Parishes: Bozeat

BOZEAT

Bosiete (xi cent.); Bosehate, Bosezate, Bosyate, Bosegate (xiii cent.); Bosizatt (xvi-xvii cent.).

Bozeat is on the borders of Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire, a stone at Shirewood about 2 miles southeast of the village marking the boundary between the three counties. The London road from Wellingborough to Olney runs through the parish from north to south. The village lies mainly along two roads branching east from the London road, the lower one being called the High Street.

St. Mary's Church, with the vicarage to the west of it, lies at the eastern side of the village. To the south of it, across the road, are Manor Farm and Church Farm, the Independent Methodist chapel built in 1892, and the Baptist chapel built in 1844. There is a cemetery of about an acre formed in 1903, with a mortuary chapel. A public elementary school was built in 1873, and enlarged in 1892. A working men's club founded in 1894 has a club house, built in 1897; and an obelisk of Weldon stone was erected in 1920 to the memory of 39 men of the parish who fell in the Great War. There are disused brickworks north-west of the village; and about a quarter of a mile to the south of the village, down the London road, are Bozeat mill and windmill, the last surviving post mill in the county.

The parish lies mostly at a height of about 300 ft., and while the surface is level in some districts, in the north it is hilly. It has an area of 2,605 acres. The soil is a stiff loam; the subsoil limestone. The chief crops grown are cereals. Shoemaking employs a considerable number of hands. Some Bozeat tradesmen's tokens of the 17th century are known. (fn. 1) The population in 1931 was 1,157.

Manors

In Bozeat, 2 hides less 1 virgate were the property of Waltheof Earl of Huntingdon before the Conquest, and were held by his wife the Countess Judith in the Domesday Survey. (fn. 2) The overlordship of this manor, later known as the manor of LATIMERS, descended with the earldom and honor of Huntingdon as Yardley Hastings (q.v.).

Under Earl Waltheof this property was held by Stric. In 1086 Lanzelin was the Countess Judith's tenant, the pre-Conquest value of 40s. remaining unaltered. The family of de Moreville were undertenants of this fee in the 12th century, and an inquiry held in the reign of King John (fn. 3) showed that Richard de Moreville (Constable of the King of Scotland and father of Helen de Moreville) had been seised of the land of Whissendine (Rutland) and Bozeat, and later had been disseised on account of the war between Henry II and King William of Scotland. To Earl David's counterclaim that King Henry had granted the land to his brother King William, who had then granted it to himself to hold in demesne, Helen de Moreville objected that it was only the service rendered for the land which had been granted to him by the King of Scotland. Alan de Galway, the son of Helen de Moreville, married Margaret, the daughter of Earl David, and received a grant of 2 fees in Whissendine and Bozeat to hold of him by homage and service. (fn. 4) Alan de Galway and his mother appear in 1213 as owing 600 marks and 6 palfreys for the foregoing inquiry. (fn. 5) A fee in Bozeat appears in 1242 as held of Henry de Hastings by John Hansard. (fn. 6) The Hansards were still in possession of this fee in 1275, (fn. 7) when it was ordered that the manor of Bozeat, held in chief by Gilbert Hansard, should be taken into the king's hands, as he had alienated it without licence. Probably he had sold it to one of the Mowbrays, as in 1312 a fee held by John Mowbray in Bozeat was included among the fees held at his death by John de Hastings. (fn. 8) The declaration in 1318 that there never were any lands in Bozeat of ancient demesne (fn. 9) may indicate that the Hastings overlordship had been called in question. William Latimer at his death in 1336 held the manor of Bozeat of John de Mowbray by service of one knight's fee. (fn. 10) At the death of Laurence de Hastings, Earl of Pembroke, in 1348, one fee was held of him by John de Mowbray in Bozeat, and another by William Latimer (fn. 11) (son of the last-named William). After this date the Mowbray mesnelordship is not again recorded. The other fee came to the Latimers through the Twengs and the Bruces, and was also for a time returned as held in chief by them. Robert de Tweng appears to have claimed view of frankpledge in Bozeat in 1275. (fn. 12) On 15 October 1285 the custody of the manor of Bozeat, during minority of the heir of Robert de Tweng, was granted to Roger de Fricurt, king's yeoman, (fn. 13) and in February 1294 the manor of Bozeat was in the king's hands by reason of the minority of Lucy daughter and heir of Robert de Tweng, tenant in chief. (fn. 14) Lucy had inherited property in the north as grand-daughter and heir of Marmaduke de Tweng and of Lucy sister and co-heir of Peter de Bruce. (fn. 15) In 1311 Lucy de Tweng and William Latimer her husband made a settlement of the manors of Danby, co. York, and of Bozeat, both of the inheritance of Lucy, (fn. 16) to William Latimer to hold for life, with remainder to William their son. (fn. 17) In 1316 Bozeat was assessed with Easton [Maudit] and with half Strixton, William Latimer appearing among the tenants then enumerated. (fn. 18)

