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Odell Castle Estate (Odell & Wahull Manors), Bedfordshire, England
Domesday Book of 1086
There are two manors in Odell recorded in the Domesday Book.
- 1. One was held by an Arnulf of Ardres (a town near Calais).
He had four and a half hides and a third of a virgate and held the manor from Count Eustace II of Boulogne. The manor comprised three villagers, seven smallholders and two slaves. Each of these people would probably have had a family, giving a possible total of around fifty people. Before 1066 Alfwold, a thegn of King Edward the Confessor had held the manor and it had then been worth £8. This had declined to £5 by the time Alfwold was deprived of it by the new Norman King and by 1086 the value had sunk still further to £3. This holding, later identified with Little Odell Manor may well have been in the west of the modern parish around Little Odell.
- 2. The other was a larger, more important manor, of five hides, one virgate and parts of a further virgate was held by Walter of Flanders directly from King William I. He had the manor after William deprived its Anglo-Saxon thegn, Leofnoth. The manor contained thirteen villagers, five smallholders and five slaves - perhaps around ninety people all told. This manor also contained a mill, a stretch of the River Great Ouse worth two hundred eels and woodland for sixty pigs. In Leofnoth's days it had been worth £10, this had fallen to £8 by the time Walter was given it and it was only worth £5 by 1086. The decrease in value of so many Bedfordshire manors, it has been suggested by historians, may have been due to William's armies travelling north through the county to deal with rebellions in the north.
1. Barony of Odell
The medieval Barony of Odell sprang from the second - Walter of Flanders' manor. He held fifty and a half hides in Bedfordshire (in
- Odell,
- Astwick,
- Biggleswade,
- Henlow,
- Langford,
- Milton Ernest,
- Podington,
- Southill,
- Thurleigh,
- Totternhoe,
- Turvey and
- Wymington)
as well as forty four in Northamptonshire, 6 hides, one and a half virgates in Hertfordshire and one hide, one virgate in Buckinghamshire. It was the responsibility of the Baron de Wahull, (as he was known at the time) to provide the guards for the castle of Rockingham in Northamptonshire, in common with the Baron of Warden in Northamptonshire and Peterborough Abbey.
Walter the Fleming was succeeded by his son Walter and the title can be traced as follows:
- Walter the Fleming
- Walter de Wahull, son of Walter the Fleming;
- Simon de Wahull, son of Walter - flourished around the middle of the 12th century;
- Walter de Wahull son of Simon, Baron by 1160 and until at least 1172;
- Simon de Wahull, son of Walter - died before 1197;
- John de Wahull, son of Simon - a minor until at least 1206; died about 1217;
- Rose, wife of Robert Lisle and Agnes, wife of Robert Basingham (later William Fitz Warine), sisters of John; Rose died in 1222 without issue, leaving Agnes Baroness in her own right, she died in 1238;
- John de Basingham, son of Agnes - died 1239;
- Saher de Wahull, son of Walter and brother of the Simon who died before 1197 - he died in 1250;
- Walter de Wahull, son of Saher - born 1227, died before 1269;
- John de Wahull, son of Walter - died 1296;
- [ Baron Thomas de Wahull Thomas de Wahull], son of John - died 1303;
- John de Wahull, son of Thomas - born 1302, died 1336;
- John de Wahull, son of John - born about 1320, died 1348;
- John de Wahull, son of John - a minor on succeeding to the title, died 1367;
- Elizabeth and Eleanor de Wahull, daughters of John - born 1364 and 1365 respectively, both died 1376;
- Nicholas de Wahull, son of the John who died in 1348 - he died in 1410;
- Thomas de Wahull, son of Nicholas - born about 1387, died in 1421;
- Thomas de Wahull, son of Thomas - died in 1441;
- John de Wahull, son of Thomas - born 1436, died in 1490;
- Fulk de Wahull, son of John - died in 1511;
- Nicholas de Wahull, son of Fulk - died in 1531;
- Anthony de Wahull, son of Nicholas - died in 1542;
- Agnes de Wahull - born seventeen days before her father's death; she married Richard Chetwood who died in 1560 and then Sir George Calvely; Agnes died in 1576;
- Richard Chetwood, son of Agnes de Wahull and Richard Chetwode - a minor on succeeding his mother, he alienated his Bedfordshire property to the Alston family in 1633 and died in 1635.
