The manors of ERLEIGH – Maiden Earley
Pre Doomsday – Before 1066 AD
The land called Erleigh (Earley) with two manors existed before the Norman conquest (1066 AD). It is not known when exactly the manors were built or how long these lands had been occupied. The name recorded as Herlei or Erlei may have originated from the Germanic Heruli or Eruli Tribe. Read More on the Heruli connection here: https://earlefamilyhistory.com/the-heruli-tribe-of-scandinavia/
The Domesday Survey of 1086 records the name of the land as Herlei and Erlei, and through history, the name has evolved into many spellings. The Domesday Book spelling is the Latin spelling. Exactly what the name means is open to some debate. Many hundreds of place names have Ley or Leigh within them – which is Anglo Saxon for wood or clearing. Locally, this would apply to both Earley and Woodley.
The place name of Earley has a long and diverse history. Some ancient records show it as Arle. It is recorded as Harlei in the 11th century, Erleye in the 13th century, Erleigh in the 14th century, and Arley in the 16th century before settling (usually) to its present form of the modern spelling of Earley. Earley has co-existed for the last century, along with the older names of Erleigh, Erleigh, and Early. Today, three of these are in use in the modern day, as is evidenced by place names such as Earley Hill Road, Maiden Erleigh Lake, and Erleigh Road. There is no correct spelling of the settlement’s name, as all names have an equal place in history.
The Domesday survey of 1086 AD records two manors on the Erleigh land,
#1 Erleigh St. Bartholomew (‘Erle Bertelmewe’), later called Erleigh Court.
At the time of the Domesday survey, Erleigh Bartholomew was held by a Norman tenant of the King, Osbern Giffard.
#2 Erleigh St. Nicholas, also known as Erleigh Regis and later called Erleigh Whiteknights.
This manor was held before 1066 by Almar (a SAXON) in alod (Freehold) of King Edward the Confessor and, at the time of the Survey (1086), was part of the royal demesne (holding). It was assessed at four hides, meaning there was enough land for four households.
In addition to the manors, there was also a Catholic Convent and Nunnery located at nearby Reading Abby. There was a chapel on the land, but it isn’t recorded in the Domesday survey, so it is possible that the Chapel in the story below was built later (see: https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/berks/vol2/pp73-77).
#3 Maiden Erleigh, an additional manor, was formed later out of Erleigh St Nicholas as a gift of land by John de Erleigh to Robert de Erleigh in 1362.
The manor of MAIDEN EARLEY was formed out of Earley Whiteknights. In 1362, John de Earley had permission from the King to grant two messuages (dwelling house with outbuildings and land assigned to its use) and 19 acres of land with appurtenances to Robert de Earley and Joan, his wife.
The de Erleigh family held these manors in Berkshire from about the mid-1100s until 1362. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the Earley family began to decline.
Earley Whiteknights, otherwise known as Earley Regis or Earley St Nicholas.
The manor of EARLEY REGIS, which later became EARLEY WHITEKNIGHTS (Herlei, xi cent.; Erleye, Ere, Erlegh, xiii cent.; Early, Erleigh, xiv cent.; Arley, xvi cent.) was held before 1066 by Almar in alod (Freehold) of King Edward the Confessor, and at the time of the Survey was part of the royal demesne and was assessed at four hides.
Earley Whiteknights passed to the Beck family; Earley Bartholomew to the Fettiplace family; and Maiden Earley (following the death of Richard Earley in 1502) to the Chafyn family.
In 1606 the Whiteknights Manor was purchased by Sir Francis Englefield, the 1st baronet, as a substitute Berkshire home; the family having had their vast Englefield estates confiscated for recusancy in 1585. The Englefields moved over from Wootton Bassett in Wiltshire and Whiteknights remained their main family residence until they sold it to the Marquis of Blandford in 1798.
The Marquis of Blandford (later the 5th Duke of Marlborough), who became resident subsequent to the Englefields, was the estate’s most famous owner. Between 1798 and 1819, Whiteknights was the scene of vast extravagance and wild entertainments, all at the Marquis’ expense. It became the most celebrated estate in the Country: magnificently furnished, displaying many great masters, with a wonderful wine cellar and an unrivalled library. The splendid gardens, beautifully laid out with the rarest of plants, were its greatest attraction however. It was the envy of kings. The Duke went bankrupt in 1819 and had to retire to Blenheim. The Whiteknights Estate was sold off and the house was demolished in 1840
The Story behind the names of MAIDEN EARLEY and EARLEY WHITEKNIGHTS.
