BOLNHURST
Bulehestre, Bolehestre (xi cent.).
Bolnhurst is a small parish some 7 miles north of
Bedford on the main road to Kimbolton. Its area is
2,333 acres, of which about 1,379 acres are arable
land, 1,008¼ permanent grass and 32 woods and
plantations. (fn. 1) The soil is heavy clay and the subsoil
clay; the chief crops are wheat, barley and oats.
The village stretches along either side of the road
for upwards of a mile, and consists mainly of thatched
cottages with a few slated and modern buildings.
There are several farms in the parish; the Manor
Farm, probably marking the site of the ancient manor-house, and Maverns Farm, an old building in the
south-east of the parish, both having traces of moats. (fn. 2)
Greensbury Farm (anciently called Grymsbury) has
also at one time been moated, and still possesses in
an adjoining field a square half-timbered and tiled
pigeon-house.
Bolnhurst Church from the South
The parish church of St. Dunstan occupies an
isolated position on high ground some distance from
the village. The rectory, half a mile distant, stands
in large grounds in which traces exist of a moat and
fish-pond. (fn. 3) In Wood End, an outlying part of the
parish, is a farm with a few house. The population
is mainly agricultural, and at the time of the last
census was steadily diminishing; a little lace-making
is done by the women.
This parish was inclosed in 1778. (fn. 4) Writing with
reference to the inclosures of North Bedfordshire,
Arthur Young says of Bolnhurst it is 'a wet heavy
bad country very disadvantageously circumstanced
respecting roads, for every way around they are
almost impassable … after inclosing fell into bad
hands, they laid much of it down to grass in as bad
order as possible, and it has continued so ever since
in as rough and ill conditioned and unprofitable a
state as can be well conceived. . . . It should seem
that corn has there been lessened without making
amends for the loss by ample products of new grass.' (fn. 5)
Place-names that have been found in this parish are:
Le Fryt Field (xiii cent.), Glyntells Coppies, Highams
Pasture, Sallowes Grove (xvii cent.) and Obness.
MANORS
The Abbot of Thorney's Manor of
BOLNHURST first finds mention in
the Survey of 1086. It was then assessed
at 2 hides and a virgate valued at 60s. (fn. 6) This manor
had been acquired before 1066 from its former
owner, a woman named Ælfleda, and continued to
be held by the Abbot and monastery of Thorney
in Cambridgeshire in pure and perpetual alms until
the Dissolution. (fn. 7) Towards the end of the 13th
century the abbot's rents in Bolnhurst together
with the profits from the dovecote, courts and mill
amounted to £15 0s. 6½d. (fn. 8) In 1344 the abbot
was plundered of goods at Bolnhurst to the value
of £10. Commissioners were appointed to inquire
into the matter and to bring the delinquents to
justice. (fn. 9) At the Dissolution the yearly value of the
farm of the manor with rents and appurtenances
was £25 2s. 9½d. (fn. 10) In 1541 Bolnhurst Manor was
granted by the king to Sir John St. John, (fn. 11) who two
years later obtained licence to settle the property on
his son and heir Oliver and his wife. (fn. 12) Oliver
St. John was created Baron St. John of Bletsoe in
1558–9, (fn. 13) and died seised of the manor in 1582. (fn. 14)
His son John dying in 1597 without male heirs (fn. 15) the
manor passed to a brother Oliver, who in turn left it
to his son Oliver, (fn. 16) afterwards Earl of Bolingbroke. (fn. 17)
The latter alienated the manor in 1640 to Sir
William Fleetwood, (fn. 18) elder brother of the famous
Parliamentarian general Charles Fleetwood. In 1667
Sir William in conjunction with Charles made a
temporary settlement of the manor on Matthew
Smith, Thomas Luthmere and Gabriel Young for
£900. (fn. 19) Sir William Fleetwood, unlike his younger
brother, took the side of the king in the Civil War.
He died in 1674 (fn. 20) and was succeeded by Charles,
who was still holding in 1694. (fn. 21) His eldest son
Smith Fleetwood succeeded him, and was party to a
suit concerning the advowson of Bolnhurst Church in
1710. (fn. 22) The exact date of the transfer of this manor
from the Fleetwoods is uncertain, but the male line of
this branch of the family had died out by the second
half of the 18th century. (fn. 23) A daughter of Charles
Fleetwood married Joseph Churchill, (fn. 24) and it was to
the Churchill family that the manor of Bolnhurst
passed; for, though no document recording the tenure
of the manor by them has been discovered, Fleetwood
Churchill presented to the church of Bolnhurst in
1749, 1767, 1769 and 1772, (fn. 25) and the advowson of
Bolnhurst Church always followed the descent of this
manor. In 1780 the manor was sold by the
Churchills to John Caldcot, Jacob Turner and
Samuel Wyatt. (fn. 26) They were still holding at the
beginning of the 19th century, (fn. 27) but by 1811 Sir
James Duberly, the heirs of Mr. Campion, surgeon, of
Bedford, and the Rev. Robert Selby Hele had all
purchased shares of the manor. (fn. 28) Mr. Selby Hele
sold his portion to a Mr. Chalmers, who shortly
afterwards sold it to two speculators named Charles
and Johnson. (fn. 29) No further mention of this manor
has been found.
