Highleadon Gloucestershire
'Ifie :J{istory of a 'l{ura{ :J{am{et, Yl Compi{ation of '.J\[9tes & Jottings
.9lian Sfze{(ey
Highleadon History Series Volumes 1-4 'Wefcome to !}{igfifeacfon (jreen
Joseph 'Old Josie' Bevan at the gate of Camp Cottage, on the 'Green', c19041
Preface
The following four volumes of notes were previously produced in booklet form and were recorded while researching the background history of the hamlet. They follow a sequence of information as it was gained when studying the common 'Green' which is inextricably linked to the life and economy of this seventeenth century hamlet.
A settlement has existed at Highleadon from the Anglo-Saxon period or earlier and was certainly within a much larger estate.
Contents
Volume Page 1. Highleadon, Gloucestershire A Brief History 1.
2. Highleadon Passage An Historical View of the Leadon Vale 16.
3. Highleadon Hamlet An Historical View of the Manor 30.
4. Highleadon Homesteads Historical View of the Community 48.
1 Photograph by kind permission of Mr Vernon Hart of Coxmore Farm, Malswick, near Highleadon. Highleadon, Gloucestershire A Brief History: from Grange and Garrison to the Great Western Railway
Preface to Volume 1
I've marked the May Hill ploughman stay There on his hill, day after day Driving his team against the sky ...
(John Masefield)
To my friends Jack & Jill who live on the hill at the top of Highleadon Green
The following was put together as a result of an interest in Highleadon instigated by concern for the neglected state of the historic 'Green'.
As very little about Highleadon appears to have been written in one available singular source, here is a collection of some background information.
This part of the Leadon vale is close to the rapidly expanding urban conurbation of Gloucester and Cheltenham. It is largely ignored and passed by on route to the market and tourist town of Newent.
Hopefully, these notes may bring attention to the unique history of the village and assist in protecting the Green from any undesirable development.
© Alan Shelley Wycken End, Cheltenham Jan. 2004
Contents
Introduction
Chapter Page 1. Highleadon and its Community 2. 2. Medieval Monastic Manor 3. 3. Association with Hartpury 5. 4. Property of St. Peter' s Abbey 6. 5. The Vale and the 'Green' 8. 6. Local Features of Importance 10. 7. The Canal and the Railway 12. 8. Prospects for the Future 13. Map of Highleadon with Hartpury 1837 14. Select Bibliography
1 Introduction
In the Leadon Vale, overlooked by the distinctive 'May Hill' and surrounded by farmland is Highleadon. Here we can see a typically English rustic hamlet. It is almost untouched by modern developments. This small settlement is dominated by two converging highways fringed by an historic Green.
The overgrown state of the neglected Green hides a picturesque old village landscape with an interesting history.
In early Saxon times there was a small community of monks that worked the surrounding land. The land and the 'Grange' remained for many years in the hands of the Church.
This area in the past was greatly dominated by the ecclesiastic controls of the Benedictine monastery and later the Cathedral at Gloucester. More recently it played a significant part in the defences of Gloucester during the Civil War.
Highleadon and its Community
Highleadon is a small rural hamlet of the parish of Rudford. It is situated in the vale of the river Leadon on the outskirts of the Forest of Dean and may be considered to be within the outer reaches of the Malvern Chase. It is about four and a half miles north-west of Gloucester, stretched along an ancient route to the Marches and to Wales.
Rudford and Highleadon together cover an area of around twelve hundred acres (500 ha). The lineal settlement extends for about two and a half miles along the busy B4215 Gloucester to Newent road. Always sparsely populated, there are nowadays around 220 electors on the roll, with just over one hundred dwellings.
Although Rudford is in the Hundred of Botloe, Highleadon is within the Hundred of Dudstone and King's Barton. The manor of Rudford along with its church, St Mary's, are known to have belonged to the Abbey Church of St Peter (now Gloucester Cathedral but then a Benedictine monastery) since at least the time of William the Conqueror.
The manor and church remained in the possession of the Abbey until the Dissolution of the Monasteries when they were granted, with the tithes of Highleadon, to the Dean and Chapter of Gloucester Cathedral. The Church is in the Forest Deanery. Rudford Parish, according to Atkyns in 1712, is six miles in compass. It is four miles south of Newent, six miles north-east of Dean and three miles north-west of Gloucester. Mainly pasture and arable with river Leadon and brook. There were then twenty-two houses in the parish, one hundred and six inhabitants and four freeholders.
2 Further back in history, Gloucestershire and the Leadon vale had been a part of the ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the Hwicce. By the eighth century it was absorbed into the larger midland kingdom of Mercia. Roman and the subsequent Anglo-Saxon settlement of the area was piecemeal and it was not until the eleventh century that settlements became more established. Within the Vales of Berkeley and Gloucester nucleated villages and open field agriculture were to be found. Early settlements would have originated in the collective activity of family groups. This harks back to tribal traditions, reinforced by clients and slaves.
It is generally understood that in lowland England, manors were converted in the late Saxon period into open-field communal farms. From the later Middle Ages to the 19th century the open fields were gradually enclosed. This was the period when mutual dependence (in society) moved toward independence and the encouragement of enterprise. The ancient lands continued to be checked by 'rights of common' which were enjoyed, not only over the waste, but over open arable fields.
Occupiers of an arable holding were entitled to graze on the common pastures. This is associated with the feed required for the horses and oxen used for tillage and the feed for sheep (or cattle) needed for manuring the cultivated land. Arable related to property and dwelling place.
Another form of early community, as that to be found at Highleadon, would be of a religious order. In this case the monks, which we may presume to be of the Benedictine order because they were under the jurisdiction of St Peter's Abbey at Gloucester. The old Benedictine foundations were well endowed with manors and as landlords' with revenues from the products of their demesnes and rents from their tenants.
Medieval Monastic Manor
Traditionally an agrarian income for the monasteries came from wool and cereals, mainly wheat, barley and the tenants rents. Twelve out of the twenty-eight of the Gloucester hundreds were in religious hands.
The grip of the ecclesiastical magnates did not stop at their manors, lordships and private jurisdictions. Much of their income and influence was due also to the control exercised over parish churches and their revenues. Other influences concerning local government would have come from the proximity of the Forest of Dean.
The Forest and its regulations, occupied all that part of Gloucestershire between the rivers Severn and Wye as far north as Newent and Highnam in the south. Its administrative headquarters were at St Briavels, where the Constable of the king's castle was also 'Warden of the Forest'.
3 Highleadon gained its name from 'Hyneleden' derived from Higna-Leaden, from higna meaning 'household, members of a household or religious community' in this case Benedictine monks of St Peter's, Gloucester - to whom the estate was granted in 1239. Hignam, whose name is of similar origin, belonged to the same religious order.
Immediately after the Norman invasion, ownership of the manors of Ledene (Upleadon) Saxon village, and Hyneledene, were granted to Walter de Laci. Much of the local lands were at that time given to the Church.
In the year 1239, Richard de Wigmore gave to the church of St Peter of Gloucester (a Benedictine monastery) his 'lands in Hynedeledene and one hide, with groves, pastures, meadows and all appurtenances which Jeoffry de le Dene did enjoy'. This was done when Henry Folet was abbot. (Rudder 1779)
Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries, ownership of much of the local lands were granted to John Arnold, a lawyer and ex King's Commissioner whose estate included Rudford, Highnam and most of Lassington.
'Leadon Courte' (a manorial property) is found recorded in 1606 and 'Highleadon' is referred to in 1629.
There is little or no sign of early Roman occupation at Highleadon although artefacts have been found towards Barber's Bridge and at nearby Bovine Farm suggesting that there had been a settlement somewhere between the second and middle of the fourth century.
Although little is known of Hyneleden at the time of the Conquest, Rudford or Rvdeford is recorded in the Domesday Book 1086. Rudeford or Rodeford comes from hreodford meaning 'ford amongst the reeds' an unbridged crossing of the Leadon near the church. Greens' are recorded in 1830 at both Rudford and at Highleadon.
An administrative centre (a Grange) for Hyneleden appears to have been on the site, now 'Highleadon Court Farm'. The Tithe-Barn is a relic of those times.
Some of the 'lay' brothers (labourers) working the fields, would have dwelled (with their families) in the hamlet. Such a rural community in mediaeval times, generally supported their living by self-sufficiency.
'Common land' was an integral part of this system. Normally an area of poor land, undrained or low in quality it was 'waste' of the lord of the manor. Free servants of the manor were given access to the resources of such areas, to graze livestock, collect fuel, gather herbs and to fish ponds or streams.
'Greens' were often formed in early times, with houses surrounding them in order to provide additional protection to villagers livestock. The Green would play an
4 important role in community life by additionally providing a common area of recreation and an outdoor gathering space for meetings, festivals and sports.
The monks received income from all the surrounding countryside including nearby Hartpury which had derived its name from 'hardepiry' a reference to the orchards of hard perry (green) pears. The locality was famous for its production of cider and perry.
Association with Hartpury
This manor (or part) had been given by Offa, King of Mercia, to the Abbey of Gloucester in about 760 AD when Eva was abbess and the church was a nunnery before converting to a monastery. The Benedictines were granted the manor in about 1022 AD, and after the Norman Conquest, this included the parish church. King Henry the first, also gave 'new plowed grounds in Hardpyrie' in the twenty-third year of his reign when William was abbot (Rudder).
Abbot John de Carnages, who was installed in 1284 and in seniority for twenty-two years, had an Abbot's chamber at Hartpury.
Sometime before the end of the 16th century a mansion for the Abbot was established near St Mary's Church. At the Dissolution the manor passed into private hands firstly Sir William Herbert, then through Walter Compton and his descendants until the middle of the 18th century when it moved into the family Canning. The estate was sold off in 1919 and the residual part was finally acquired by Gloucester County Council (Hartpury College).
Effectively, for most of its history Highleadon had no resident Lord of the Manor until more recent times. Of Gloucestershire in 1327, only a third of the villages had a resident lord. It seems reasonable to assume that the nucleus of the early medieval hamlet was originally formed around the Hartpury corner, with access to the mill and the church.
The Lord of the Manor, the Abbot, occasionally resided at his country residence at Hartpury with control over the Grange (as landlord) at Highleadon. Close examination of the lands and the tracks shown on early maps indicate a close communal association between the two settlements. A separation appears to have taken place sometime after the Dissolution (and distribution) when Hartpury had become privately owned.
During the Civil War, Colonel Massey placed a small garrison in the manor house. This was after the siege, to secure Corse and to oppose Colonel Myn of the King's party, who lay at Newent, Highleadon and Taynton.
5 Property of St. Peter's Abbey
The church at Rudford, St Mary the Virgin, is certainly very ancient and has been more than 1200 years in existence. The manor of Rudford and the church belonged to the monastery in Saxon times, before Domesday, as did the adjacent manors Churcham and Highnam. The Abbey leased manors and land, while retaining dominant control overall. In the cases of Rudford and Highleadon, manor and church remained in the possession of the Abbey until the Dissolution, when they were granted with the tithes to the Dean and Chapter of the reorganised Gloucester Cathedral.
Towards the end of the twelfth century a rapid rise in prices and in taxation demands hit not only the smaller landowners but also the rich Abbeys. At this time the monasteries asserted their rights to many more tithes and even more of the parish revenues.
For many years, vast areas of Gloucestershire were controlled by St Peter' s Abbey. The first monastic house, built within the precincts of the present Cathedral, was founded by Osric in AD681 when the whole area was part of the powerful Kingdom of Mercia.
County wide, Anglo-Saxon settlement was spread over some twenty generations between 450 and 1066. During this time England became a land of villages.
William the Conqueror separated the church courts from the civil ones and this considerably influenced the power that the church had over such areas as those surrounding the monastery at Gloucester.
The end of the 13th century was a period of relative stability when the rising curve of population was flattening out. All useable land was under cultivation or used for pasture. Foodstuffs were in high demand by an expanding urban population.
Highleadon and its neighbourhood was typically formed by the open-field method of farming. In its classic form this may have been a two-field or a three-field system. In some parts sub-divisions would have occurred over time.
Most people are now familiar with the fact that the unit of cultivation was the strip. Each strip was on average an area of half an acre. A bundle of strips, all running in the same direction, made up a furlong. The field or campus was made up of scores of furlongs (of varying shapes and sizes) amounting to several hundred strips.
Of medieval farming methods, the reason why ploughing in ridges was a good way of draining land, was that in wet weather the tops of the ridges and the corn upon them would stay dry while the water collected in the furrows, or better, drained down the furrows into a ditch. Corn growing on the lower sides of ridges would, of course, suffer from the damp.
6 Gloucester Abbey, in rules drawn up in the 13th century for management of its manors: " ... that whenever on the edges of the lands the corn is drowned in Winter time, the earth be dug up and seed of another kind there allotted, lest that earth lose its fruit by that mishap".
The 'right of heybote' was an agreement for villagers to take wood to repair hedges (to keep off the cattle). They were not hedges as we know them but were often 'dead hedges' made of stakes and brushwood. Such hedges were haya from which came the later expression haha. These hedges could easily be opened and closed at seasonal times.
The tenements (dwellings) or holdings were often yardlands. A holder, referred to as a yardling (viratae terrae) held an average of thirty acres and access to the commons. Small tenements were cotlands of around five acres and had no access to the commons.
There was also a classification of tenements as half-yardlands and quarter yardlands. Four yardlands would make a hide (120 acres) which was considered as a plowland. One plowteam of eight oxen could be expected to till a plowland per year. A hide which also has a family meaning was considered an amount of land that could support a family. It is also thought that each yardland sent two oxen, a yoke to the common plow team of eight from the hide.
'Newlands' rescued from heath or rough waste would be broken up 'by agreement of the community' and distributed (assart land) usually in randomly issued strips, according to the size of tenements held. The grazing of common meadowland was often divided differently each year. Hence a reference to 'Lot Meadows'. This provided a different piece each year.
Villeinage was the typical condition of the Gloucestershire peasant from the eleventh century. In legal theory a villein was without rights (that could be asserted at common law). His land, his person, and his property were all at his lord's disposal. However, his son would be allowed succession for which the tenant might pay a fine for the messuage (dwelling place) and a half-yardland for lifetime. He performed the lord's services as required. His own cultivation could be interrupted at will. Customary law (and local traditions) gave him several defences.
The local manors remained in the possession of the Abbey until the Dissolution of the Monasteries when Henry VIII secured an Act of Parliament under which he created the See of Gloucester and St Peter' s Abbey became the Cathedral on 3rd September 1541. Much of the property including the tithes of Highleadon were passed to the Dean and Chapter of Gloucester Cathedral. Hignam Court claimed view of frankpledge and by 1558 had jurisdiction over Highleadon. In 1679 there was one constable who covered the whole of the wider district of Highnam including Rudford parish.
7 The Vale and the Green
Of the Vale of Leadon, Dymock famous for its 20th century commune of poets, has an interesting history. It has been speculated to have been the 'lost' Roman town of Macatonium. The B4215 road from Dymock to the A4172 at Preston Cross follows the route of a Roman road.
In the Middle Ages, Dymock is recorded as a town with an established wool trade. Dymock's flocks were selected by Edward III for the King of Spain to improve Spanish sheep breeding stocks.
The Town's status was sufficient, in the 18th century, to warrant bringing the canal through a 2,170 yard-long tunnel between Dymock and Oxenhall.
In the Domesday Book, Dymock is shown as a sizeable manor of 8,652 acres under cultivation and with a male population greater than both the manors of Newent and Kempley combined.
The river Leadon rises north of Evesbatch in the Malvern Hills near the river Frome and flows south through Ledbury to Dymock. It passes Highleadon and Rudford then Lassington to join the Severn at Over.
The landscape has been described as "narrow country" between the Cotswolds, the Malvern's and between the Severn and Wye rivers. A land of shallow valleys and small fields dominated by the 1000ft May Hill (previously Yercledene or Yartledon Hill. The Vale was renowned for its orchards and fields of soft fruit. The fruit fields took over from the sheep when the area had been a thriving woollen industry.
