-- Grafton Estate--History of Blakesley

Adapted from "Blakesley Then & Now" by P.B. Kingston, published privately 1983. Reproduced with the permission of his descendants. Photos by Doug Blake, reproduced here with his kind permission.

A Brief History of Blakesley

The parish of Blakesley, also known in former times as Blaconesley and Blacolvesley, also comprises the hamlets of Woodend, Foxley and Seawell. Census and population data sometimes includes that for Woodend, but this has been disaggregated in the chart below, which represents only the township of Blakesley. The development of the settlement follows the general pattern of most other Grafton Estate villages, with a sharp rise in the population up to 1841. The village achieved a fairly stable size and despite a sharp fall in the 1870s, the recovery was earlier and longer-lasting than most though a decline set in in the middle part of the last century. Post-war development, however, has led to a sharp rise, and by 1981 the village population was back to what it had been at the turn of the century.

Blakesley has a somewhat chequered history of ownership. At the time of the Domesday Survey, the Lordship of Blakesley was in the hands of several individuals: the Earl of Moreton, the Earl of Chester, and William Peveril, and their holdings descended with the families, though the face of these owners was represented by a series of under-tenants. In addition to these three, there were other landholders in Blakesley by the reign of Edward I. The Knights Hospitallers (the Knights of St John of Jerusalem) held land in Blakesley, as did the Zouche family. All these holdings were subjected to the usual process of buying and trading. By the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 1530s, the holdings of The Knights of St John had been granted to Princess Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth I) during her lifetime, but then in the reign of Edward VI they were subsequently given to the Duke of Northumberland in exchange for lands in Kent. They returned to the Crown under Mary I but were then granted out again in 1560 to Thomas Watts. The Zouche holdings had been sold to a Nicholas Boynton, and Watts bought them from him and merged the two estates.

Blakesley Hall c.1830

The estate descended though the Watts family until the death of the last male heir, and was sold to William Wight on 1721. When the last Wight died without heirs, the manor was sold again in 1876 - this time to Charles Bartholomew, who gave it to his son Charles William. This C.W. Bartholomew came to live in the village at Blakesley Hall - technically in the hamlet of Woodend, took the title of Lord of the Manor, but was always known locally as "The Squire". The Wights had extensively restored the old manor house which had belonged to the Knights of St John and had added considerably to it. Bartholomew carried on the process, adding an extension to the west wing to accommodate a museum and a library. The story of Blakesley Hall and its own railway are told in a special feature in this section. (Click here to read it). Bartholomew added to the number of properties the estate already had when he acquired it, and by the time of his death in 1919 he owned a large part of the village. Alongside all this activity with his estate, he was an extremely generous and very active benefactor to the village. Amongst the things he funded were the rebuilding of the Chancel of the church in 1897, the provision of uniforms and instruments for the village's silver band, and the building of a recreation room for the young men of the village. In addition he provided land for a cricket pitch, and Blakesley Hall grounds always hosted the Blakesley Agricultural Show - one of the largest in the county. It can be imagined what a loss to the village his death was.

Perhaps unsurprisingly in view of the above, the Grafton Estate had few holdings in Blakesley village itself. In the Estate Sale of 1913, there was one centrally-situated lot, which was the location of the village smithy. The main Estate holdings were in the land surrounding the village - in particular Seawell Farm, Elms Farm and Southfield Farm.

Seawell House 1919

Seawell was a village at the time of the Domesday Survey, but by the middle of the 19th century it had shrunk to just two farmhouses, which by 1919 had become just the one. The process here is similar to what happened at Potcote, and what can today be observed in Furtho - a former settlement becomes depopulated and disappears as a community, and the name lives on in that of the farm or farmhouse which stands where the village once did. In the 13th century Seawell was owned by the Braddens, and in 1391 by the Greens of Greens Norton. Like other Green holdings, it passed to the Parrs and then in 1535 it was sold to Sir Arthur Darcey, who subsequently transferred it to Henry VIII. Thus it became part of the honor of Grafton when that was created in 1542.

Seawell Farm was extensively rebuilt in the 1850s - one of a number of "model farms" which were created across the Grafton Estate. In view of that, it is somewhat surprising that it was not bought when first put up for auction in the Estate Sale of 1913, but other holdings suffered the same fate: Elms Farm also only sold at the second attempt, and Seawell Wood, despite being billed as "the well-known fox covert", made a third appearance at auction in 1920.

Click here to read more about the Grafton Farms

The Parish Church of The Blessed Virgin Mary was given to the Priory of St John of Jerusalem by the Lord of the Manor in the reign of Edward II. It is built in the Early English style, chiefly of red sandstone, but mixed with limestone. A short pyramid roof was added in the 19th century, but the major change was the rebuilding and extension of the chancel in 1897, which as stated above was funded by the Squire. He apparently did this as a memorial to his father, who had died in 1895. Two stained glass windows, in memory of his sisters, were added to the walls of the new chancel.