St. John, Lord St. John of Bletsoe. Argent a chief gules with two molets or therein.
Fleetwood. Party wavy azure and or with six martlets countercoloured.
Rights of free warren were parcel of Bolnhurst
Manor in the 17th century. (fn. 30) Mention of a free
fishery occurs in 1685 (fn. 31) and in 1708. (fn. 32) In 1349
Simon de Islep alienated in mortmain to the Abbot
and convent of Thorney land in Bolnhurst and
elsewhere to 'increase the sustenance' of the chaplain
who celebrated divine service daily in the conventual
church of Thorney. (fn. 33)
The origin of the manor of GRYMSBURY may
be sought in the 3 virgates of land held in Bolnhurst
in 1086 by the Bishop of Coutances, which had been
held in the time of the Confessor by Gudmunt. These
3 virgates were valued at 15s. (fn. 34) After the death of
the bishop his property reverted to the Crown, and
the land in Bolnhurst later became parcel of the
barony of Bedford.
The Lenveise family are found as intermediary
lords in the 12th and 13th centuries; in 1190
Jordan Lenveise owed 13 marks for lands in Bolnhurst and elsewhere, (fn. 35) William Lenveise's name
occurs between 1275 and 1303, (fn. 36) but no later mention has been found of these intermediary lords. The
overlordship went with that portion of the Bedford
barony which passed to the Latimers and Nevills,
and is last found mentioned in 1500. (fn. 37)
At the time of the Testa de Nevill Robert de
Shelbethorp held it as one thirty-sixth of a knight's
fee. (fn. 38) By 1275–6 it had passed to the Grym
family, (fn. 39) whose tenure of the property gave the
manor its distinctive name. In this year James
Grym acknowledged his obligation to pay homage,
scutage and relief to William Lenveise for the
3 virgates in Bolnhurst. (fn. 40) By 1302 he had been
succeeded by Margery Grym, (fn. 41) probably his widow.
In 1316 Alice Grym was holding, (fn. 42) whilst forty
years later Robert Grym was seised of the property, which was still held as one thirty-sixth of a
knight's fee. (fn. 43) The last mention of this family occurs
in 1377, when Sir John Ragon died seised of a few
acres in Bolnhurst which he held of 'the heirs
of Grymsbury.' (fn. 44) After this date no documentary
evidence concerning this property has been found, until
Edmund Earl of Wiltshire died seised of it (here for
the first time called a manor) in 1499. (fn. 45) His
trustees, Robert Wyttelbury, William Norbury and
Thomas Montague assigned the manor with other
property to the chaplain of the late earl's perpetual
chantry at Pleshey in Essex, (fn. 46) which was in connexion with the college of Pleshey. (fn. 47) The patronage
of the college of Pleshey on the forfeiture of the estates
of Edward Duke of Buckingham in 1521 came to the
Crown. (fn. 48) In 1549 Edward VI granted the 'capital
messuage called Grymsbury' to Edmund Clarke,
Nicholas Vaux and Thomas Grendon. (fn. 49) The last
died seised of the property in 1559. (fn. 50) By his will
dated 6 November 1549 he left it to his sons Walter,
Roger and Robert in tail-male successively. (fn. 51) In
1592 Grymsbury formed part of the property left by
Thomas Julyan alias Taylor, yeoman, to his second son
Thomas. (fn. 52) All manorial rights would appear by this
time to have lapsed, and the term manor is no longer
applied to the property. Thomas Taylor and his son
Richard are both described as of Grymsbury in the
visitation of 1634, (fn. 53) but the latter is also described
as 'of Clapham', with which parish the further history
of the family is more closely associated. Grymsbury
passed into the hands of the Ashburnham family by
the marriage of Thomas Taylor's daughter and heiress
Elizabeth to William second Lord Ashburnham. (fn. 54)
The property was sold in the early half of the 19th
century by the then Lord Ashburnham to Robert
Elliot of Goldington. (fn. 55) The latter's property was
inherited by his daughter Florence, who married Sir
Richard Power of Kilfane. (fn. 56) The property is still in
the possession of Lady Power. (fn. 57)
The manor of MAVORN or GLINTELLS
(fn. 58)
originated in land in Bolnhurst that early belonged
to the priory of Canons Ashby. The monks' property
in Bolnhurst and Thurleigh was in 1291 worth
£2 2s. 6d., (fn. 59) whilst at the Dissolution their rents in
Bolnhurst were estimated at £2 18s. 8d. (fn. 60) Their
tenant at this later date was John Franklin, whose
house, together with woods called Shortewood and
Glintells, were in 1545 granted to George Acworth
and Edward Butler, (fn. 61) whilst four years later a further