Very few of the orchards remain, having given way to enlarged fields of grain and for dairy farming. Where once there were woods there were also many wild flowers. Dymock in particular was famous for the wild 'Daffodil Fields'. At Easter-time the GWR ran special trips along the 'Daffodil Line' from Gloucester to Ledbury. These days the wild daffodils are 'protected' from public (and commercial) picking.
A nearby place of considerable interest is Pauntley Court, just a few yards from the road on a hillock overlooking the dark meadows of the sluggish Leadon. There is a small church, St John, dating from the late Norman times with a side chapel dedicated to St George built in the fifteenth century at a time when the Whittingtons were living at the Court. The Whittingtons came into the manor about 1300 and the famous Richard was born about 1358. His father, Sir William, had married the widow of Sir Thomas de Berkeley - he was outlawed perhaps on account of the presumptuous marriage- and died when Richard was 14 years of age.
Little remains of the early monastic period of Higneleden but some signs of the mediaeval may still be found in the depressions where once there were moated ponds at Leadon Courte. However, something from the early governance remains in the
8 form of Highleadon Tithe Barn. This was a grange (granary) of St Peter's Abbey, Gloucester. It is listed Grade II and of the 15th century, it is a notable building. The barn measures 100ft by 24ft with 2ft thick stone walls up to plinth level. Above the plinth is a timber framed construction of seven bays with original four-centred opening.
A mystery exists concerning the current 'Lordship of the Manor' of Highleadon. The last record of lordship (held by the Record Office) is 'present or last known Lord of the Manor' - Mrs Vyner Ellis, Minsterworth (Historical Manuscripts Commission) 1894. The estate had been put up for sale and Highleadon Court was sold as 'Lot 1' at the King's Head Hotel, Gloucester on Saturday 26 June 1858, when it was presumably purchased by a Viner Ellis. William Viner Ellis was a noted member of the local landed gentry, the progeny of a marriage between Daniel Ellis and Mary Viner (there are memorials to the Viner Ellis family at St Peter's, Minsterworth. The documentary ownership of the Lordship of the Manor may still remain in the hands of the Viner Ellis family. A descendent member, Felicity Viner Ellis married to a Stanley Karger, living at Oakle Street may well have the answer to this possibility.
It would seem reasonable to assume that the 'Lordship' is attached to the current owner/ occupiers (Wallaces) at Highleadon Court Farm. However, changes to the estate will have occurred over the years to affect those circumstances. An elderly Mr Vernon Hart, a local resident for 28 yrs and for over 50 yrs at nearby Malswick, has inferred "the gentleman who bought the Court back in the late 1920s jokingly said he would sell the Lordship of the Manor to a friend of his".
It remains a mystery and requires the holder of the Lordship to identify themselves. Highleadon Green, being waste of the old manor and common to the village community, is property of the Lord of the Manor. Today, there is no known ownership of the 'Green' as the landowner is not registered at the offices of the Land Registry or at Shire Hall.
Of the history relating to Highleadon Green itself we can only speculate. Firstly, that it may, as common waste, have been much greater than the current composite area of fifteen and a third acres. The tithe apportionment map of 1837 indicates the adjacent land between the two highways as 'New Lands'.
Such a description was commonly used for newly enclosed land brought into cultivation. It is particularly interesting to note that this piece of land (unlike other leased land) was being retained by the Dean & Chapter of Gloucester. It looks like this may have been common rough 'waste' or woodland of the original manor estate.
Beside the legal 'inclosure' of some of this common land there have been several encroachments over the years. Enclosure (for 'new lands') appears to have occurred in the 19th century at the top of the Green (Chapel and adjacent cottages, later replaced). Illegal enclosures were made to the front of Green Farm and southwards in front of what is now 'Brambles :Farm'.
9 An interesting encroachment occurred when a temporary building of wood and steel corrugated construction was erected on the Green. This was a Methodist Chapel that preceded the one at the top of the Green, built of brick in 1866. It was sited somewhere between Vine Villa and Green Farm. The old building was eventually dismantled and re erected at neighbouring Kents Green.
Local Features of Importance
'Barber's Bridge Cross' is a monument on the eastern verge of the highway from Rudford to Highleadon. The monument was erected in 1871 at the expense of Mr W P Price MP of The Grove, Taynton (owner of the land), to commemorate the slaughter of around 500 Welsh (Royalist) soldiers in 1643 during the Civil War. The location, Barber's Bridge or variously called 'Barbarous Bridge' stands where once was a ford over the Tibberton Brook, a tributary of the river Leadon. The Cross bears the inscription "These stones, taken from the ancient walls of the City of Gloucester, mark the burial place of the Welsh of Lord Herbert's force, who fell in a combined attack by Sir William Waller and Colonel Massey on their re-entrenchment at Highnam, March 24th 1643". During the Civil War, Gloucester was occupied by the Parliamentary army, under Colonel Massey, Deputy Governor. Worcester was occupied by the Royalists. Prince Rupert captured Cirencester and attempted to lay siege on Gloucester. Lord Herbert, Lt. General of South Wales, sent a force of 2000 Welsh comprising 1500 foot and 500 horse, under the command of Sir Jeremy Brett. A camp was set up at Highleadon (hence we have 'Camp House'* and 'Camp Field') particularly to guard the crossing of the ford, at that time referred to as the "Highleadon Passage".
Sir William Waller, commanding a Parliamentary force, implemented a plan of a sudden night-time raid on the rear of the Welsh forces (entrenched down the road at Highnam). By an arrangement with Massey, troops marched via Taynton and Tibberton to Highnam on 23rd March. The next day a battle was fought on Ludnam's Hill, Highnam. Defeated and driven back along the road to Barber's Bridge, hundreds of Welsh soldiers died and many prisoners were taken. A large number were taken to St Mary de Lode and Trinity churches at Gloucester where they were fed "turnip tops and cabbage leaves for some ten days".
Barber's Bridge Cross, erected in 1871, was made partly with old stones taken from the old Town Walls of Gloucester to symbolise its resistance to the opposition. *A small white thatched, half-timbered. cottage in an enclosure from Highleadon Green, in the angle between the Newent and Upleadon roads, is still called Camp House as it was the headquarters of the forces, alternatively Royalist and Parliamentary, guarding the ford at Barbers Bridge - during the siege of Gloucester 1643.
Other buildings worthy of note include the Wesleyan (Methodist) Chapel, now a private residence. Built in 1864 at the top of the Green, it served the locality until, by Gloucester Review Order 1935, the parish was transferred to Rudford. 'Mill Cottage' an old white timber framed house and a building (possibly restored) known as 'Tudor Cottage' provide old-world charm to the Hartpury road corner.
10 Highleadon Mill, Hartpury, is an elegant 19th century three storey red brick building, on the river Leadon with dam etc. and wheel in situ. Originally it had two undershot wheels, both in working order until 1969. One of them metal, with flat timber paddles, remains in situ, though cemented into the base. Repairs are ongoing and the mill wheel is in the process of restoration.
There is an old barn and stable at Layne's Farm at Hihgleadon that has been placed on the 'At Risk Register' (2002). This timber framed barn and stable was previously thought to be of the 18th century but may actually be of later construction from recycled timbers. It is in very poor condition, the roofing structure to the stable is missing and brick panels have fallen out.
The settlement of Highleadon has been described by Borthwick A, in a 1990 archaeological survey (Longford to M50 Gorsley Improvement) as follows. "The extensive linear settlement appears to stretch along the B4215 from Layne's Farm to Green End and along the minor road to Upleadon as far as Red Hill Farm and beyond. Some associated farms stand well back from the road, connected to the main line of settlement by narrow funnel-shaped greens. Other cottages and houses such as Camp House, Green Farm and Layne' s Farm are located within a narrow strip of common land on either side of the road which probably originally formed a wide drift or droveway.
'New House' appears to be part of this linear pattern. It is located some 300 metres off the main road and is connected to the road by a driveway which traverses a funnel shaped area of (common) ground reminiscent of a green. Within this area are the slight remains of ridge and furrow. The 1811 OS Map shows a building complex, possibly located on the south side of the driveway, called Halftimber House, perhaps suggesting that 'New' House was a replacement for an earlier building. There appears to be a building (not named) shown here on Isaac Taylor's Map of Gloucestershire dated 1777".
Borthwick' in the 1990 survey, further comments on 'possible buildings in 19th century that are no longer extant'. She refers to the 18816" OS Map that shows possible buildings on the north side of the road immediately adjacent to the parish boundary and within waste ground or common, forming to a narrow strip along the road eastwards to Highleadon. "These are no longer extant but may represent purprestures. Land use history indicates it was arable at the time of Tithe Award. She states that field 241? is called Green Lane or Long Gate on the Tithe Award. Fields 242 and 244 have remains of two ponds and what appear to be small closes showing on the 1881 6" OS Map, although no buildings are marked on this or the 1811 OS Map. The only evidence for a site here is the location of tree symbols on the 1882 OS Map".
Land-forms worthy of note include the homestead moat at Highleadon Court. References are made in a report by Webb A, 'Moated site survey, moats, fish ponds and other water features in the Forest of Dean'. Here he refers to the 1955 OS Map, that "three sides of this homestead moat remain, the west side having been filled in. Modern buildings now occupy the interior and any trace of old buildings are now lost". RAF APs indicate the moat visible as a tree-line (Ordnance Survey 1947-1965).
11 Another land form is that of a rectilinear cropmark enclosure and contour cropmark of ditch west of Red Hill, possible site of fort, appears on APs (Ordnance Survey, date unknown). See Aerial Photograph RAF 1948.
Borthwick, in the 1990 survey, reported "a 'hollow way' running along the boundary of the field adjacent to the main road, probably the remains of an earlier road travelling south-east from Moat Farm. The course is now followed by a footpath. Hollow formed by road meeting and converging with line of main road as they negotiated the hill up to Layne's Farm and Highleadon. In the Tithe Award it is called 'Road Orchard' and recorded as pasture".
The Canal and the Railway
The 'Hereford and Gloucester Canal' was authorised under Act of Parliamen( passed in April 1791. It was intended to transport (and distribute) cheap coal from the Newent coalfields. Initiated by Richard Hill in 1789, the plans were modified to allow a feeder from Rudford Mill.
Construction began in Gloucester, on the west bank of the Severn (opposite Alney Cut) by Joseph Clowes in 1792. Clowes died in 1795 and the money raised for the project had run out by 1798, before the canal had reached the river Frome (from which the water supply was intended). Maintaining the water level always was a problem owing to the deep lock into the Severn. Stephen Ballard was significantly the engineer in charge of construction from 1827 to 1845, when it was completed.
At Rudford Lock, behind Mount Pleasant, there was a 'lock cottage'. By 1891 the lock and cottage were gone - to make way for the railway tracks laid on the bed of the canal. The Great Western Railway had leased the canal in 1862, and in 1881 had closed the Gloucester to Ledbury section. Rudford Lock was one of twenty two on the thirty mile stretch of the canal. Some remnants of the towpath at the site of Rudford Lock can still be seen.
The canal from Gloucester had to detour around Lassington Hilt through Rudford Lock, past Barber's Bridge and the private wharf of WP Price. It went on to Newent, through the Oxenhall Tunnel to Ledbury and onto Hereford. Coal was transported by the canal from Newent to Hereford and Gloucester and better grade coal was distributed via the River Severn. Limestone was transported from Ledbury, bricks and building stone (from Cliffords Mesne) and general goods including slate, timber, salt, grain, iron-ore, groceries, cider and perry.
William P Price of Tibberton, was Chairman of the Hereford and Gloucester Canal Navigation Company. He was instrumental in the take-over by the GWR. Royal assent was granted 4th July 1870 and within eleven years the canal was closed.
12 The main stagecoach route from Gloucester to Newent came through Highleadon and Rudford along rather poor roads. The GWR required an alternative route to Birmingham and the North. Small enterprises, the 'Newent Railway' and the 'Ross and Ledbury Railway' received Parliamentary approval for a route between Gloucester and Ledbury in 1873. Subsequently, in 1876 the GWR reached an agreement with the two companies.
In 1880 a contract was arranged to build a double track between Ledbury and Dymock. Construction was commissioned in 1883 for a line from Dymock to Over. The line from Gloucester to Ledbury was opened 2nd July 1885. It was not until 1898 that the 'Ross and Ledbury' and the 'Newent Railway' were fully absorbed into the august Great Western Railway.
The last passenger train ran on the 11th July 1959 and the final goods traffic closed on 30th May 1964. Also noteworthy is the construction in 1908 of the 'Wedderburn Bridge' on the Highleadon to Hartpury road, "to improve access to the station (at Barber's Bridge) for the people of Hartpury".
Prospects for the Future
The subsequent removal of the railway raises a real opportunity to restore at least part of the old canal. Changes to the road at Barber's Bridge and the surrounding ground levels render it unlikely that a lock could be reconstructed at Rudford. However, it seems that a trust has been formed in order to gain the necessary interest in repairing as much of the canal as possible.
What a wonderful prospect can be considered if the canal and the historic Green were restored to meet the needs for leisurely recreation today. Such conditions would deter any undesirable developments that could blight the future of Rudford and Highleadon.
The community have gathered to form an association to manage Highleadon Green . By removing many years of overgrown vegetation they will w:weil a truly picturesque scene of an old English landscape. Here is an opportunity to protect this small historic corner of the countryside.
13 Map of Highleadon 1837
(Apportionment survey by Arthur Causton) The Church lands by this date had devolved __.. : by lease and sale into private hands. --
Chief Landholders
Ann Wicks I:!_ ~ .~
Dean & Chapter Hartpury of Gloucester
Commoner's 'Green'1 I Edward Knight ~ l And with Abbot's Place Thomas Hooper .-- -1 Chief Landowner Robert Canning Esq , -
n ,}, . .,, The contents of these notes have been variously extracted from information at the Public Records Office, Gloucestershire County Council, Sites and Monuments Record and from the 'Rudford & Highleadon Chronicle, Millennium Issue' Vol.1.
Select Bibliography
Chambers JD & Mingay GE (1966) The Agricultural Revolution 1750-1880 London, Batsford Clark K (1992) The Muse Colony; Dymock, 1914 Bristol, Redcliffe Homans GC (1968) English Villagers of the Thirteenth Century New York, Norton Hilton RH (1966) A Medieval Society: the West Midlands at the end of the Thirteenth Centun; London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson Hoskins WG (1985) The Making of the English Landscape Penguin Miller E & Hatcher J (1978) Medieval England, Rural Society & conomic Change 1086-1348 London, Longman Rudder S (1779) A New History of Gloucestershire
Victorian CH Series Riston; of the County of Gloucester V2
©Alan Shelley BA DLA FSTD FRSA, 'Wycken End' Cheltenham, January 2004
15 Highleadon Passage An Historical View of the Leadon Vale
Preface to Volume 2
Ancient road in peaceful vale that drovers often trod A skirmish there in later times ought never be forgot
(A.S.)
To the commoners and parishioners of Highleadon Green
The following was put together as a continuation of information about the background and influences in the past affecting Highleadon and its historic 'Green' .
From time immemorial the Leadon Vale has provided a convenient highway from Wales to Gloucester and the south of England. Highleadon Green en-route, may well have provided respite to drovers, travellers, conveyors of goods and military forces to and from Gloucester since the earliest of times.
Hopefully, these notes may bring attention to the unique history of the village and assist in protecting the Green from any undesirable development.
© Alan Shelley Wycken End, Cheltenham February 2004
Contents
Introduction
Chapter Page 1. Early Visitations 17. 2. Highleadon Passage 20. 3. Newent Turnpike Road 21. 4. The Bridge at Over 23. 5. The Manor of Ledene 24. 6. Landscape of the Manor 25. 7. Conjecture 27. Speculative Map (changes of administration) 28. Select Bibliography
16 Introduction
The 'Highleadon Passage' was a description given in the Civil War to that stretch of highway interrupted by a ford before Highleadon and Newent when travelling from Gloucester.
It was the scene of one of the most severe Royalist defeats during the siege of Gloucester in 1643. A skirmish took the lives of many Welsh soldiers who were defending the "Passage" and highway to Wales and the Marches.
