AYSTON
Adelstanestone, Atheston (xiii cent.); Astonestone
(xiii–xiv cent.); Aston (xiii–xviii cent.); Aiston (xvii
cent.); Ashton (xvii–xviii cent.); Ayston (xviii cent.
onwards); Ayson (xviii cent.).
The area of the parish of Ayston is 904 acres, with a
population of 56 in 1921, showing a decrease on the
1911 census. The land falls from the south-west,
where it reaches over 500 ft. above the Ordnance
datum, towards the north-east, where it is about
300 ft. The subsoil is Upper Lias and Inferior
Oolite, the soil being red loam growing wheat, barley
and turnips.
The pretty little village stands on high ground
sloping down to the north, on the road from Uppingham to Oakham, about three-quarters of a mile north
of Uppingham. The cottages are built of stone with
thatched or stone roofs, the trees in Ayston Park
forming a charming background. The church is on
the west side of the village and Ayston Hall adjoins
it on the north. Ayston Hall, the seat of Mr. James
Finch, is a plain two-story house rebuilt during the
first few years of the 19th century, probably by George
Fludyer, who succeeded to the property in 1803 and
lived at the Hall. It may have been the predecessor
of this Hall which was visited by Edward I on 23 September 1275. (fn. 1)
The nearest railway station is at Uppingham.
Manor
There is no mention of AYSTON in
the Domesday Book (1086), when it was
probably one of the seven hamlets of
Ridlington (q.v.); for which reason the manor would
subsequently be held of the earldom of Warwick, as is
recorded in 1531. (fn. 2) It had come by 1203 into the
tenure of the Leicestershire family of Murdac, and
descended to the Boyvilles, who held it until the latter
part of the 15th century.
Murdac. Or fretty sable.
In 1203 William Murdac made an agreement with
his mother Alice as to her dower in Ayston, Alice
being possibly the widow of
Henry Murdac of whom we
find reference in Rutland in
1185. William gave her 5½
bovates of land and a quarter
of the demesne, while his own
share was to include the whole
mill. (fn. 3)
Boyville. Gules a fesse or between three saltires argent.
Brudenell. Argent a cheveron gules between three hats azure turned up with ermine.
Sir Henry Murdac, kt.,
brother of William, presented
to the church in 1228–9. (fn. 4)
Henry Murdac, probably of a
later generation, presented in
1240 and 1247, (fn. 5) and his land in Ayston and Wardley
was worth £20 in 1265. (fn. 6) He was succeeded in or after
1269 by a son Sir William, who gave Ayston in 1285–6
to his son Hugh. Hugh's heir was his sister Alice, wife
of Thomas de Boyville of Stockerston (co. Leic.), (fn. 7) who
held a knight's fee here in 1305. (fn. 8) The pedigrees
give Robert "Rabay" as Alice's first husband, (fn. 9) but it
seems more likely that he was her second, for 'Robert
de Abaz' is returned as lord here in 1316, (fn. 10) when he
probably held by courtesy. In 1318 Henry de Fenton
settled the manor and advowson on Alice's son Sir
John de Boyville, Beatrice his wife and the heirs of
John. (fn. 11) John died in 1376. His
eldest son, another John, died
without issue and was succeeded by his brother Thomas,
a knight, living in 1396, he by
his son Thomas, knight, who
was followed by a son John, (fn. 12)
the tenant of the knight's fee
here in 1428. (fn. 13) John died in
1467, leaving three daughters
and co-heirs, Elizabeth, Margaret and Ann, of whom the
second married firstly Thomas
Restwold, (fn. 14) sheriff of Berkshire
and Oxfordshire 1477–8. (fn. 15) Thomas died in 1480, and
Margaret married as her second husband Christopher
Bellingham, who settled the manor in 1502; Richard
son of Thomas Restwold, sheriff of Buckinghamshire
in 1491 and 1499, (fn. 16) made a settlement of this manor
and advowson in 1510, apparently on the marriage of
his son and heir Edward with Agnes Cheyne. (fn. 17)
Richard died in 1522, and
Edward in 1547; (fn. 18) but this
property had probably been
alienated with the manor of
Wardley in 1510 (fn. 19) to Sir
Robert Brudenell, kt., lord
chief justice. Sir Robert died
seised of both Ayston and
Wardley in 1531, leaving a son
and heir, Sir Thomas (fn. 20) of
Deene, Northamptonshire,
who was succeeded in March
1549 by his son Edmund. (fn. 21)
Sir Edmund settled the manor
and advowson in March 1570 on his brother Robert,
who died seised in 1599, leaving a son and heir Thomas, (fn. 22)
created a baronet in 1611. (fn. 23) The estate was forfeited
for the recusancy of Sir Thomas and leased to the Earl
of Rutland in 1627 for 60 years; (fn. 24) but by 1641 it was
once more in Thomas's possession. (fn. 25) He was created
Baron Brudenell of Stonton, Leicestershire, in 1628
and in 1661 Earl of Cardigan. He died in 1663, leaving
a son and heir Robert, (fn. 26) who with Francis, his eldest
son, made a settlement of this property in 1671–2
and again in 1688. (fn. 27) Francis died in his father's
lifetime and a grandson George became third Earl; (fn. 28)
but James Brudenell, brother of the third Earl, who had
married Susannah daughter of Bartholomew Burton of
Oakham, succeeded to the property. On the death
of James in 1746 it passed to George Bridges Brudenell,
M.P. for Rutland, (fn. 29) who barred the entail (fn. 30) and died in
1801. (fn. 31) Ayston and Wardley then went to Caroline,
his sister, widow of Sir Samuel
Fludyer, bt., alderman of London.