On 3 November 1328 a grant of free warren was made by Edward III to William Latimer in the manors of Scredington (co. Lincoln) and of Bozeat. (fn. 19) He claimed view of frankpledge in 1329 as having been held with the manor by Lucy de Bruce, who enfeoffed of the manor his father William Latimer. (fn. 20)

After the death of William Latimer in 1335 the manor was held in dower by his widow Elizabeth until her death on 11 April 1384. (fn. 21) Her son Sir William Latimer predeceased her, dying on 28 May 1381, and his heir was his daughter Elizabeth, wife of John de Neville Lord of Raby. (fn. 22) The manor was then assigned in dower to his widow, also named Elizabeth, (fn. 23) who at her death in 1389 was returned as holding it of the Earl of Pembroke by service of half a knight's fee, of the inheritance of her daughter Elizabeth. (fn. 24) Lady Elizabeth Neville married as her second husband Sir Robert de Willoughby of Eresby, and died seised of the manor of Bozeat in 1395. (fn. 25) Lady Elizabeth's heir by her first husband was their son John Neville, but after her death the manor was held by her second husband Sir Robert de Willoughby until he died on 9 August 1396. (fn. 26) It was then returned as held of the honor of Huntingdon, but by what service was not known. (fn. 27) In 1428 Bozeat was assessed for feudal aids as 1 fee held by Lord Latimer of the honor of Huntingdon. (fn. 28) John de Neville, Lord Latimer, died s.p. in 1430–1, having entailed the manor on Ralf Earl of Westmoreland, his step-brother, i.e. the son of his father John Lord Neville by his first wife Maud daughter of Lord Percy. (fn. 29) By Earl Ralf it was bestowed on his third son, Sir George Neville, who with his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Beauchamp Earl of Warwick, made settlement of it in 1444. (fn. 30) He, as Sir George Neville Lord Latimer, died seised of it jointly with his wife Elizabeth on 30 December 1469, his heir being his grandson Richard Neville, son of his son Henry, who had been slain that year. In the inquisition taken on the following 10 May (fn. 31) he was said to have held the manor of the heirs of Thomas d'Evreux by half a knight's fee, but this was evidently a confusion with the manor of Marshes (q.v.). Elizabeth, his widow, died on 27 October 1480, when it was returned that she had granted the stewardship of the manor to Richard Maryette. (fn. 32) Her grandson Sir Richard Neville of Latimer succeeded her. On 3 April 1500 he and his wife Anne made a settlement of this and other manors. (fn. 33) Sir Richard was succeeded by his son John Lord Latimer, whose son John Lord Latimer next succeeded, and died at Snape in Yorkshire on 22 April 1577 leaving four daughters as his co-heirs: Catherine, wife of Henry Earl of Northumberland; Dorothy, wife of Sir Thomas Cecil; Lucy, wife of William Cornwallis, esq.; and Elizabeth, wife of Sir John Danvers. (fn. 34) These ladies, with their husbands, were dealing by fine with the manors of Bozeat, Church Brampton, Stowe, and Kislingbury in 1579, (fn. 35) and in 1580 the manors of Bozeat and Church Brampton were conveyed to Sir Thomas Cecil and his wife Dorothy by Richard Neville and his wife Barbara. (fn. 36) Sir Thomas Cecil in right of his wife, the Lady Dorothy, subsequently took proceedings against Robert Johnson, steward of Lord Latimer and of Sir Thomas Cecil in these properties, to cause him to surrender court rolls and other evidences, and confess what he had cut or otherwise defaced in the same. (fn. 37)

These proceedings may possibly be connected with preparations for a sale of the manor, as in 1598 a conveyance of the manors of Bozeat Latimers and of Bozeat Marshes (q.v.) was made by Sir Thomas Cecil and his wife Dorothy to John Wiseman and his wife Margery, (fn. 38) and both these manors were after this date held by the Wisemans.