This incident clearly illustrates the importance of the ancient highway and its strategic influence upon the County. From earliest times it had been a drovers road to Gloucester from Wales.
Of the Gloucester Plain, this route is described by gazetteers as "the most pleasant road through the plain from Gloucester north-east to Dymock via Highnam".
At Newent the road forks, one branch running on up the valley to Dymock and the other turning east. Along the second way went travellers to Wales, refreshed at the New Inn from which it had its name.
Early Visitations to the Vale
Throughout Gloucestershire we can find traces of the early stone-age, dominated by the remaining long barrows. From around 2000 BC Neolithic immigrants of the Mediterranean entered the region by way of the Bristol Channel. Although primitive in many respects, they were nomadic hunters using flint tools, who chose to live in areas where stone was plentiful. The quality building of the 'long barrow' burial chambers and the making of their tools is an indication that they were not entirely primitive. Primarily they were hunters but they also kept pigs on a considerable scale.
Of the two thousand years which lie between the end of the Neolithic period and the Roman Invasion of Gloucestershire, the first millennium and a half are usually described as the Bronze age and the remainder as the Early Iron Age. Within this long span of time the wandering hunters, pig keepers and shepherds experienced the impact of successive immigrations. In time they mingled and transformed into agricultural communities, maintaining contact with each other along recognised trackways.
Hill forts were constructed in strategically defensive positions and iron was dug from the Forest soil. The people of this period buried their dead in 'round barrows'.
The Bronze Age was marked by the arriva.1 of the Beaker folk who were experienced traders in bronze objects. There was considerable intermarriage between the natives and the immigrants. People with red hair, with Swiss and German origins then arrived
17 between 900 and 700 BC. These were known as the Celts. Not long after that, their cousins the La Tene people arrived. These were warriors who fought from light wicker chariots. They used iron swords and metal arrow heads. It was not long before they discovered the iron ore of the Forest of Dean.
The Belgae invaded Britain in the course of the first century BC. They established themselves in the south and east and used minted coins bearing the names of their kings. They arrived from what we know today as Belgium and brought with them heavy wheeled wagons for trade and transport.
These were tribes experienced in making pottery and products from gold, silver and bronze. They knew advanced methods of farming and ruled by courts and governments. The Belgae settled Gloucestershire from the south adding to a mix of people which included the La Tene who were settling in the Forest area.
As the Belgae tribes increased in numbers they ejected the people from the hill-forts which were then burnt down and destroyed. The Belgae occupied people of this region became known as the Dobunni. A loosely unified kingdom of the Dobunni stretched from northern Somerset to the southern half of Worcestershire including the whole of Gloucestershire east of the Severn. To the west were the hostile Silures.
The Dobunni were farmers and applied their iron axes and ploughs to great effect. They cleared trading trails to the Severn by which they transferred their bars of crude iron.
The capital of the Belgic kings, Bagendon, was just north of modern Cirencester. Iron made it a very wealthy town. It was also an important industrial centre for manufacture in all other metals.
Under Belgic influence the Dobunni began in the first century , to mint coinage of their own. They imported fine metalwork, Italian pottery and other luxuries. During this time they were being harassed on two fronts: from the south by Belgic warriors from the Kemble area and from the Silures in the west. The warlike Silurian tribes of hardy hill-men were settled in South Wales and parts of the Forest of Dean.
When the Romans arrived in Gloucestershire they soon became amicable with the inhabitants and the Roman Legions were supportive in the defences of the Dobunni. The hostile tribes made many attempts to attack the Romans who built forts to prevent incursions.
For three years the Silures maintained their struggle against the Roman Invasion. The king of the Silures was Caradoc or better known today as Caractacus. He was eventually defeated AD 50 and sent to Rome to grace the triumph of Claudius Caesar.
The native tribes were eventually compelled to leave their hill-forts and settle in newly built capitals where they should adopt a Roman way of life.
18 Under Roman rule, Gloucestershire became a paradise for the well-to-do and it was populated by many mansions and country estates.
Around 450 AD saw an ending to Roman civilisation in Gloucestershire. Gradually the villas and towns fell into decay. Security in the countryside disappeared and people reverted to earthen ramparts and ditches for defences.
There are humps and bumps on the Vale landscape even now that could well be palimpsests of the ancient defences of that early period. Certainly cropmarks today show indications of very ancient forts.
When the Saxons moved in they occupied what was left of any Roman buildings. The year 577 in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle marks the domination of Gloucestershire when the West Saxons killed three British kings at Dyrham and captured Gloucester, Cirencester and Bath.
Under the Mercians, the Forest of Dean was brought under English rule. The boundary with Wales was marked by King Offa between 784 and 796 with the great dyke bearing his name.
The influence of the Hwicce and the Mercian Kings are fairly well documented in previous notes. The Saxons tended to choose sites close to small rivers and streams to settle. It is also apparent that they selected pleasant landscapes within which to build their homes. In the Vale they would have found a very sparse population and the land in poor condition. The native Dobunni stayed on to mix with the new settlers and many to become their slaves.
As the Vale became better managed and farming more successful with Offa' s Dyke preventing marauding Silures, then another upset arrived in the form of the Vikings. The Vikings began raiding and marching about Britain which would have destabilised the peace over the Vale. However, while the Vikings ruled Mercia, the Hwicce managed to gain independence and maintain their rule and direct influence over Gloucestershire.
Under the pious Confessor, Edward, Gloucester had been the foremost town after London for royal councils and assemblies. This tradition remained unbroken by the Norman conquest.
With the death of Harold Godwinson, Lord of the Hwicce, at the Battle of Hastings it was the turn of William the Conqueror to begin his 'Norman' influence over the Vale.
The real effect of the Norman invasion was the reorganisation of the manors. In most cases affecting the Vale, the lands were formally granted to the Abbey of St Peter' s. Gloucester. As such they remained under the rules of the Abbey until the Dissolution in 1541 when the Abbey became Gloucester Cathedral. At that time some of the lands were adopted privately and others were leased and variously distributed.
19 As 'Inclosure' began to take effect over time, in the later centuries, restrictions to the 'open' country will have occurred. Perhaps the next great 'milestone' in historical terms, would have been the reforms to the tithes and the eventual act forcing extinguishment in 1936. Fortunately today, the old customary law of commons protects the remaining 'Green' at Highleadon.
Highleadon Passage
The 'Highleadon Passage' was a description given in the Civil War to a short narrow stretch of highway constricted by a ford between Rudford Village and Highleadon Green. During the war a skirmish occurred which is sometimes referred to as "the Battle of Barber's Bridge". It is so named because a bridge replaced the ford where as many as five hundred Royalist Welsh soldiers met their death defending the 'Passage' in March 1643.
The ford was that of the Tibberton Brook, a tributary of the River Leadon, and possibly the 'ford' that gives its name to the village of Rudford nearby.
This highway is of ancient origins and has been a drovers track from Wales to Gloucester and beyond to the south of England. It will have carried travellers goods and military traffic for centuries.
The roadway would probably have been cleared and widened by the Romans who would also remove any adjacent woodland to prevent ambush.
The route may be said to begin from Gloucester across an ancient causeway to the bridge at Over. Cooke's travelling guide of the 'County of Gloucester' (1810) puts the journey as follows: "On leaving Gloucester we proceed westerly, and at two miles we pass through the village of Highnam, about two miles to the north-west of which is Highnam Court, the seat of Sir Berkeley William Guise. The present mansion was built soon after the Civil wars in the time of Oliver Cromwell, from a design made by Inigo Jones ... The park is extensive and the ornamental grounds beautifully planted".
Cooke's Tour takes him directly to Newent of which he says: .. "is a small irregular town, nine miles north-west of Gloucester, situated in the forest of Dean, west of the Severn ... It is supposed to derive its name from a new inn erected for the accommodation of travellers passing to and from Wales, and there is an ancient mansion called the Boot-Hall, now almost in ruins, which is said to have been the inn... . This town was formerly much larger, and had the privileges of a borough: it was then, previous to the close of the seventeenth century, governed by a bailiff. The town has at present very little trade.
Dymock, about three miles north-west from Newent, was formerly a place of much greater extent and consequence than it is at present. In the reign of Henry III it had the privilege of a market and fairs, but these have been long disused".
20 1754 all people living alongside the Newent road had to clear bushes, overhanging boughs and clean ditches along the road within twenty days.
In 1756 repairs were carried out to the Highnam section of the road and work was still being carried out in the 1760s because compensation was paid to landowners whose property had been damaged. In 1767 £50 was paid to Charles Jones Esq for land between the eastern end of Highnam Green and the town of Newent.
The passing of the new Act in 1769 seems to have inspired repair work when the road at Malswick Mill and Linehouse Lane in Newent was altered and widened, and the road leading from Barber's Bridge to Highleadon Green (the "Passage") was widened out of the Common Field to the breadth of thirty feet. The Trustees also proposed paying half of the expense of building and widening Barber's Bridge at Rudford over the brook into the River Leadon. Between 1770 and 1771 over £70 was spent on road repairs in the Highleadon and Rudford areas.
The 1812 Act which led to the division of the local turnpike roads into various districts also resulted in the Newent road being sub-divided into certain districts like the Rudford and Highleadon District. Each was under the charge of a surveyor who improved his section of road. An example of this was in 1817 when the surveyor of the Highleadon district was paid £157 for work.
Improvements continued to be made. In 1819 the Trustees ordered that the lower top of the hill near Highnam Park and the hills near the pound at Rudford, should be lowered. In 1820 the Trustees resolved that an advertisement should be inserted in the Gloucester papers for separate tenders for the contract of lowering the hills on the Newent road called Park Hill, Rudford Hill and Leadon Hill. Work on the first two hills proceeded favourably, but by February 1823 the Leadon Hill had not been lowered and so the Trustees again had to advertise for a tender for the lowering of the hill.
In 1820 the Trustees also ordered the surveyors of the Newent road to remove soil on the sides of the road and to give notice to the occupiers of land along the road to remove soil and if they disobeyed the order, to fine them. In that year the trustees also resolved to submit to the surveyors the repair system proposed by General Guise. Guise suggested adopting the system recommended by John MacAdam. The sides of the roads should be "stocked' up and the stones to be used on the road should be broken up. A ring, 2 inches in diameter, should be bought by the surveyors for the measurement of the stones and they should also apply MacAdam's 'Treatise on the Management of Roads'.
Other improvements to the road included the repairing of bridges and the erecting of a fence.
In 1823 two bridges in the parish of Rudford, one near Leadon Hill and the other near Tibberton Lane were improved, while in 1834 the trustees applied to erect a fence on each side of the road between Layne' s Gate and Highleadon Green. In the following year rails and a quick hedge were placed along the road at Highleadon Green.
22 The borough towns of Newent and Dymock are described by Finburg (1957) as on the road from Gloucester to the borough of Ledbury thereby giving the route some considerable status.
The market at Newent dates from 1253 and it owed its importance to the corning and going of Welsh drovers who regularly made it the next stage, after Ross-on-Wye, in their journey to the Gloucester cattle market. Unfortunately for Dymock, it lay off the drove road, and the rise of Newent proved fatal to its urban prospects. By 1317 Dymock had lost its prior borough status.
In the fourteenth century there would have been a considerable increase in traffic by stage-coaches and privately drawn carriages en-route to Gloucester and onwards. It is an interesting probability that the prospective Dick Whittington may well have passed this way (circa 1370) on his famous journey to London.
The Newent Turnpike Road
In 1726 an Act of Parliament for the repairing and widening of the roads from the City of Gloucester to the City of Hereford was passed. This Act (renewed in 1747 and 1760) empowered the trustees appointed to improve various roads between the two cities and one of these roads was the Gloucester to Newent road.
In 1769 a further Act encouraged the Gloucester to Newent turnpike road running via Highnam Pool to be extended beyond Newent, through the parishes of Pauntley, Oxenhall, Dymock and Donnington to the turnpike road leading to the town of Ledbury.
In 1812 an Act of Parliament divided the roads administered by the Turnpike trust into districts. The section of road leading from the City of Gloucester, via Over Bridge to Highnam Pool and thence to the parish of Newent at the five mile stone was included in the Over and Maisemore District. The section through Newent and each of the parishes onward to Ledbury would be included in the separate Newent District.
Road-works were started under an Act of Parliament in October 1726. The Trustees ordered that both ways to Newent were to be measured from the bridge at the lower end of Buttermilk Lane to the town of Newent, and that the shortest way was to be repaired.
The road that was chosen to be repaired is roughly our modern road to Newent, with the exception of subsequent improvements at Barber's Bridge and at the Newent by.:pass. It was repaired and widened by 1728. In 1736 repair work was carried out on the sections from Over to Radway Hill and onwards to Newent.
In 1751 the road between Highleadon Green and Malswick was repaired and the ditches on the other side of the road between Barber's Bridge and Highleadon were closed. In
21 Along the turnpike road there were several toll houses and gates. In 1760 a turnpike was erected on the road near Radway Hill while in 1763 the turnpike at Rudford was thrown open. in 1769 there was a catch gate on the Newent road near Caisebrook and a turnpike house and gate opposite Deal's Barn. There were several toll gates and houses used at some time or other in the history of the Newent turnpike road.
There were toll gates at Highleadon and near the turning to Cleeve Mill on the Newent - Gloucester road while there were chain bars in the town of Newent. One was across the road at the junction of the Ross road and Horsefair Lane, while the other was across Culvert Street.
Tolls collected at the gates were typically: Carriages, coaches or wagons drawn by 6 horses 2s Od Drawn by 4 horses ls. 4d Drawn by 3 horses ls. Od Drawn by 1 horse 3d For each ox drawing any wagon 2d For each horse unladen & not drawing ld For each drove of cattle, per score (in prop) 10d For each drove of calves, hogs or sheep, per score Sd
Any vehicles or animals passing through gates between the hours of one in the morning and 12 at night on every Sunday shall be charged with DOUBLE the tolls and no toll shall be paid more than once a day in respect of the same horses, cattle or carriages etc.
The Trustees erected milestones (at every mile) and direction posts for travellers.1
Over Bridge at Gloucester (Confluence of river Leadon)
Immediately to the west of Gloucester, the River Severn divides into two channels which rejoin some two miles downstream enclosing meadowland known as Alney Island. This was the lowest bridging point over the Severn connecting the south of England with Wales. It is not known when the first bridges were built, but certainly the route w~s used by the Romans.
At one time Alney Island was a tidal swamp and the river channel much shallower. There was probably a ford and causeway which was then developed and improved upon by the Romans. The monks of the Abbey, in their times, regularly used to walk to the village of Over, where they had a vineyard.
1 The above information was extracted from a study (1971) by R.J. Owens University Extra-mural Gloucester.
23 Leland wrote that in 1535 he saw a bridge of eight arches under construction. The causeway followed its present route to Westgate Bridge and on into Gloucester.
In October 1824, the magistrates appointed a committee "to examine the state of the Over Bridge" under the chairmanship of Sir Berkeley Guise. Thomas Telford submitted two designs in 1826 (one was of iron and one of stone). The stone design, for £40,000 was approved.
Manor of Ledene
Le Dene meaning 'the small valley' was clearly adopted to describe the manor and its terrain. It may be reasonable to assume that one estate in the locality, of this name, existed before the Norman Conquest. The estate may have comprised the old Saxon settlements located at the grounds adjacent Upleadon Church, the 'Hyne' Ledene religious community and even the early Hartpury Church, barn and mill location.
We are aware that Hartpury was given by Offa, King of Mercia, to the Abbey at Gloucester in about 760 AD. A religious community, probably connected to the Abbey was then established at Ledene, located where Highleadon Court moat is shown on the map. This community gave meaning to Hyne Ledene or Highleadon.
At the Conquest, Walter de Laci was granted Ledene. The lands must have passed to Jeoffry de Le Dene who may have lived at Ledene Courte (now Upleadon).
In 1239 Richard de Wigmore gave to St Peter's Abbey 'his lands in Hyneledene and one hide, with groves, pastures, meadows and all appurtenances which Jeoffry de Le Dene did previously enjoy'.
