EASTON
Eston (xi cent.); Estone (xi-xvi cent.); Esson
(xvi cent.).
The parish of Easton covers an area of 1,352 acres
of clay land producing wheat, barley and beans. The
land is flat and low-lying in the north between the
Ellington Brook, which for a part of its course forms
the northern boundary, and a smaller stream which
rises in Spaldwick and runs eastward to Ellington.
Southward of the latter stream the ground rises from
66 ft. above the Ordnance datum in the village to over
200 ft. on the south-west boundary. The land is
mostly pasture.
The village stands about half a mile to the south
of the road from Huntingdon to Thrapston and six
and a half miles from the former town. The smaller
stream, already referred to, runs by the village
street, on the south side of which is the church. Most
of the houses and cottages date back to the 17th century and are timber-framed with thatched or tiled
roofs. A road leading south from the village widens
out as it skirts Calpher Wood, where it is called
Hartham Street. Calpher Wood, formerly known as
Calfo Park, contained 30 acres and belonged to the
manor of Spaldwick in 1279. (fn. 1)
There was an Inclosure Award in 1775. (fn. 2)
The nearest railway station is that of Grafham,
three miles to the south-east. In 1637 Giles Randall,
the curate, preached a 'scandalous and seditious'
sermon against ship-money in the parish church on a
general fast day, and was bound over as a recusant. (fn. 3)
He appeared as vicar of Easton before the Court
of High Commission in 1640. (fn. 4) The Wesleyan
Methodist chapel built in 1840 is now used as a
parish room.
Manors
EASTON was a berewick of Spaldwick
(q.v.) in 1086 and passed as part of the
'appurtenances' of Spaldwick in 1109
to the Bishop of Lincoln. It has ever since descended
as part of the 'soke' of Spaldwick (q.v.) and now
belongs to the Duke of Manchester.
There was a dispute in 1086 between Eustace the
Sheriff and Ely Abbey about one-sixth of a hide here,
Eustace having wrongfully seized this land in about
1071. (fn. 5) As neither Eustace nor his usual successors
the Lovetots (fn. 6) are mentioned again, it is evident that
the Abbot of Ely recovered this land for his manor
of Spaldwick. It had probably been enfeoffed by
the abbot to some Bedfordshire landowner whose
estates had been confiscated. The interesting fact in
connection with the dispute is the jury's statement
that while the land lay in Huntingdonshire, it paid
geld in Bedfordshire. (fn. 7) This has been taken by Dr.
Round to suggest that the unidentified 'Estone' of
the Bedfordshire Domesday Survey may be Easton,
Hunts, but there is no doubt that 'Estone,' Beds,
was Little Staughton. (fn. 8)
One hide in Easton belonged to the Honour of
Kimbolton in 1279, (fn. 9) but this possibly represented the
land held by William de Warenne in 'Estone,' Beds,
in 1068.
In 1261 Nigel de Hardwick sold ½ a hide of land
in Easton to Simon de Kingeston and Joan his wife. (fn. 10)
Nigel's immediate predecessor was probably Peter de
Lekeburn, who held 8 virgates at Hardwick in the
parish of Tilbrook. (fn. 11)
Bedell. Gules a cheveron engrailed between three scallops argent.
Simon de Hardwick (1278–87) held a virgate as a
twelfth of a knight's fee of Thomas de Bekering, Lord
of Catworth, William Wyne and William Hokeman
holding 2 virgates of de Bekering by the same service; (fn. 12) but as de Bekering held it of the Lord of
Kimbolton, this was probably in 'Estone,' Beds.
Robert Wyne and Peter de
Hardwick, however, certainly
possessed groves in Easton,
Hunts, in 1300–1301; (fn. 13) and
Robert Wyne purchased tenements here in 1346. (fn. 14)
The family of Bedell occurs
in Easton as early as 1383,
when John Bedell and others
were concerned with a settlement here. (fn. 15) Thomas Bedell
purchased 100 acres of land,
etc., in Easton, Kimbolton,
Spaldwick and Ellington, from
Edward Mulsho and Mary,
his wife, in 1567; (fn. 16) and there are family dealings
with their lands here in 1582 and 1596. (fn. 17) In 1587
Edward Bedell bought 10 acres of pasture and
4½ acres of wood in Easton and Spaldwick from
John Beck and Dorothy, his wife; (fn. 18) and their
name continues in the parish register until a still
later date.