In 1603 John Wiseman settled the two manors of Bozeat and the rectory and advowson on his nephew Henry, younger son of his brother Richard, at the marriage of the said Henry with Mary Burley, daughter of Richard Burley of Elsenham, co. Essex, with contingent remainder to Richard, elder brother of the said Henry. (fn. 39) John Wiseman died at Bozeat on 11 December 1615, his heir being his brother Richard's son Richard, and was succeeded in the Bozeat manors by his nephew Henry and the latter's wife Mary. (fn. 40) His own wife Frances survived him, and his nephew Richard died seised of the reversion of this property on 15 October 1616, leaving a wife Dorothy and a son and heir Mark. (fn. 41)

In 1630 Henry Wiseman and his wife Mary were dealing (fn. 42) with the manors, rectory, and advowson, all settled on the said Mary for life, with remainder to their son John and his wife Elizabeth. John Wiseman of St. Leonard's in Shoreditch, London, died seised of the manors, rectory, and advowson on 7 April 1637, leaving a son and heir John aged 2, (fn. 43) who in 1656 conveyed them to John Gundry, (fn. 44) apparently a settlement on attaining his majority, as the manors remained in the Wiseman family, and when Bridges wrote were in the hands of Hester and Elizabeth Wiseman, (fn. 45) by inheritance from their brother John Wiseman, their mother being, according to Bridges, Catherine, daughter of Sir Edward Alston of East Barnet. In 1729 Hester and Elizabeth Wiseman presented to the church. In 1737 Elizabeth Wiseman, spinster, conveyed the manors of Bozeat Latimers and Marshes to Sara Dowager Duchess of Marlborough, (fn. 46) and in 1739 the duchess presented to the church. From her it passed to the Spencers. The presentation to the church was made in 1753 by John Spencer, esq. (in whose hands the manors must have been at that date), and in 1795 and 1796 by Earl Spencer, who was returned in the Inclosure Act of 1798 as lord of the manor and owner of the impropriate rectory, (fn. 47) which remained in the possession of the Spencer family.

The manor of MARSHES originated in land held at the date of the Domesday Survey by William Peverel, under whom Turstin [Mantel] was holding 1½ virgates in Bozeat of which the soc appertained to Higham. (fn. 48) The 12th-century Northampton Survey records 3 small virgates in Bozeat (fn. 49) as of the fee of William Peverel, and 1½ virgates which had been entered in the Domesday Survey as held in Easton by William Peverel, (fn. 50) and were waste, probably made up the difference.

The overlordship descended with the fee of Ferrers to Edmund Earl of Lancaster, and in 1298 was included in the dower of his widow Blanche, as was also a thirtieth of a fee in Bozeat held by Robert the Clerk. (fn. 51) This, of which there is no further trace, may have originated in a grant of land made in the time of King John by William de Wenneval to 'Roger my clerk'. (fn. 52) The Bozeat half-fee descended to Thomas Earl of Lancaster (fn. 53) and passed with his other property into the hands of the Crown.

Early in the 13th century Robert Bloet was in possession of this manor and granted a messuage, vineyard, garden, pigeon-house, and 5 virgates, with the services of the bondmen, to Ralph Hareng. (fn. 54) All this Ralph, with the consent of his son Ralph, gave in 1222 to the nuns of Godstow, on condition of their paying £5 yearly to the abbey of St. James outside Northampton. (fn. 55) But immediately afterwards he and the Abbess Felice rearranged the grant, so that the land went to the abbey of St. James, who should pay the £5 yearly to Godstow; (fn. 56) and about twenty years later Abbot Adam of St. James sold the vineyard back to Sir Ralph Hareng (probably the son) without abating the rent charge. (fn. 57) Geoffrey de Stokes had apparently acquired the rights of Robert Bloet before 1229, when he made over the 5 virgates to Ralph Hareng, at the same time paying 4 marks to the abbey of St. James for a fishpond on the property. (fn. 58) In 1242 Thomas d'Evreux (de Ebraicis) was holding this half-fee; (fn. 59) and in 1246 he was granted land which he had assarted on the king's demesne and the custody of the wood of Hornwood, which he had held from the king's foresters in fee before they forfeited their bailiwick. (fn. 60) This was acquired from him and granted to the abbey of St. James by John de Stokes, (fn. 61) who in 1255 granted a lease to the abbey of St. James without Northampton for fifteen years of land in Bozeat and the custody of Hornwood, (fn. 62) and in the same year conveyed to Abbot Adam a wood and half a knight's fee in Bozeat and Higham. (fn. 63) In the assessment in 1316 of Bozeat with Easton [Maudit] and half Strixton for feudal aids, the abbot of St. James appears among tenants enumerated, (fn. 64) and in the same year was engaged in a dispute with Richard Shortnot, a tenant of the manor of Bozeat, because the said Richard had unjustly claimed that this manor was of the ancient demesne of the Crown. (fn. 65) Richard, however, was discharged on that occasion owing to the abbot's having exacted from him and other tenants services other than those which it had been customary to render. An inquisition of 1318 stated that there were no lands in Bozeat of the ancient demesne of the Crown. (fn. 66)

