The Manor of Princes Risborough

Click Princes Risborough for Domesday Map

Researched by Joan West

The Manor stretched from Ilmer in the north-west to Speen and Lacey Green in the south-east.

The Lords of the Manor of Princes Risborough had always been the monarchs of England long before 1066, when William of Normandy came to the throne.

In 1343 King Edward III gave the Manor to his son, known as “The Black Prince”.   He had a stud farm in Princes Risborough where his war horses were bred.  He died before his father so never became King.

King Edward VI, before he died in 1553, had given the Manor to his sister Princess Elizabeth, who became Queen Elizabeth in 1558. She remained Lord of the Manor till her death in1603.

1628 SOLD BY KING CHARLES Ist.

In 1628 King Charles I conveyed the Manor of Princes Risborough to the City of London to go towards debts incurred by the Crown and it was conveyed to the Chibnall family.   Mrs Chibnall, one of the Lords of the Manor of Princes Risborough, set up various charities.

COMMERCIAL TRANSACTION.   From this time on the Manor passed from one wealthy family to another as straightforward commercial transactions.

GREAT CHANGES TOOK PLACE DURING THE 1600’s

BRUSHWOOD COVERED HILLS

It would appear that after the Chibnall family became Lords of the Manor from 1637, followed by the Abraham’s then the Adeane’s, many alterations took place in Lacey Green.   Prior to then, the lettings had been for woods and scrubland, which if cleared, quickly reverted to scrub, primarily with hawthorn.   In fact the ‘Old English’ for ‘Risborough’ is ‘Brushwood covered hills’

FARMHOUSES BUILT

During the mid - 1600’s, several farmhouses were built, land cleared and dew-ponds made.   The result was that Kiln Farm, Stocken Farm, Speen Farm, Grymsdyke Farm, and Row Farm (Wardrobes Farm), were established.   As all this land belonged to the Lords of the Manor, they must have been involved in all this development. (Ed.   It is research that is on-going.)  

THE PENTON FAMILY

The Pentons of Winchester and Princes Risborough were Lords of the Manor from 1692 to 1766.

THOMAS GRACE

Thomas Grace was the Lord of the Manor during the Napoleonic Wars. Due to these wars many of the well to do into hard times. Thomas Grace was on the verge of bankruptcy. Lord George Henry Cavendish, seizing an opportunity bought from him most of the copyhold farms in the Upper Hamlets of Princes Risborough, Loosley Row, Lacey Green and Speen.

THE GRUBB FAMILY

The Grubb family were Lords of the Manor until the Enclosures of Princes Risborough in 1823.

PRE 1823 RURAL ENGLAND 

At the beginning of the 18^th century the population of England was estimated at just under 5,500,000 of which over 4,000,000 were rural.    It was virtually impossible to travel except on foot as the roads were mostly rough tracks, the farmer might get  to the nearby market town and the squire ride out on his horse but the majority of the  people lived in their own small world.

LOOSLEY ROW, LACEY GREEN & SPEEN were tiny hamlets.  They were called the "Upper Hamlets of Princes Risborough".   There were the farms, established in the 1600’s, but they too belonged to the Manor.  Much of Lacey Green & the higher part of Loosley Row was actually the Common of Princes Risborough, where the farmers of Risborough brought their stock up a driftway to graze.   It was not for the use of the locals.

FARM CLOSES (Fields)

All the farms had closes (fields) for arable or grass near the farmhouses.   The land on the hills was very poor, and there were no springs.  There were dew ponds.   No dairy cattle were kept, as there was not sufficient water.    All farms had the right to arable strips in the open fields of better land, owned and run by the Manor.

THE OPEN FIELD for ARABLE CROPS

Besides the farmers, a few cottagers who had managed to lease a couple of acres or so near their homes, would also be entitled to a strip in the open field.   This was the better lower land considered suitable to plough.   The plough land strips were organised by the parish and farmed according to rules set by twelve jurymen chosen annually by the vestry or at the meeting of the court leet.   These jurymen dictated what should be grown, when the ploughing, sowing and harvesting should be done.   The crops chosen to be grown were wheat for export and bread for the upper classes.    Barley for bread for the poorer people and brewing, and some oats for horses.  The farms had their share of strips of this better land according to how much land they occupied, with the smaller landowner maybe having only one strip.