The barony then became extinct, although Richard the last baron's great-great-grandson Knightley Chetwood claimed the title in 1739. His petition was referred to the Attorney General but nothing further came of it.The case was raised again by his grandson Jonathan Chetwood in 1831, when the Attorney General advised referring the matter to the House of Lords' Committee for Privileges which took place in 1833. Jonathan died in 1839 without ever successfully prosecuting his claim.
Odelle Mill
There were further developmentsin 1890 when Constantia Elizabeth Chetwood-Aiken, great-great-granddaughter of Knightley Chetwood petitioned Queen Victoria. The matter was referred to the Committee for Privileges and again the claimant died, in 1892, before successfully prosecuting the claim. Her son John Chetwood Chetwood-Aiken then claimed unbroken descent from Saher de Wahull but was disappointed when it was ruled that the right to a peerage depended on being called to parliament and sitting there - neither of which had happened to the de Wahulls and their successors. The medieval Barony was created to ensure military service rather than for any legislative function and so was not considered a true peerage.
2. Odell Manor
Walter the Fleming's manor descended with the Barony of Odell until 1632 when Richard Chetwood alienated it to Roger Nicholls and Thomas Tirrell before a sale to William Alston the following year.
Little Odell Manor
This manor can be traced to the Arnulf's holding from Count Eustace in the Domesday Book. By 1278 the overlordship had passed from Eustace's family to Baldwin Wake. The family held the overlordship until about 1441 when it passed to the Earls of Huntingdon.
Sometime before 1153 Arnulf's former holding passed to the Counts of Guines (a town, like Ardres close to Calais). Baldwin, Count of Guines was deprived of his lands by order of King John but regained them in 1205. By 1278 the manor had been acquired by the de Wahulls and so was joined to the larger manor.
Odell Castle Estate
This estate was formed by the two manors of Great and Little Odell together with the lands of the former Barony, which became extinct in 1632. In 1633 it was acquired by William Alston, a lawyer of Suffolk ancestry who belonged to Inner Temple and was Keeper of Writs in King's Bench. William Alston was unmarried and the Odell Castle Estate passed to his brother Sir Thomas Alston of Odell, 1st Baronet (1609-1678), also a lawyer of Inner Temple. He was created a baronet in 1642, when he was also High Sheriff of Bedfordshire.
Thomas's wife, Elizabeth, was a daughter of Sir Rowland St. John and sister of three successive Lords St. John of Bletsoe. Sir Thomas died in 1678 and was succeeded by his younger son Sir Rowland Alston, 2nd Baronet (1652-1697), the elder son having predeceased his father. Sir Rowland died in 1697 and was succeeded by his son Thomas Alston, 3rd Baronet who was MP for Bedford Borough from June 1698 to January 1701. He died, unmarried in 1714. His brother Sir Rowland Alston, 4th Baronet (1679-1759) succeeded him. Sir Rowland sat as a Member of Parliament for Bedfordshire from 1722 until 1741 and died in 1759 aged eighty, his son Sir Thomas Alston, 5th Baronet (1724-1774) succeeding him.
Odell Castle after the alterations of 1864-65.
Image: Matthew Beckett
Sir Thomas Alston, Member of Parliament for Bedfordshire from 1747 until 1761, died in 1774. He was the last baronet as his son, also Thomas Alston (1755-1823), was born out of wedlock to a Margaret Lee. Thomas junior inherited the Odell Castle Estate but not the baronetcy which then became extinct. When he died in 1823 his son Justinian Alston inherited the estate and his son Crewe Alston (1828-1901) succeeded him. When he died in 1901 the Odell Castle Estate passed on to his son Rowland Crewe Alston who died in 1933. The estate was then sold to Lord Luke.
George Lawson Johnston (1st Lord Luke), was of Scottish extraction, the second son of John Lawson Johnston, who created a meat extract drink called Johnston's Fluid Beef, now better known as Bovril. George moved to Bedfordshire in 1910, living first in Bletsoe, then in Pavenham. He was a philanthropist helping medicine and hospitals. When he was ennobled in 1929 he chose the title Lord Luke as Luke is patron saint of medicine and doctors.
The 1st Lord Luke died in 1943 and was succeeded by his eldest son Ian, who became a Justice of the Peace, Deputy Lieutenant, County Councillor and Master of the Oakley Hunt. He was a lay reader and welcomed American Billy Graham on each of his crusades to Britain. Odell Castle was burnt down in 1931. In 1973 renovation was complete. Most of the Odell Castle Estate was sold in 1991 and the remainder, except Odell Manor, in 1998. The third Lord Luke died in 1996 and was succeeded by his son Arthur, who in 2008 sat in the House of Lords as one of the ninety hereditary peers elected to remain.