At the Dissolution of the Monasteries the manor was granted, along with Rudford, Highnam and most of Lassington to John Arnold, ex Commissioner to the King. The wider manor of Hartpury passed to Sir William Herbert, then through Walter Compton and descended into the family Canning.
John Arnold had held the lease of the manor of Highnam from 12 March 1515, as Tenant of the Priory. He obtained the lease of part of Lassington manor in 1536 and later bought the remaining two parts. In May 1542, Arnold bought the Abbey lands of St Peter's, including the manor of Highnam, with Linton and Over.
John Arnold died in 1544 and was buried at Churcham. Before his death John had purchased a vast area of land including the Manor of Bosely, which included land in Westbury, Minsterworth and Ley.
Alice, daughter of John Arnold, married Arthur Porter, son and heir of Roger Porter Esq of Newent. Porter had been a considerable purchaser of Abbey lands at the Dissolution.
24 Sir Nicholas Arnold, John's son and heir, was born in 1507. He married the daughter of Lord Berkeley through which he inevitably gained additional lands to those inherited from his father. He was very influential in the government of Gloucestershire and the Marches of Wales. Sir Nicholas died in 1580 and was buried at Churcham.
Rowland Arnold was the only son of Nicholas but died before his father. His daughter and heir Dorothy, married Thomas Lucy. On the death of her father, she and her husband inherited land at Upleadon and Rudford. On her death, her husband became lord of the Manors of Highnam and Lassington. Joyce Lucy, daughter of Dorothy and Sir Thomas Lucy was born about 1575 and inherited Highnam and Lassington on the death of her father in 1605. She was married to Sir William Cooke. There were several children of the Cooke family and these introduced connections to the families Jones and Guise (Mary 1750).
John Arnold and his successors at Highnam Court had claimed 'view of frankpledge' (tithing/ surety) and by 1558 had jurisdiction over most of the Vale. In 1679 there was one constable who covered the whole of the wider district including Highleadon.
Records referring to 'Leaden Comte' are found in 1606 and to 'Highleadon' which is so named in 1629.
The Highnam estates (and direct influence over Highleadon) descended into the Guise family until General Guise sold Highnam Court in 1840.
In 1773 Sir William Guise, a close associate of Lord Berkeley, was a leading figure in the County. Sir Berkeley William Guise was at Highnam and was influential over the reconstruction of the Newent Turnpike Road.
General Sir John W. Guise of Highnam featured as a prominent landowner, including land shown in the apportionment maps (1829-1839) of Rudford, Highleadon and Hartpury.
Thomas Gambier Parry (1816-1888) purchased the Highnam estate in Nov. 1840 for £126,000
Landscape of the Manor
The landscape of the Vale has previously been described as "narrow country" - between the Cotswolds, the Malverns and between the Severn and Wye rivers. A land of shallow valleys and small fields dominated by the 1000ft May Hill (previously Yercledene or Yartledon-hill). The Vale was renowned for its orchards and fields of soft fruit. The fruit fields took over from the sheep when the area had been a thriving woollen industry.
25 Orchards were of pears and cherries. They also included numbers of sweet chestnuts. Very few of the orchards remain having given way to fields of grain and to general farming practices.
The soil throughout the Vale is a dominant red in colour, particularly when viewed from the heights of May Hill. The terrain is determined by the route of the river Leadon which rises north of Evesbatch in the Malvern Hills near the river Frome and flows south through Ledbury to Dymock. It passes from Newent to Highleadon then Rudford and Lassington before joining the Severn at Over.
In Norman times the Vale of Leadon was largely disafforested, as may be judged from the antiquity of the churches there. By the reign of Henry II the woods had dwindled to the peninsular between the Severn and Wye south of a line joining Gloucester, Newent and Ross. In the time of Edward I the extent of the forest (Dean) was further greatly reduced as the iron forges were consuming 4,000 oaks a year.
The Cotswolds (nearby) and East Anglia, without doubt, were the primary wool producing areas in the medieval era. However, the industry can be said to have been controlled from the Severn plain and valley alongside the Forest of Dean.
The Severn plain and valley was once numbered among the greatest ecclesiastical centres in the land, boasting abbeys at Bristol, Gloucester. Tewkesbury, Berkeley and Deerhurst. It is said that it was the monks of these religious houses, together with those of the Cotswold abbeys of Hailes, Winchcombe, Cirencester and Tetbury who first developed the wool trade. Gloucestershire, in time, became very rich by the woollen industry.
Generally speaking, the arable land of a manor was initially divided into four portions. One was held by the lord or by his steward on his behalf: this was called the demesne. A second was held by the priest and this was the chief source of his living; a third was cultivated by the villeins; and a fourth was divided among the bordars or cottars.
The land held by the villeins was not cut up into fields. The fields were quite open, and the separate holdings were divided from one another by narrow strips of unploughed turf or by stone markers.
A single farmer might have to cut his portion of grass from twenty different places. After harvest of the arable strips, the cattle were turned out on the stubble of the whole field.
The strips were arranged in three fields (see previous notes about 'Highleadon' AS. Jan. 2004) Each field was cultivated in successive seasons, so as to obtain a regular rotation of crops.
26 The strips were arranged in three fields (see previous notes about 'Highleadon' A.S. Jan. 2004) Each field was cultivated in successive seasons, so as to obtain a regular rotation of crops.
From around the 1780s the common strips were becoming private farms. Blocks of land replacing scattered strips and patches. By bribery and persuasion the poorer men accepted change. Such farmers had suddenly become hired labourers. Enclosing of all the village fields and the commons took a very long time. Areas fenced in were sometimes by force. Enclosing was still going on into the 1860s and in some parts there were 'strips' even until the First World War.
Enclosure will probably have begun in Highleadon in the 18th century and stretched into the 19th. Inclosure of the church lands and the lease or release of other lands, including several encroachments of the commons, have resulted in the pattern to be found in the apportionment of Highleadon shown in the map of 1837.
From the tithe apportionment maps of the 19th century we have a pretty good indication of how the Manor lands at Highleadon were farmed in the previous centuries.
Conjecture
It is quite possible that in Saxon times Highleadon was part of a much larger estate, namely 'Ledene'. Walter de Laci was granted the estate and most if not all of it was then passed to the Benedictine monastery at Gloucester. This is to some degree born out by the place name of 'Middleton' often given to a farm between two (or three) hamlets of the same estate.
The medieval road was not made for transport and travel, but by transport and travel. Migrations between estates, undertaken regularly by feudal families, cleared the roads. The Gloucester to Newent road was not only frequented by drovers of animals from ancient times. It may also have been a course of quarried stone or crude iron on route to Gloucester.
Such a 'roadway' had to pass near water (vital for horse or ox). Drovers of cattle from Wales, in passing Highleadon, would have found wide grassy verges and several large drinking ponds before encountering the narrow "passage" through the ford to get another brief respite at Highnam Green.
27 Conjectural Map of Highleadon Lord's Demesne and Common Fields Showing changes to the fields
(villeins) from the Thirteenth Century
up until 1837
'·
Common Hay Meadows Drovers way
The Commons The Cottars Field and the 'Waste'
Drovers road (then Turnpike road)
...., :=- Fields of the Church "Highleadon Passage" The contents of these notes have been variously extracted from information at the Public Records Office, Gloucestershire County Council, Sites and Monuments Record.
Select Bibliography
Beckinsale RP (1939) Companion into Gloucestershire London, Methuen
Cooke GA (1810) County of Gloucestershire. Guide London, Cooke
Finberg HPR (1957) Gloucestershire Studies Leicestershire University Press
Frost JC (1968) Over Bridge, Gloucester Gloucestershire Historical Studies II University Extra-Mural, Gloucester
Hayward E (1970) Gloucester, Stroud & Berkeley London, Longman Young
Owen RJ (1971) The Newent Turnpike Road Gloucestershire Gloucestershire Historical Studies V University Extra-Mural, Gloucester
Alan Shelley BA DLA FSTD FRSA, Wycken End Cheltenham, February 2004
29 Highleadon Hamlet An Historical View of the Manor
Preface to Volume 3
Two ploughs and a plough-chain, two cultures, three shares, with ground clouts and side clouts for soil that sow tares With ox-bows and ox-yokes, and other things mo, for ox-team and horse-team in plough for to go.
(Thomas Tusser)
To the commoners and parishioners of Highleadon Green
The following was put together as a continuation of information about the background and influences in the past affecting Highleadon and its historic 'Green'.
A small settlement has existed at Highleadon from Saxon times when a small community of monks farmed an area that developed into a hamlet, the layout of which remains much unchanged over the centuries.
Hopefully, these notes may bring attention to the unique history of the village and assist in protecting the Green from any undesirable development.
© Alan Shelley Wycken End Cheltenham Mar.2004
Contents
Introduction
Chapter Page 1. The English People 31. 2. The Feudal System 33. 3. Manorial Administration 34. 4. The Manor Farm 35. 5. People of the Manor 36. 6. The De Lacy Family 37. 7. The Eighteenth Century 38. 8. Landowners of the lower Vale 18. 9. The Manor and the Green 44. 10. Geographic Survey 45. Tithe Map of Highleadon 1837 (Showing cultivation of the land) 46. Glossary of Terms 47. Select Bibliography
30 Introduction
It may be accepted that before the Norman Conquest, Highleadon was part of a wider estate named Ledene. And that Highleadon formerly Hyneledene, was one of three or four small settlements.
The manor farm at Highleadon, it can be assumed, was being supervised (if not run entirely) by a small community of monks. Perhaps monks carried out the functions of manorial officers such as hayward and beadle.
By the time of the Domesday recording, identities of the settlements at Upleadon, Okle, Highleadon and at Hartpury were ambiguous and not having clear individuality (other than being within the estates of a lord). Clarification is further confused by virtually all of this land becoming absorbed within the farmlands of St Peter's Abbey at Gloucester.
Administratively the Hamlet became associated with Rudford and this has been carried into the large estates subsequently managed from Highnam Court.
The English People
The redistribution of land after the Norman Conquest amounted to a tenurial revolution of a most far reaching kind (Stenton 1943). It affected the lower classes less than superiors. "The Normans possessed no clear-cut system of manorial economy which could be applied as a whole to a conquered country".
No attempt was ever made to apply a uniform method of estate-management. Social differences between Anglo-Danish and Anglo-Saxon England were strongly marked before the Conquest and remained so for long after.
The effect on the higher orders of English society was a catastrophe from which they never fully recovered. In 1086 it was only of the rarest exception that an Englishman held a position giving him any political or military power. Any of the few remaining English lords by 1086, were obviously insecure.
Pre-Conquest estates were returned by the Domesday clerks as manors. Many of the English families had become extinct through death in battle.
In 1066 there had been three general engagements, in two of which the English army was destroyed. A large proportion had perished at Hastings. The losses at Stamfordbridge were less heavy but the battle of Fulford, defending York, caused a massive annihilation of an English army. The English tltegns (proprietors of the old estates) were hugely destroyed by these events.
31 Following these battles and the resulting Conquest, there were sporadic revolts between 1068 and 1071. This is well represented by the statement of Ordericus Vitalis that King William annihilated a great force of rebels in an easy victory at Stafford in 1069.
A great number of the Old English aristocracy are thought to have emigrated, possibly to Denmark and into Scotland. They even went to join the army of Emperor Alexius defending the Balkans against Robert Wiscard in 1081. This army is known to have been referred to as the 'Force of Englishmen'.
It is not clear as to what terms the remaining Englishmen of status, came with the Conqueror. One factor of certainty was a determination by William to minimise, so far as possible, the differences made under his rule.
It was his wish to be seen to reign as King Edward's heir. This required a respect of the system of private relationships in which landowners pre-Conquest had been involved. Rights over land given to Frenchmen were to be held 'subject to all encumbrances which the land had carried before he came to England'.
William also respected the integrity of the greater Old English estates, transferring them as a whole to the same new lord. A few Anglo-Norman marriages took place to conveniently establish the permanence of some estates.
It should not be underestimated the strength of the English element in this feudal society. There were a few great families which managed to avoid extinction. Some belonged to Northumbria or northern parts of Mercia which the Conqueror had laid waste and left with little attraction for Norman settlers.
Among the baronial families of the south whose descent is unchallengeable were the lords of Berkeley. Of true English stock was Robert, son of Harding, son of Eadnoth. In the second rank of English lords, among the honorial barons of the twelfth century, the descendants of English thegns are the rarest exceptions.
One of the cardinal features of English medieval history is the extent to which men of all ranks above serfdom, in normal times, co-operated with the Crown in the work of government. In most respects, the medieval English State closely resembled the Old English order which it replaced. There was clearly a transmission of English ideas and practices which were retained under the new conditions of the Conqueror's time.
With regard to the settlement of minor ruling classes pre Norman Conquest, there was a tendency to choose sites away from the main Roman highways. They would invariably select a position with a pleasant prospect close to a small river or stream.
In the wooded country of the Severn Vale it was not the compact or dual village but the hamlet which formed the characteristic unit of settlement.
32 To build up an estate of any size it was necessary to combine a number of small, dispersed settlements and make them tributary to a common head. Thus a manor granted to the church, consisted of a 'Middleton', or central farm, and as many as four outlying hamlets. Such composites exist in Gloucestershire.
The Feudal System
For centuries the system in each part of the country remained constant. Every man knew where he belonged; knew who had the right to oppress and who must defend him.
That was the coherent strength of the feudal system. From the highest noble lord to the lowest dusty labourer, all were part of their own distinct feudal system. One factor was the land itself (be it hill district, fenland or swamp) another was the character (and nationality) of the original leaders.
The early estates and farmsteads were comparatively small. They were of varied nationalities which determined their administration.
In general, barons and lords belonged to the king, as did all the country. Villeins belonged to, and were protected by, the lords. Slaves (serfs) belonged to anyone who could get them. Mercenaries would fight for anyone who would pay them. Cottars (or bordars) were semi-independent. They lived and died by their own efforts, though most frequently within the jurisdiction of a feudal estate. Every feudal system entailed complicated layers of service.
Monastic estates, of which Highleadon was one, accepted and transmitted the Roman tradition of 'great landlordism'.
"During the Dark Ages their estates resisted the forces of disorder better than the ordinary lay estate. They were more systematically managed with a better system of accounts ... There is no reason to doubt the traditions that certain varieties of pear, apple, and other fruits were popularised by the exchange of grafts between monasteries". G.G. Coulton
In the process of managing a vast number of estates, the monks became agricultural educators and innovators.
Diplomatic and lavish hospitality to travellers helped the monasteries to keep in contact with the large feudal estates and with important politics and events. This also included contact with places abroad. Materials such as ready-cut millstones were imported from Caen.
The monasteries put pressure on districts to pay in support of their water-mills. This was often resented and resisted. Administrators of the estates knew which corn suited local soils. Seed was often provided and growers rebuked if there were weeds in the corn to be ground.
33 Manorial Administration
The lord's demesne lands were maintained throughout the year by the bonded (unfree) peasants. Where a lord resided in the manor house, he would no doubt supervise the work of his men.
When a lord's estates ran to several manors, or ecclesiastical manors, a wide spread system operated under the control of paid agents with an hierarchy of officials and minor servants.
Two documents informed the service, the 'Rentals and Extents' and the 'Custumals'. The first was a detailed list of the expected rents and services. The custumal contained the customs and by-laws of the manor. Manor Courts were held periodically to ensure the correct actions were practised in a lawful manner.
At the head of the greater lord's officials is the Seneschal or Steward. He acted on behalf of the lord and was almost as powerful. They were often a member of the lord's wider family.
In some lesser estates or manors of the estate this position may be called Bailiff or Sergeant. In either case he was in a superior role that set him apart from the population. We are aware that the monks of Canterbury employed a suitably qualified lay-man in this role.
Normally the Steward would dwell in the manor house in dedicated apartments. The manorial servants lived in out-buildings attached to the house. To the Estate, the bailiff (or steward) was an outsider, imposed upon the manor.
The Reeve was a high-ranking bondsman, a senior and highly respected insider, who represented the villeins like a foreman. He took charge of the work and the men. His position was usually elected by the villeins periodically.
The beadle governed the manorial court, maintaining the parish by-laws and operated as a policeman of the village (later to become constable).
