Maidencourt lies to the east
of the parish and was established as long ago as the twelfth
century. Initially it was known as Meidencote or Meidencota,
meaning maiden's cottage.
In the thirteenth century it became Maydencot and by the seventeenth
century, the name had been lengthened to Maydencotte.
From the end of the twelfth through until the fourteenth century,
the Earls Marshall were overlords, and the first documented
tenant was Osbert de la Herioteria.
Herioteria was succeeded by
Alice de Colville, whose daughters married into the Birmingham
and Beauchamp families, causing the manor to be split. Maidencourt
transferred to Thomas Lacock in the early 1380s as payment of
£100 security loaned against the manor. It became a Crown
property, and was assigned by the king to the duchy of Cornwall
in 1421. It later had connections with Henry VIII, who granted
it to Sir Henry Wyatt in 1511.
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The two halves of the manor
were not reunited until 1542, when the estate was conveyed to
Richard Bridges. In 1611, Richard's granddaughter Eleanor sold
it to the celebrated law recorder, Francis Moore of Fawley,
who served as MP for Reading four times between 1597 and 1614.
One of the ablest lawyers of his day, Francis Moore was appointed
sergeant-at-law in 1614 and knighted in 1616. Sir John Moore,
the last of the Moore family to own Maidencourt, sold the manor
to Robert and John Butler of Wantage in 1755, by which time
the manorial rights associated with the estate had lapsed.
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and their descendants never lived at Maidencourt, which was occupied
by tenants including the Palmers, but it is thought that Joseph
Butler was responsible in the early nineteenth century for the
rebuilding of the farmhouse in its present form. The estate remained
in the Butler family until 1872 after which it was sold to Frederick
A, Schroeter. The 1861 census enumerated Henry Parsloe as
head of household at Maidencourt, employing 22 labourers and eight
boys on his 750 acres. The household included a cook, a housemaid,
a malt maker, a fogger, two carters, two plough boys and an agricultural
labourer. |
1889 saw the compulsorily
purchase of just over two acres of land from Maidencourt by the
Lambourn Valley Railway Company |
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courtesy of David Rabbitts........... |
In 1939 Maidencourt
was sold for £7,950 and during the Second World War, the
author V.S. Pritchett rented the farmhouse.
The present owner, David Rabbitts, came as a tenant in 1949, ultimately
buying the property in 1959. |
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Photo
courtesy of David Rabbitts.......... |
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Maidencourt from
Lorne Hill |
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The
Farmhouse 1998...........................
Photo Roy Hunt
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The
Farmhouse in 2005 |
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The
tree lined drive to Maidencourt provides the photographer with
a wealth of material. Especially in the Autumn. |
Returning
briefly to Maidencourt's history. Former owner - Francis Moore
left intriguing evidence of the government's infiltration of the
Gunpowder Plot. At the time of the conspiracy he often had to
work into the small hours with a client in London. Several times
during 1605, on his way home at about two o'clock in the morning,
he saw Thomas Percy leaving the home of the Earl of Salisbury,
the head of the secret service. Francis Moore knew Percy, who
was the Earl of Northumberland's steward and it later transpired
that Percy was in fact one of the Gunpowder plotters.
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