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CHAPTER 3. TWO SMALLER MANORS. |
There were two smaller manors at Cranham, i.e. smaller than Wokydon Episcopi (see Chapter 2). The task of this chapter is to provide their timelines. In one case, Crauho seems to have faded away in the later middle ages, whilst Beredens seems to have emerged at about the same time. However, Beredens is not simply Crauho by another name.
"Craohv. ten & hugo de epo qd tenuit Aluuin lib hom p.m. & p.i. I hid & d. Sep I uitt & I bord Tc I car M dim. Silu C porc I ac & dem pti. Tc & post ual L sol. m. xx."
"Craohu is held by Hugh of the Bishop [of Bayeux], which Alwin, a free man, used to hold as a manor of 1 hide and a half. Always 1 villein, 1 bordar. Then 1 plough, now a half. Woodland for 100 pigs, meadow 1 acre and a half. Value then 50 shillings, now 20."
Domesday (pua), 18th holding, para. 33.
Crauho was the second manor in Domesday Cranham. Crauho was smaller
than Wokydon Episcopi, being about 45 % of the size of its larger
neighbour discussed in Chapter 2.
The Domesday survey records that a Saxon called Alwin was dispossessed
after the Conquest, and that Crauho's new Lord of the manor was
a Frenchman called Hugh. Hugh's overlord, Odo, Bishop of Bayeux,
was the King's half-brother. This was the impact of the Norman
Conquest at the local level. It is probable that this was the
same Hugh that held Wokydon Episcopi, and this began the process
that led to the whole parish being named after its smaller manor
(see below).
Crauho was a small manor by Essex standards. The Conquest had
brought about a further decline in its value. Although, in material
terms, the only reduction in composition of the manor appears
to be half a plough (up to 4 oxen), it is uncertain whether these
alone could account for the difference in value of 30 shillings.
It is more likely that fields had ceased to be cultivated, and
that the value of woodland (to which unattended land will soon
revert) was less than that of arable.
The exact site of Crauho is uncertain. It must have been in the
north of the parish because:
The road system in Cranham, is significant for this problem. As
one proceeds North from the church, one crosses St.Mary's Lane,
passing the pond on the right hand side of Front Lane and then
meets the Front Lane / Moor Lane junction. At this point, Front
Lane bears West of North, whilst Moor Lane heads East, and then
turns North after about 400 yards (one of the rectangular features
noted in Chapter 2). The two lanes come together again about 2
km further North, now the other side of the Southend Arterial
Road. The distance from the centre of this oval-shaped piece of
land to Wokydon Episcopi is highly consistent with the average
distance between Domesday manors in Essex. On the map it appears
that the road Northwards splits and deviates around some obstacle,
whilst there is an ancient footpath crossing its middle. However,
in comparison to the 3.1 square kilometres that Wokydon Episcopi
occupied, Crauho is almost exactly 1 square kilometre between
Front and Moor Lanes. In terms of Domesday worth, therefore, the
area of the land at 30 % of Wokydon Episcopi compares to about
45 % in terms of money. Given the inexactness of the fiscal assessments
of land, and the likelihood of greater valuation of arable compared
to woodland, these conjectural boundaries, together with the road
pattern seem to be consistent.
It is significant that Crauho, unlike Wokydon Episcopi, was a
manor had been held by a freeman before the Conquest. In Essex,
many manors had their origins where men with enterprise cleared
small areas of the forest for themselves. These clearings or "assarts"
were then farmed without overlordship. The small size of the manor,
its location in the north of the parish amongst the scattered
areas of woodland that may have developed after the Roman withdrawal,
and the specific indication that Alwin was a freeman all suggest
that Crauho is an example of an assart. If so, then it is unlikely
that Alwin himself had been the original man of enterprise. Crauho
is a much older Saxon word and combines Crau (meaning literally
a crow, but also used as a male forename) and oho, meaning a ridge,
now most easily seen when driving up Moor Lane or Cranham Gardens
(12).
In 1081, King William returned to Normandy, and temporarily entrusted
his English kingdom to his half-brother, Bishop Odo of Bayeaux.
Quite suddenly, however, in 1082, the King had Odo arrested. The
reasons behind this famous event are obscure; it may have been
that Odo aspired to become Pope, which would have been viewed
as a serious defection from the Conqueror (256). In any case,
Odo was imprisoned for the rest of King William's reign. In spite
of this imprisonment, however, Odo was not dispossessed of lands,
because in Domesday (compiled in 1086), Odo was still the second
or third largest landowner in England. Odo's status during this
period, as Hugh's overlord, is therefore uncertain.
The Conqueror died in 1086, shortly after the completion of Domesday.