Caroline died in 1803 and left
Ayston and Wardley to her younger
son George Fludyer. George
Fludyer of Ayston Hall died in
1837, and was succeeded by his
eldest surviving son, Rev. John
Henry Fludyer, who was rector of
Ayston from 1834 until his death.
He succeeded his cousin, Sir
Samuel, as 4th baronet in 1876 and
died in 1896. His son, Sir Arthur
John Fludyer, 5th and last baronet,
died childless in 1922 at Ayston
Hall. His sister and heir Katherine
had married in 1873 Henry Randolph Finch of the Croft, Manton,
second son of George Finch of
Burley-on-the-Hill. (fn. 32) She died in
1919, and her son Mr. Vere Finch now owns the
manors of Ayston and Wardley.
Fludyer. Sable a cross paty between four scallops argent with a cross paty sable on each scallop.
Finch. Argent a cheveron between three griffons passant sable in a border wavy erminees.
Church
The church of ST. MARY consists
of chancel 25 ft. 6 in. by 15 ft. 6 in.,
clearstoried nave of three bays 39 ft. by
15 ft. 6 in., north aisle 5 ft. 8 in. wide, south aisle
8 ft. 6 in. wide, south porch and west tower 8 ft.
square, all these measurements being internal. The
width across nave and aisles is 33 ft. 9 in.
The north aisle and arcade are of 13th-century date,
but appear to have been additions to an aisleless 12thcentury building, the north-west angle of which still
remains. The south arcade is a little later in the same
period, but the aisle appears to have been rebuilt
and widened in the 14th century. The tower was
erected later in the 14th century, and the clearstory
perhaps at the same time or shortly after. The chancel
was rebuilt in its present form in the 15th century, at
which time new windows were inserted in the south
aisle and the porch added. The plan has not since
been altered. (fn. 33) With the exception of the north aisle,
which is of rubble, the building is faced with finely
dressed stone in wide courses, and has low-pitched
leaded roofs and plain parapets. The porch alone
has a stone-slated eaved roof. All the walls are
plastered internally, and the floors are flagged. The
roofs are modern.
Plan of Ayston Church
The chancel is divided externally into two bays
by buttresses, and has pairs of buttresses at the
eastern angles. A hollow moulding below the parapet,
enriched with four-leaved flowers, is carried round the
east wall, (fn. 34) following the gable, and there are crocketed
angle pinnacles. The four-centred east window is of
five cinquefoiled lights without tracery, and the
lateral windows, two on each side, are of the same
character, but of three and two lights. The sill of the
westernmost window on each side is lowered. (fn. 35)
There is a trefoil-headed piscina with projecting bowl,
and in the north wall a rectangular aumbry fitted
with a modern door. The chancel and nave are of
equal width, and are separated by a four-centred
arch of two chamfered orders, without hood-mould,
springing from moulded and embattled corbels
carved on the underside with foliage. There are
remains of a rood-loft doorway in the thickened east
wall of the north aisle.
