BATTLESDEN
Badelesdone (xi cent.); Botelston, Bitlesden (xiv
cent.).
The parish of Battlesden, about 3½ miles from
Woburn, covers an area of 1,148½ acres, of which
nearly one-third is arable land and two-thirds permanent grass, there being only about 8 acres of
woods and plantations (fn. 1) ; one of these plantations
goes by the name of the Coops.
The soil is clay and gravel, the subsoil gravel.
The principal crops are wheat, barley, oats, beans and
peas. The parish is watered by a small stream,
forming its south-western boundary. Close to its
banks is Watergate Farm, access to which from
Tebworth hamlet, in Chalgrave, is obtained by a
ford. The land slopes from the north-east, where it
is over 400 ft., to the valley worn by this brook, the
lowest point being 346 ft. above the ordnance datum.
The village now consists of four cottages, erected
by the Duke of Bedford in 1887 and 1888 respectively, Battlesden Farm and the Hill Farm—both
modern houses. The tree beneath which were placed
the parish stocks is still pointed out. The church
and rectory are situated within Battlesden Park, the
western boundary of which is formed by Watling
Street. The park, which now covers only 28 acres,
including a lake of about 13 acres, dates back as far
as 1334, when Thomas Fermbaud was licensed to
impark 200 acres of land and wood in Battlesden
and Potsgrove. (fn. 2) It is now leased to a farmer. Sir
Joseph Paxton, who was born at Milton Bryant in
1801, laid out the gardens for Sir Gregory PageTurner, then lord of Battlesden Manor, and constructed the lake in the park in 1821. (fn. 3) This is probably one of the two fish-ponds marked on the
ordnance map. The house which stood in the park
on the site of an earlier house was built about the
middle of the 19th century, in the French Gothic
style of the period. It was pulled down shortly
after 1885, when the Duke of Bedford purchased the
manor. The stables and a portion of the servants'
quarters only were left standing, and these are occasionally used as a shooting box.
MANORS
In 1086 Battlesden was assessed at
11 hides, of which Walter Giffard held
9 hides as BATTLESDEN MANOR,
which had belonged to seven sokemen in the time of
Edward the Confessor. (fn. 4)
Richard Talbot held of Walter Giffard in chief at
Domesday, (fn. 5) and his family is afterwards found holding
overlordship in this parish. In 1179 a Hugh Talbot
held Battlesden for one knight's fee. (fn. 6) According to
the Hundred Rolls, Warren son of Gerard preceded
William Talbot, (fn. 7) who must have been identical
with the William Talbot holding a fee earlier in
the 13th century. (fn. 8) After his death it passed to the
honour of Gloucester, the last mention of this overlordship occurring in 1560, when the manor of
Battlesden was held of the queen as of her honour
of Clare. (fn. 9)
The immediate lords of the manor are first mentioned in 1179, when Ralph Hacet held one fee in
Battlesden. (fn. 10) In the middle of the 13th century
one fee was held by Paul Pever, (fn. 11) who was succeeded
by the Passelewes, of whom the last mention is found
in 1297, and from whom it passed to Nicholas
Fermbaud. (fn. 12) As early as 1275–6 Nicholas held
3¼ virgates of Ralph Passelewe's heirs and 4 virgates
for life, and Thomas de Brikulle also held 9 virgates
of the heirs of Ralph Passelewe, (fn. 13) which he appears
to have transferred to Nicholas Fermbaud in 1287. (fn. 14)
Thus, when Ralph Passelewe granted him the manor
in 1297, Nicholas Fermbaud already owned about
4 hides in this parish. (fn. 15)
Thomas son of Nicholas Fermbaud held one-fourth
of a knight's fee in Battlesden in 1346, (fn. 16) and
Thomas Fermbaud, his son, (fn. 17) died seised of the manor
in 1389. It was then worth £10 13s. 4d., and
passed to his son Thomas, at this time a minor
upwards of seven years of age. (fn. 18) Previous to his
death Thomas Fermbaud, senior, had charged the
manor with a yearly rent of £10 payable for twenty
years to Thomas Hele and other trustees. (fn. 19) An
inquiry was made as to the exact date of the birth
of Thomas Fermbaud, junior, in 1409, when he was
declared to have been born in 1380, and was consequently over age at the time of the inquisition. (fn. 20)
In 1409 Thomas Hele and Alice daughter of
Margery St. John sued Thomas Fermbaud for an
unjust disseisin in Battlesden. (fn. 21) As stated above,
Thomas Hele was one of the trustees of the yearly
rents levied in 1389 for twenty years on the manor,
which rents fell in at this date.
Thomas Fermbaud still held the fee which represents this manor in 1428, (fn. 22) and one of the same
name held it in 1460. (fn. 23) In 1496 Sir Thomas
Oxenbridge, in right of Frideswide his wife and
Margery Durham, widow, conveyed Battlesden Manor
by fine to Gregory Skipwith and other trustees. (fn. 24)
This was preparatory to an alienation to Sir Reginald
Bray, which took place in the same year. (fn. 25) From
him the manor passed to his nephew Edmund,
who was created a baron in 1529 (fn. 26) and died in
1539. (fn. 27) His son John Lord Bray granted Battlesden
to William Saunders in 1556, (fn. 28) and the same year
Edmund Bray's widow, who had taken for her second
husband Urian Brereton, alienated her right in the
manor to the same William Saunders. (fn. 29)
William died in 1559, (fn. 30) and his son Thomas, who
only survived him a year, was succeeded by his sister
Ellen, then aged ten years. (fn. 31) She carried the manor
in marriage to her husband, William Duncombe, (fn. 32)
who died in 1603, (fn. 33) and his son, Sir Edward, held
the manor at his death in 1638. (fn. 34) Sir Edward's
second son William, according to the inquisition,
appears to have succeeded him, (fn. 35) though in 1646
the manor seems to have been jointly held by the
two brothers William and John Duncombe. (fn. 36)
Saunders. Party cheveronwise argent and sable three elephants' heads razed and counter-coloured.
