SUNDON
Sonedone (xi cent.); Sonyngdon (xiv cent.); Sondon
(xv–xvii cent.).
Sundon is a parish with an area of 2,150 acres, of
which 1,456½ acres are arable land, 517¾ acres permanent grass, and 56 acres woods and plantations. (fn. 1)
The parish is situated on high land, sloping from
north to south; the highest point reached is 533 ft.,
the lowest 438 ft. above the ordnance datum. It is
wooded in the north-east; in the north are old chalk
pits, and in the west cement and lime works. The
village, consisting of Sundon and the hamlet of Upper
Sundon, is in the centre of the parish. Main roads
from Bedford and Luton run through the parish from
north to south, and from east to south-west.
The church of St. Mary is at some distance to the
west of the vicarage, and between them lies a farm
with a picturesque red-brick pigeon-house, rectangular
in plan, and a large pond round which the road makes
a slight curve, south of the village.
The Midland Railway passes through Sundon, the
nearest station being Limbury, 2¼ miles to the south.
The following place-names have been found in this
parish:— Borewellehull, Saleworthemed, Schepecocwyk, in the fourteenth century; (fn. 2) Westbyes in the
sixteenth; (fn. 3) Colliers Hill, the Possessioning Acre,
Butter Path, Cane Hill Furlong, Deadman's Coome,
Haven Coome, Badger's Coome, Joan's Furlong,
Catts Knapp, Bullington, in the eighteenth; (fn. 4) and
Fern Hill Wood, Holt Wood, Leyhill Lince in the
twentieth century. (fn. 5)
Manors
There is only one entry in the Domesday Survey concerning Sundon. William
d'Eu held SUNDON MANOR, which
was assessed at 10 hides, and was held of the king in
chief. Until its alienation to the Badlesmeres it was
thus held, but afterwards owed certain nominal services
to the earls marshal, to whose fee it had formerly
belonged. In an inquisition taken in 1328, Bartholomew de Badlesmere was declared to hold it by service
of a pair of gilt spurs yearly. (fn. 6) Ten years later his son
Giles held of the same fee by service of a halfpenny, (fn. 7)
and it was thus held in 1367 and 1372 by John de
Tiptot and his son Robert respectively. (fn. 8) An inquisition, bearing date 1498, states that John Scrope of
Bolton held this manor of the abbot of St. Albans, but
no reason has been found to justify his claim, though
the abbot owned a manor in the neighbouring parish
of Luton. (fn. 9) The last reference found to the overlordship occurs in 1613, when Sundon manor was held
of the king in free common socage by fealty. (fn. 10)
From William d'Eu this manor passed with his
other Bedfordshire property (fn. 11) into the possession of
the Earl Marshal, and formed part of the marriage
portion of Isabel, daughter of William Marshal earl
of Pembroke, who on the death of her first husband
Gilbert de Clare in 1230, married Richard, brother
of Henry III, and king of Germany. The latter held
it in right of his wife for upwards of forty years, (fn. 12)
during which time the men of Sundon paid toll to
Dunstable Priory, but on his death in 1270 the manor
passed to Isabel's son by her first marriage, Richard de
Clare, earl of Gloucester, and from that time the prior
complained that, owing to his own weakness and the
strength of the earl, the men of Sundon withdrew
from paying toll. (fn. 13)
Richard de Clare died in 1262, and his son Gilbert
alienated Sundon manor to his cousin Bartholomew
de Badlesmere, who had married Margaret daughter
of Thomas Clare, a younger son of Richard de Clare. (fn. 14)
This alienation was accomplished without royal licence
before 1314, in which year Bartholomew obtained
pardon for the omission. (fn. 15) He was concerned in the
rebellion of Thomas, earl of Lancaster, in 1322, when
Sundon manor escheated to the crown, and was
granted by the king in the same year to his niece
Eleanor wife of Hugh le Despenser. (fn. 16) Bartholomew
de Badlesmere, however, obtained a general pardon
in 1327 with a restoration of his lands, (fn. 17) and Sundon
manor in consequence reverted to his possession, and
was held by him at his death in 1328. (fn. 18)
Giles de Badlesmere, who was under age, succeeded
his father, (fn. 19) but died in 1338, leaving three sisters as
co-heiresses, (fn. 20) one of whom, Margaret wife of John
Tiptot, acquired the manor of Sundon. (fn. 21)
John Tiptot held the manor in right of his wife till
1367, when he was succeeded by their son Robert, (fn. 22)
who at his death in 1372 left
three daughters, Margaret aged
six, Millicent four, and Elizabeth two years. (fn. 23) Richard le
Scrope of Bolton obtained the
custody of Sundon manor and
the wardship of these co-heiresses in 1373, (fn. 24) and in 1385
Margaret Tiptot married his
son Roger le Scrope. (fn. 25) The
manor thus acquired by the
Scropes remained in their
family for nearly 200 years,
the succession being maintained in an unbroken line
from father to son during that time. (fn. 26)
Scrope. Azure a bend or.