Other land in Bozeat had been acquired by Adam, Abbot of St. James, to whom William de Dudinton in 1262 granted a messuage and 45 acres of land there. (fn. 67) In 1292 John de Nowers quitclaimed to Abbot Ralph the wood of Stoneway in Bozeat, which had been granted to the abbey by John Maudit, lord of Easton (q.v.), for a rent of 2s. or one sparrow-hawk; (fn. 68) and in 1319 Walter Mauntell received licence to alienate to the abbey 2½ acres in Bozeat. (fn. 69) Additional land in Bozeat was acquired in 1391–2 by the abbey, (fn. 70) whose property there was valued at the Dissolution at £10 yearly. (fn. 71) The manor of Bozeat, with the rectory and advowson of the vicarage, and woods called Abbots Stonyway, Bozeat Stockings, and Abbots Hornwood, all part of the possessions of the late monastery, were in 1544 granted to Philip Meredith and others, mercers of London, (fn. 72) lands belonging to the monastery having been also granted in 1543 to Laurence French of Bozeat, (fn. 73) and in 1546 to George Ryche and Thomas Grantham of Lincoln's Inn. (fn. 74) On 1 February 1550 Sir John Royse and others received licence to alienate the manor, rectory, and advowson to John Marshe and his wife Alice, (fn. 75) who in 1556 sold them to John Dobbes. (fn. 76) The wood called Abbots Stoneye or Stonyway and the rectory and advowson (q.v.) were on 20 June of the same year granted by John Dobbes to Baldwin Payne, merchant of the staple of Calais, and various tenements belonging to the manor and late monastery were sold by John Dobbes to several different owners. (fn. 77) The manor John Marshe evidently retained, as in 1571 he settled it on his son and heir William Marshe, (fn. 78) from whom it had passed before 1598 to Sir Thomas Cecil and his wife Dorothy, who were then holding it with the manor of Bozeat Latimers (q.v.), with which it continued to be held.

View of frankpledge was claimed in the vill of Bozeat by the Prior of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem in 1330. (fn. 79)

Church

The church of ST. MARY THE VIRGIN consists of chancel, 29 ft. by 16 ft. 3 in.; clerestoried nave, 48 ft. by 22 ft.; north and south aisles, south porch, and west tower, 10 ft. 6 in. square, surmounted by a broach spire. The width across nave and aisles is 46 ft. 6 in., all measurements being internal.

The church is faced throughout with rubble and is plastered internally. The chancel has a modern eaved roof covered with tiles, but the low-pitched leaded roofs of the nave and aisles are behind plain parapets.

The tower and spire were taken down in 1880 (fn. 80) and rebuilt in 1883, but retain most of their architectural features, the old stonework having been used where possible. The tower was of late-12th-century date, with later alterations, and the spire an addition in the 14th century. To the latter period the chancel arch and east window, the aisle windows, and the porch belong, but the priest's doorway, a low side window in the chancel, and the south doorway of the nave are of 13th-century date. No other 13th-century work remains. The side windows of the chancel, and the west window and doorway of the tower are insertions of the 15th century, and the clerestory is an addition of the same period. At the east end of the nave the north-east and south-east angles of the earlier aisleless church remain, but whether aisles were first added in the 14th century or were then only rebuilt is uncertain. The existing south arcade is of the early 14th century and the north arcade rather later, but a keel shaped string runs at sill level along the south aisle externally, (fn. 81) which, if in its original position, would indicate the existence on this side of a 13th-century aisle. It may, however, be old work re-used in the 14th century, the south doorway being then brought forward.

