North Aston Hall & Manor, Oxfordshire, England

In 1086 NORTH ASTON, comprising 9 hides, formed part of the extensive estates held by Edward of Salisbury in southern and western England. With Steeple Aston and Middle Aston it may earlier have formed part of a single 20-hide estate. The overlordship of North Aston, held of the manor of Amesbury (Wilts.), passed to Edward's son Walter and grandson Patrick, earl of Salisbury (d. 1168), descending eventually to Margaret Longespe, great granddaughter and heir of Ela, countess of Salisbury (d. 1261). Margaret's husband Henry de Lacy, earl of Lincoln, held North Aston in right of his wife; at his death in 1311 he was said to be chief lord of 1 knight's fee there, held of the manor of Amesbury, of his honor of Pontefract (Yorks.). The overlordship passed to Margaret's daughter and heir Alice, wife of Thomas of Lancaster. After Thomas's execution in 1322 his enemy Hugh le Despenser the younger obtained 2 knights' fees in North Aston. Following the fall of the Despensers in 1326 the manor seems not to have been regranted to Alice and her second husband Sir Ebles Lestrange (d. 1335); it was not mentioned among her possessions at her death in 1348 and may have been granted by the Crown, with the earldom of Salisbury, to William de Montagu. It was still held of the earls of Salisbury as of their manor of Amesbury in 1389. In the late 14th century and early 15th a single knight's fee in North Aston, part of the barony of Clifford castle (Herefs.), was held by the earls of March. The association of North Aston with Clifford presumably began with the inheritance of the barony by Margaret Longespe, heiress not only of the earldom of Salisbury but also, through her grandfather Walter de Clifford (d. 1263), of the barony of Clifford.The barony was confirmed to Margaret's daughter Alice in 1331. After her death in 1348 it was probably granted by the Crown to Roger Mortimer, earl of March, who had possession before 1356.

Edward of Salisbury's tenant in 1086 was Anketil de Gray who held much land in the county. By 1151 the manor had passed to William of Aston whose grandson, also William, granted a life-tenancy in 1202 to Robert of Aston and his wife Alice de Chesney. In 1205 Robert was said to be overseas in the service of the chief lord of the manor, William Longespe, earl of Salisbury. Robert still held the manor in 12423, but by 1279 the demesne lordship had passed to William Trivet of Chilton (Som.). Chilton, like North Aston, had previously been held by Anketil de Gray. In 1316 the manor was held by Thomas Trivet, passing by 1327 to John, who was granted free warren there in 1353, and by 1372 to Sir Thomas Trivet, who died in 1388 leaving as co-heiressess his daughters Anne and Joan. In 1422 his widow Elizabeth held it,but by the mid 15th century it had passed to the Anne family. It seems likely that John Anne (d. 1441), second son of Sir William Anne of Frickley (Yorks.), was the first of the family to hold North Aston and that he was succeeded by his son William (I) who died without issue in 1451, his younger son John (I) (fl. 1485), and grandson William (II) (d. 1508). William (II)'s son John (II) died in 1554 and the manor was conveyed by his son William (III) to Sir Robert Brooke of Madeley (Salop.), Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, perhaps by settlement on the betrothal of Grace, the only surviving child of Edward Anne, William's son, to Sir Robert's son John.

John Brooke held the manor at his death in 1598, when it passed to his son Sir Basil (d. 1646). Sir Basil's son Thomas, though a Royalist, managed to protect his estates for a time by leasing them to relatives and friends, but in 1653 North Aston was sequestrated and sold to Major John Wildman, a speculator in forfeited lands.The manor may have been recovered as early as 1655, following Wildman's imprisonment for conspiracy: Thomas Brooke's sister Frances was married at North Aston in 1656, and his proxies presented to the living there in 1663. Thomas's grandson and heir Basil succeeded to the estate by 1687, dying in 1700. His widow Winifred died in 1716 and left North Aston to her niece Henrietta Fermor, sister of James Fermor of Tusmore.