In 1565 Henry Lord Scrope alienated this manor to
Richard Tyrrell (fn. 27) in whose family it remained until
Edward Tyrrell, probably a son, transferred it to
Thomas Cheyne. (fn. 28) He held Sundon till his death in
1613, when he was followed
by a son Thomas. (fn. 29) The latter
died in 1632 leaving a son
Thomas as heir, (fn. 30) and Sundon manor remained in the
Cheyne family until 1716,
when Thomas Cheyne, a
grandson of the last-named
Thomas, sold it to William
Clayton, (fn. 31) who afterwards became Lord Sundon. He died
childless in 1752, and the property was inherited by his four
cousins, daughters of John
Clayton—Anne Humphrey (who afterwards married
as her second husband Tomkinson Cooper), Elizabeth
Cole, Francis Hale, and Margaret Clayton (subsequently married to James Smythe).
Cheyne. Checky or and azure a fesse gules fretty ermine.
The manor was conveyed for purposes of trusteeship by these four co-heiresses to William Bateson in
1753, and again in 1768 to James Dansie, preliminary to a sale which took place in the same year,
when Archibald Buchanan acquired the Sundon estates
for £26,000. (fn. 32) Archibald Buchanan, who died about
1772, left a sister Jane, wife of Sir John Riddell, as
heiress to the Sundon estates. Her son Sir John
Buchanan Riddell in 1803 sold Sundon to Mr. Cuthbert, from whom it was purchased in 1813 by the executors of the late Sir Gregory Osborn Page-Turner. (fn. 33)
Sir Edward Page-Turner, grandson of the above, by
his will dated 21 June, 1873, settled this estate upon
the eldest son of his eldest sister Fanny Maria Blaydes.
Mr. Blaydes, who assumed the name of Page-Turner
by royal licence, holds the manor at the present
day. (fn. 34)
Notley Priory, Buckinghamshire, which was founded by Walter Giffard, earl of Buckingham, about
1162, appears to have acquired land in Sundon, for
at the Dissolution their rents there were estimated at
40s. (fn. 35) This property known as NOTLEY GRANGE
was granted in 1547 to Henry Lee, (fn. 36) and by 1639
had passed to William, who in that year died seised
of a capital messuage or farm called Notley Grange,
in Sundon, held of Sir Thomas Cheyne (at that time
lord of Sundon manor) by fealty, suit of court, and
a yearly rent, (fn. 37) and in 1655 John Ordway conveyed
it by fine to John King. (fn. 38) Further reference has
been found to this grange in an abstract of deeds in
the possession of Mr. F. A Page-Turner. The farmhouse or manor, as it is there called, then comprised
one close of meadow of two acres, and two plots of land
of 140 acres in all. In 1688 John King enfeoffed his
grandson Abraham Saunders of this property, and the
same year Abraham, on the occasion of his marriage with
Jane Pigott, granted her an annuity from the revenues
of Notley Grange. Abraham Saunders sold the grange
in 1700 to Obadiah Lord, who, ten years later, again
sold it for £600 to George Urlin. In 1719 it was purchased from George Urlin by Thomas Pierson for
£800. In his will dated 1744 the latter left all his
messuages, tenements, and hereditaments in Upper
Sundon to Hugh Cook, and, he having died previously,
one Richard Ashwell became entitled to the premises. (fn. 39)
No further mention has been found of the estate.