THE STRIPS

In order to divide this huge open field, boundaries of course grass were left.    At a certain given time the village ploughman ploughed all the strips designated for arable that season.   The strips were too narrow to turn a plough, which until the middle of the 18^th century were still made of heavy wood needing four horses to pull it.    On heavy clay land up to twelve oxen might be yoked to do the job.   Fortunately the open field here was comparatively light and by the mid seventeen hundreds the metal ploughshare became accepted.

FALLOW

Each strip had to lie fallow every three years.

SOWING

Once ploughed the seed was sown broadcast.   The drill had been invented but was not in general use.   It was virtually impossible to keep the land clean.     If a man did try to hoe his crop the poppies, thistles and dandelions from his neighbour’s, the fallow land and the poor grass boundaries blew onto it making his labour a waste of time.

HARVEST

When harvest time came everybody turned out, leaving whatever else they might do, to get the crops in.   Barley and oats were cut with a scythe but the wheat was cut with a sickle, a handful at a time, a much slower process.   After the last sheaves were carried in the women and children could turn to gleaning, helping to swell their winter rations.   The cottager took his bit of corn to the mill to be ground.  There was, for some, still not enough to live on and they would turn their hand to carpentry, blacksmithing, labouring and other jobs required from time to time, to augment it.

STUBBLE

The animals could be turned onto the stubbles for a while before most had to slaughtered and salted down, there being only enough hay for a few breeding animals over winter

WINTER FUEL

All the parishioners were entitled to collect fallen wood from the vast parish woodlands.     Stormy weather would see everyone who could, go to collect wood.  Wood was essential for heating and cooking in the simple, damp cottages.

THROUGHOUT ENGLAND  AGRICULTURE PROSPERED

However rural England was prospering.    Large quantities of corn were being exported to the Continent from any farms where there was a surplus to their own requirements.    Its price was pushed up by a protectionist policy and land became a good investment.

GREAT STRIDES IN 18th CENTURY AGRICULTURE

During the seventeen hundreds some men of big estates had made great strides in inventing new ways of husbandry.   The seed drill replaced broadcast sowing.    Hoeing had been introduced.    Crop rotation had been improved so proper fallows could be done to rest the land.   Improved stock breeding was taking place.    Medium landowners and farmers heard of the advantages of the bigger fields and realised how much better it would be without the “Open Field System”

INCLOSURE ORDERS APPROVED

Applications were made to Parliament for Enclosure Orders to be approved.   Once done, the strips went, the fields were fenced or hedged round and owned by men who could work them properly, choose which crops to grow.   Turnips, mangold-wurzels, turnips to produce winter feed for cattle could enable stock to be kept all year round.   Without any doubt production increased and crops and livestock improved out of recognition. The enclosures had been happening for over a hundred years by 1800 a.d., and by then most of England had been enclosed.

PRINCES RISBOROUGH WAS ALL BEHIND in 1800

Things in the Manor of Princes Risborough were unusual.   It had not been enclosed.    There had been no great farms to press for enclosure.    The fields in the Chilterns were small, many smallholdings only an acre or two.

THE UPPER HAMLETS

In the upper hamlets of Princes Risborough life was hard.    The Common of Princes Risborough took up a large part of Lacey Green and some high ground of Loosley Row, it was not for the use of the locals.   There were vast parish woods, which was very useful for collecting wood.   The old system was still in place.

TENANTS OF THE MANOR

All the manor properties and land were leased out.  The rents going to the Manor.    In order to be accepted as a tenant it was necessary to attend one of the Manor Court Sessions and apply to be admitted.    Some tenants held considerable amounts of land.   They could leave a tenancy in their will, the new lease owner then had to get approved. Some tenants did not even live locally, but would sub let, and again the new lease holder had to be accepted by the Manor Some premises were sub sub let, as long as the court approved.