The chancel was restored in 1874 and again in 1895; it has 14th-century diagonal angle buttresses of three stages and a pointed east window of three trefoiled lights with unrestored reticulated tracery and hoodmould. The double piscina in the south wall, with cinquefoiled openings, is of the late 14th century, though the one remaining bowl may be earlier. The priest's doorway has a pointed arch of a single continuous chamfered order and hood-mould terminating in notchheads, but is now blocked. The low side window is in the usual position at the west end of the south wall and consists of a tall and very narrow lancet, divided just above mid-height by a transom. It has an external hood-mould and simple chamfer all round, and a plain chamfered rear-arch, but the lower part is blocked and plastered over on both sides: the upper portion is glazed. Immediately below the sloping sill, and close to the floor, is a small rectangular recess, or cupboard. (fn. 82) The side windows of the chancel are square-headed with Perpendicular tracery; in the north wall two of two cinquefoiled lights, and on the south a similar window at the west end and one of three lights above the piscina. The chancel arch is of two chamfered orders, the inner springing from half-octagonal responds with moulded capitals and the outer continued to the ground.

The nave arcades are of three bays with pointed arches of two chamfered orders springing from octagonal piers with moulded capitals and bases, but dying into the walls at each end. At the east end of the north arcade the circular rood-loft stair remains in a very perfect state, with lower and upper doorways, the wall being thickened out and encroaching on the aisle. Above the arcades, at the level of the sills of the clerestory windows, are the corbels of the old nave roof, six on the north and five on the south side.

The north aisle has a pointed east window of two cinquefoiled lights and cusped quatrefoil in the head, and in the north wall three square-headed windows, the easternmost of three and the others of two trefoiled lights. The north doorway is of two continuous chamfered orders with moulded label. The aisle is divided externally into three bays by buttresses, those at the angles being diagonal, but is without string-course or plinth. In the west wall, now covered by a modern vestry, is a small oblong window, chamfered all round, the sill of which is 6 ft. above the floor, (fn. 83) and in the east wall an image-bracket and canopied niche respectively south and north of the aisle altar.

The pointed east window of the south aisle is of three cinquefoiled lights with cusped rectilinear tracery, and in the south wall, near its east end, is a square-headed window of three trefoiled lights. The second bay is blank, but west of the porch is a three-light pointed window with reticulated tracery and high up in the west wall a small single quatrefoil opening within a circle. In the usual position in the south wall is an ogee-headed trefoiled piscina with fluted bowl, and farther west, near the doorway, an elegant 14th-century stoup with trefoiled head.

The 13th-century south doorway is of two richly moulded orders with foliated capitals, but the angleshafts are gone. The porch has an outer doorway of two wave-moulded orders, the inner on moulded capitals and the outer continuous: above is a trefoiled niche, and in the side walls blocked windows.

There are three square-headed clerestory windows of two trefoiled lights on each side: the nave roof is partly old.

The tower is of three unequal stages, with bellchamber windows of two recessed rounded lights with dividing shaft, under a semicircular arch with indented hood-mould, on shafts with early volute capitals and moulded bases: the west opening is ancient, but those north and south are restored. In the lofty lower stage on the south side is a single-light window of similar type, without hood-mould, but on the north both the lower stages are blank. The diagonal angle buttresses were probably added after the erection of the west doorway and window, the insertion of which weakened the tower. (fn. 84) The doorway has continuous moulded jambs and head set in a rectangular frame with cusped spandrels; the window is more elaborate, with ogee head and crocketed hood-mould, of two cinquefoiled lights, battlemented transom, and modern quatrefoil tracery. In the middle stage facing west is a plain round-headed opening, which, though modern, reproduces an original feature. There is no vice. The semicircular tower arch is of two unmoulded orders with rounded label, on quirked and chamfered imposts: above it, now opening to the nave, is a small roundheaded window. The broach spire rises from a 14thcentury corbel table of tendrils and heads, and has plain angles and two sets of lights on its cardinal faces: the broaches are very low.

The 15th-century chancel screen has been restored and its battlemented top rail is new. It consists of three main bays, the side ones subdivided, with solid lower panels and traceried openings. The screen retains traces of gilding and colour, and in the eight lower panels is a series of paintings, those on the north side representing the expulsion from Eden and the Annunciation: on the south the figure of one of the Three Kings remains, but the second panel is blank and the others have single unidentified figures. Much of the nave seating is also of 15th-century date.