grant of the priory's lands in Bolnhurst and Thurleigh
to Edmund Clarke and others included 'a messuage
called Maverns in the tenure of John Franklin.' (fn. 62)
Despite these grants the property remained in the
hands of the Franklin family, (fn. 63) whose representative
John Liell Franklin holds at the present day. (fn. 64)
In the Domesday Survey the Bishop of Bayeux is
recorded as holding 2 half-hides in Bolnhurst. Tovi
the priest held a half-hide of him, (fn. 65) while two
sokemen held the other. (fn. 66) It is possible, as the
bishop held land in Wilden, (fn. 67) that it was a portion
of this property which afterwards became the half
knight's fee in Bolnhurst and Wilden, held first by
Robert de St. Remigius (fn. 68) and then by the Tirel
family, (fn. 69) dealt with under Wilden (q.v.). Another
Domesday tenant was the Countess Judith, who held
half a hide in Bolnhurst in 1086 (fn. 70) ; but no later
trace has been found of the honour of Huntingdon
in this parish.
CHURCH
The church of ST. DUNSTAN consists of a chancel 23 ft. 8 in. by 18 ft. 2 in.,
a nave 50 ft. 8 in. by 21 ft. 9 in. and a
west tower 13 ft. 4 in. by 13 ft. 2 in.
The chancel dates in part from the first half of the
13th century, while the nave shows no detail older
than the 15th; its walls are, however, on the lines of
earlier work, and the 15th-century west tower is
built against them with a straight joint.
The east window of the chancel is modern, of three
trefoiled lights with net tracery. The north-east
and south-east windows are probably 16th-century
work, with plain, uncusped pairs of lights under a
square head. There is a small modern vestry on the
north, and on the south is a small chamfered priest's
door with a pointed head, and a 15th-century low-side
window, with a modern head, and no marks of a
shutter. Under the south-east window is a plain
stone seat, serving as sedilia, and to the east of it
a piscina with two trefoiled arches and a central
shaft of Purbeck marble with a drain in the east
arch only, and a recess in the east jamb for the
cruets. In the south-east angle of the chancel is
a plain image bracket, and under the north-east
window a rectangular recess 14 in. high, 8 in. wide
and 5 in. deep, which is perhaps the loculus for the
Easter sepulchre.
The chancel arch is pointed and is of two chamfered orders resting upon plain stone corbels, and
belongs to the second quarter of the 14th century.
At the north-east of the nave is a small 15th-century two-light window, for lighting the north altar
formerly here; in a quatrefoil in its head is the figure
of Our Lady in 15th-century white and gold glass.
About midway in the north wall of the nave is a
blocked doorway with a continuously moulded head
and jambs, of two double ogees separated by a hollow,
and a label which is continued along the wall as a
string; and at equal distances on either side is a 15th-century window of three cinquefoiled lights with
tracery, and an embattled transom at half height;
that on the east of the door is old except the
mullions, but the other is much repaired. The
fenestration of the south wall is like that of the
north, but the south-east window has modern net
tracery of 14th-century style, while of the two other
windows that to the east of the south doorway has
modern tracery, and that to the west is a poor
uncusped imitation of it.
Between the two windows at the south-east is a
projecting pier of masonry, apparently contemporary,
and moulded on its eastern angle; it may have formed
part of a rood stair; on it stands an iron funeral
helm with the Franklin crest, of very late date.
There is a south porch of the 15th century, with
single cinquefoiled lights on the east and west; the
outer doorway has a two-centred head of two moulded
orders, and the inner doorway is more elaborate,
with continuously moulded jambs and arch, and an
embattled label with flanking pinnacled buttresses;
the wooden door is old and has a very good drop
handle and circular scutcheon. The roof is modern,
but there is an old gable cross.
The nave roof dates from the 15th century and
was repaired in 1666, according to a date on it; it is
divided into four bays by cambered tie-beams and lowpitched trusses; but the chancel roof is modern, only
the corbels of an older roof remaining on the north side.
The tower arch is in three chamfered orders
towards the nave and four towards thetower, the
inner springing from a half-round shaft with 15th-century
moulded capitals and bases.
