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d ir ec to r y

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B E R K S H IR E .

in m emory of Robert Milman, bishop of Calcutta (186776), who died 15 March, 1876, and was form erly vicar
of Lam bourn: the west stained window was erected in
1905 in m emory of Dr. Kennard: there is also a memorial
■window in the chancel to the Rev. John Murray, a former
v ic a r: a stained window has been inserted in the nave to
the memory of Miss Twynam, by Col. Twynam C .B .: the
organ, restored in 1890 at a cost of £ 157, was erected
in 1862: the restoration, carried out in 1892 at a total
cost of £3.300, included, in addition to the work already
mentioned, the erection of newr oak choir stalls, the
repair of the north doorway and new heating apparatus :
the cost of restoring the chancel was borne by the la\
impropriators, and that of Holy Trinity chapel by the
trustees of the almshouses of John E stbury: the lych
gate, erected at the same time at a cost of £130, is a
memorial to Charles W illiam Jousliffe of Seven Bar­
rows : some relics, found six feet beneath the tower,
during the recent restoration, are now in the Essex
chapel: fragm ents of a valuable pre-Reformation stained
window, purchased in a sale for a nominal sum, have
been presented to the church by Police-Sergeant
Frederick Sm ith of Lambourn, and are now in a win­
dow of the Holy T rinity ch a p el: there are 600 sittings.
The church and churchyard were closed against further
interm ents March 2, 1880, except at the western side
of the churchyard where some years ago a piece of
ground was added and consecrated. The register dates
from the year 1560, and is in excellent preservation
The living' is a vicarage, net yearly value £150, in ­
cluding 42 acres of glebe, with residence, in the gift
of the Bishop of Oxford, and held since 1895 by the
Rev. Reginald Bagnall M.A. of T rinity College, Cam ­
bridge. There are Wesleyan and Prim itive Methodist
chapels.
On the north side of the church is the
Hospital, consisting of houses for ten brethren, founded
by John, the son of John Estbury or Isbury, in 1502, and
endowed with 400 acres, income £ 7 19 ; each inmate
has 10s. weekly and a house rent fr e e : the almsmen
attend daily morning prayers in the Estbury or Trinity
Chapel, kneeling around the above-mentioned tomb,
and also attend the daily morning service of the ch u rch :
Mrs. Tem plar “ Down and the Warden of New College,
Oxford, are the hereditary supervisors of the charity,
the m anagement of which is now in the hands of seven
trustees appointed by the Charity Com m issioners: on
an ancient brass plate inserted in the brickwork near
the entrance are some Latin verses, referring to the
foundation of the hospital. A John de Estbury was
representative in Parliam ent for Berks in the years
1368, 1376 and 1377- Near the church are also five
small almshouses, called H ardrett’s or Place Almshouses,
for five aged labourers, who have is. weekly and a
house rent fr e e : this charity is under the management
of trustees. The charities for the general poor amount
to about £30 yearly, for distribution in money and
£ 16 5s. for clothing: there are also charities of £40 a
year left to the Wesleyan body for educational purposes.
Joshua Sylvester, the poet, called by Southey the
“ silver-tongued Sylvester,” was a retainer of the Essex
fam ily at Lam bourn, where he was patronised by* Mis­
tress Essex, wife of W illiam Essex esq. He died at
Middleburgh, in Holland, in 1618. A fair was granted
by K ing Henry III. in 1227, to be held in February, on
the festival of St. Matthew, but has for many years
been discontinued: the Charter for a m arket was re­
newed in the reign of H enry Y I. but this was discon­
tinued in the last ce n tu ry : two fairs were also granted
to the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul’s, which are still
held (though the days appear to have been changed)
on October 2nd and December 4th, for sheep, horses and
cattle. In the m arket place is a fine Perpendicula’
cross, consisting of a tall plain shaft, with canopied
head, raised on octagonal steps: the canopy once con­
tained figures, which had been much defaced, but re­
stored c. 1899, by the Rev. Robert Vaughan-Hughes
M.A. of Chepstow, lay re c to r: the steps are compara­
tively modern, and appear to have been p atch ed : it
is said that form erly there was another cross here,
on the spot now occupied by the weighing machine,
and known as St. Antholin’s cross. Lambourn Place,
the property of the trustees of the late Col. Charles
Grove Edwards, of Wicklesham, and the residence of
Richard Buckworth esq. is a fine Elizabethan mansion,
erected in 1843 on the site of the ancient residence or
the Hippisley fam ily, itself traditionally built on the site
of a Saxon palace belonging to K in g Alfred the G reat:
until 1893 the hall contained a collection of armour, said
to be the largest private collection in the coun try; one
of the suits form erly belonged to Sir William Tempi'
and subsequently to Lord Palmerston : there were alsc
portraits of Charles I. W iclif, and Sir Thomas Horde, a
Parliamentarian, pictures by Gainsborough and Sir

LA M B O U R N .

