterbury and was confirmed by the king
'for the easement of the parishioners because they
were wont to go to the parish church of Shytlington
which is a mile from the said church of Gravenhirste.' (fn. 30) The first mention of the existence of the
chantry occurs some time between the years 1189 and
1195 when Hugh, bishop of Lincoln, granted the tithes
belonging to the chapel of Gravenhurst to Ramsey
Abbey. (fn. 31) In 1369 licence was given to the inhabitants of Gravenhurst to hear mass in the chapel there, (fn. 32)
and in 1535 the salary of William Smith the chaplain
was 106s. 8d. (fn. 33) When the chantries were dissolved
by Edward VI, it was stated that the value of the
chantry of Upper Gravenhurst was 106s. 8d., all of
which was expended on the priest for his salary.
The ornaments and goods were worth 37s. 4d. There
were two chalices, one of which, partly gilt, was
worth 40s., and the other, silver white, 20s., which
were then in the keeping of John Fawcett and
Thomas Barker, the wardens. (fn. 34) Elsewhere it is said
that the net annual value of the parochial chapel was
108s. 4d., and that the chaplain, Jerome Johnson,
who was resident there, was thirty-six years old, but
'meanly learned and had no other living.' (fn. 35) There
were also lands in Silsoe and Gravenhurst devoted to
the use of the chantry worth 69s. 4d., and Henry
Grey and Edward Daniell were the patrons and presented the incumbent. (fn. 36) The chantry, tithes and
lands attached were granted by Queen Elizabeth to
Theophilus and Robert Adams and to the heirs of
Theophilus in 1583, (fn. 37) but a vicarage was instituted,
apparently shortly after the dissolution of the chantry,
as in 1605 it is stated that Trinity College, Cambridge, was the patron of this benefice, (fn. 38) to which a
curate ministered. By 1786 the presentation was in
the gift of the parishioners, while the great tithes still
belonged to Trinity College, Cambridge. (fn. 39) At the
present day the rector of Lower Gravenhurst also
performs the duties of vicar of Upper Gravenhurst,
and he is elected to the latter living by the parishioners.
There is a Wesleyan chapel here erected in 1868.
Charities
The Town Farm is comprised in a
decree made at Bedford on 9 August,
11 James I by the Commissioners
appointed pursuant to the Act, 43 Elizabeth, cap. 4.
The real estate consists of the manor of Schepehoo and
55 acres let at £72 16s.
Under the provisions of a scheme of the Charity
Commissioners, dated 10 March, 1896, the charity
was divided into the ecclesiastical branch and the
general branch; two-thirds of the net rents to be
appropriated exclusively to the ecclesiastical branch,
and one-third of the net rents to the general branch.
In 1901 a sum of £303 arising from accumulations of income belonging to the ecclesiastical branch
was expended in the restoration of the parish church.
The scheme also provided that three-quarters of
the income of the ecclesiastical branch should be
paid to the vicar of the parish, and the remainder for
the repair of the church.
The income of the general branch to be applied
in repairing or maintaining any public bridge not
maintainable out of the rates, or towards maintaining
a public library or reading-room, or any public purpose for the benefit of the inhabitants, or (as varied
by a further scheme of 22 November, 1898) in the
payment of a yearly sum not exceeding £10 for the
benefit of the poor generally in such manner as might
be considered most conducive to the formation of
provident habits.
The official trustees hold (1906) a sum of
£57 5s. 1d. India 3 per cents. and £384 13s. 4d.
consols, arising from accumulations of income in
trust for the general branch.