LORD GEORGE HENRY CAVENDISH

As the nineteenth century dawned, Lord George Henry Cavendish learned of this unenclosed parish.   He was from one of the wealthiest families in the land.   He had access to money.

LORD OF THE MANOR FINANCIALLY DISTRESSED

The taxes imposed to fund the Napoleonic wars (1803 to 1815) had brought many people to their knees, Including the Lord of the Manor of Princes Risborough.   He was on the verge of bankruptcy.

A BUYER’S MARKET

John Grubb, the Lord of the Manor of Princes Risborough sold most of the farms in the Upper Hamlets to Lord Cavendish, who immediately commenced a campaign to apply to Parliament for Enclosure.   Lord Cavendish never lived there and everything continued to be let to existing tenants.

ENCLOSURE of PRINCES RISBOROUGH 1823

The result of the enclosures was that Lord Cavendish owned huge areas of land.   All the old parish arable strips were his, becoming fields for Culverton Farm, Row Farm (Wardrobes), and Brimmers Farms, which he owned.    He already owned Stocken Farm.

THE COMMON SOLD

The extensive Common of Princes Risborough was divided into two large areas and sold.   Half was bought by Lord Cavendish and half by John Grubb, the Lord of the Manor.

THE PARISH WOODS

The Parish Woods went into private ownership, that of John Grubb.

OLD ALLOTMENTS

All the cottages, gardens, and orchards already occupied stayed in the same occupancy, either freehold or copyhold as the case might be.   Those copyhold in effect were franchised to the Manor. They had to be enfranchised to become freehold.

NEW ALLOTMENTS

All the people who had rights to strips in the open arable fields were allotted alternative pieces of land near to their homes.   Most of these were copyhold.

NEW ROADS, PRIVATE ROADS to ISOLATED PROPERIES, BRIDLEWAYS, FOOTWAYS and PUBLIC PONDS WERE ALL LISTED.   Every new allotment had to be fenced by the occupier

Demesnes of the Manor of Princes Risborough in 1558

1 close in Chilton (high on the hills)

2 closes of 4 acres

8 acres abutting on Burton-way

9 acres in the E part of Risborough

3 acres and a half abutting Gylton`s piece called Copye-way

One half of an acre near Akenell-way (Icknield Way)

52 acres called Copeland near Longhead

13 acres east of Purtewell (Pyrtle Spring)

5 acres called Purtewell-head (Pyrtle Spring)

5 acres west of Holloway

3 acres each of the same

4 acres of meadow land in Bedmead

16 acres in Bremers (Brimmers)

A close of wood and pasture called Stocking (Stocken Wood and Stocken Farm)

A close called Curr-close

One half of an acre in Whiteland

4 acres in Barrenfield near the Park

1 acre in Darboste

1 acre and 1 rood near the mill

1 acre at Millisworth

1 close of pasture called Potter Lithe

3 acres and a rood and 16 acres in Longewicke

4 acres near the Parke in the occupation of Richard Newe

2 acres in Westye

1 rood in Long-wicke

1 acre in Lotmeade

1 coppice in the tenure of the Fraternity of Guild of Jesus

A parcel of meadow called Walnut Close adjacent to

32 acres in Longwicke, late Henry Butlers

16 acres in the same field late in the tenure of William Sergeant

16 acres also, late Henry Claydon

16 acres of Richard Hebb

16 acres in the occupation of Thomas Child

11 acres in Barrenfield

20 acres and a half in Whiteland

1 rood under the Hill

2 closes of pasture of 8 acres in the tenure of Henry Roose

10 acres in Burying Field

The Manor of Princes Risborough
Construction Era
Type of Property	Farm, Land, Pond, Wood
Use of Property
Locations	Lacey Green, Loosley Row, Flowers Bottom, Turnip End, Darvills Hill, Highwood Bottom, Parslows Hillock, Princes Risborough, Speen, Coombes, Amen Corner, Princes Risborough Common