Furtho
| Furtho | |
| Northamptonshire | |
|---|---|
 Manor Dovecote and St Bartholomew's church | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SP772429 |
| Location: | 52°4’48"N, 0°52’26"W |
| Data | |
| Post town: | Milton Keynes |
| Postcode: | MK19 |
| Dialling code: | 01908 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | West Northamptonshire |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
Northampton South |
| Website: | Potterspury Parish Council |
Furtho is a deserted mediæval village and ancient parish in the Cleley hundred of Northamptonshire. It was a civil parish between 1866 and 1951, but now forms part of Potterspury civil parish.
Furtho is east of Potterspury, west of Cosgrove and about two miles north-west of Stony Stratford. The nearest towns are Wolverton, three miles to the south-east and Towcester, five miles to the north-west.
Manor
The parish extends to 693 acres and is bounded on one side by the River Tove. The Domesday Book of 1086 recorded three estates totalling less than four hides, all held of Robert, Count of Mortain. The largest was a manor of two hides that by the 1240s was held by a Walter de Furtho.[1]
The village was depopulated by the Furtho family inclosing its land in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. In 1572 Thomas Furtho inclosed the demesnes and gave villagers 20 acres of land in the common fields in exchange for their plots and for giving up their ancient right of way to Watling Street. In 1621 Edward Furtho died without issue so the Furtho estate passed to his surviving sisters Anne Staunton and Nightingale Mansel. The Stauntons sold their half in 1625 to Sir Robert Banastre. He died in 1649, leaving his estate to his grandson Banastre Maynard, 3rd Baron Maynard, who sold the estate in 1666.[1]
The manor house has been lost but its 15th-century dovecote survives. It was restored in 1917 and 1990. Its present conical roof is 20th-century and the upper stage is only partially complete.[2] It is a Grade-II* listed building.[3]
There is a "Furtho Manor Farm" but it is a more modern, red-brick building unconnected with the lost manor house. It is now a guest house.[4]
Parish church
The Church of England parish church of St Bartholomew is partly 12th- and 14th-century, but was mostly rebuilt in 1620.[2] It was last used for worship in 1921,[2] when the ecclesiastical parish was united with that of St Peter's, Potterspury.[1]
St Bartholomew's is now in the care of the Churches Conservation Trust.[5] It is a Grade II* listed building.[6]
Economic and social history
By the 1720s only four houses remained in Furtho, and by the 1830s this had declined to two. Furtho civil parish was united with that of Potterspury in 1951.[1]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Riden & Insley 2002, pp. 127–142.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Pevsner 1961, p. 221.
- ↑ National Heritage List 1041652: Dovecote at Manor Farm (Grade II* listing)
- ↑ Furtho Manor Farm
- ↑ "St Bartholomew's Church, Furtho, Northamptonshire". Complete list of our churches. Churches Conservation Trust. http://www.visitchurches.org.uk/Ourchurches/Completelistofchurches/St-Bartholemews-Church-Furtho-Northamptonshire/. Retrieved 22 January 2015.
- ↑ National Heritage List 1191073: Church of St Bartholomew (Grade II* listing)
Sources
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Furtho) |
- Pevsner, Nikolaus; Cherry, Bridget (revision) (1973) [1961]. Northamptonshire. The Buildings of England (2nd ed.). Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. p. 221. ISBN 0-14-071022-1.
- Riden, Philip; Insley, Charles, eds (2002). A History of the County of Northampton. Victoria County History. 5: The Hundred of Cleley. London: Institute of Historical Research. pp. 127–142. ISBN 1904356028. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/northants/vol5/pp127-142.
