Prebendal Manor House

Prebendal Manor House
Northamptonshire
The Prebendal Manor House, Nassington
Location
Grid reference:	TL06299613
Location:	52°33’9"N, 0°26’2"W
Village:	Nassington
History
	Built After 1200
	Manor house
Information
Owned by:	Baile family
Website:	Prebendal Manor

The Prebendal Manor House stands close by the parish church, St Mary's, in Nassington in Northamptonshire. They both stand on a promontory overlooking the River Nene and the village. It is said to be the oldest manor house in Northamptonshire.

From the early twelfth century the manor of Nassington was held by the Church as a prebend, an endowment to support a cathedral clergyman, hence the name "Prebendal Manor". The manor was well provided for and the manor house forms the focus of a group of stone buildings, which includes a 16th-century dovecote, a large 18th century tithe barn and a 15th-century lodgings building.

The house is a Grade I listed building.

History

The Prebendal Manor House is the oldest manor house in the county and claims to be one of the longest continually inhabited in Britain, since an Anglo-Saxon long hall stood on the spot before the house of today. Nassington was a royal manor in the days of King Canute, and he is known to have visited it at some time after 1017.

In 1123 Henry I granted the churches of Nassington, Woodnewton, Tansor, and Southwick to St Mary’s of Lincoln, and Bishop Robert "in prebendam and the church and bishop shall hold them as Leving, the kings’ scribe, best held them." The man named, Leving, was the rector of Nassington at this time. It is thought that improvements to the hall were made by the church around 1160.

In the early 1200s a stone building with solar replaced the earlier timber house, but the central hearth remained. Further changes took place around 1270 when the roof was raised with the aisle posts being removed. Tie beams and large timbers now supported the roof. Other buildings such as a kitchen and farm buildings were located nearby. The 1400s saw lodgings added and improvements made to the great hall. The central hearth disappeared in favour of a fireplace, and the kitchen and buttery were moved to become part of the same building as the great hall. At the same time a gate-house was built, and a cobble courtyard was placed in front of the hall. The 16th century dovecote, built to house a thousand birds, is still in use.

At the dawn of the modern age the manor declined in importance. By the 1500s it was rented to yeoman farmers, and in the 1600s came under the management of the Earl of Westmoreland who continued the farming of the estate.

During the Civil War, Cromwell’s men “violently dispossessed the Prebendary and the vicar, and the Prebend was sold to Mr Bellamy. However at the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 the prebendary was returned to the church.

When Nassington was inclosed in 1778, James Ibbotson, the Prebendary at that time, vigorously protested, but failed to stop the changes. One consequence of the enclosure was to release him from the requirement to keep a bull, or boar for the inhabitants of Nassington, and the surrounding villages, within the benefice. The records of the inclosure are the first evidence of this custom but it is assumed to have been a customary obligation in force for generations

Inclosure brought changes and in 1778 the current tithe barn was built, replacing an earlier barn. At about the same time the gatehouse, brewhouse, bakehouse, and solar were demolished and the lodgings turned into a granary and stable. A garden was planted over the cobbled courtyard and the great hall modernised by division into smaller rooms.

In 1836, all prebends were abolished by Act of Parliament and so in 1840 the lands were passed to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners. In 1875 the Commissioners sold the manor to the Earl of Caetsfoot, so the Prebendal Manor came into private ownership after hundreds of years of ownership by the church. The lands were rentwed out to tenant farmers.

The entire property was derelict when bought by the present owners, Jane Baile and family. They have restored it and the gardens and grounds and installed a museum display on the history of the manor from the Middle Ages to modernity.

The Dovecote

The Dovecote

The Dovecotewas built in the sixteenth century, perhaps replacing an earlier one. A dovecote was a feature of many grand estates, as a place to breed and house pigeons for the table.

In addition to their meat, the pigeons' manure was harvested to make saltpetre for gunpowder.

The Tithe Barn

The Tithe Barn

The tithe barn is a large 18th century barn, originally used to store grain and also to provide a space for manual threshing. It was built in 1788 at the time of the inclosure of the parish, and replaced an earlier, mediæval barn.

The barn interior now houses a museum about the history of Prebendal Manor, and shows off some very nice bits of carved stone found around the site. Among the objects on display is a Saxon bone comb, the only inscribed Anglo-Saxon piece yet found in Northamptonshire: the inscription is in English, not Latin, but the words are unclear: it may just be the owner's name. Other items include a Roman spindle whorl and a fragment of a mediæval ches piece made of bone. There is also a recreation of a mediæval pottery workshop, with a kiln and examples of pottery and wooden vessels.

The Gardens

The gardens that surround the manor house have been designed and planted by Michael Brown as a recreation of a high-status garden from the 13th-15th century, planted to be both aesthetically pleasing and practically useful. The plan follows plants listed in several mediæval gardening guides, including a 15th-century Leech Book, while another garden area is based on plant tists in 'The Square Garden of Henry the Poet'.

There is a separate bed of Poisonous Plants, including Deadly Nightshade, Foxglove, Mandrake, Henbane, Hemlock, Lily of the Valley, Greater Celandine, White Bryony, and Corn Cockle.

Other garden features include a fish pond, coppice area, a Pleasure Garden, Wild Garden, small vineyard, orchard, and pens for raising sheep and pigs.

Outside links

• Prebendal Manor
• Britain Express: Prebendal Manor House, Nassington
• Destinations UK: Prebendal Manor House, Nassington