Bondsman, serf and freeman had much in common. They were all engaged in agriculture and in the pastoral life. All were required to observe the customs and routines expected in a feudal society.
34 The Manor Farm
Highleadon Hamlet in feudal times was ostensibly a large farm controlled by the monks of the Abbey at Gloucester. While operating under the Roman principals of lordship the feudal system of employment would have applied as elsewhere.
The seneschal was an overseer to enquire on wrongdoing and to check trespass, ponds, warrens and dove houses.
Wagoners were required to keep horses, curry them and to load and carry sufficient that they not be overloaded or overworked. He must know how to mend harness and the gear of his wagon. The bailiff ought to see how many times the wagoners can go in a day to carry marl, manure, hay or corn, timber or firewood without great stress. Each wagoner shall sleep every night with his horses as shall oxherds sleep in the same way with their oxen.
The swineherd; where manors keep swine in forest or woods, waste or marshes and if they can be kept with litter sustenance from the grange during hard frost, then they must be provided with a pigsty. In bad weather, sows that have farrowed must be driven with young to the manor and kept as long as the bad weather lasts.
The ploughmen ought to be men of intelligence and know how to sow, repair and mend broken ploughs and harrows. They should be able to till the land well and crop it rightly, know how to yoke and drive oxen without hurting them. They should forage them well and prevent forage being stolen. They must not carry fires into byres other than a lantern for great need and peril.
The hayward should be an active and sharp man for early and late. He must go round and keep the woods, corn, meadows and . . . sow lands and be over the ploughers and harrowers at each time of sowing, and make the tenants come and do the work they ought to do. At haytime he is over the mowers and the making and carrying. He must keep tally of all the seed, book-work, customs and labour throughout the year.
The dairy-maid ought to be faithful, of good repute and keep herself clean. She should know how to make cheese, save and keep vessels of the dairy.
The above was adapted from Seneschaucie, an anonymous treatise on country life dating from no later than the reign of Edward I.
Such a community of monks (as at Hyneledene) might be known as a famuli, and where they had no serevants they would themselves operate as ploughmen, carters, shepherds or swineherds. They would be lodged in curia, that is in the buildings which form what we would now call the 'home-farm.
35 Quite often the bonded villein would be able to commute work for money payments. The lord of the manor would then employ labour (at low fee) from the landless undermanni. Tradesmen such as smiths, carpenters etc., with only a few acres attached to their workshops would supplement their living in this way.
The people of the Manor
We are aware that the Manor was under the lordship of St Peter's Abbey at Gloucester. It is reasonable therefore, to assume that a resident monk of seniority may have administered the manor with assistance from clerks of his Order.
The folk of the hamlet would have operated their business much in the same way as for a lay lord. However we must be careful to differentiate between the many grades that even this humble society comprised. There was not a simple division between the free and the serf.
The manorial population were a body of people whose material circumstances were of a most varied nature. A free man holding only two or three acres would require employment to survive. He may have sought employment from an un-free villein who had a holding of between thirty and sixty acres.
There were many subdivisions. At the top there was the aristocracy or in our case the Abbot. His delegate we can call the landlord.
The hierarchy of the peasantry may begin with those holding as much as sixty acres of the common field. Then their were those with descending amounts of land. At the lower end there were those withfardels or furlongs of ten to fifteen acres, and below them came the cottars, crofters and pytel-holders (of one or two acres) who eked out an existence as best they could.
Of course it was the larger land holders that paid high rents back to the lord and the church. He also owed greater services to the manor where the pytel holder only rendered a couple of hens and a couple of days at harvest. In the Manor Court all were given equality.
Put in very simple but factual terms the larger land holding villeins had to supply a plough and team for the lord's demesne when required while the poorest in the hamlet may have provided his labour with a spade, hoe or mallet as required. The lower labourers were the undermanni the crofters and the like.
One of the greater tenants (as reeve) was forced to act as overseer to the other workers. This included walking around with a white wand of office. They would be in a position able to provide carts or wagons necessary to support the activities of the manor.
36 The de Lacy Family
Walter de Lacy arrived in England in about 1089, he was a Norman adventurer of military know-how and with an eye to take the opportunities that the newly conquered country could offer. He was popular with William for stopping Welsh raids across the English borders.
As a consequence of his popularity he gained lands east of the Severn and possibly most of western Gloucestershire and eastern Herefordshire. Much of his first four years were spent putting down rebellions accompanied by Norman forces. This was mainly occupied with border skirmishes on the Welsh march.
Walter de Lacy died (1085) falling from the scaffolding of St Guthlac church, Hereford, where he had been supervising the building. Although he was a military man, he was also very devout and a founder of the Norman church and its governance over the people.
The Llanthony Chronicle suggests that Henry I gave the Lacy family the 'Forest of Dean'. This may well be exaggerated, however, they clearly had influence over much of it.
Miles de Lacy or Miles of Gloucester, Earl of Hereford (ob 1143) a nephew of the above and son of another Walter, who was Constable of Gloucester. This was an important post, having much influence over the County and will be seen to feature in the lives of both the de Lacy and later in the Guise families, both of which were manorial lords of Highleadon.
A small diversion of interest is that of 1263, when Simon de Montford at the head of the 'barons against Edward' came up against a French knight, Matthew de Besille who had been appointed Constable of Gloucester Castle with ruling powers over the County.
The barons refused to acknowledge him and elected Sir William Tracy of Gloucester to be Sheriff (and ruler of the County). Sir William attempted to hold court in Gloucester. Sir Matthew dragged him away and shut Sir William in Gloucester Castle. Sir John Giffard and Sir Roger de Clifford, kinsmen, at once gathered a force and besieged the Castle. They let Sir William Tracy free and held de Basille a prisoner. The office of Constable of Gloucester was held by Sir John Guise 1690 -1720.
Regarding the de Lacy possessions, many grants of land, property and churches were subsequently made to ecclesiastical establishments.
37 The Eighteenth Century
Landed property was the foundation of eighteenth-century society (Mingay 1963). The soil provided the nation with its sustenance and most of its raw materials. The wealth, power and social influence enabled the landowning classes to control local government.
The outcome of the civil wars and the limitations placed upon the crown at that time put the landowners firmly in the saddle. By the end of the century however, the relative importance of agriculture in the economy had declined significantly.
At this time, agricultural improvement had become a fashion, even a craze. It is often referred to as the 'agricultural revolution'. In this period new implements and covered drains were introduced, turnips came into cultivation, and experiments were made into large scale use of carrots and cabbage for livestock.
It was more often the successful merchants who had recently become the 'new country gentlemen' that were encouraging the changes.
There were new breeds of livestock, engineered flooding and drainage of pasture to speed the growth of herbage. Soil was being improved in various ways alongside many advances in farm machinery to speed-up the cultivating processes.
The successful period of agriculture was waning by 1760 when the landowners took a closer interest in large-scale enclosure. This would improve their income from the sales and increased rent of enclosed fields.
Enclosure of the 'open fields', commons and wastes represented the landowners' main investment towards change in the agricultural economy. This meant the abolition of the ancient system of cultivation. Output per acre on existing farm-land was raised. One should also accept that there was a growing pressure to feed an increasing population.
Extensive enclosure of land took place between 1760 and 1815. Many villages managed to remain 'open' well into the nineteenth century because of the variable approaches, particularly of the smaller and older-type independent family owners.
Landowners of the lower Vale
Of the latter end of the eighteenth century we can learn something of the Vale locality from information given by Rev. Thomas Rudge (1803) in his 'History of the County of Gloucestershire'.
Rudge says of Rudford, in the Hundred of Botloe, "it is a place of cyder and perry fruits". The name of Rudford, he believed, was derived from Rude, Saxon ford or Red Ford from the colour of the soil.
38 Of Rudford' s background, Rudge comments, 'Madock was proprietor of Rudeford, containing two hides (say 240 acres) under Edward the Confessor and William the Conqueror'. William II gave Rodesford to the abbey of Gloucester in the time of Abbot Serlo. Wine bald de Balun, a great baron, gave the manor of Rudford to the same church in 1156. At the dissolution it was granted to the Dean & Chapter of Gloucester, 1542.
From Mr Edward Holder (date unstated) the former lessee, the estates (extent unknown, but including Rudford) passed to the Guise family, but the manor was reserved.
The estates in lease (currently) to Sir Berkeley William Guise Bt, comprehend about two thirds of Rudford. Other proprietors are Mr William Holder, John Spiers and Thomas Matthews.
"Highleadon is a hamlet of this parish but in the hundred of Dudston and King's Barton. More than half the property belongs to Sir William Guise. Other proprietors are the Right Hon. Lord Viscount Southwell, and Robert Canning Esq, in right of their wives,. the Chapter of Gloucester, Mr William King & c.".
Of Rudford and Highleadon, six freeholders voted in 1776. Out of a population of 106, there were 28 inhabited houses. The benefice is the Forest deanery of the Chapter of Gloucester.
Of Upleadon, anciently Ledene, "there were formerly considerable iron forges here, which are now converted into flour mills". The Abbey held this manor containing four hides (say 500 acres) before the time of the Conqueror and continued in possession until the suppression. It was then granted to John Arnold and continued in his family till the seventeenth century when Dorothy Arnold, heiress, carried it by marriage .to Sir T. Lucy of Charlecote co Wares, who was lord of the manor 1608. T Brown Esq, alderman of Gloucester, was afterwards proprietor.
William Dowdeswell Esq. was the next lessee, of whose representatives it was purchased by the "Rev. John Foley rector of Newent, who is now (1802) lord of the manor, with a considerable estate". Seven freeholders voted in 1776. The population was circa 100 and the houses inhabited 31.
The two manors of Churcham and Highnam were given by mandate of the Pope to the abbey of Gloucester, for the support of seven monks as an atonement for the murder of seven monks on their way to this place, by Wolpin de Rue, the proprietor of it, and consul of Gloucester, about 1048.
The abbey continued the possession till the dissolution, when Churcham, with Byrdewood, was granted to the dean & chapter of Gloucester, 1542. Sir John Chamberlain held the manor in 1608, as lessee. It afterwards passed to the family of Brown, alderman of Gloucester, who died 1639. By his widow it was devised to John Harris of London in whose family it was at the beginning of the last century. Sir Chas. Barrow Bt and Col. Money were lessees till near the latter end of the last century.
39 Highnam, Linton and Over are hamlets of one tything in the Hundred of Dudston and King's Barton: Highnam (2 miles from Gl) of seven hides at Domesday.
Part of the grange (or mansion-house) was reserved in the lease dated 7 Hen.VIII for the abbot and his men, in case of plague at Gloucester or Over. The manors were granted 1542 to John Arnold of Monmouthshire,
At Highnam, Sir Robert Cooke was succeeded by William and it then came to Edward Cooke who died with no issue.
The estate devolved to his two sisters, the elder Anne, to - - Jones and the second Mary, to Henry Guise (of the City of Gloucester) who died in 1749.
It then passed to the son, Sir John Guise, who purchased Jones' moiety and on his death in 1794, it succeeded to Sir Berkeley William Guise Bt, the present lord of the manor, and proprietor of the estates dependant upon them and heir to the late Sir William Guise Bt of Rendcomb, subject to the life-estate of the Hon. Jane Barrington, his sister, and Lady of the Bishop of Durham.
The whole of the hamlets, and also of Linton and Over belongs to Sir B. William Guise Bt. Two freeholders voted in 1776 for Churcham and two for the three hamlets. The population of Churcham is 330 and there were 74 inhabited houses. The three hamlets have a population of 202 and there were 52 inhabited houses.
The family Guise is of special interest to the land management of the Vale. Their origins in the County began at Elmore, four miles from Gloucester (in the Vale).
John de Burg son of Hugo de Burg, Earl of Kent, gave Elmore as a dower to his kindred Nicholas de Gyse of the family Gyse of Asple Gyse, Herefordshire. It passed to his son Sir Anselm Gyse in 1274.
It is said that the family Gyse were only mesne (intermediate) lords under Llanthony (Priory). Sir John Gyse invested three clerks in trust for the Priory with the lordship, with the reservation of a fee-farm rent, in 1358. Anselm Gyse died seized of (owning) it 1412 and Reginald in 1517.
Sir Christopher Guise, the eleventh in lineal succession from Anselm, moved from the ancestral home at Elmore to Rendcom, six miles north of Cirencester. Rendcomb had been the home of the Tames, great wool merchants, then to the Berkeley's and at last, at the Restoration, to the Guises.
The Guises resided at Rendcomb for more than a century. Sir John Guise, son of Sir Christopher, was an MP and a militiaman, he is known to have had at least two well publicised duels, the first of which was with Sir Robert Atkyns, (the county historian)
40 who ran him through. He miraculously survived. By the end of the eighteenth century the Guises had left Rencomb and returned to their home on the Severn.
Sir William Guise died 1783, fifth Baronet.
Badgworth, a hamlet where the church stands, contained a 'goodly estate' belonging to William Viner Esq. of Gloucester in 1800 (Rudge 1803).
Brockworth, in the reign of John, was given to the Priory of Llanthony. In the charter of confirmation, a house on the west-side of the church, with several lands, are specified. At the dissolution, it passed to John Gyse Esq. in exchange for Asple Gyes, co Bedford and Weddington, co Oxford, 1541. "In this family it has continued ever since. It is now the property of Rt. Rev. Shute Barrington, Bishop of Durham, in the right of his Lady, Jane, sister and heir of William Guise" (Rudge 1803).
Down Hatherley, 3 miles north-east from Gloucester, is a manorial estate of Nicholas Norwood Esq. of Leckhampton, from which family, in 1608, "it was transferred to the Gwinnetts of Badgworth, and George Gwinnett Esq. is present lord of the manor". The most considerable estate in the parish was vested in 1368 in John At-Yate, from whom it passed to the Berkeleys of Beverstone, and from them, in the 17th century, to the family of Brett, which was succeeded by that of Gibbes about 1720.
William Gibbes resided in the mansion house till his death in 1784, when Sir Richard Sutton, Bt of Norwood Park, co Nott. succeeded by will, and dying in 1802, left his estates including about a fourth part of the parish to his second son . - - - Sutton, Clerk. Other considerable proprietors were T. Mee Esq., Mrs Catherine Hayward, Mrs Ann Wicks and Mr Peter Herbert.
Lassington or L' assingdon, anciently Lessedune, signifying the smaller down or elevated spot - in opposition to Churchdown, rising from the vale in the east. Both were held py the same proprietor. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, Edward Cooke Esq. of Highnam, was lord of two-thirds of the manor.
The other third part was in lease to different tenants till 1790, when Sir John Guise Bt became lessee, and in 1800 under the powers granted by the land tax redemption ad, it was sold to Sir Berkeley William Guise Bt., his son, and is now consolidated with the other parts of the manor. (Rudge 1803)
The influence generated by inherited ownership contributed to, by intermarriage, of the 'older families' has been clearly illustrated. most particularly in the cases of the Arnold and Guise families.
However, there are examples of an increasing land-ownership and of gentrification, not only from the increasingly successful mercantile classes. Bonded-tenant families of the late medieval period were able to buy themselves into freehold. They quite often
41 expanded their holdings considerably. Such may be the history of several local farming families.
An interesting example of such a local estate is given by Finberg (1957) in his 'Gloucestershire Studies'. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, Finberg has identified a John Holder, described on Smyth's muster-roll (1608) as a 'labourer'.
Holder's will, in 1656, shows that he had been able to accumulate a half yardland in Churcham, plots of land both freehold and leasehold in Bulley and a meadow in Huntley. Concluding with a house, containing a cider mill, at Taynton.
Robert Holder, son of John, in 1649 took a ninety-nine year lease on an estate of twenty five acres called 'The Cinders'. Robert then purchased a property called 'Jacks House' (now Taynton House) which became the home of his descendants for nine generations. Jacks House included another messuage called 'Gilleshay' with a yardland of about thirty acres
Robert purchased the manor of 'Little Taynton' in 1669 for £582. Fifteen years later, at his death, the capital value of his estate was £1759 with an aggregate rental of £150. Robert Holder's grandchild, John (a lawyer) married Elizabeth Hill, of Cam, bringing with her a marriage-portion of £1000. After bearing five sons and six daughters, Elizabeth died in 1715, of small-pox. After three years, Robert married a widowed daughter of his maternal uncle, William Rogers of Okle Clifford. This brought in further leasehold property in Hereford and Somerset, adding £150 a year to his rent-roll.
