Roy Holding
17 Feb 2014
A manor was a territory granted by the monarch to a lord who had rights of succession. The French word ‘manere’ means to remain. The lord could sell his freehold or the monarch could reclaim it. Feudalism meant that the lord, who had to supply men and arms at the king’s command, had military, legal and economic power over his vassals. The Court Leet was the body by which the lord exercised justice.
What is today called Henley in Arden consisted of two parishes, neither of which was mentioned in the Domesday Book. Beaudesert was part of Preston Bagot. This was given by William the Conqueror to the de Montfort family. Thurston de Montfort (1120-70) built the castle and St Nicholas Church. Queen Matilda’s charter of 1140 granted him a market on Sundays. Henley was part of the manor of Wootton Wawen whose Saxon lord was Wawen, but after 1066 it was given by the king to Robert de Stafford. The village, on an old Roman route, grew faster than Beaudesert. The two manors were merged in the 13th century, for reasons unknown.
The de Montforts were Lords of the Manor of Henley from 1066 until 1369, when they were followed by the Earls of Warwick until 1478. Sir Ralph Boteler, who became Lord High Treasurer in 1444, built the Guildhall and St John’s Church. Henry VI’s charter of 1449 granted him the income from court fines both within and beyond his manor. He had no heir so the manor reverted to the Crown in 1478. Until the Civil War it was generally kept in hand, but occasionally granted to an individual. One such was Richard Walker who sold it to Thomas Archer in 1656. Andrew Archer died in 1790: he had no male heir but four daughters who, with their husbands, were all Lords of the Manor simultaneously until 1801. The Archers remained lords until 1873.
Sir Francis Galton (1822-1911), Lord of the Manor of Claverdon and part of the distinguished Darwin family, bought the lordship of Henley in 1873. That family sold it in 1914 to William Fieldhouse, a Birmingham industrialist, who restored the Guildhall. On his death in 1928, his daughter Olive Nancy Barnard became lord, and donated the Guildhall to the town. She died in 1974 and her grandson inherited. He auctioned the title in 1990.
It was bought by Joseph Hardy of Pittsburgh for $200,000. He made his first visit in 1992 and was well pleased with the living traditions of his purchase. He proved to be a great benefactor and, amongst many other gifts, financed the creation of the Heritage Centre. He is still alive but gifted the title in 1994 to his daughter, Robin Hardy Freel, an American restauranteur. She has made several visits.
The Court Leet, headed by the High Bailiff, is still elected each November and continues certain responsibilities, eg the tasting of ale, weighing of butter and the checking of watercourses. Its records go back to 1590 and it holds various charters given by the monarch to the Lords of the Manor. It also has a very rare copy of Sir William Dugdale’s Antiquities of Warwickshire (1656). Other local Court Leets survive at Alcester, Bromsgrove and Warwick (now the Town Council).
The BBC’s Time Team was given three days to excavate Beaudesert Castle in 2002. The foundations of the stone fortifications were discovered, along with coins (c1200 AD), tiles and pottery. The castle was virtually destroyed after the Battle of Evesham (1265), but later refurbished before being left to ruin, and its stone plundered, in the 16th century.
[Roy Holding was High Bailiff in 2006 and 2007]