In 1315 Bartholomew de Badlesmere received a
charter of free warren in the manor of Sundon, (fn. 40) to
which also belonged the right to hold a view of
frankpledge, a court leet, and a court baron. (fn. 41)
There is no early mention of a mill in Sundon, but
in 1712 the manor included a windmill amongst its
appurtenances. (fn. 42) Sundon was a market town in the
fourteenth century, for Bartholomew de Badlesmere
obtained a grant in 1315 of a market every Friday at
Sundon manor, and also a three-days' fair on the
feast of the Annunciation, (fn. 43) but beyond the grant no
further mention has been found of these privileges,
which appear to have fallen early into disuse.
Church
The church of OUR LADY is, with
the exception of its chancel, a very perfect and well-designed example of the
second quarter of the fourteenth century. It has a
nave with aisles of four bays with a western tower
standing on three open arches over the western bay,
a south transept equal in width to the first bay of the
nave, a modern south porch, and an octagonal stairturret at the south-west angle of the tower, and within
the west end of the south aisle. The chancel dates
from the beginning of the fifteenth century, and is
slightly wider than the nave, having probably been
built round a narrow chancel that was older than the
nave. An external weathering which runs along the
east face of the north aisle is continued to within a
short distance of the north respond of the chancel
arch, appearing inside the chancel. If this marks
the line of the wall of the older chancel, it would
show that the nave was set out without regard to its
width, and in the expectation that it would eventually
be rebuilt on a larger scale. Its north and south
walls must have been cut away to allow the responds
of the arch to complete themselves, and so remained till
their destruction to make room for the present
chancel.
The chancel has a three-light east window between
two canopied nichos for images, a two-light window at
the south-east, and a single trefoiled low side window
at the north-west. At the south-west is another
single-light window whose jambs have been carried
down to the floor level, probably to allow for a low
side window here also. East of this window is a
plain south doorway, and at the south-east of the
chancel is a piscina with a shelf, and at the
north-east a locker. The chancel arch is of
the same detail as the nave arcades, with engaged
shafts in the responds, moulded capitals and bases, and
an arch of two wave-moulded orders. The proportions of the nave arcade are unusually fine and lofty,
and the piers in the western bay are made of larger
diameter and have an extra order in the arch to carry
the tower walls. Each pier of the arcade is steadied
by a flying buttress to the aisle wall, which, however,
does not in every case coincide with the external
buttress, and the piers are in consequence somewhat
out of the perpendicular. The north wall of the
north aisle is an interesting example of mediaeval
methods in this respect. Its buttresses are accurately
spaced with regard to its external elevation, and take
no account of the points where the flying arches from
the north arcade abut, although their obvious function should be to take the thrusts at these points.
Plan of Sundon Church
The three north windows in the north aisle are of
two trefoiled lights with a quatrefoil in the head, and
the single window on the south side of the south aisle
is of a similar type but wider. In the transept are
three-light windows with net tracery on the east and
south, but the east window of the north aisle is altogether of a different kind. Its jambs are of the
same simple section as those of the other nave windows,
but its head is filled with a very beautiful piece of
geometrical tracery much more carefully moulded and
having a quatrefoiled circle in the head with foliate
cusps and in the main lights pierced trefoils over trefoiled arches. It is probably one of those rather rare
examples of a ready-made window bought, perhaps,
in London, where workmen more skilful than those
to be had locally were employed, and sent down to the
country to be fitted to locally-made jambs. The style
of the 'ready-made' tracery is some thirty years earlier
than that of the other windows, which would be very
likely to be the case if the manufacturer had a considerable stock of such things at his workshop. It is
interesting to note that many of the dripstones to the
labels in the nave are unfinished or left in the rough as if
the work had never been
brought to completion, and
the upper story of the tower
is also of a later date than
the lower parts, a fact which
strengthens the inference. The
north and south doorways of
the nave are plain fourteenthcentury work with continuous
mouldings, and above the
arcades are small square clearstory windows inclosing quatrefoils, also of fourteenthcentury date. There are three
on each side of the nave, but
two of the six are blocked up.