From 1720 until his death, he acted as steward of the manor of Garway in Herefordshire. The scale of his out-buildings suggest that he may also have been acting as steward for other estates.
Rudder says of Taynton, "The parish is famous for producing a very rich and pleasant cyder ... and for an excellent kind of perry, made of a fruit called the Tainton Squash Pear".
John's largest single addition to his estate was made in 1698, when he purchased two large farms in Taynton called 'Hownhall' and 'Byfords' costing him £2,750. Indifferent to the social prestige attaching to the lordship of a manor, he sold Little Taynton (£1,330) to raise some of the money needed. He ran into debt but had it all paid off by 1727, when he purchased a freehold messuage for £275, with two plots of arable and two meadows in the parish of Newent.
Clearly, John Holder had moved out of the yeoman class and would be fully justified in styling himself, as he did when he drew up his will, a 'gentleman'. He died in 1734. In 1952, the final descendants of the Holders, put the estate up for sale in several lots, concluding this local example of a labourer to landed family.
42 We have a pretty clear awareness of how these families were influencing the local politics in the nineteenth century. It has already been apparent in our previous 'notes' that the Guise family supervised the building of local roads and bridges.
Mr William P Price MP of the Grove, Taynton, was instrumental in several major local activities, including the erection of the memorial to the Civil War in 1871.
He was Chairman of the Hereford and Gloucester Canal Navigation Company. At that time 1870, interestingly his address is given as Tibberton Court (why did he move to the Grove?). However, his local interests were extensive. For example, he encouraged the changes that allowed the GWR to take over the Canal and then continued conducting on that Board.
In 1837, when the lands at Highleadon were surveyed and apportioned for tithes, the major local landowners were : Ann Wicks who appears to have been in possession of the demesne lands of the old manor (demesne lands of Highleadon Court); Edward Knight at Drews farm, was lessee of property owned by the Dean and Chapter of Gloucester. Other lands he farmed as a freeholder. The next largest owner was John Matthews with the Half Timber House Estate.
The Dean & Chapter of Gloucester appear to have retained the remains of the old church lands of the manor, including what had probably been 'waste' before 'inclosure'; Edward Knight and Thomas Hooper can be seen to have scattered patches of lands that were 'enclosed' remains of the common (tenants) fields.
The adjacent lands of Hartpury were in the hands of Robert Canning Esq. A few fields at the frontier to Rudford were in the hands of Sir John W Guise.
A review of the landtax taken for Highleadon reveals the major property holdings in 1779 as follows:
'The Court' Sir William Guise, Bt 'Halftimber House' Sir William Guise, Bt 'White House' Mrs Jane Berkeley Rectory (Glebe) Rev, Mr Bishop 'Longmore' Thomas Boulton 'Hemmings' Thos Boulton & William King Farm of above Thomas Boulton 'Oak House' William Matthews 'Drews' Nathaniel Reeve 'Green End' Sqr. Foley 'Daws' William Hooper
43 The Manor and the Green
The Seneschal (or steward) of the monastery, possibly a senior monk, was appointed by the Abbot to periodically visit each of the manors of the churches estates.
Gradual assarting (encroachment) of the wilder waste of the manor was generally condoned, as this was found to be happening on most manors. The lord would increase his tenants' rent or charge an annual fine for the additional land.
In time some manors back in the thirteenth century, were becoming short of pasture (entitled to the free tenants). The Statute of Merton (1235) laid down that there must be sufficient pasture available for free tenants according to their holdings.
Typically, the virgatee (bond-tenant with 30 acres) had access to the commons and waste. He may have also 'assarted' pieces of waste to create additional arable land. This could be done, with permission or sometimes by purpresturation for which he may have had to pay an annual fine.
The Green currently comprises several small parcels of common land, including wide and narrow verges alongside public highways. In all the land amounts to just over fifteen acres. These are the remains of the manorial 'waste' and were at one time used by specific members of the community for grazing and collecting fuel.
The lord of the manor owned this land but was committed by customary law to allow grazing and other agreed activities. Rights to graze the 'Green' at Highleadon are attached to and inherited from specific properties. These are rights appurtenant.
In 1965 the Commons Registration Act required commoners to register their rights. Five land owners at Highleadon applied for registration. It would appear that the County Council accepted and registered the five applicants without any further investigation of their right holdings.
Subsequent sales of land can, theoretically, cause a necessity to apportion rights to new holders with sub-portions of the original qualifying total. Further to these circumstances, no land-owner has ever applied for registered ownership of the Green.
The 'Right' holdings at Highleadon were mainly registered in 1967 and were specifically for grazing rights as follows: 1. Vine Villa 7 cows 30 sheep 1 horse 2 pigs and 200 poultry. 2. Green Farm 25 cows. 3. 'Four Winds' 2 horses or ponies. 4. New House Farm 20 cows. 5. GreenEnd 12 cows.
Unfortunately the right holders have not exercised their rights for twenty years or more. Consequently there has been no management of the grassland which has
44 become heavily overgrown with scrub and can no longer be grazed without extensive labour to clear and renovate the sward.
In practical terms the now very busy highways render the grazing of livestock too dangerous and impracticable on these constricted parcels of land.
An Association is in the process of being formed to manage the Green as a quiet leisure amenity for the community and wildlife to enjoy.
Geographic Survey
Information taken from the 'Survey of Gloucestershire' by Gordon E. Payne in 1939 for Gloucestershire Council.
The following comments annotated are for Highleadon and surrounds.
Geology: Triassic (Deep red loamy clay)
Watershed: Severn river basin
Topography: Land between 0-300 ft above sea level
Landscape: Normal English Countryside
Population: At Gloucester, Highnam and Newent
Soil Fertility: Good general purpose farmland and First class grassland (Lead on meadows)
Land Use Regions: Central Pastoral Vale
Surface Utilisation: Arable, meadow & perm'nt pasture
Grasslands: Agrostis pasture and Ryegrass
Town Influences: From Gloucester
Electricity: Stroud Electric Supply Co Ltd.
Water: Mains supplied
Zone: Rural and Agriculture
45 Tithe Map of Highleadon (Apportionment survey by Arthur Causton)
Showing cultivation of the fields in 1837
Topographic Survey
Pasture l~~J-:...t
A..rable ,,. ~1
Meadow I- I
County road & Parish, roads l==:J
Messuages c=:J Glossary of Terms assart A piece taken from the waste for conversion into arable. beadle Parish officer to punish petty offenders. chevage Annual payment to a lord by unfree tenants. croft A piece of enclosed ground adjacent dwelling. frank-pledge Every member of a tithing is answerable for the other members (of ten households). - view of A court held periodically of a tithing (manor). titltingman is chief over the ten householders. hayward A manorial officer in charge of enclosures, haymaking and harvest. hundred A subdivision within a shire, each occupied by 100 families or equalling 100 hides. manor The basic economic unit in feudalism, systematically established under the Normans. purpresture An encroachment onto commons or into highways. reeve A manorial officer (bonded servant) who oversees working of the manor. tall age Tax levied on the unfree tenants. toft Site of a house and its outbuildings. virgate Measure of land (averaging 30 acres). virgatee Bond-tenant of the above. week-work Work done by bond-tenants & days required
The contents of these notes have been variously extracted from information at the Public Records Office, Gloucestershire County Council, Sites and Monuments Record.
Select Bibliography
Bennett HS (1971 Life on the English Manor (A study of peasant conditions, I 150-1400) Cambridge University Press Finberg HPR (1957) Gloucestershire Studies Leicester University Press
Hartley D (1979) The Land of England (English Country Customs through the Ages) London, Macdonald & Jane's Rudge T Rev. (1803) The History of the County of Gloucestershire Gloucester, Longman & Rees Southern RW (Ed) (1968) Essays in Medieval Hist01y "English Families & the Norman Conquest" (Stenton 1943) London, Macmillan Stenton FM (1971) Anglo-Saxon England 3rd Ed. Oxford University Press
Alan Shelley BA DLA FSTD FRSA, Wycken End Cheltenham, February 2004
47 Highleadon Homesteads An Historical view of the Community
Preface to Volume 4
Thy houses and barns would be looked upon, and all things amended, ere harvest comr on: Things thus set in order, iii quiet and rest, shall further thy harvest, and pleasure thee best.
(Harvest Lord) Thomas Tusser ?
To the commoners and parishioners of Highleadon Green
This is the fourth volume in a series of information about the history of Highleadon and its surrounds ..
As one progresses through the previous volumes you will be following the process of research taken by the author. Initially there appeared to be very little to write on the subject of Highleadon and scant information available. However, it is useful when contemplating the future of the 'Green' to be aware of the very Englishness of this largely unchanged village. The history of the old manor reveals much that is representative of the past English countryside and every effort should be made to preserve it.
Hopefully the reader will find these notes informative and will do all that is possible to assist in protecting the Green from any undesirable development.
© Alan Shelley Wycken End, Cheltenham April 2004
Contents
Introduction
Chapter Page 1. Landlords of Highleadon 49. 2. Highleadon Court 52. 3. Half Timber House 53. 4. Camp House 55. 5. White House 55. 6. Mill Cottage 56. 7. Highleadon Land Taxes 57. 8. Property Holdings in 1837 58. 9. 1851 Census for Highleadon 62. 10. The Bridge at Over 65. 11. The Canal and the Railway 66. 12. Highleadon Green 66. Tithe Map of Highleadon (Indicating the property holdings) 68.
48 Introduction
There was a settlement at Highleadon from early times. We may accept that a small community of monks were present. From the location of this village it is likely to have been host to many travellers too and from Gloucester. There is very little doubt that Welsh drovers have been passing by since time immemorial.
Although the status of Highleadon is inferior to that of Rudford, the manor is one of greater acreage and at one time, before the Norman Conquest, appears to have been part of a much larger estate including Upleadon and possibly other settlements.
The purpose of this small volume, fourth in the series, is to look closely at the homesteads, their background and development. They typify the growth of an agricultural settlement in the English lowland landscape.
The Vale has its own special character, as is a part of the Forest of Dean while being in a historically disafforested area. Currently it retains an unchanging peaceful connection with the past
Landlords of Highleadon
We have been unable so far in these investigations, to determine who the thegn or the family was that owned the Saxon estate of Ledene. That being the larger estate which may have included Highleadon (Hyneledene).
Shortly after the Norman invasion, King William awarded Walter de Laci with many estates including Ledene. Some time before the records had been transcribed into the Domesday Book, Walter de Laci had given the estate to the monastery at Gloucester.
Consequently we are unable to review any extensive transcription at Domesday, of the manorial division or of its Saxon history.
LACY FAMILY of Herefordshire 1066 - 1194 Walter= Emma (Ermeline) (ob 1085) I Roger=? Hugh= Adeline (Adeliza) Walter, abbot of Dau banished 1096 ob ante 1115? Gloucester ob post 1106 I (o sp 1140) I I Gilbert Walter, Constable of Gloucester I I ____ I Sybil = Payn Robert Hugh Sybil= Miles of Gloucester de Lacy I fitz John osp ante 1162 I I Earl of Hereford __ I_ I I I Walter Hugh Gilbert Robert Roger Earl of = Cecily Agnes ob 1241 Hereford osp 1155 post 1197
49 The Lacys were a powerful family with much influence over this part of the County and of Herefordshire. A second branch of the Lacy family was established at Pontefract in West Yorkshire.
The overlordship of most of the lands previously Ledene and the area now Hartpury, Rudford, Lassington and Highnam were to remain in the hands of successive Abbots for around four hundred and sixty years.
During the earlier part of this period however, it would appear that some form of possession or ownership remained at a minor level. Dugdale's Monasticon (Vol 1 p548) advises us that, in the year 1239, Richard de Wigmore gave to the Abbey of St Peter, Gloucester, his "lands in Hyneledene and one hide, with the groves, pastures, meadows and all appurtenances which Geoffrey de le Dene did enjoy".
At Domesday the separated estate is recorded as Ledene [Upleadon] in Botelawes [Botloe] hundred and being in the possession of St Peter's at Gloucester. There were then four hides [say 500 acres] and in the demesne were two plough-tillages. And there were eight villeins and one bordar, with eight plough-tillages.
There were four servi, and a mill of 4s and ten acres of meadow. A wood is recorded as being of two leagues in length [6 miles] and two furlongs broad. The whole being quoted to be worth 'scarcely 30 sol.' (Domesday page 71)
Was this tract of woodland, as with the ancient 'common' of Corse Lawn' a chase and possibly an extension of the Malvern Chase?
Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the manor passed to the Crown. Ownership of a majority of the local estates (manors) were granted to John Arnold of Highnam. Upleadon passed through the Arnold family to Thomas Lucy. It passed afterwards to Thomas Brown, Alderman of Gloucester and on to Mrs Broxoline who was proprietor in 1779. At that time there were approximately seventy-five people living in nineteen houses and about seven were freeholders. The land-tax then was approximately £52 (Rudder).
Even so, much of the lands at Highleadon had remained in the possession of the Dean and Chapter of Gloucester, and continued so, until more recent years.
The Arnold family (owners of Highnam and its greater estates from 1540 to 1605) were eventually succeeded by the Guise family.
The Cooke family had the estate from 1605 until 1750. Sir John Guise (son of Henry Guise) acquired the whole Cooke estate by inheritance and purchase of a moiety held by a second co-heiress.
The Guise family had their local origins at Elmore.
50 Genealogy of the Family of Guise of Elmore: -
Anselm de Gyse received Elmore in 1274 and it passed to his son John de Gyse.
Sir William Guise at Elmore (b 1566, d 1641) I Cecily Dennis = William Guise I Rachel Corsellis = Sir Christopher Guise (b 1616-8) I 1st Bart (d 1670) Elizabeth= Sir John Guise I 2nd Bart (d 19 Nov 1695) Sir John Guise 3rd Bart (d 16 Nov 1732) I Sir John Guise 4th Bart (MP) I Sir William Guise 5th Bart (d 1783)
NB. John Guise married Jane, daughter of Richard Pauncefoote of Hasfield, 22 January 1564 (d 1587). It is interesting to note that a field adjacent to Highleadon Court is named 'Paunsfot Meadow'. Perhaps there is a connection?
Sir Christopher Guise moved to Rendcomb Park where his family remained for more than a century before moving back to the vale. The Highnam estate was then united with the other (Guise) Gloucestershire estates (managed from Elmore) in 1783 when John Guise (created Baronet Dec 1783) succeeded his distant cousin Sir William, making Highnam his seat.
The Guise family were lords paramount of the Hundred and manors of Dudstone and King's Barton by 1787, and seem to have farmed several of the manors within the hundred under the Dean and Chapter of Gloucester.
Sir Berkeley William Guise 2nd Bart of the second creation [1775 -1834] was MP for Gloucestershire, 1811 -1832 and for E Gloucestershire 1832 -34, incurring much expense over elections. His brother, General Sir John Wright Guise, KCB, 3rd Bt [1777 -1865] sold Rendcomb, Highnam and Brockworth; the estates of Elmore and Rodley remained in the Guise family.
General Guise was with Moore at Corunna. He became the senior general in the British Army and was given a special grant of supporters to the family arms.
The Guise family appear to have owned the manor Court and the Half Timber House estates and farmed the land at Highleadon by tenancy. But much of the hamlet was still owned by the Dean and Chapter of Gloucester.
Large amounts of the old manor common fields became freehold and split into small holdings. The pattern of these small-holdings is interesting as it reflects the amalgamation of the variously located common strips.
51 At a later date, after the Guise family had terminated their lordship of the manor, the small estates of Half Timber House and New Hall were combined under a new property namely New House Farm estate. New Hall Farm was subsequented auctioned and again separated to form a further change in the land-holding patterns.
A following chapter deals specifically with the detailed history of the Half Timber House estate.
