PART II

1. CHURCH LANE.

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Church Lane lies at the centre of the village. Once seven of the sixty households lay along its short route to the west gate of Saint Mary's Churchyard. The north side early had a stone flag path to keep the church goers out of the muddy lane. The south side was built at a later date onto the edge of the Village Green. This will account for the narrowness of the lane, though the properties on the north side had already encroached up to the path.

The three farms on the north side were all part of the largest manor. They were on much smaller sites than other farms and although they may have had a rear access they suffered from a cramped area and none survived as farms up to 1775.The first was on the corner site surrounded by a wall with elms on the rear boundary. Here in 1578 was one of the largest Cropredy farmers [1]. A Richard Howes farming 5 yardlands [2]. He had managed to lease more than went with the homestall. He died suddenly, and his eldest daughter's husband took over. John Pratt was a more modest farmer, but he too caught the plague going the rounds in 1609, and from then on the farm seems to have suffered some misfortunes. There was a stone and thatch building with a hall fireplace and upper chamber. The downstairs chamber was at the nether or lower end. They also had a kitchen [3]. Unfortunately the outhouses are not recorded. In this century the site had become a vegetable garden and was rented as such by the Godsons.

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Next door lived the yeoman family of Vaughans. They were about the least prosperous so must have taken their yeomanry status, from a previous generation. In fact they were either very conservative and liked their wooden dwelling, or had to leave the rebuilding until their finances improved. At the west end their timber house has partly remained, within an outer stone wall, added around 1700, though no record remains to prove this as yet. At the east end a stone cottage with an inglenook fireplace was built. The cottage was occupied in 1613, for the Vaughans widowed son-in-law was living there with his family [4]. After the Vaughans the farm became a trade- cum- farm and was eventually turned into three cottages. It was in the middle one that Mrs Bassett was born as Edith Tasker.

The third and last property on that side was the vicarage. In the 1570's the first married vicar, the Rev'd Holloway, came to live here. He may have added a stone wing or rebuilt entirely in stone and thatch. His stable and barn were at the end of the Lane partly in the churchyard. The right to graze this belonged to the incumbent. His house and garden were then part of the churchyard. The dividing line was a public path leading from Church Lane to Church Street. It wasn't until after 1814 that the tall wall was built around the first vicarage site, by then a vegetable garden. The new vicarage had been built on the south side in 1787 [5].

We owe a great deal to the Reverend Thomas Holloway who stayed here for about 50 years. He left a list of the heads of households [6]. These enable the wills and inventories which administrators had to present at the Peculiar Church Court [7] held at the Brasenose Inn, to be allocated to properties. He also proved beyond doubt that Cropredy was fairly crowded in his time. Over half the properties had more than the nuclear family living under the one roof [8]. Fortunately the good stone houses with their warm thatch, meant the building's were very much above average for that time. It also helped some properties to survive to the present day, although we cannot expect them to be as they were originally.

The three Copyhold cottages belonging to the Brasenose Manor, on the south side, were early built of stone and thatched. If however any of these Horton stone dwellings were neglected for any length of time they soon began to collapse into a ruin. We found plenty of records to show that this happened to the Bakehouse which is why it was reduced in length, and increased in height. Thomas Checkley who was forced to repair it if he wanted to renew his copyhold claim, was only 18 at the time[9]. He may have been very taken with the new bricks which Mr Anker was producing up at Brickhill on the Oxhey road, for he used them to replace the front stone wall, or expense may have dictated his materials. He was not the first to use brick for his grandfather had used them to build Oathill farm. The coming of the canal brick makers made available this modern way which was new to Cropredy. He also chose a new brick lintel above the windows.

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The older cottage dwellings had a hall house with a parlour chamber and a narrow buttery opposite the fireplace. The upper floors were reached by winder stairs opening directly into the first bed chamber. A second bedroom would lead off the first. As the buildings were thatched the upper storey would be well under the roof.

All evidence of Stonecott, the first cottage at the east end, was removed when it was modernised. The Revd Wood did this for his staff before the owner Mr Andrews died [10]. It has since undergone further changes. In a rear photograph of the Church rooms the steep slope of the thatch appears at the edge of the picture.

The third cottage at the other end was rebuilt by the Lambert's once they had the freehold. They added an attic for the apprentices. A new brick washhouse, now a kitchen, was built at Allitt's bakehouse. Woodview, a new cottage was squeezed in next door. This later cottage was built in front of the stable and barn attached to the Lambert's Woodyard site.

Each of these three cottages had a cow shed or barn as well as the right to pasture a cow on the common. This was very important The 24 farms could keep, for every yardland they farmed, four cows[11]. Thirty tradesmen also had common rights to pasture one cow. Only six households had no rights to keep a cow as part of their cottage lease, this made all the difference to their economy. The College recognised this at the time of the Inclosure in 1775 and left some land with each of their copyhold cottages. The larger manor failed to do this and none of their cottagers who still remained on their estate had land afterwards. Unfortunately the amount of each cottager's land was very much reduced to redeem the land of tithes. So in spite of the Colleges good intentions, their tenants had not enough land afterwards to keep a cow and to grow their own hay and corn as before. This played a large part in reducing the villagers to the poverty line.

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In a terrier, which all the College tenants had to make from time to time, of the buildings on their homestall and the position of the strips of land leased with it, we find the following information about the three cottages on the south side of the lane. Starting from the Woodyard end:-

"George Lampreys Tarry of one cottage.

Two lands in middle Sarewell...

Two butts in Middle Copthorne ...

The dwelling house three bays barne and outhouse three bays all stone walls and thacked and one little Garden plott "

John Gardner one cottage. The dwelling house three bays barne and gatehouse two bays all stone walls and thacked. One little Gardinge plott"

"John Hills Tarry of one cottage. The dwelling house two bays the barn one bay all stone walls and thacked and one little Garden plott."[12]

Each had the rights to keep a cow and paid the vicar twopence halfpenny each year as a tithe [13]. It can be seen from the above that they were not all identical. This was made about 1704 when the cottages were well over 100 years old.

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