The tower itself is of the
15th century and is built in
four stages with a south-west
stair and western diagonal buttresses; at the east angles are
similar buttresses which die into
the nave walls. On the north
side in the third stage is a single
trefoiled light in two hollow-chamfered orders separated by
a casement, and having an external label. The top stage has
pairs of windows of two cinquefoiled lights with quatrefoils in
the heads.
The west doorway has continuous arch mouldings, and
over it is a restored window of
three cinquefoiled lights with
15th-century tracery. The tower
and nave walls are finished with
embattled parapets.
There is a plain octagonal font at the west end of
the nave, and on the north wall over the doorway
are the remains of a large painting of St. Christopher,
reaching up to the roof, a strut of which breaks into
it. There is a fine 15th-century chancel screen with
traceried openings below the springing of the now
destroyed cove; it is irregularly spaced, owing to the
masonry projection at its south end, so that there are
only two bays to the south of the central doorway is
and three to the north; the head of the doorway is
carved with a nebuly band, and the panels below the
middle rail are solid, with traceried heads. Some
modern stalls are set against the east side of this
screen. In the chancel is a 17th-century chest, and
some of the nave pewing belongs to the 15th century.
There are also a 17th-century alms-box on baluster
shaft and a 17th-century pulpit.
There are three Purbeck marble slabs on the nave
floor with indents of brasses, one showing a six-pointed star with inscription below, a second with a
single figure and inscription plate, and the third with a
tall engrailed cross and two
shields above it. In the southeast corner of the nave is a fine
marble monument to Sir John
Franklin, 1707 with his arms.
In the window near by are the
same arms, dated 1709, impaling Clarke: Argent on a bend
between three roundels gules
three swans argent. On the
opposite side of the window,
in the internal buttress, is a
somewhat similar monument
to Dame Dorothy Franklin,
1727.
Franklin. Argent a bend engrailed between two lions heads razed gules with a dolphin between two martlets or on the bend.
There are four bells, of
which the treble is modern,
the second and third by John Dier, 1587; the tenor
is inscribed 'Praise the Lord, 1618.'
Bolnhurst Church: Chancel, Arch and Screen.
The plate consists of a Victorian flagon, a communion cup and cover paten of 1570 and a small
pewter plate.
The registers previous to 1813 contain in one
book all entries from 1685 to 1807, and there is
also a marriage register for 1789–90.
The churchwardens' accounts for 1670 to 1766
and 1766 to 1877 are preserved.
In the churchyard to the south of the church is
the base of a cross.
ADVOWSON
The advowson of the church at
Bolnhurst early belonged to the
Abbot and monastery of Thorney, (fn. 71)
being confirmed to them by Pope Alexander III in
1162. (fn. 72) At the time of the Dissolution the advowson
was granted to Sir John St. John, (fn. 73) and until the end
of the 18th century followed the same descent as the
Abbot of Thorney's manor (q.v.). By the will of
Fleetwood Churchill, who died in 1780, (fn. 74) the
advowson was sold for the benefit of his heir, Eleanor
Churchill. (fn. 75) It was bought by the Rev. Richard
Haighton, who presented in 1783, (fn. 76) and sold it in
1786 for £1,100 to Wharton Partridge, a Lincolnshire clergyman. (fn. 77) The latter must have parted with
it almost immediately, as the same year the patronage
of Bolnhurst Church was in the hands of the Rev.
John de Viel. (fn. 78) From Mr. De Viel the advowson
was bought by a clergyman named Dolling, (fn. 79) who
presented in 1809. (fn. 80) By 1840 it had come into the
hands of the rector, the Rev. H. W. Gery, (fn. 81) from
whom it passed about 1870 to the Rev. F. M. Harvey. (fn. 82)
The latter's son, Mr. William Marsh Harvey, is the
present patron.
In 1291 the church of Bolnhurst was valued at
£4 13s. 4d. (fn. 83) In 1402 it was worth £15. (fn. 84) At the
Dissolution the rectory was valued at £9 10s. 6d. (fn. 85)
The commission of 1547 reported that a half acre
of land in New Grovesfeld, in the tenure of the
churchwardens, with 1 acre of pasture and another
of land, in all valued at 2s. yearly, had been given for
the sustentation of a rood light, (fn. 86) whilst a tenement
worth 8d. per annum had been given for the maintenance of a lamp in the church. (fn. 87)
CHARITIES
The school originally founded by
will of the Rev. Thomas Baker, a
former rector, 1749, and by deed of
Thomas Baker, 1791, (fn. 88) is endowed with 9 acres in
Keysoe, allotted on the inclosure in that parish, of the
annual value of £16 or thereabouts. The charity
is regulated by scheme of the Charity Commissioners
of 21 March 1879.
The Poor's Land consists of 1 a. 3 r. 25 p., let at
£2 a year, applied in coals to the poor at Christmas.