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Joshua Reynolds, and an old wassail bowl, form erly
belonging to the Earls of Huntingdon, and Teputed
to be of the tim e of Robin Hood, 1189-99, besides many
other rare cu rio sitie s: the whole collection was sold in
1893 for upwards of £4,000. On the downs, 6£ m iles
north of Lam bourn, are Wayland Sm ith's Cave, W hite
Horse Hill, and Uffington Camp, descriptions of which
are given under the headings of Uffington and Wantage.
Near here are also the “ Seven Barrows,” so called, a
group of tum uli on the downs about two m iles north
of Lam bourn, some 20 in number, which have been
proved, from excavations made by Dr. Wilson and Mr.
E. Martin-Atkins, in 1850, to be the sepulchres of
Ancient Britons; one of these, standing apart from the
rest, with a height of 10 feet and a circum ference of 360
feet, contained a large num ber of B ritish urns ar­
ranged round the sides, one of which measured 13
inches in h e ig h t: the other barrows examined afforded
instances both of cremation and ordinary burial, bodies
in the latter case being interred with the knees drawn
up to the chin. M em bury Fort, a C eltic earthwork,
with a single vallum , now overgrown w ith trees, is
situated on the borders of W ilts and Berks, being partly
in Lambourn and partly in R am sbury parish, and has
been thought by Dr. Guest and others to indicate the
site of an ancient town, foundations of ancient bu ild ­
ings having been m et with on this spot. Letcom be
Camp, also called “ Sagbury,” or “ Sa'kborou gh ,” is a
circular earthwork of about 26 acres in extent, situated
on the brow of the chalk escarpment overlooking the
vale to the north, 900 feet above the sea level, and
about 2 miles south-east of W a n ta g e ; skeletons have
been found on Stancombe Down, near Lam bourn, and
in a ploughed field at Maddle Farm , about 2 miles
distant from the town. The m anor of Lambourn was
given by Alfred the Great to his wife Ealhswitha,
daughter of Ethelred, a Mercian thane, and she sur­
vived him four years, dying A.D. 904 : at the tim e of
the Domesday Survey it belonged to the C ro w n ; it
was subsequently held by Sir Thomas Grandison, 4th
haron Grandison, who in 1361 conveyed it to Sir John
Peche kt. who died in 1376, and the m anor afterwards
came again to the C row n ; it appears also that this
manor, together with that of Upper Lam bourn, had
at some tim e been granted by Henry III to Henry de
Bathe, Justiciar of England, who died in 1252. and is
buried in Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, and thence
by a female heir to the Bohuns; in 1543 both manors
were granted by Henry VIII. to Sir William Essex kt.
of Lam bourn. and his son Thomas, afterwards Sir
Thomas Essex kt. whose tomb is in the church: in 1609
an A ct of Parliament was passed, enabling the repre­
sentatives of the Essex fam ily to dispose of these estates,
and soon after they became the property of Sir William
Craven kt. ancestor of the presei-t owner. The Earl
of Craven, who is lord of the m anor, Sir Francis Burdett
bart. of Ramsbury Manor, the trustees of the late
Col. Charles Grove Edwards and H. C. Goock esq. are
the principal landowners. The parish comprises the
town of Chipping Lambourn and the tith in gs of Upper
Lambourn. Eastbury and" Bockhampton, Blagrave and
Hadley. The entire area is 14,865 acres of land, a large
portion of which are downs on which race-horses are
trained, and 8 of w ater; rateable value, £ 11,0 2 1; the
population of the civil parish, including the Woodlands
and Eastbury, in 1901 was 2,071, and of the ecclesiasti­
cal, 1.476.
Parish Clerk, W alter Ralph.
UPPER LAMBOURN is a tithing, 1 m ile north-west.
The church of St. Luke, built and consecrated here,
with a burial ground, in Novem ber, 1868, by the late
Bishop Wilberforce, is a sm all edifice of red brick, in
the Early English style, consisting of chancel and nave,
the chancel only being consecrated: there are 100 sit­
tings. Here is also a W esleyan chapel, built in 1859.
Wall Box cleared week days 6 p.m . ; Sundays, 8 a.m.
BOCKHAMPTON is a tithing, 1 m ile east.
This
manor was anciently held by the tenure of Grand
Serjeanty, the lord haring to m aintain a pack of harriers
for the royal hunt at the K in g’s ch a rg e ; it was for
some time in the fam ilies of De Bathe and Teyes, and
in 1468 Margaret (Beaucham p), wife of Sir John Talbot
K.G . 1st Earl of Shrewsbury, died seized of it : it was
subsequently in the G arrard fam ily, and at the be­
ginning of the present century was held by Henry
Richard (Fox) 3rd Baron Holland. The Earl of Craven
is now lord of this manor. The principal landowners
are Sir Herbert Barnard F .S .A . of Gomshall, Surrey,
and Sir Francis Burdett bart. of Ramsbury Manor,Wilts.
BL A G R A Y E is a tithing, 2* miles south. The Earl of
Craven is lord of the manor, anciently held by the