The font has a plain octagonal bowl and pedestal on a moulded base. The wooden pulpit is modern. In the nave is an oak chest dated 1686, with the names of the churchwardens, and in the chancel an 18th-century brass chandelier of twelve lights. The royal arms of George III (before 1801) are over the tower arch.

There are five bells, the first by Henry Penn of Peterborough 1723, the second a recasting by Taylor & Co. in 1884 of a medieval bell, the third undated by Newcombe of Leicester, and the fourth and tenor by Hugh Watts of Leicester, dated respectively 1635 and 1633. (fn. 85)

The plate consists of a silver cup and cover paten of 1636, and a modern brass alms dish. (fn. 86)

The earlier registers were destroyed in a fire at the vicarage 9 September 1729. The existing first volume contains entries of baptisms and burials from September 1729 to 1812, and marriages from 1729 to 1754: the second volume marriages from 1754 to 1781.

Advowson

The church was granted to the abbey of Dryburgh (co. Berwick) (probably by its founder, David King of Scotland) and leased by Dryburgh to the abbey of St. James without Northampton for a rent during the life of Athelard, after the death of Ædgar his father, of 20s. and a bezant, or 2s., and after the death of Athelard for a yearly payment of 2½ marks. (fn. 87) It was then granted circa 1150–60 by Walter de Isel to the abbey of St. James. (fn. 88) In 1291 the church was valued at £6 yearly, and a pension from it of £1 13s. 4d. was paid to the Prior of St. Andrews, (fn. 89) to whom, according to Bridges, the pension of 2½ marks had been assigned by Dryburgh Abbey. (fn. 90) In the Valor of 1535 the rectory was returned as appropriated to the abbey of St. James, and the vicarage was valued at £6 yearly. (fn. 91) The advowson was held with the manor of Marshes (q.v.) in the first grants made of that manor after the Dissolution, and both rectory and advowson were conveyed by John Marshe and his wife Alice to John Dobbes in 1557, and by him to Baldwin Payne. (fn. 92)

The rectory seems to have been already held on lease by a member of the Payne family. It had been leased for 21 years on 2 June 1526 to John Hardwyke of Sharnbroke, co. Bedford, by the abbey of St. James, and on surrender of this lease was in 1545 granted to Sir Robert Tyrwhitt, junr., by the Crown. (fn. 93) William Payne subsequently sued George and Richard Payne (fn. 94) to recover possession of a lease of the rectory which, it was stated, had been granted by the abbey on 24 March 1538 to Richard Cromwell, esq., for 80 years from the expiration of the former lease to John Hardwyke; after which Richard Cromwell had conveyed his interest to Daniel Payne, who had bequeathed it in 1558 to his son William, the plaintiff. It is not clear what the connexion between Baldwin and Daniel Payne was. The rectory was apparently next held in moieties by two Payne ladies, by whom it was conveyed with the advowson to Lewis Lord Mordaunt, one half by Thomas Pacye and Denise his wife in 1573, (fn. 95) the other half by Ursula Payne in 1575. (fn. 96) By Lewis Lord Mordaunt and Henry Mordaunt his son and heir the rectory and advowson were in 1600 conveyed to John Wiseman, (fn. 97) and they continued to be held with the manor (q.v.), Earl Spencer, who presented in 1796, being owner of the impropriate rectory at the passing of the Inclosure Act in 1798. In the following century the rectory was held by Dr. Lawrence, Archbishop of Cashel, whose representatives held it in 1849, Earl Spencer being then still patron. (fn. 98) The advowson is now held by the Bishop of Peterborough, to whom it was conveyed by Earl Spencer in 1922. (fn. 99)

Charities

The sum of £20 was left for the poor by a person named Cox. In respect of this a sum of £1 is distributed in bread by the churchwardens the first Sunday after Christmas.

An allotment of 13 acres was set out on the inclosure of the parish for the following purposes: 11 acres 3 roods thereof for reparation of the church; 1 acre for repair of the wells in the parish; and 1 rood for the parish clerk. The land is let for £14 19s., and of this £1 6s. is applied by two trustees appointed by the Parish Council in cleaning the parish well and the remainder is applied by the churchwardens in the repair of the church.

In 1830 a sum of 5s. yearly was distributed to the ten oldest men of the parish from issues of the lands of Mr. Thomas Dexter, by whom it was then administered. (fn. 100)