His son, William II ("Rufus") had less compunction in
dealing with Bishop Odo. All the Bishop's lands were taken away
in 1088. Most of these in Essex passed into the hands of the Diocese
or Bishop of London; whilst we do not have the specific record
for Crauho, this was certainly the case at nearby Aveley and Stifford
(12).
It was probably common sense to amalgamate Crauho with Wocheduna
Episcopi. Both Crauho and Wocheduna Episcopi were held by the
Frenchman called Hugh in 1086. Crauho was managed by 2 men for
160 acres (a large area for two men, even if a fiscal rather than
physical measure). This compares to the 27 labourers for 400 acres
at neighbouring Wokydon Episcopi. It would have been a reasonable
solution for Hugh to use some of the labour due to him from the
men of Wocheduna Episcopi on lands which he also held, but actually
lay within the manor of Crauho. It would have mattered little
to the illiterate peasants where they provided their free labour.
Then after 1088 there was a further trend to joint management,
when Odo's dispossession led Crauho, like its larger neighbour
Wokydon Episcopi, to also become the property of the Bishop of
London.
References to the manor of Crauho are very scanty after Domesday.
Most refer to transactions with St.Paul's in London, and this
may reflect that Crauho fell under the Dean and Chapter, rather
than as the Bishop's direct holding (the technical distinction
between Terram and Feudam Episcopi Londoniensis in Domesday).
It is stated that in 1232 Crauho was owned by a certain John de
Beauchamp; there are at least five different men by this name
in the heraldic rolls of the period, and which one owned Crauho
is uncertain. In that year, de Beauchamp leased the manor to Thomas
de Hayer.
In 1235, Thomas de Stortford was Lord of the Manor at Crauho.
De Stortford was a Praecentor at St.Paul's cathedral, and rents
from Crauho were delivered to the chapter (12). In one document,
the manor is referred to as Wokydon Powell, indicating both a
close association with Wokydon Episcopi, and also ownership by
the cathedral (if one reads Powell as a phoenetic equivalent of
Paul). In 1272, William of Crauho acknowledged that he was 8/=d.
in arrears to St.Paul's. This is the last specific reference to
the small manor.
The importance of the tiny manor, of course, is that eventually
it gave its name to the whole parish. This is an unusual example,
of a parish named after one of its smaller manors, rather than
the manor which was largest or most important. The placename has
evolved to today's Cranham, and their dates are as follows (65):
There are other explanations for the name of our parish, some
verging on folk-lore. Morant, in 1768, thought that Cranham was
more convenient than Bishop's Ockendon; plausible so far, but
he then went on to say that he imagined that Cranham referred
to a resort for the hunting of cranes (wading birds), which, he
assured us, was an ancient sport in the reign of Edward I. Morant
added that "we must imagine the stomachs of that fighting
age of a strange tone" (11). Cameron, writing in 1961, broadly
agreed; for him, "Cran-" meant crane or heron, and "-ham"
meant enclosure or homestead (23). This pleasant fantasy was extended
during the modern development of the parish: the longest street
in Lot no. 8 of the Benyon estate is Heron Way, and the newest
public house in the parish is the "Golden Crane". Both
developers barked up the wrong tree. Cranham, as a place name,
is derived from the small manor of Crauho.
Morant (11) describes Beredens as a manor with some doubt, using
the phrase "reputed manor or capital messuage, about two
miles north from the church towards Warley". The Victoria
County History (12) also provides an account of this place. Its
status as a fully-fledged mediaeval manor is questionable.
About 1350, there is no doubt that Beredens existed as a sub-unit
of Wokydon Episcopi. It was rented to a certain Peter de Wokydon
by Nicholas de Halughton, who, as we have seen, was Lord of the
Manor at Wokydon Episcopi. On his death, Peter left half of his
rights in Beredens to each of his two daughters. Their names are
now lost, but one in 1357, and the other in 1362 sold the rights
in the property to John de Berden, after whom the estate was named.
Sales of rights rather than conveyancing of lands suggests something
less than autonomy for the owner of Beredens.
An highly significant transaction took place in 1363. John de
Berden is recorded as purchasing outright a house and 52 acres
from Sir Ralph St.Leger, the Lord at Wokydon Episcopi. Perhaps
it is only at this late stage that we can consider Beredens as
a distinct estate, and the recent epidemic of the Black Death
is said in Essex to have serously devalued the land, in comparison
to the price of labour, thus encouraging the divesting of freeholds
in the last half of the fourteenth century. The sale of 1363 indicates
not only the independence of Beredens, but also the freedom of
Ralph St.Leger and Wokydon Episcopi from St.Paul's. Therefore
we can state that at Cranham the feudal system's demise came sometime
before 1363.
Ten years later, in 1373, Stephen Wylot owned Beredens. The story
is lost until 1442, when a mill was said to be on the Beredens
estate. There is no suitable river, and windmill technology did
not exist; we must assume that the mill was driven by an animal.