The Brooke family resided irregularly at North Aston. They seem to have rebuilt North Aston Hall, apparently using it in the later 17th century as a dower house. Henrietta Fermor sold the manor soon after 1716 to Anthony Rowe of Muswell Hill, in Hornsey (Mdx.), Clerk of the Green Cloth, whose daughter and coheir Mary took North Aston to her second husband Trevor Hill, Viscount Hillsborough. The estate was leased to Catherine, widow of Sir Robert Howard of Ashtead (Surr.), and her husband Dr. John Martin, rector of Somerton. They presumably left when Dr. Martin resigned Somerton in 1719, for Lady Hillsborough was living at North Aston in the 1720s. Her husband sold the estate shortly after 1733 to Charles Oldfield, a Jamaica merchant who gave it at his death c. 1740 to his friend Charles Bowles. Bowles was succeeded at his own death in 1780 by his son Oldfield (d. 1810) whose son Charles Oldfield Bowles, faced with the need to provide for 8 sisters, rented North Aston Hall to a succession of tenants. Among them were Welbore Agar, earl of Normanton (d. 1868), and Richard Chetwynd, Viscount Chetwynd (d. 1879) whose mother Charlotte was the daughter of Thomas Cartwright of Aynho (Northants.), the owner of large estates in the area. Thomas Scott, earl of Clonmell, died at North Aston in 1838. Bowles returned to live at North Aston but sold the estate shortly before his death in 1862 to William Foster-Melliar.

After the death of Foster-Melliar in 1906 North Aston, which included an estate of 990 a., was purchased by Capt. John Taylor of Grovelands, Southgate (Mdx.). Manorial rights were said to extend over c. 1,280 a. but there is no indication that they had been exercised for some time. In 1911 Capt. Taylor sold North Aston Hall, 200 a., and part of the village to Thomas Pakenham, earl of Longford, moving his own residence to North Aston Manor. The hall was sold to W. L. Hichens, chairman of Cammell Laird & Co., shipbuilders, in 1929 and remained in his family's possession in 1980.

It is not clear which of the two main houses in North Aston occupies the site of the original manor house. There are indications, and a local tradition, that it was the house at the eastern end of the village street, called North Aston Manor since the 19th century. References in 1574 and 1720 to the arms of Anne and Giffard displayed in 'the ancient house of Anne' seem to refer to North Aston Manor since North Aston Hall was probably rebuilt in the 17th century. In that case the Brooke family presumably transferred to the hall in the late 16th or early 17th century. It is possible, however, that North Aston Hall, in a more important position adjacent to the church, was the original North Aston manor house and that North Aston Manor was the manor house of Bradenstoke priory.

There was presumably a substantial house occupying the eastern end of the site of North Aston Hall in the 15th century, when its presence restricted the building of the church tower, and the house was assessed for taxation in 1662 on 27 hearths. It is unlikely that any surviving part of the house is earlier than the 17th century. To that date may belong the underlying plan, which is of double depth with a thick spine wall. The house appears to have been remodelled in the late 18th century, probably by John Yenn, when a small single-storeyed extension was added on the north and an imposing Classical porch on the south. The house was a plain stone building of three storeys, with 10 bays on the south front, and a stone-slated, hipped roof. The main, south, front was remodelled c. 1867 in late-16th-century style, an entrance porch was added on the west, and the 18th-century addition on the north was enlarged and carried up to the full height of the house.The outbuildings include a substantial coach-house and farm buildings of the early 19th century. A small grove and pond known as the Folly were placed c. 400 m. south-east of the hall in a field later called Folly field, probably by a member of the Bowles family in the later 18th century. There may have been an eye-catcher there, but nothing remains. In the later 19th century an ice-house was built c. 200 m. northwest of the hall.