(This Story was first published in 1893 in the Quarterly Journal of the Berkshire Archaeological and Architectural Society. This version has been edited slightly for readability and clarification)
The Whiteknights Park — The Chapel, A.D. 1070.
In the late 1700s, the Duke of Marlborough of Blenheim, the owner of the Erleigh Whiteknights (Herlie Regis) manor, caused the chapel on the grounds, then a ruin, to be re-built as a sham chapel in the Gothic style, standing at a distant point of view from the mansion across the park, standing as it did originally on the highest ground in a direct line.
It is to this spot that the estate owes its name and not so much to its being the site of the Convent of Our Lady, with the Hospital for Lepers being at Reading.
The hero of this history was the son of Gilbert de Montalieu, a French Norman Knight in the service of William the Conqueror, who was given the estate shortly after the 1066 AD invasion by William. This Gilbert de Montalieu then died at York in 1069–1070 (see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrying_of_the_North), leaving the estate of Herlie Regis (Earley) to his son, also named Gilbert, who was then 12 years of age and a page to King William I.
At the age of 25 (about 1083 AD), Gilbert the son became Governor of the Town and Castle of Reading but lived in the Manor House at Herlie Regis.
It was about this time that Sir Gilbert, now a Knight, fell in love with Editha, daughter of Ceoldor, a Saxon who lived at what would later be called Maiden Herlie nearby. An Anglo-Saxon name containing the word ealdor or aldor denotes a princely dignity and a man of high status.
Another Knight was supposed by jealous Gilbert to have been in love with the Lady Editha, whom he wooed but had not as yet spoken to her or her parents on the subject of love.
So he eyed his rival as he thought till he hated his very presence near the place. This young man’s name was Sir Edwy de Guildford, also a Knight.
One day the two Knights met in the park on the spot mentioned above, and there each challenged the other to fight a duel for the lady whom each loved, but in different ways, as will soon be found out, to the great sorrow of our hero Sir Gilbert.
They met as appointed for “Trial by Combat,” a method of Germanic law to settle accusations in which two parties in dispute fought in single combat; the fight’s winner was proclaimed to be right. In essence, it was a judicially sanctioned duel. Each Knight with his lance in hand, ready for battle even to death, for they were rivals in love.
As luck favored Sir Gilbert, he being tall, he aimed at Sir Edwy’s head, and his well-poised lance entered the White Knight’s brain and laid him dead on the famous spot, and then upon his dead body fell a living body in the person of his lovely Editha.
Sir Gilbert now found that instead of slaying a hated rival, he had murdered her brother, and by a rash act of misplaced jealousy, overwhelming grief had been caused to his parents and their daughter, but when they saw his great sorrow and how deeply his heart repented the deed they freely forgave him, as did the priest, who, at their request, absolved and blessed him.
Editha afterward became a Sister in the Convent of Our Lady at Herlie.
As a penance for the deed, Sir Gilbert went on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land (First Crusade was 1095 AD).
Many years flew fleeting by when one evening, a pilgrim who had just returned from the Holy Land paused to pray at “The White Knight’s grave.” A memorial column that had been erected years before and was inscribed “Brave young Knight!”
Underneath this was recorded how the Lady Editha, after her brother’s untimely death, had retired to the Convent of Our Lady at Herlie, where she died with grief at his loss.
Beneath was the name of Ceoldor the Saxon, who died soon after his daughter and was buried with her in the same grave.
Here the weary pilgrim knelt, his hands clasped in prayer. He was found the next morning by a peasant, a cold and stiffened corpse. The peasant soon procured assistance, and they carried him into a house nearby. Here they stripped him in the presence of a priest, who had been sent for, but nothing was found save a lock of golden hair worn next to his breast. It was wrapped in a piece of paper, on which was written a request that he might be buried in the same grave with Sir Edwy de Guildford, the White Knight, in the Manor of Herlie Regis and also that a chapel might be built on the spot and endowed for masses to be offered for their souls, signed – Gilbert de Montalieu.
As no communication had been heard of Gilbert for so long a time while he was away, Herlie Regis had been transferred to the use of the Priory at Cawsom (Caversham), but Father Philip being present caused the pious wish to be carried out, and a neat little chapel was built dedicated to St. Nicholas.
The Chapel was called Whiteknights Chapel and pre-dated the doomsday book entry and later became a manor called Whiteknights.
This, then, is the origin of Whiteknights Park (Herlie Regis).
The chapel was appropriated to the Hospital of Lepers in Reading, instituted by Ancherius, second Lord Abbot of Reading Abbey.