The development of Blakesley Church in the 19th century

left - an engraving of c.1830

below left - the church with the new tower roof

below right - with the new chancel, added in 1891

The Wesleyan Methodists at Blakesley had held services in private houses since the early nineteenth century. A chapel was eventually built in 1868, on ground given by several members of the congregation. A vestry was added at a later date. The Baptist Chapel in Woodend is an offshoot of the much older church at Weston-by-Weedon, whose records date back to 1681. In 1689, the house of Joseph Goodman of Bradden was recognised as the meeting place, with baptisms conducted in the open air at Cathanger Farm, Woodend, the home of Thomas Lovell, one of the deacons. The branch chapel was built at Woodend in 1813, and was renovated in 1888 - Richard Loydell the blacksmith gave the ground for the graveyard.


above left - the open-air baptistry at Cathanger Farm above right - people queue at the bread cart parked opposite the Methodist Chapel in the High Street

Blakesley's school is of quite ancient foundation. In his will of 1669, William Foxley provided a homestead for a Grammar School, together with about eight acres of land to support it. He stipulated that the appointed schoolmaster should be "a fit and able scholar out of the University of Oxford or Cambridge, and should have taken a bachelor degree at least." The master was to be "orthodox in his opinion and conformable to the doctrine and discipline of the Church of England." The Vicar of Blakesley and the Parsons of Maidford and Bradden were to be trustees on a board of five, and the two others recruited should be "honest, sober and discreet persons." Education was to be free to all boys in Blakesley. The good intentions were not enough, however. An enquiry in 1825 found that mostly the headmasters had appointed deputies of dubious quality to do the teaching; no rudiments of classical education had taken place and anyway were of little value to villagers; that no new trustees had been appointed since 1733; and the Vicar of Blakesley being "lately dead", the report concluded that it was high time new trustees were elected. No action was taken until 1847 when the Court of Chancery ordered the Master of the Court to hold an enquiry into the running of the charity and settle a scheme for regulating it. The new scheme came into force in 1850; a school for girls was set up in 1877. The two functioned until they were merged in a new school built in 1913, which was extensively remodelled in the 1970s.


The old Grammar School	The new school after the 1912 extensions

In about 1900, Blakesley could boast the usual range of village shops and trades: shoemakers, a blacksmith, several shops, a post office, a cooper. There were several public houses and even a small factory which made briar pipes.

Blakesley High Street c.1905

left - The Boot Inn, and further up - the old Co-operative Stores

on the right-hand path at the top of the hill is a water-pump funded by the Squire

Blakesley was one of the few villages in the Grafton Estate area to have a railway station - others being Blisworth, Roade and Stoke Bruerne. The East and West Junction Railway opened in 1873, forming a connection between Stratford on Avon and Towcester, where a line from Blisworth to Banbury had been opened in 1866. The idea behind the venture was to provide a route for ironstone from the quarries of Northamptonshire through to the steelworks of South Wales, thus avoiding London. Through such a rural area as south-west Northamptonshire, revenue from passenger traffic was never going to be high, and the company folded, to be reborn again as part of the SMJR (The Stratford & Midland Junction Railway). It functioned mostly as a freight line with passenger services, seeing a peak in the Second World War fulfilling some of its original intentions, as freight from the Bristol area came east on a circuitous route to London which avoided the immediate attention of enemy aircraft. After the war, traffic declined. The line closed to passenger services in 1952 and to freight in 1963, with the inevitable removal of the tracks afterwards.

Above - Blakesley Station in 1914

Below - The station in 1951. It had just been refurbished, (note the freshly painted
platform edges), but the closure of passengers services was just a year away.

For more on Blakesley railway station see the Special Features on Blakesley Hall and Blakesley Gallery

At the turn of the 20th century, Blakesley was still functioning much as it had always done: the Squire owned most of the village; the Duke of Grafton owned most of the land outside it; change had been evolutionary, not revolutionary. However, the worsening political climate of the Edwardian era, the First World War and then its aftermath altered life in Blakesley. Blakesley was at the centre of an area chosen to hold military exercises in 1913. Two "armies" manoeuvred against each other while being watched by a galaxy of royalty, ministers, generals and foreign military attaches. A year later a war started in earnest.

Soldiers rest on the East Green during the exercises of 1913

By the early 1920s, not too much had changed on the face of things, but in fact the old way of life had gone. The Grafton Estate properties had been sold, the Squire had died, and the economic climate was worsening. The 1920s and 30s were a time of economic and especially agricultural depression. Mrs Bartholomew at the Hall was still hosting events such as the Blakesley Show, but after 1945 she moved away. The contents of the Hall were sold; the house was allowed to deteriorate until it was beyond economic repair and it was demolished in 1957. Yet with the post-war period came new building - done sympathetically, with a careful choice of styles and building materials. New families moved in, the community took new strength from this, and the village was able to continue the life it had enjoyed in previous decades.