In the mid 12th century William of Aston gave to Bradenstoke priory (Wilts.) 50 a. land in North Aston and the advowson of the church. The priory had been founded by Walter of Salisbury, and under the patronage of successive earls of Salisbury a valuable estate was acquired in North Aston. In the 15th century BRADENSTOKE manor, said to comprise 340 a., was leased by the priory to the Anne family, lords of North Aston manor. During a dispute in the early 16th century John Anne denied that the estate was properly a manor. The priory had been given the right to hold its own court baron in the early 13th century, however, and still exacted manorial dues from its tenants in the late 15th. Confusion may have arisen because the priory mistakenly thought for a time that it was lord of North Aston manor. Following the dissolution of Bradenstoke priory in 1539 the manor was sold by the Crown in 1540 to Richard Ingram of Wolford (Warws.). By 1550 it had passed to William Kendall of North Aston. (fn. 86) Kendall seems to have held it at the time of his death in 1570, but by 1572 it was owned by Henry Sheppard, probably a relative.Sheppard soon disposed of the manor, selling it in 1574 to John Brooke by whom the two manors were united.

The rectorial estate, in the hands of Bradenstoke priory, was said in the 13th century to be worth 5, derived partly from lands and partly from the great tithes.The land, perhaps comprising 4 yardlands, was leased out. The great tithes were usually, although not invariably, retained. Those from Nethercote, in Middle Aston, were settled upon North Aston vicarage. In 1229 Bradenstoke and Merton priory agreed to share hay tithes from meadows in North Aston forming part of the fee of Duns Tew. The rectorial estate was said to be worth 8 a year c. 1540. By then the tithes were completely secularized, and the land gradually became merged with the dissolved priory's secular estate. The tithe award of 1843 reported four holders of impropriate tithes in the parish. The greater part was held by the lord of the manor, Charles Oldfield Bowles, who merged them with the manorial freehold. Sir George Dashwood, as chief landowner in Duns Tew, owned half the hay tithes arising from Bestmoor. The tithes from two other small pieces of meadow belonged to estates in the neighbouring parish of Somerton. The tithes were commuted for rent charges totalling 51. Shortly after his acquisition of the manor in 1862 William Foster-Melliar bought out the other recipients and restored all the rent charges to the church.

The identity of Bradenstoke priory's manor house in North Aston is, as has been indicated above, uncertain. It was leased from the late 15th century to the 17th with the rectorial estate as the parsonage. In the 16th century the house was presumably occupied by the Kendall and Sheppard families, owners of the rectory and Bradenstoke manor. By the mid 17th century the house was that later known as North Aston Manor, leased to tenants until it was purchased by Bernard Gates in the mid 18th century. After the death in 1796 of Gates's heir, Thomas Dupuis, the house was bought by Oldfield Bowles and leased to tenant farmers, notably the Hill family who held it until c. 1851. The Taylor family lived in the house from 1911 to 1977. The central range of North Aston Manor was built as an open hall in the late medieval period. At its south end a contemporary cross wing and staircase turret survive, with an additional room of the 17th century to the east. There is a 15th-century doorway on the west front, probably to the screens passage, and another inside the hall to the south. A first floor was installed c. 1600. At the north end the original service rooms were removed, perhaps in the early or mid 18th century when a new principal room and cross wing added. There were further extensions between 1843 and 1881, and in 191112 a north wing was added.

In 1639 Sir Basil Brooke sold c. 100 a. in the north of the parish to Sir Robert Dormer of Rousham. In 1776 the land was given to the vicar of Rousham as glebe. By 1843 the estate, leased to tenants, had been increased to 146 a. The estate, later known as Coldharbour farm, was sold in 1921 to Mr. B. Deeley, and bought in 1963 by Lt.-Col. A. D. Taylor.

In 1681 86 a. in the south of the parish adjoining Middle Aston and 17 a. south of Coldharbour farm were bought by the executors of the will of Robert Daniel of Hendon (Mdx.) to endow his almshouse at Hendon. The farm was sold by the Hendon charity trustees in 1960 to Mr. A. Hichens, who later exchanged with Lt.Col. Taylor the 17 a. inclosure adjoining Coldharbour farm for a field of similar size adjoining Hendon farm.