At the west end of the nave
under the tower is a large
three-light window with net
tracery of rather coarse detail,
and beneath it is a wide
blocked fifteenth-century doorway. There are stone benches along the north wall
of the north aisle and along part of the south wall
of the south aisle.
In the south transept is a contemporary trefoiled
piscina, and on either side of its east window canopied
niches of the same date and design as those in the
chancel. In the second stage of the tower, which is
reached by the circular stair at the south-west,
are arched openings on the north and west which have
never been filled with stone tracery, but are more
adapted to wooden doors or hinged shutters. That on
the north is now blocked with masonry. There are no
definite signs here, as at Barton in the Clay, that this
part of the tower has been used as a dwelling-room,
but it is not improbable that such has been the case.
The woodwork in the church is of several dates,
the nave roof being modern while that of the south
transept is apparently mediaeval. At the chancel arch is
a fifteenth-century screen with solid lower panels in
which eyeholes have been cut, and in the nave are
half a dozen seventeenth-century pews and a good
many of the eighteenth. In the chancel is an exceedingly fine fourteenth-century oak chest, its front
carved with a pattern of flowing quatrefoils while its
rails and the uprights at cither end have bands of
shallow diaper ornament. The work may possibly be
English, but it is more likely that this is one of the
Flanders chests often referred to in mediaeval documents. The font stands in the third bay of the north
arcade and has an octagonal Purbeck marble bowl on
a central and flanking column, the latter being modern.
On each face of the bowl are two pointed arches in low
relief, and the font belongs to a common late twelfthcentury type. On the west jamb of the low side window on the north of the chancel is what appears to be
a sun-dial, but the position is an impossible one, and the
stone must either have been moved from the south side
of the church or the dial has some other purpose.
In the tower is a single bell by a fifteenth-century
London founder. It is inscribed 'Ave Maria' in
gothic capitals and as a stop between the words has
one of the royal heads common on a certain class of
bell, in this case the head is that usually called
Eleanor of Castile.
The plate consists of a communion cup of 1628 and
a paten of 1906.
The registers, which are in very bad condition begin
in 1584, the first book ending in 1689, while the
second book runs from 1695 to 1768.
Advowson
There is no mention of Sundon
Church in the Survey, but the Lincoln Episcopal Registers show that
from its foundation, in 1145, Markyate Priory owned
the rectory and advowson. (fn. 44) The priory owned
lands and rents here of the value of 16s. in 1291, (fn. 45)
and in 1402 received a confirmation of their right of
presentation. (fn. 46) At the Dissolution the advowson and
rectory (which was worth £16 13s. 4d. (fn. 47) ) became
crown property, and were granted in 1546 to William Byrche, (fn. 48) a groom of the chamber and clerk of
the exchequer of gentlemen pensioners.
The Byrches held both until 1590, when Henry
Byrche sold them for £1,000 to Thomas Cheyne,
lord of Sundon manor, and they have since followed
the same descent as the manor (q.v.), (fn. 49) Mr. PageTurner being the patron at the present day. Sundon
has a Wesleyan and a Baptist chapel.
Charities
Poor and church lands. The
parish formerly received the rents of
two parcels of land lying contiguous
to each other at the north end of a close called
the Stocking Close, containing respectively 1½ acres
and 1 acre, which apparently became merged in the
adjoining property, and nothing has been received for
many years.