Inside the Manor

In 1851 the house was occupied by William Luck, farmer, and owned by the Benn family. William farmed 350 acres employed 10 labourers; he had a wife, seven children and a cook and servant. William was a tenant farmer, he owned no land in his own right, renting most of it from the Benn family. According to the Tithe map for 1851 he also occupied four cottages just across the road on the corner of Lilbourne Road and Hillmorton Lane.

Dr. T. S. Townsend became Lord of the Manor in 1870 following the death of William his father.   He set about with great zeal acquiring property and land to form a very large estate.

One of his purchases was of this large old house . Two hundred years before had been the Manor House.   The house had been much altered since those times and after purchase in 1882 Townsend made many more.   The house then returned to its status as Manor.

When the church was restored in 1896 paneling from the box pews was used to line the walls of the hallway shown in the picture.