Hide Manor Farmhouse

Of all the relics in Weston Turville, I regard the Hide Manor Farmhouse as being the most impressive and parts of the moat once surrounding it can still be seen.

At the time of Edward the Confessor, 1042 to 1066, Weston Turville, then called Weston, was held in four parts or manors. After the conquest the division was obliterated but the four parts were revived in 1210 and one part was held by Fulk de la Hide, the origin of the name "Hide Manor". During 1483 it came into the hands of Sir Henry Colet, citizen and alderman of the City of London. He died in 1505 when it passed to his son and heir, John Colet, Dean of St. Paul's and founder of St. Paul's School, one of the four most famous of our public schools. He gave the manor to the school in 1576 and appointed the Wardens and Commonalty of the Mystery of Mercers of the City of London as trustees to manage it on their behalf.

Several generations of the Munger family were tenants of the manor but in 1919 the late Stanley Munger bought the estate and at the same time he acquired the manorial rights. A few years ago most of the land was sold, some for development and some for farming, but Stanley Munger's daughter still owns the manor farmhouse and continues to live there with her family. She lets me potter about the place with my rule and note books. I am most grateful to her.

A very old man, a builder and restorer, who spent a long life restoring churches and old houses, told me before he died of the tradition of including bits of the old in with the new; thus the spirit of the old lives on for ever. His own words were: "the aura of the past becomes the present and next the future". I always feel this when I visit the Manor Farmhouse; the house, consisting of three blocks, is a conglomerate of types, styles and materials. The main block, standing by the side of World's End Lane, is early nineteenth century and is a typical example of a comfortable and somewhat imposing house - a family home - of that period, but on examination it is seen that most of the brickwork above ground is built on old foundations and underneath are the old cellars or dungeons still dry and in sound condition. The differing types of bricks are laid in courses of varying styles and there is evidence of the window lights being opened and closed during the period of the window tax first imposed in 1697 and again at later dates, until it was repealed in 1851. The east wall of the main block built against the adjoining wall of the centre block contains several unusual features worthy of expert examination. But it is the centre block that excites the real interest. This is the site of the manorial or banqueting hall, probably first built when Fulk de la Hide became possessor of the estate in 1210. Today it is a remarkable relic and contains a series of beautifully carved capitals, vertical timbers and moulded wall plates and corbels, with infillings of brickwork and daubwork of multifarious dates.

In 1730, or thereabouts, the lower floor of the hall was converted into kitchens and the upper floor into bedrooms which are reached by an exceedingly narrow winding stairway.

The bedrooms were ceiled so there is no way of inspecting the carvings and mouldings on the roof supports now hidden above the ceiling. It is known, however, that there is a smoke-hole. This was established only a few years ago when the roof was stripped for repair.

The east block was used as a granary with pigeon holes under the eaves leading into the pigeon-house, or cote, in the roof. This was a customary addition to all old homesteads for two reasons: firstly, to control the pigeon population, and secondly, to provide a steady and reliable supply of good food.

A Saxon type of court-leet has been held in conjunction with the manor for centuries. The last court-leet was held at the Manor Farmhouse in 1900. This was based on the old Saxon principle of a collective obligation to maintain peace, an obligation which subsequently became the responsibility of the manorial court, or court-leet. It elected annually the officers who were to serve the manorial areas in assisting to regulate the affairs of the community. It appointed the principal officers of a manor, for example, the leadborough, borsholder, tythingman, constable (all synonyms), the ale-taster, the breadweigher and the swine-ringer. In late medieval times the manor officers became known as parish officers and in late Tudor times, became controlled by the parish and appointed by its vestry, which by this time had become an impartial unit of local government. The vestry is now an ecclesiastical body whose last remaining task, of any importance, is the appointment of churchwardens. The cradle of our liberties was the village - centuries before universal suffrage was ever dreamt of we were governing ourselves. The local community was the only real authority; the parish was the unit of government.