The column and chapel with its manor house in the distance have long since passed away. The present pile of ruins is on or near the very same spot, although not a vestige of the original chapel remains as a mark; yet there may now lie far underneath the present soil the real White Knight’s grave.
Written in 1893 by Herbert Chown.
97, Chatham Street, Reading.
History of Whiteknights Park (manor)
Earley
Robert de Earley owed in service of military duty for a quarter of a Knight’s fee in the manor of Whiteknights at the assessment of aid in 1401–2. This estate seems to be Maiden Earley, of which Richard Earley died seised in 1502, his heir being his sister Margaret (Earle), wife of Thomas Chafyn.
Chafyn
The manor then descended to William Chafyn, who died about 1539. Thomas Chafyn, apparently the son of William, sold the manor in 1545 to Oliver Hyde.
Hyde
Humphrey Hyde died seised of the manor of Maiden Earley alias Woodhatches in 1608, leaving a son and heir Richard. He died in 1628, when his son Humphrey, aged twelve years, was his heir. In 1647, Humphrey and his wife Margaret conveyed the manor to John Hyde, but apparently not in fee, as Humphrey sold it in 1673 to Valentine Crome.
Crome
Valentine Crome, with his wife Philliden, conveyed it to Theophilus Earl of Huntingdon and John Holles, son and heir-apparent of Gilbert Earl of Clare, in 1685.
Le Grand
In 1744, Edward Le Grand and other members of the Le Grand family were dealing with it by fine. According to Lysons, it was at the end of the 18th century in possession of William Matthew Birt, Governor-General of the Leeward Islands.
Golding
It was purchased by the Right Hon. Edward Golding, M.P. for Downton, Wiltshire, lord of the Treasury, during Lord Sidmouth’s administration. He amassed great wealth in the East Indies and spent his fortune purchasing this estate and other lands in Berkshire. After he died in 1818, Maiden Earley descended to his son Edward Golding, J.P., D.L., who died in 1844. He was succeeded by his son, the Rev. Edward Golding, vicar of Brimpton, Berkshire, who died in 1857 when Captain William Golding, son of the preceding owner, seized the estate.
Hargreaves
It was leased for fourteen years from 1864 to 1878 to John Hargreaves, master of the South Berkshire hounds, who purchased the manor and estate in the latter year from Captain William Golding with the consent of the Court of Chancery. It was acquired in 1903 by his executor, Mr. Solomon B. Joel.
Solomon B. Joel
Solomon B. Joel was very wealthy (millionaire) and renowned for being a generous man who purchased the first motorized ambulance for the Royal Berkshire Hospital. Another illustration of his generosity was exhibited when Sol Joel Park, close to his estate, was given to the Corporation of Reading in 1927. The official opening was undertaken by the then Duke of York, who became King George VII and was again an extravagant event.
“Solly Joel,” as he was called, died in 1931, and the luxurious contents of the mansion, his estate, and his possessions were immediately sold at auction.
The Mansion itself became Maiden Erlegh School for Boys. During the summer, a punt was used to take certain pupils onto the large island on Maiden Erlegh Lake, and lessons were held in the thatched building which stood there until the 1960s. The school flourished until 1942.
Church Army
In 1945, the building was sold to the Church Army, which used it as a Training College until 1952.
ICI
ICI bought the Manor and used it as a conference center and office until 1954, when Cooper Estates Ltd purchased the site. The County Council had considered purchasing the site from ICI and establishing their offices there. However, they opted for the site at Shinfield instead.
Cooper Estates Ltd
Hungarian refugees were housed there following the Soviet invasion of their country in 1956. They were its last residents – the bulldozers starting their destruction in March 1960.
In response to the demands of local residents, Cooper Estates agreed to sell Maiden Erlegh Lake and the surrounding woodland, almost the last remnants of the old Maiden Erlegh Estate, to Earley Parish Council in return for being allowed to build on another greenfield site. As the purchase would lead to an increase in the rates, the Council held a public meeting and a referendum. With the backing of the people of Earley, the Council purchased the site for £8,500 in 1965. More recently, Old Lane Wood, at the rear of Sellafield Way, was obtained from the District Council, making the Park some 24 acres.
Maiden Erlegh House, the former home of millionaire Sol Joel, was demolished in 1960 to create a new housing complex.
References:
http://www.berkshirehistory.com/castles/maiden_erlegh_house.html
http://www.berkshirehistory.com/villages/earley.html
http://sbcox.history-redlands.tripod.com/maiden-erlegh-estate.html