The north arcade consists of three semicircular
arches of two chamfered orders, springing from
cylindrical pillars and half-round responds with
moulded capitals and water-holding bases. The plaster
above the arches covers the hood-moulds, the stops
of which alone are exposed: of these three are heads,
and one an ornamented disc. In the south arcade
the arches are pointed and of two chamfered orders, on
cylindrical pillars and responds of slightly greater
height and diameter, (fn. 36) with plainly moulded capitals
and bases. (fn. 37) The north aisle retains a widely splayed
lancet window in the middle of the north wall,
and at its west end is a small pointed quatrefoil
opening high in the wall, cut in a single stone, with
wide internal splay and sloping sill. A square-headed
window of two trefoil lights near the east end of the
north wall is a 14th-century insertion, and the
doorway has a plain segmental chamfered head in one
stone. The north aisle is without buttresses, plinth
or string.
The south aisle has diagonal angle buttresses of
two stages and plainly moulded plinth, but all the
windows and the doorway are 15th-century insertions.
The east window, and two in the south wall, are of
three cinquefoiled lights, and the west window of two
lights, similar in character to those of the chancel.
The doorway has a four-centred hollow-chamfered
head within a moulded square frame and hoodmould with returned ends. The porch has a plain
coped gable and four-centred doorway with wide
continuous chamfer, but no hood-mould. There
are three square-headed two-light clearstory windows
on each side.
The tower is of three stages, with moulded plinth,
and has wide clasping buttresses the height of the
second stage, and a vice in the south-west angle.
The pointed west window is of two cinquefoiled
lights with good Decorated tracery, and above it in
the middle stage is a single loop. On the north and
south the two lower stages are blank. The top stage
appears to have been rebuilt or remodelled in the
15th century, the bell-chamber having tall fourcentred transomed windows of two trefoil lights,
without tracery; the battlemented parapet is stepped,
and there are plain spitters on the north and south
sides. Internally the tower opens into the nave by
a sharply pointed arch of two chamfered orders on
half-round responds, with moulded octagonal capitals
and bases.
The 18th-century font has a small incurved bowl
on a stem with moulded base.
The nave and aisles are filled with box pews in
grained deal, and there is a modern Gothic pitch-pine
chancel screen. The pulpit also is modern. A vestry
is screened off at the west end of the north aisle.
There is some ancient painted glass in two windows
of the south aisle: the 15th-century glass in the east
window is somewhat fragmentary and depicts a
Crucifixion, with labelled figures of the Virgin and
St. John, (fn. 38) beneath which are heads of two bishops,
and a crowned Virgin and Child. The window next
the porch contains pieces of old glass found about
thirty years ago at the Hall, including two brown and
yellow roundels, apparently Dutch, representing the
Adoration of the Magi and the Presentation in the
Temple. Other fragments have the bearded head of
a friar, and a white hart within a rectangular border.
There are also three shields with the arms of Brudenell
and their alliances. (fn. 39)
There are mural tablets to Thomas White, rector
(d. 1735), John Sprigs (d. 1741), Sir Arthur John
Fludyer, 5th and last baronet (d. 1922), and to eight
men of the parish who fell in the war of 1914–19.
There are four bells, the treble probably by Robert
Newcombe of Leicester (c. 1520–61), inscribed
'Ambrose,' the second a late medieval bell inscribed
'Ave Rex Gentis Anglorum,' the third by Tobie
Norris (I) of Stamford 1626, and the tenor by Taylor
of Loughborough 1877. (fn. 40)
The plate consists of a cup and cover paten of
1570–71; a paten of 1714–15; and a flagon by Paul
Lamerie 1739–40, inscribed 'The gift of Mrs. Eliz.
White to the parish church of Ayston in Rutlandshire
1739.' (fn. 41)
The registers before 1812 are as follows: (i) all
entries 1657–1722; (ii) baptisms and burials 1778–1812;
(iii) marriages 1776–1812. (fn. 42)
In the churchyard, west of the porch, is a monumental slab with male and female effigies, now very
much defaced and moss-grown, but probably representing a knight and lady. (fn. 43)
Advowson
The living is a rectory, and from
1229, the date of the first known
institution, the advowson has descended with the manor. The benefices of Ayston
and Uppingham were united in 1930.
Charities
Poor's Stock.—The endowment of
this charity appears to be a sum of
£10 secured by a note of hand
dated 24 December 1795 given by the incumbent to
the then churchwarden. In respect of this charity
a sum of 10s. is yearly given to some object in the
parish.