Duncombe. Party cheveronwise and engrailed gules and argent three talbots' heads razed and countercoloured.
In 1706 Edward Duncombe suffered a recovery
of the manor, (fn. 37) and a deed
bearing the same date
exists by which William
Duncombe, probably in association with him, sold Battlesden Manor to Allen
Bathurst. (fn. 38) This Allen was
created Lord Bathurst in
1711. (fn. 39) In 1724 he sold
the estate to Sir Gregory
Page, bart., a director of the
East India Company, (fn. 40) greatuncle of Sir Gregory PageTurner, bart., who held the
manor in 1807. (fn. 41) The ninth
Duke of Bedford bought it
from the trustees of Sir
Gregory Page-Turner in
1885, (fn. 42) and his son, the eleventh duke, is now lord
of the manor.
Page-Turner of Ambroseden, baronet. Argent a mill-stone turner sable for Turner, quartered with Azure a fesse indented between three martlets or for Page.
Azelina wife of Ralph Tallebosc held 1½ hides of
the king in Battlesden at Domesday, which in the time
of the Confessor were in the possession of two sokemen,
Arschil and Alwin. (fn. 43) This land, of which no later
trace is found in the parish, possibly became absorbed
in the 10 hides Azelina held in 1087 in Hockcliffe, (fn. 44)
adjoining Battlesden.
Another Domesday holder was Roherd, who held
of William the Chamberlain half a hide which
Morcar the priest formerly owned. (fn. 45) This William
was probably an ancestor of William the Chamberlain,
who held half a hide here of the Abbot of St. Albans
in 1275–6. (fn. 46)
The Prior of Dunstable held in 1291 lands, rents and
meadows in Battlesden and Chalgrave worth £3 5s. (fn. 47)
CHURCH
The church of ST. PETER AND
ALL SAINTS is a small aisleless building set on the south slope of a hill, its
earliest part dating apparently from the last quarter
of the 13th century. There is a two-light window
of this date in the south wall of the nave near the
west end, and opposite to it in the north wall a single
lancet, their late date being shown by the existence of
original glass grooves. The nave is 41 ft. by 21 ft.,
and in its south-west corner a tower has been built in
the 15th century, evidently on insufficient foundations,
as it has gone over south-westwards, and is much
buttressed and patched in consequence. The chancel
is probably of early 14th-century date, though nothing
but the chancel arch now remains to show detail of
that time; its east window is modern, and its two
south windows much restored 16th-century two-light
openings. Between them is a plain doorway, and
there is a square recess with no sign of a drain below
the south-east window. On either side of the east
window are 15th-century image brackets carried by
angels, whose very modern heads do not agree well
with their mediaeval bodies, and in the north wall is
a square plastered recess. The chancel arch has good
moulded capitals and stops to its chamfered arch, but
of the moulded base only a small piece remains.
The nave had a rood-stair at the south-east, of which
only the lower doorway remains, and next to it a wide
two-light 15th-century window. In the north wall is
a 17th-century window of three lights with a transom,
and west of it a two-light 15th-century window, and
there is a squint to the chancel in the north jamb of
the chancel arch. The north doorway of the nave is
plain 14th-century work under a small and late porch,
and west of it is the lancet already mentioned. There
is no trace of a south door to the nave, but high in
the wall about midway on this side is a plain and late
two-light window, intended to serve a gallery east of
the tower, now removed. The low-pitched nave
roof has late 15th-century moulded tie-beams, purlins,
&c., and the chancel roof is modern.
The tower has simple chamfered arches to the nave
on the east and north, and in its west wall is a doorway
now blocked by a red brick buttress, but originally
opening to a stair turret. The belfry windows are
plain two-light openings, and the exterior of the church
is very much overgrown with ivy. The font has a
rough circular bowl with four pieces of leaf carving,
apparently of late 12th-century date, and stands in
the eastern tower arch. On the north of the chancel
arch is a wall monument to Lady Elizabeth Duncombe
undated, on the south another to William Duncombe,
1603, set up about 1640, and on the north wall of
the nave a third to Sir John Duncombe, 1687.
There are three bells, the treble and the tenor
blank and the second of 1813.
The plate consists of two communion cups of 1676,
two standing patens of 1674, and a large paten given
in 1696 by Elizabeth daughter of Nathaniel Reynes,
vicar of the parish and of Friern Barnet.
The earliest register book contains all entries from
1694 to 1807, but the marriages only till 1753; the
second book is of marriages 1754 to 1799, and the
third has marriages 1799 to 1812 and baptisms and
burials 1807 to 1812.
ADVOWSON
The church of Battlesden was in
the possession of Ralph Passelewe in
1280, (fn. 48) and its descent subsequently
followed that of the manor, the Duke of Bedford
presenting at the present day. (fn. 49) In 1291 it was
valued at £5 6s. 8d., (fn. 50) and at the Dissolution at
£12 9s. 6d. (fn. 51)
CHARITIES
This parish is entitled to share in
the charity of William Duncombe,
founded by will dated 26 March 1603
(see under Dunstable). Under a scheme of the Charity
Commissioners of 23 November 1897 the annual sum
of £10 is received by the trustees and applied in the
distribution of coal among ten householders.