Visit Westoning Places

Welcome to Visit Westoning Places
The Walkfo guide to things to do & explore in Westoning

  

Westoning Places Overview: History, Culture & Facts about Westoning

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Westoning history

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Dark and Middle Ages

The village is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086; men in the village (as heads of household or serfs) numbered 16 villagers (villeins), 3 smallholders and 4 slaves (serfs). Cultivated land amounted to 14 ploughlands (land for) two lord’s plough teams, five men’s plough teams. Other resources were 2.0 ploughs of lord’s lands (private parkland), seven ploughs of meadow and woodland worth 400 pigs (annual turnover of swine livestock). The head manor was Hitchin, which was owned by the King. Alternative names of the village in this period were Weston (11th century), Weston Tregoz (early 14th century) and Weston Inge (14th century); these are documented in such documents as Patent Rolls of the King’s letters patent. The spelling Weston Hyng may be a further alternative, used in 1396. The manor first left complete royal demesne, with the unfettered right to appoint mesne lords, in 1173 when the King granted the estate worth £15 per year to Roger de Sanford who three years later owed 5 marks for default (of the annual knight’s fee) to the King. His executors negotiated a notified Release of it to William de Buckland who paid £100 to effectively be seized of the whole village, save the churchlands; in 1216 his son-in-law, Robert de Ferrar, inherited. His son-in-law was to receive it by a family settlement yet unfortunately this man named William d’Avrenches died before 1230 and his son before 1235, thus the lands descended to Hamon de Crevecœur via a daughter, followed by his son William and his widow Mabel who later married John Tregoz (before her death in 1297). Three co-heirs followed, the family of William de Crevecœur’s three sisters (Agnes, Isolda and Eleanor). Agnes’s share descended to Juliana de Weylondon, the other two-thirds were purchased by 1299 by an acquisitive William Inge. He enhanced his portion of the manor by gaining in 1303 a Royal Licence on his portion to hold a weekly market and annual fair. Five years later Inge acquired the remaining third of the Weston Manor. Inge was Chief Justice of the King’s Bench in the reign of Edward II, and in 1310 received a grant of 100 marks as recompense for wages and horses lost by him in his Scottish war. By 1371 the lands (and the manorial rights) passed to William la Zouche, son of Joan, daughter and heir of William Inge, Lords of the Manor of Eaton Bray; this line ran both estates until 1525–6 when a later William la Zouche died during the Wars of the Roses. John Aynell held this manor directly of the King in the mid-fourteenth century. By 1418 it was held by John Shathewell of Priestley and Isabel his wife and in 1480 descended from Thomas Rufford to his son, and then in turn, his son, who in 1541 released all of the rights and land to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. This land in 1543 was described as “a messuage with certain lands called Aynells, on which was a charge of 10s. payable to Westoning Chantry”, which had been endowed with land by a prominent lord of the main manor in 1314, William Inge. In 1708 the college paid “An outrent to the king, 10s.” The last item represents the 10s. formerly paid to Westoning chantry before its dissolution. The Dissolution of the Chantries took place in 1549, at which time the priest of the chantry in the church was described as ‘but meanly [averagely] learned, not able to serve a cure [of souls] and hath no other living but this chantry.’ The rectory of Westoning was transferred by the Crown from the Nunnery at Elstow Abbey to Thomas Hungate and Simon Aynesworth in 1550. Until the beginning of the 19th century the rectory shared the history of Westoning Manor, when Francis Penyston was impropriator of the rectorial tithes (and thus liability) and they passed to his daughter, who held them in 1836 and in 1912 they were vested in the Penyston trustees. Younges Manor, mostly in Westoning, is recorded for the first time in 1682, when it was held by Henrietta Wentworth, 6th Baroness Wentworth with her manor of Toddington. These lands descended with Toddington up to the beginning of the 19th century but all trace of it is lost after 1803. At the time of the dissolution, Woburn Abbey held lands in Westoning with an annual value of £2 18s. 2½d., but no further mention of this property has been found. Mention occurs of a water mill in an extent (survey document of the extent) of Westoning Manor made in 1297, and in 1322 two mills are found attached to the manor. Another extent dated fifty years later again mentions one mill, then worth nothing, and reference is found to it in a document as late as 1615. However no mills were in the parish in 1912.

Post Dissolution of the Monasteries/Reformation

Henry VIII summoned a later La Zouche as lord of Westoning in 1533 to show on what (e.g. annual) service his ancestors held the manor. Henry VIII had it attached to the Royal Honor of Ampthill. From 1555 the crown granted Westoning Manor to the Curzons acquired it, descending to Sir George Farmer (before 1615), Sir Halton Farmer or Fermor and then Sir William Fermor.

Post-Industrial Revolution

Westoning has varied soil on a subsoil of strong clay, which was in this period worked in a claypit disused by 1912 at Westoning Wood End, for the manufacture of bricks. The village has, however, seen substantial development throughout the last century with new developments.

Westoning landmarks

Major Coventry Campion built the Clock Tower of brick and stone to mark the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria. This was derelict for many years but was restored as part of the year 2000 millennium celebrations.

You can visit Westoning places with Walkfo Westoning to hear history at Westoning’s places whilst walking around using the free digital tour app. Walkfo Westoning has 22 places to visit in our interactive Westoning map, with amazing history, culture & travel facts you can explore the same way you would at a museum or art gallery with information audio headset. With Walkfo, you can travel by foot, bike or bus throughout Westoning, being in the moment, without digital distraction or limits to a specific walking route. Our historic audio walks, National Trust interactive audio experiences, digital tour guides for English Heritage locations are available at Westoning places, with a AI tour guide to help you get the best from a visit to Westoning & the surrounding areas.

“Curated content for millions of locations across the UK, with 22 audio facts unique to Westoning places in an interactive Westoning map you can explore.”

Walkfo: Visit Westoning Places Map
22 tourist, history, culture & geography spots

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Westoning historic spots	Westoning tourist destinations	Westoning plaques	Westoning geographic features
Walkfo Westoning tourism map key: places to see & visit like National Trust sites, Blue Plaques, English Heritage locations & top tourist destinations in Westoning

  

Best Westoning places to visit

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Westoning has places to explore by foot, bike or bus. Below are a selection of the varied Westoning’s destinations you can visit with additional content available at the Walkfo Westoning’s information audio spots:

Visit Westoning plaques