Monument record 428/4 - Medieval manor of Clay Coton

The manor house had been demolished by 1719. It may have been located in 'Home Close', later the site of the rectory.

{1} The manor of Claycoton with the advowson of the Church was sold by Henry, Marquess of Dorset to Christopher Allen, citizen and mercer of London, by deed of 8 Nov 1546 and confirmed by Final Concord in the same year. The manor afterwards changed hands several times, parts being sold off meanwhile until it was bought from Valentine Acton of Hannington by Thomas Farren of Lutterworth by deed dated 19 Jan 1605. Claycoton was enclosed by agreement dated 1 Jan 1652, confirmed in a Writ of Covenant for Fines sur cognisance de droit come ceo etc. of 1 August 1663. At that time, the Lord of the Manor was Thomas Farren, son of the first Thomas, and included in the list of his allotments is The Home Close or ground and the Lammas Close. Home Close is shown on the map of 1782 and the same field is labeled as Homestead on the 1839 Tithe Award map (with Lammas Close to the north).
It seems reasonable to associate Home Close, later called Homestead, with the presence of the homestead, in this case the Hall or Manor House. In his notes of 1719, Bridges gives Thomas Farren as Lord of the Manor, and states “The Mannor House now demolished”. Was the present Manor Farm House, sometimes known as the Manor House, built perhaps a decade earlier, originally a replacement for the house that was pulled down?
The 1904 map shows that the Home Close is bounded on the north by a small stream which crosses the Stanford Road from the east, and runs westwards down to the Coton brook to divide, with a branch forming the western edge to the same close. Its wavy course is also clear on the Tithe map, which shows it being crossed by two Footpaths from the churchyard. If a moated house once stood in the close, it could have been easily fed from such a very convenient source of water.
The plot of the rectory, subsequently built on the site, had a ditch 2 to 3 feet wide on three sides, shown in the 1782 map, and from the south-west corner a mud wall ran down as far as the churchyard, with a ditch in front, until the wall fell down about 1750.

<1> Timmins E.W., 1991, Clay Coton Manorial Hall Site, (checked) (Letter). SNN109047.

<2> 1782, Map of Clay Coton, (checked) (Map). SNN72696.

<3> 1839, Clay Coton Tithe Map, (checked) (Map). SNN106051.

<4> Ordnance Survey, 1904, OS 3rd Edition 25 Inch Map (22_14), (checked) (Map). SNN109048.

<5> Bridges J., 1791, The History and Antiquities of Northamptonshire, p.549 (unchecked) (Book). SNN77325.

Record last edited

Mar 17 2023 9:14AM