One of the fields on the estate is still called Millfield (4).
John Rand of Barking bought Beredens in 1453, and was succeeded
by his son William in about 1480. Under the Rand family, the estate
grew from 52 to 213 acres, almost quadruple in 70 years, and a
measure of prosperity. Either this William Rand, or more likely
a son of the same name, sold the estate to Sir William Roche in
1523.
Sir Ralph Latham, goldsmith of London, bought Beredens in about
1543. Here is another example of a London merchant building up
a country estate (Wright did the same at Cranham Hall). Latham
also had 1000 acres at Gaines in Upminster in 1543, and bought
the manor of Upminster Hall from the King for £848 and £39
per annum for life in 1543 (26). One might expect that the land
must have been sublet (London goldsmiths surely knew little about
farming), but there is no record of the tenant at this time. Beredens
then descended with the Upminster estates for the next century
(25).
The Feet of Fines is a mediaeval document which lists land transactions.
For Essex this has been published, volume by volume, over the
last twenty years. It is possible that we shall soon know more
about the history of Beredens when the next volume is available.
However, at present, the details for Beredens in the late middle
ages are scanty.
The Lathams divested the lands on January 20, 1641. Beredens was
sold to a certain Stephen Beale, being split from the Upminster
estates, which were bought by the Viscountess Cambden (passing
thence to the Earl of Gainsborough and then, by sale, to the famous
Branfill family).
Stephen Beale left the estate to his son Joshua in about 1645.
Joshua had no children, and willed the estate to be divided between
Stephen Jermyne, a salter of London, and Nathaniel Lacey. Lacey
sold his half to Jermyne for £1000 in 1646 (24), and the
price compares favourably to that of Bishop's Ockendon, selling
as an entire manor sold for £6100 in 1647. Jermyne also took
the trouble to obtain an Act of Parliament which would guarantee
the inheritance to his sons; not only was this one way of protecting
his title to the property, but also it prevented inheritance by
his widow or eldest son (27).
The rent for Beredens in 1710 was 5/=d. per annum, this being
paid by Samuel Cruwys and Edward Tyson. This seems an unreasonably
small amount, and thus it is uncertain whether this was for the
whole of the estate. Jermyne survived his own children, and in
1724 Beredens was inherited by a grandson, also called Stephen
(fig.11).
On October 28, 1748 the Commissioners for the Insane stated (24):
"Found Stephen Jermyne to be a lunatic, not enjoying lucid
periods or intervals and incapable of governing himself, his manors,
tenements, messuages, lands, goods and chattels. By what manner
the said Stephen Jermyne became of unsound mind the jurors were
altogether ignorant, unless by the visitation of God."
Stephen Jermyne lived until 1795. He was not so mad as not to
marry, but his wife, Jane Pettiward, died earlier. They had no
children and Stephen left no will. After considerable investigations,
the estate was settled on a second cousin, George Francis Tyson.
It is not known whether the new owner was related to the tenant
of the same name 85 years earlier.
At face value, it is remarkable that the Pettiward family died
out in a single generation. Jane's parents had had five children.
Amongst these only a single grandchild had appeared, and this
child did not survive until maturity. On the other hand, this
pedigree (fig.11) was drawn up in support of the probate application
by Tyson. It is possible that investigations to track down surviving
relatives were not as assiduous as they could have been.
In 1801, Tyson sold Beredens to Ralph Nicholson. The estate was
now of 460 acres, and valued at £8,230. Nicholson leased
the house and land to William Rummy in 1801, and to Henry J.Hance
in 1822.
Hance bought Beredens outright in 1839. The house on the estate
was known as "Bellevue" by this time (18). Hance also
rented two cottages to labourers (4). The main house was at grid
reference TQ 576898 (6).
The Beredens estate was divided and sold in 1865. A large fraction
was bought by R.T.Stoneham, and in 1910 it passed to his grandson
R.T.D.Stoneham. In 1918 there was a further sale, and much of
the land was amalgamated with the Goldings estate, centred in
Great Warley. In 1920, Bellevue was occupied by Lady Etheldre
Petre, who became the first member of the famous Petre family
to reside in Cranham for 400 years.
The house was destroyed during the Second World War. No photographs
of it seem to have survived. In 1945 the site was bought by M.E.de
Rougemont, and it was then sold in 1971 to the Greater London
Council (GLC). With the abolition of the GLC in 1988, presumably
the site is now owned by the London Borough of Havering. Concrete
foundations may still be observed where the house stood.
1036 Crauho 1201 Crawenho 1323 Craunhoo 1344 Crawehalle (Cranham Hall) 1397 Crawenham 1471 Cravenham 1486 Craneham 1535 Crainham 1790 Cranham BEREDENS