In 1578 Sir Thomas Cecil, Kt., and Dorothy his
wife sold 160 acres of wood in Easton, Long Stow
and Spaldwick to Peter Assheton. (fn. 19)
Church
The church of ST. PETER consists
of a chancel (22½ ft. by 13½ ft.), nave
(47¼ ft. by 16½ ft.), south aisle (10 ft.
wide), west tower and spire (9½ ft. by 9½ ft.), and
north porch. The walls are of rubble with stone
dressings and the roofs are covered with lead.
The church is not mentioned in the Domesday
Survey (1086), but the thick north wall of the nave
and numerous carved stones built into the walls point
to a stone church on the site by the beginning of the
twelfth century; probably it had an aisleless nave.
About 1300 considerable alterations were made, the
south aisle with its arcade being added, and the
chancel and chancel arch probably rebuilt. The
tower and spire were built at the end of the 14th
century. In the 15th century the east end of the
chancel was largely rebuilt and the walls of it and of the
nave were heightened and new windows inserted in
them, but the windows of the clearstory seem to be
early 16th century. The porch and the rood-stairs
were built about 1500. The chancel was restored in
1871, when the east wall was largely rebuilt and a new
roof put on, and the rest of the church about 1876–9;
the south aisle was partly rebuilt and considerable
other repairs done in 1903–4. The chancel was again
restored in 1905. The spire was struck by lightning
3 July 1908, and repaired.
The 14th-century chancel has a 15th-century threelight east window with tracery in a rather depressed
four-centred head. The north wall has a late 14thcentury two-light window heightened in the 15th
century and having simple tracery in a four-centred
head; and a 15th-century two-light window with
tracery in a depressed four-centred head. The south
wall has two windows similar to those on the north;
and an early 16th-century doorway with continuous
moulded jambs and a four-centred head under a
square label. The chancel arch, c. 1300, is twocentred of two chamfered orders, the inner order
resting on moulded corbels. In the gable above, the
marks of the earlier nave roof may be seen. The roof
is modern.
The nave has, in the north wall, a late 15th-century
three-light window with transom and with tracery
in a rather straight-sided four-centred head; a
similar two-light window; a 14th-century doorway
with two-centred head and continuous moulded
jambs; the eastern inner jamb of a destroyed earlier
doorway; and the reset semicircular head of a small
11th-century window.
The south arcade, c. 1300, has four bays of twocentred arches having two chamfered orders and
resting on circular columns and semicircular responds,
all with moulded capitals and chamfered bases, the
bases of the responds brought to a square with large
and coarse angle-stops, and on high square plinths;
at the east end is the upper doorway of the rood-stairs.
The clearstory above has four early 16th-century
square-headed three-light windows. The flat oak
roof of 1630 has moulded and carved beams, jack-legs
and braces, bolection moulded spandrels, and shaped
and pierced pendants; the eastern tie-beam is dated
1630. There are some ornamental lead spitters on
both sides of the nave.
The south aisle, c. 1300, largely rebuilt in 1903,
has in the east wall a late 15th-century square-headed
three-light window, to the north of which, inside, is an
almost destroyed bracket. In the south wall are
three late 14th-century two-light windows with
tracery in four-centred heads, the easternmost much
restored; an original doorway with a two-centred
head and continuous moulded jambs (the eastern
having remains of a stoup), and having a modern door
on which are fixed parts of the original iron hinges,
one with a stamped rosette and stamped lappet
resembling Thomas de Leighton's work; and an
original piscina with two-centred head and a round
basin. In the west wall is a late 15th-century squareheaded three-light window. In the north-east corner
is the lower doorway of the rood-stairs, c. 1500, which
occupy a rounded turret in the angle between the
aisle and the chancel. The aisle has low buttresses
and modern stone parapets; before 1903 the ancient
parapets had been replaced with modern bricks.
The modern roof includes two
17th-century beams and a
purlin.
Plan of Easton Church
The late 14th-century west
tower has a two-centred tower
arch of three chamfered orders,
the inner order resting on
attached semicircular shafts
with moulded capitals and
bases. In the north wall is a
curious recess with four-centred
head. The west doorway has
a two-centred head and continuous moulded jambs. The
west window is of three lights
with cinquefoiled transom and
a nearly straight-sided fourcentred head. In the stage
above is a two-light window
with a four-centred head. The belfry windows
are coupled two-lights with quatrefoiled transoms
and with tracery in two-centred heads. The tower
has square buttresses set well in from the angles,
which rise to the springing of the heads of the belfry
windows, and just below the spire is a band of quatrefoils; the tower stairs are in a square turret at the
south-east angle. The broach spire (112 ft. 8 in.
from ground to top) has three tiers of spire-lights
all on the cardinal faces; the two lower are twolights, and the upper are single-lights.