Highleadon Court
'Leden Court' is clearly shown on Saxton's Map of Gloucestershire, 1577. There appears to have been a severe fire during the 1700s when it was replaced with a farm house.
Our records of research to date, suggest that Sir John Guise's estate at Highleadon was released in around 1732, to provide a settlement on Lady Anne Guise. By 1809 Sir Berkeley Guise had severed the Guise family lordship over Highleadon and his brother General Sir John Wright Guise finally sold off the Highnam estate in 1840.
From the connections between the estate of Highleadon Court and that of Half timber House we can ascertain by the records of the latter that the .Need family had taken possession of both estates in 1809. William Need was living at Highleadon Court 1819 - 1825.
The Tithe Map of 1837 informs us that Mrs Ann Wicks was in possession of the Court and farm lands at that time. We are also aware that the estate was put up for sale by auction at Gloucester on Saturday 26 June 1858.
It then appears to have been purchased by a member of the Viner Ellis family, most probably William Viner Ellis. William died in 1888 and it passed to George Viner Ellis who died in 1900. Edmund Viner Ellis passed it on to his son Godfrey William Viner Ellis (he had changed his name to Vyner-Ellis) who died November 1911.
The Wallace family came to Highleadon Court Farm in 1930 when the farm came into the possession of Ella Tainton Isaacs the wife of Darrell Wallace Isaacs. The family have adopted the surname Wallace and have been farming from there ever since.
The Farm House will be of the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century when it replaced the former manor house. One may assume that the former house, burned down we believe, in the 1770s, was of a half timber construction probably built in the fifteenth century to replace a previous dwelling house. No obvious traces of early buildings are extant.
A timber framed fifteenth century tithe barn is all that remains of the early monastic manor complex.
52 Half Timber House Estate
In 1908 the Guise family were compelled to sever their hitherto lordship over their estate at Highleadon. It would appear that Sir Berkeley Guise, in order to arrange a marriage settlement, found it necessary to release some of his landed property.
The Half Timber House, as its name implies was probably of ancient construction and of say the sixteenth century or possibly earlier. However, no buildings details have yet come to light. The following are a series of sales transactions extracted from deeds held at the Gloucester Record Office.
Release of the (farm) estate is dated 20 September 1808. Sir Berkeley William Guise to William Griffith: Lease for a year. Release: - Sir B W Guise, of Highnam Court to Joseph Need of Castlemoreton, Wares, Gentleman. W. Griffiths as nominated Trustee of J. Need (£4,620). The property lately in the tenure/ occupation of Thos Sayer who was a tenant (between 1770 and 1794) of Sir John Guise his father who died in 1794.
Mortgage by Appointment and Demise of Messuage, lands and hereditaments between Joseph Needs and his Trustee to John Turner of Gloucester, Gentleman (Bond).
Mortgage of Half Timber House Farm, 12 October 1819, between William Need of Highleadon Court, Gentleman and Dame Mary Whitcombe of Gloucester, widow, through John Turner (£1808) with Joseph Need.
Dame Mary Whitcombe to the Earl of Tankerville, 1 December 1821, the property then in the tenure of William Need. It appears to have been sold by a 'pepper-corn' to Charles, Earl of Tankerville, 7th Geo 4th (1 February 1826). Executees of the Earl, re William Need, John Turner and William Boulton (since died) that in the month of October 1819, William Need of Highleadon Court, son and heir at law of Joseph Need late of Castle Moreton - mortgaged through John Turner of Gloucester, Esq to Dame Mary Whitcombe.
Transfer of Mortgage 30 November 1827 (£1856-19-4d) by John Turner Esq to Mr Willi.am. Wybergh How, in trust for Henry Thomas Colebrooke and Thomas Lloyd Esq., 4 February 1830 the Rt. Hon. Charles Augustus Earl of Tankerville, at the request of Henry Thomas Colebrooke Esq., and the said Henry Thomas Colebrooke to Mr John Matthews and Trustee - Conveyance of an estate called The Half Timbered House farm, to John and (second part James) Matthews of Newent. The property now in the tenure/ occupation of William and John Harvey.
Assignment of two several terms of 500 yrs and 1000 yrs from 4 February 1830. Dame Mary Whitcombe, by the direction of Henry Thomas Colebrooke Esq., to Mr Philip Boulter Cooke, in trust for Mr John Matthews and Mr William Wybergh How (by the like direction) To Mr Joseph Hill in trust for the said John Matthews.
Covenant: 4 February 1830 by Sir Berkeley William Guise Bt, of Rendcomb Park - to Mr John Matthews of Newent, Gentleman.
Mortgage, 23 May 1849 by Mr John Matthews to Mr Henry Thomson.
53 Conveyance, 8 October 1849 between Mr John Matthews and his Mortgage to Mr Edmund Edmonds of Newent and his trustee. Between Mr John Matthews (of Compton, Newent) in the 1st part Henry Thomson of the Moat House, Newent, Gentleman and Edmund Edmonds of Newent, Gentleman.
Mortgage, 3 May 1867, Edmund Edmonds Esq, to Mrs Mary Mansel for £3,500, a property called 'Half Timber House Estate' comprising the House, Garden and folds, the Barn close and lands to 54 acres O roods 28 perches, comprised of the lands riumbered on the Tithe Map= 381,379,382, 214, 215, 216, and 217. A further 85 acres, 2 roods and 16 perches are made up of the following lands numbered on the Tithe Map as 212, 213, 210,207,208 and 209.
Conveyance, 18 December 1867 between Mr Adam Clarke of Moor Court, Pendock, Farmer and Mr William Lane to Mr Edmund Edmonds of Newent, Gentleman for a property named 'New Hall Farm'. John Clarke, late of Moor Court (deceased) inheritance include Whitehouse Meadow, Upper Meadow, Whitehouse Field and West Field. Newhall Farm, adjoining the Turnpike Road, was formerly in the occupation of John Palmer as tenant, then of Betty Clarke or her undertenant afterwards of George Need, since of Nathaniel Simms and now Thomas Tooby. Lands marked on the Tithe Map as: 206, 205, 203, 204, 219 and 220.
Mortgage, 22 August 1874 (was reconveyed 12 September 1892) Half Timbered House estate, Edmund Edmonds to Rev. William Powell for £2,500. Conveyance, 24 February 1880, Edmund Edmonds Esq., to Charles Sheppard Esq., Half Timber House Farm and New Hall Farm, comprising the following, as numbered on the Tithe Map: - 381, 379, 382, 214 (House and folds) 215, 216, 218, 217, 212, 213, 210, 207, 208, 209, 220 (Farm-house) 219, 204, 203, 205 and 206.
Memo: - by deed-poll under the Rev. Bernard Henry Sheppard, Benjamin Jordan, Agnes Mary Rosabel Mansel, Elizabeth Powell and Edmund Viner Ellis dated 21 July 1884, certain pieces of land contained in whole, one acre three roods seven perches, portions of pieces of land within 216, 217, 212 and 213. also other pieces to a whole of one acre and eleven perches being parts of 203 and 205 in a second schedule - conveyed to Newent Railway Co. on 3 May 1867 and 22 August 1874. A deed-poll of Bernard Henry Sheppard and Benjamin Jordan acknowledging the right of the said Co. and their successors. Conveyance to the Newent Railway Co. dated 31 December 1886.
12 September 1892, Executors of the Will of Rev. William Powell (died 23 May 1876) to the Trustees of the will of the late Charles Edward Sheppard Esq. Indenture between Elizabeth Powell and Rev. Bernard Henry Sheppard and Benjamin Jordan, Gentleman of Gloucester.
3 June 1908, Trust under will of Charles Edward Sheppard, deceased, and their mortgagees too New House (formerly Half Timber House Farm and New Hall Farm, comprising the following land as marked on the Tithe Map: - 381, 379, 382, 215, 214, 213, 212, 210, 209, 208, 207, 217, 216 and 218. 'New Hall' comprising: 220 (Farm-house) 210,204,203,205 and 206.
24 February 1880, Charles Edward Sheppard to Edmund Edmonds and heirs, All of Half Timber House Farm, formerly in the occupation of John Hardwick, then of Edward Bullock, then void, to hold unto the said Charles Edward Sheppard and heirs.
54 Finally, 11 May 1908, Benjamin Jordan and Bernard Henry Sheppard are owners. The joint tenants were A Lewis and M. Barry Lewis and currently in the occupation of Thomas Brewer.
The following 'Sale Notice' appeared by the selling agents Bruton, Knowles & Co., Under instruction of the Trustees of C E Sheppard Esq., deceased, to sell by Auction at The Bell Hotel, Gloucester, on Saturday 23rd May 1908, at 2 for 3 o'clock, in one lot: 'A valuable compact Freehold Agricultural Estate known as New House and New Hall Farms, comprising a well-built farmhouse, agricultural buildings and about 113 Acres, 2R, 7P, of superior pasture and meadow land and productive arable land, the whole lying in a ring fence and possessing valuable frontages to a main road'.
Camp House
(Listed Grade II)
This is a seventeenth century construction, altered in the eighteenth or early nineteenth century. Formerly it was occupied as two cottages. It stands in an enclosure on land once the 'waste' of the manor. The house adopted its name following a short spell as an HQ for troops of both sides during the Civil War.
Windows have been largely renewed during the late twentieth century. The property is timber framed, brick nagged, on a random-rubble plinth. It is painted brick to the rear and has a thatched roof. There are two bays, with one and a half storeys and a continuous lean-to rear extension.
The front has a lateral brick chimney on the left and there are tiled offsets below the eaves. A metal window to the right is probably in the position of an earlier doorway. (may be a post 1981 alteration). A further metal window is to the right and a two-light casement to a dormer over, swept roof.
Right return large brick-base to chimney outside timber-framed gable: roof hipped against sides of chimney at top; front wallplate cantilevered out full depth of chimney. Left return metal window to ground floor and a double boarded door to cellar below. Framing in wall, largely paint over render and probably correct. Collar and tie-beam truss over, bottom half glazed. End of lean-to extension on the left.
White House (Listed Grade II)
This property is probably of the fifteenth century and for most purposes was a farm house. It has been altered in the seventeenth and again in the twentieth centuries.
The building is timber-framed, white painted brick-nagging on a random-rubble stone plinth and is roofed with concrete tiles. It has four bays and is of one and a half storeys.
55 Entrance front, on the right, framing two panels high with a two-light casement window, iron opening light. Single section with two rails to left, boarded door beyond, up two stone steps; three-light metal window to lean-to dormer over.
To the left (1984) two-light casement window in brick panel. cambered head to original entrance on left; boarded door to left, with four-pane window adjoining.
Gable chimney on left-end is outside main fabric. Right return bottom covered lean-to weather-boarded timber-framed extension: crucks exposed above, two-light metal window in gable, curved V struts over.
Internally at least two cruck trusses, one each side of central chimney. Room behind right-hand door moulded beam to support floor over, exposed chamfered ceiling joists. Interior of upper floor not inspected. The property was reported as thatched until the 1960's.
Mill Cottage
White painted house, early seventeenth century, extended in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and finally altered in the twentieth century. The construction is timber framed and brick nagged. It has painted brick gables and a thatched roof. A later brick, painted extension has a tiled roof.
The property is a two-bay cottage of two periods, with one and a half storeys, a single bay and a single storey extension. The windows are late twentieth century wooden casements except to dormer.
On right end of brick gable shown on front: spindly, three-panel high framing, single-light window, wall-plate higher than to earlier bay on left. Main posts duplicated, long brace from earlier post to sill: framing two-panel high.
Window on left two-light casement in swept dormer over. Late twentieth century door on left; cambered head to blocked doorway to left.
Gable rebuilt in brick below principal rafters; brick chimneys at ridge to each end. Single-storey extension on left with two casement windows.
56 Highleadon Land Taxes 1779-1801
Land-tax records on microfiche held at the Records Office provide an excellent means of determining who owned and occupied the greater properties in the past.
Not always easy to read, here is an interpretation the major homesteads at the end of the eighteenth century.
1779 'The Court' Sir William Guise, Bt 'Halftimber House' Sir William Guise, Bt 'White House' Mrs Jane Berkeley Rectory (Glebe) Rev. Mr Bishop 'Longmore' Thomas Boulton 'Hemmings' Thos Boulton & William King Farm of above Thomas Boulton 'Oak' William Matthews 'Drews' Nathaniel Reeve 'Green End' Sqr. Foley 'Daws' William Hooper
1794 Occupier 'The Court' Sir John Guise, Bt Robt Jakeman 'Halftimber House' Sir John Guise, Bt ThosFryer 'White House' Robert Berkeley Esq. EdwFarmer Rectory (Glebe) Rev. William Gyllet Himself 'Longmore' Thomas Boulton NathSyms 'Hemmings' William King Hestr Baylis Farm of above Thomas Boulton Hestr Baylis 'Oak' Conway Whitehorne Will Hooper 'Drews' Nathaniel Reeve EdwFarmer 'Green End' William Matthews GeoHill 'Daws' William Hooper Himself
1795 Occupier 'The Court' Sir John Guise, Bt Robt Jakeman 'Halftimber House' Sir John Guise, Bt ThosFryer 'White House' Robert Berkeley Esq. EdwFarmer Rectory (Glebe) Rev. William Gyllet Himself 'Longmore' Thomas Boulton NathSyms 'Hemmings' William King Hestr Baylis Farm of above John Boulton Hestr Baylis 'Oak' Conway Whitehorne Will Hooper 'Drews' Heir of Nathl Reeve EdwFarmer 'Green End' William Matthews GeoHill 'Daws' William Hooper Himself
57 1796 Occupier 'The Court' Sr W.Berkeley Guise Robt Jakeman 'Halftimber House' Sr W.Berkeley Guise ThosFryer 'White House' Robert Berkeley Esq. EdwFarmer Rectory (Glebe) Rev. William Gyllet Himself 'Longmore' Thomas Boulton (dee) NathSyms 'Hemmings' William King Hestr Baylis Farm of above John Boulton Hestr Baylis 'Oak' Conway Whitehorne Will Hooper 'Drews' Heir of Nathl Reeve EdwFarmer 'Green End' William Matthews Himself 'Daws' William Hooper Himself
1801 Occupier 'The Court' Sir William Guise Robt Jakeman 'Halftimber House' Sir William Guise Thos Fryer 'White House' Cath. & Jane Berkeley EdwFarmer Rectory (Glebe) Rev. Smith Himself 'Longmore' Thomas Boulton (dee) Nath Syms 'Hemmings' William King WillmKing Farm of above John Boulton WillmKing 'Oak' W.Hooper for W'horne Will Hooper 'Drews' Heir of Nathl Reeve EdwFarmer 'Green End' William Matthews Himself 'Daws' William Hooper Himself
Highleadon Properties in 1837 (Tithe apportionment for Highleadon Hamlet)
Owner: William Hooper for Poor of Highleadon Occupier William Hooper: 180 (K'M) Rudford.
Owner: Edward Knight: Occupier Edward Knight: 188 (Key Meadow) Rudford.
Owner: Sarah Rogers: Occupier Edward Knight: -
1 (Little Meadow) 297, 298, 299, 300, 334, 307, 311, 279, 278, 284, 282, 275, 268, 317, 320, 387, 377a, 229, 231, 234, 235, 237.
Owner: Dean & Chapter of Gloucester (Edward Knight their Lessee): Occupier Edward Knight: - ·
323, 364, 365, 366, 369, 370, 371, 372, 377, 378, 383, 384, 386, 385, 388, 331.
Owner: Edward Knight: Occupier Edward Knight: -
225, 246, 247, 256, 257, 248, 250, 260, 259, 226, 228, 230, 232, 240, 242, 264a, 244, 274, 272, 269, 267, 309, 310, 312, 314, 319, 322, 326, 329, 306, 305, 304, 332.
58 Owner: John Matthews: Occupier John Harvey: -
381, 379, 382, 214, 215, 218, 216, 217, 212, 213, 210, 207, 208, 209.
Owner: William Mathews: Occupier William Mathews:
286, 285, 273, 270, 291, 243, 253, 255, 261, 258, 233, 236, 238, 263a, 330, 328.