The north porch, c. 1500, has a two-centred outer
arch with continuous moulded jambs. The gable
above retains the string-course of the parapet of a
low-pitched roof, but a steeper gable has been built
above it, and the porch has been roofed with tiles.
The side walls each have shallow wall-arches with
four-centred heads and continuous chamfered jambs;
each containing a two-light window with simple
tracery in a four-centred head. In the south-east
angle is a recess with a four-centred head, in which
has been fixed an octagonal stone stoup. (fn. 20) The
modern roof includes two 17th-century tie-beams and
jack-legs with moulded pendants.
The 13th-century font has a heavy square bowl
with the angles carelessly taken off, standing on a
modern octagonal stem and base.
There are four bells, inscribed: (1) Henry Penn
made me 1718; (2) Sancta Marea; (3) Mr. Whitehead C. W. Taylor and Son Found. (fn. 8) St. Neots 1821;
(4) Praise the Lorde. The second and fourth bells
are by Newcombe of Leicester, about the middle of
the 16th century. In 1552 there were four bells and
a sanctus bell. (fn. 21)
There is a fine 15th-century oak screen under the
chancel arch, of five bays with open tracery above
and traceried panels below; the coving and loft have
gone and the remaining portion is somewhat mutilated. A few old benches with panelled ends and two
of them with late poppy-heads remain in the nave.
An early 17th-century Communion table with
turned legs is in the south aisle; a somewhat similar
table is in the nave, and a plain 17th-century chest in
the tower. A 17th-century poor-box is fixed to one
of the nave seats. Some of the turned balusters from
the 17th-century altar-rails are incorporated in the
litany desk and credence table. The 18th-century
pulpit, of mahogany and ebony, came from South
Shields.
The following stones built into the walls were
found in the walling of the south aisle in 1903: in
north wall, a long narrow coffin-lid with a much worn
cross at the head, calvary at foot and the doubleomega ornament, found in fragments and put together; in south wall of south aisle, (1) a fragment of
a small tympanum, (2) a 12th-century double capital,
(3) the bottom part of a coffin-lid with crudely formed
calvary of five steps, (4) a stone with a cross in relief,
perhaps a consecration cross, (5) numerous other
wrought stones. Other wrought stones lie in the
churchyard.
There are the following monuments: in the
chancel, floor slabs to the Rev. Samuel Lennard,
vicar, d. 1737; and the Rev. Jeremia Taylor, vicar
of Brampton [and of Easton], d. 1779, and Sara, his
wife.
The registers are as follows: (i) baptisms, marriages and burials 11 September 1708 to 15 December
1812, marriages end 6 November 1752; (ii) marriages
2 March 1756 to 5 May 1812.
The church plate consists of a squat silver cup
with bowl and foot, but no stem, engraved eia
amongst ten stars, hall-marked for 1669–70; a
silver paten, hall-marked for 1875–6.
Advowson
The church of Easton was a
chapelry in the soke of Spaldwick (q.v.)
and in the gift of the prebendary of
Stow Longa or Long Stow (q.v.). (fn. 22) The vicarage was
united to Stow Longa in 1869 by Order in Council.
Charities
Thurston's Charity originally consisted of a rentcharge of £5 per annum
issuing out of an estate at Halstead,
but was redeemed in 1886 and is now represented by
a sum of £167 2½ per cent. Consolidated Stock with the
Official Trustees. Four-fifths of the income is given to
the vicar for preaching sermons and the remainder is
distributed in doles to the poor of the parish.
The Town Lands consist of 5 closes of land
in the parish containing about 24 acres, which
are let to various tenants for terms of 3 years.
The rents are distributed in doles to the poor of
the parish.
Poor's Land or Feast Charity consists of about
7 acres situate in the parish of Easton and let in two
parcels. The rents are distributed to the poor of the
parish in doles.
Stephen Whitehead, by will proved at Peterborough
13 Jan. 1879, gave a sum of money for the deserving
inhabitants of the parish. This sum is now represented by £99 5s. 1d. 2½ per cent. Consolidated
Stock with the Official Trustees, the income from
which is distributed to the poor in doles.