Owner: Ann Wicks: Occupier Ellis Taylor Farren: -
339, 338, 340, 327, 341, 341a, 343, 342, 343, 342, 356, 360, 355, 364, 353, 352, 351, 344, 350, 349, 346. Tithe free: 336, 337, 357, 358.
Occupier Samuel Coller: 367 (Cottage and garden) Occupier William Raikes: 367a (Cottage and garden) Occupier William Hayward: 359 (part of garden) Occupier James Coldrick: 375 (Cottage and garden)
Owner: Stephen Thomas, Trustee for the Eldersfield Poor: Occupier William Hooper: -
223, 224, 254, 316, 321, 324, 227, 266, 262, 303, 276,
Owner: Thomas Hooper: Occupier Thomas Hooper: -
287 (Cottage, garden & orchard) 264, 263, 266.
Owner: William Teague: Occupier George Halford: -
202, 201.
Owner: William P Price: Occupier Daniel Ford: -
221, 222, 294, 295, 296, 293, 302, 301, 277, 249, 251, 252, 245.
Owner: Jonathan Hart: Occupier Jonathan Hart: 283, 281, 292, 271, 318, 241, 265.
Owner: Betty Clarke: Occupier Nathaniel Simms: 220 (House) 219,203,204,205, 206.
Owner: William Smith: Occupier William Smith: 380.
Owner: Benjamin Bonner: Occupier Benjamin Bonner: 347.
Owner: Robert Canning: Occupier Cornelius Phillips: 315,323.
Owner: Christopher Pready: Occupier Christopher Pready 335 (Cottage and garden)
Owner: John Pauncefoot Hawkins Esg: Occupier Joseph Barrett: 345
Owner: Thomas Jenkins: Occupier Thomas Jenkins: 333 (Cottage and garden)
Owner: Edward Colwell: Occupier Edward Colwell: 362 (Cottage and garden)
Owner: William Capper: Occupier William Capper: 361 (Cottage and garden)
Owner: Thomas Davis: Occupier Thomas Davis: 376 (Orchard)
Owner: Jonathan Hooper: Occupier Emanuel Fluck: 373 (part of garden)
59 Owner: Evan Thomas: Occupier James Coldrick: 374 (Cottage and garden)
Final areas of the Parish: 308, 243a, 280, 290, 313 (occupation Roads) Parish Roads and Waste. Turnpike Road.
Summary of Highleadon Hamlet
Landowner Occupier a r p £ s d
Dean & Chapter of Glouc & Edward Knight their Lessee Edward Knight 24 - 1 - 25 25 -15 - 3 Edward Knight Edward Knight 95 - 1 - 13 28 - 0 - 1 John Mathews John Harvey 85 - 2 - 16 29 - 0 - 0 William Mathews Himself 21 - 1 - 35 7 - 7- 10 Ann Wicks Ellis Taylor Farren 186- 3 - 7 46 - 4 - 7 Saml Collier & another - 2 - 3 William Hayward 3 James Coldrick -- 33 Thos Shipton for the Eldersfield Poor William Hooper 14 - 2 - 14 4-0-3 Thomas Hooper Thomas Hooper 1 - 23 William Hooper William Hooper 51 - 1 - 31 16 - 7 - 6 Betty Clark Nathaniel Simms 24 - 1 - 38 9-7-0 Sir JWright Guise, Bt William Phelps 0 - 1 - 25 - 2 - 0 William Smith William Smith 0 - 2 - 7 Benjamin Bonner Benjamin Bonner 0 -21 - 0 Sarah Rogers Edward Knight 17 - 2 -24 6 - 0 - 7 Robert Canning Esq Cornelius Phillips 2 - 0 -17 - 10 - 6 Christopher Preedy Christopher Preedy -- 33 Jn Pauncefoot Hawkins Esq Joseph Barrett 17 - 1 - 13 3 - 9 - 6 Thomas Jenkins Thomas Jenkins 1 - 8 Edward Colwell Edward Colwell 1-11 William Capper William Capper 2 -35 Thomas Davis Thomas Davis 2 - 24 Jonathon Hooper Emanuel Fluck 4 Evan Thomas James Coldrick 11 605 - 2 - 34 176 - 5 -1 Occupation Roads 1- 2 - 28 Parish Roads and Waste 18 - 0 - 21 Turnpike Road 5 - 14 Total of Highleadon 630 - 2 - 17 176 - 5 - 1
Total of Rudford 573 - 3 - 39 155 -14 -11 Total of Parish 1204-2 - 16 ..;...;...332__ _
Signed 1839 - Recorded at Record Office by AS 3 March 2004
60 It can be seen by the summary that the area of Highleadon is greater than Rudford by more than 56 acres. The earlier Highleadon Court Estate additionally had a small proportion of land (including 'Dry Field') within the parish boundary of Newent.
Final Amendments to the Apportionment:
First Schedule - Alteration of Rent Charge
a r p 363 etc 84 -1 - 25
Payable to the Rector £25 - 15 - 3d 8 October 1829
Second Schedule
a r p Cultivation Christopher Venning Coke 377 Altered Upper & Lower Westland 8 -3 -19 A 378 Apportionment Long Ground 3 -2 -18 p 383 Rough Ground 5 -3 -29 p 384 Pt Rough & Little Mdw 5 -2 -27 p 386 Pt Lng Gr below Canal 3 - 14 p 385 Lower Meadow 7-3-8 p 388 Upper Meadow 5 - 3 -25 p 331 House and garden - 3 -25 363a The Old Hill etc 24 -2 -20 366a Grt Newlands etc 16 -0 -30
Mabel Cecilia Hooper Cundill: 370a Pt of Little Hill etc 2-0-0
Document recorded AS 3 March 2004
61 1851 Census Return for Highleadon Hamlet
1. Highleadon Court
Thomas Lane Hd Mar. 49 Farmer of 200 acres B: Taynton Maria Lane Wife Mar. 50 Dom business Warwick Maria Turner Dau unmar23 Farm business Warwick Mary Jones Serv.unmar House servant Upleadon Henry Hayser Servunmar Agric labourer Gloucester John Roberts Servunmar Agric labourer Gloucester
2. Highleadon
William Capper Hd Mar. 82 Farm labourer Gloucester Hannah Capper Wife Mar. 78 Domestic business W-S-M
3. Highleadon
James Eagles Hd Mar. 54 Agric labourer Longney Mary Eagles Wife Mar. 48 Domestic business Hartpury Joseph Eagles Son unmar. 24 Agricultural labourer Newent
4. Highleadon
Edward Colwell Hd Mar. 55 Farm labourer Newent Mary Colwell Wife Mar. 55 Domestic business Newent Harriet Colwell Dau unmar. 27 Domestic business Highleadon
5. Highleadon
AnnPreedy Hd Widow 67 Domestic business Highleadon Phillip Preedy Son unmar. 39 Labourer on road Highleadon Richard Preedy Son unmar. 24 Labourer on road Highleadon William Preedy Gr Son unmar 11 Highleadon
6. Drews Farm
Edward Knight Hd Mar. 40 Farmer of 195 acres (not local) Sarah Knight Wife Mar. 35 Domestic business Highleadon Sarah Ann Jakeman Niece unmar. 20 'farmers dau' Lassington Mary Ann Newman Serv. unmar. 25 House servant Hartpury James Ballinger Serv unmar. 20 Agric labourer Bulley Henry Smith Serv unmar. 14 Agric labourer Handey W.
62 7. Highleadon
John Baylis Hd. Mar. 45 Agric labourer Course Martha Baylis Wife Mar. 51 Domestic business Hereford James Baylis Son unmar 6 Jeremiah Peart Pensioner 60 Agric labourer Oxenton George Frampton unmar 51 Agric labourer Horton D. William Grimming unmar 16 Agric labourer Brockworth 8. Highleadon
John Player Hd. Mar. 56 Agric labourer Highleadon? Judith Player Wife Mar. 59 Domestic bus. Castle Moreton 9. Highleadon
Timothy Daw Hd. Mar. 29 Agric labourer Hartpury Mary Daw Wife Mar. 24 Domestic business Tibberton Ann Daw Dau unmar 7 daughter Highleadon 10. Highleadon
John Halford Hd. Mar. 29 Agric labourer Bulley Eliza Halford Wife Mar. 29 Agric labourer Highleadon 11. Highleadon
Thomas Carter Hd. Mar. 46 Agric labourer Swindon Sarah Carter Wife Mar. 46 Domestic business Newent John Carter Son unmar 16 Agric labourer Newent Sarah Carter Dau unmar 15 Domestic business Newent Lewis Carter Son unmar 10 Domestic business Newent 12. Highleadon
James Colwell Hd. Mar. 57 Agric labourer Newent Sarah Colwell Wife Mar. 58 Farm labourer Newent Comfort Colwell Dau unmar 20 Farm labourer Newent Edward Colwell Son unmar 19 Agric labourer Newent 13. Highleadon
William Dakey Hd. Unmar 47 School Master Rudford Susan Tyrrell Serv unmar 25 House-keeper Taynton 14. Highleadon
William Hooper Hd. Widwer 66 Farmer of 60 acres Highleadon Mary Hooper Dau unmar 30 Domestic business Highleadon Sarah Elizbth Hooper Dau unmar 25 Domestic bus Highleadon Anna Maria Mills Visitor unmar 21 Dursley William Taylor Serv unmar 17 Farm labourer Twyning
63 15. Highleadon
William Drinkwater Hd. Mar. 34 Agric labourer Saunton Rebecca Drinkwater Wife Mar. 33 Farm labourer Randwick Jane Drinkwater Dau unmar 11 At school Corse Lwn Thomas Drinkwater Son unmar 9 At school Hartpury Ann Drinkwater Dau unmar 7 At school Hartpury George Drinkwater Son unmar 3 Hartpury 16. Highleadon
William Smith Hd. Mar. 60 Farm labourer Long Hope Mary Smith Wife Mar. 53 Domestic bus. Highleadon Thomas Smith Son unmar 25 Agric labourer Highleadon Edward Smith Son unmar 19 Agric labourer Highleadon James Smith Son unmar 17 Agric labourer Highleadon 17. Highleadon
Mary Hooper Hd. 64 Grocer Highleadon AEHooper Niece 29 Highleadon Fanny Jones Niece 8 Scholar Gloucester 18. Highleadon
William Matthews Hd. Mar. 36 Farmer Gloucester Sarah Matthews Wife Marr 36 Domestic bus Westbury William Matthews Son unmar 9 Newent John Matthews Son unmar 7 Newent Thomas Matthews Son unmar 6 Newent Henry Matthews Son unmar 4 Highleadon Eliza Matthews Dau unmar 2 Highleadon William Beard Serv unmar 50 Agric labourer Standish 19. Highleadon
John Harvey Hd. Mar. 58 Farmer of 100 acres Avening Susanna Harvey Wife Mar. 57 Domestic business Rudford Sarah Harvey Dau unmar 24 Rudford George Harvey Son unmar 19 Highleadon Edward Harvey Son unmar 17 Highleadon Walter Harvey Son unmar 15 Highleadon Alfred Harvey Son unmar 12 Highleadon Davinia Harvey Dau unmar 11 Highleadon Mary Harvey Dau unmar 9 Highleadon Elizabeth Harvey Dau unmar 7 Highleadon Morris Harvey Son unmar 5 Highleadon
64 20. Highleadon
Harriet Davis Hd . unmar 33 Dressmaker Hereford 21. Highleadon
John Powell Hd . Mar. 41 Agric labourer Cam Mary Powell Wife Mar. 31 Painswick Emily Powell Dau unmar 4 Painswick Henry Powell Son unmar 1 Rudford 22. Highleadon
James Coldrick Hd. Mar. 83 Agri lab'rer (Pauper) Dymock Sarah Coldrick Wife Mar. 75 Hartpury 23. Highleadon
Nathaniel Syms Hd. 66 Farmer of 24 acres Gloucester James Bolton Serv unmar 37 Agric labourer ? Mary Cooper Serv unmar 16 House-servant Eldersfield
Hamlet recorded (Ref: MF 314) 1851 Census. Transcribed from microfilm by AS 3 March 2004.
Over Bridge
This is a brief note to illustrate and conclude comments made in the previous Volume 2 'Highleadon Passage', Chapter 4, page 23. That article referred to the directives and association that Sir Berkeley Guise had with Thomas Telford in the construction of the major local highways. He chaired the committee appointed to examine the state of the previous bridge and was influential in adopting Telford's 'stone' bridge design.
Telford's design for the bridge at Over, 1827.
Telford's design was based on Perronet's bridge over the Seine at Neuilly (1768). The body of the arch is an ellipse with a chord line of 150ft, and a 35ft rise; but the stones of the external arch are set to segments of the same chord with a rise of only 13ft, producing a chamfered arch which eases the passage of flood water.
The bridge was opened in 1831 and, in spite of the fact that the crown of the arch sank 10 inches on removal of the centring, it safely carried traffic for many years without any further perceptible settlement, other than that anticipated wear by increasing pressures of traffic.
65 The Canal and the Railway
t\lUCI I or -r I IIS BY-PASS ( IQ68) · MARKS Tit[ SITF Of THE CLOI IC[STER-HEREFORD RAILWAY (1885-1964), WHICI I IN TURN REPLACED THE. GLOI IC[STER.;.HEREFORD CANAL (17q6 - 188)) "'f.\R THIS \POT ;\I I THR[f SUCCESSIV[LY I 0 CC l d' 111) T II L S MM C RO I I ND
,r- --- - ·-· ..-. ·~-
G.S.I.A. Commemorative plaque at Newent.
The Hereford and Gloucester Canal, begun in 1793, was 34 miles long and had three tunnels. It was closed in 1881 when the Gloucester /Newent Railway was laid on part of its bed. The tunnel in Gloucestershire at Oxenhall is blocked. However, some remains of the locks and lock house survive nearby.
At Newent, the bypass road uses the track-bed of the railway which had itself been laid over the canal bed. The G.S.I.A. plaque is near the west end of the bypass.
Remnants of the canal formation can clearly be seen at Rudford and Highleadon.
Highleadon Green
The Hamlet, its community and the Green are inextricably interconnected. For as long as a manor or estate has existed at Highleadon (Hyneledene) the Green (or 'waste') pasture has been its central focus.
As visitors approach the settlement, the scene comprising the village is dominated by the 'Green'. In days gone-by they would have been met by freely grazing cattle, sheep and poultry.
While things must inevitably change with increasing developments and the use of motor traffic, it need not be so that the rural scene cannot be restored to a considerable extent.
The neglected state of the Green today can be cleared of its excess thorns and brambles and managed to provide an area that as in the past provides a focus for the community. It may once again give sanctuary to both wildlife and the people who wish to be able to walk in the quiet peaceful countryside away from the speeding traffic and noise of the twenty-first century.
66 The contents of these notes have been variously extracted from information at the Public Records Office, Gloucestershire County Council, Sites and Monuments Record.
Select Bibliography
Awdry W (1973) Industrial Archaeologtj in Gloucestershire Gloucestershire Society for Industrial Archaeology
D.0.E. (1985) List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest: District of Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire Department of Environment
Government Census 1851 Gloucestershire Records Office
Highleadon Land Taxes Gloucestershire Records Office
Tithe Apportionment Gloucestershire Records Office
Alan Shelley BA DLA FSTD FRSA, Wycken End Cheltenham, April 2004
67 Tithe Map of Highleadon (Apportionment survey by Arthur Causton)
Showing property holdings in 1837
Property of Ann Wicks Farmed by Ellis Taylor Fam ~ ' ' f •i '\~ ~ ~ . ~~~• r'-=I" '.?"'.,- ,.:"~ ~ , _ ... ---, '--- I ·--- ...... ·.._ --- Property of W.P.Price and Jonathan Hart later purchased and Farmed by Thos Hooper 1--- -
Land of John Matthews Farmed by John Harvey
Property of Betty Clarke Occupied by Nathaniel Simms I I
Freehold property and Freehold property of and Farmed by Edward Knight C'·:~I Farmed by William Mathews
Property of Sarah Rogers Trustees for Eldersfield Poor farmed by Edward Knight J ~--=-.~ Farmed by William Hooper