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Background History to Smallbridge Hall.
14 cent: The property we know today
as Smallbridge Hall was constructed during this period of time.
The Ref (a) below indicates it must have been around 1375 or even much
earlier.
Ref (a)
Having lived at Smallbridge since 1375,
the Waldegrave family sold the debt-encumbered estate in 1705, and while
it remained a gentleman's residence until 1750, by 1800 the Hall was occupied
by a tenant farmer.
(ref Leigh Alston)
Ref (b) Richard Waldegrave acquired
Smallbridge Hall in 1384
(ref Google)
Ref (c)
In 1385 Overhall and Netherhall were held by Sir Richard Waldegrave through
his wife's inheritance, and were managed together with the manors of Smallbridge................................
(ref Leigh Alston)
Ref (d)
James Butler, Earl of Ormond, a staunch
Lancastrian, was executed in 1461 after the Battle of Mortimer's Cross,
and the two manors of Nether Hall & Over Hall passed for a short time
to Anne Woodville, the sister of Edward IVth's Queen, before being granted
to the Waldegraves of Smallbridge.
(ref Leigh Alston)
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Early years of the Waldegrave Family
Tree
(author - I cannot vouch for its accuracy, the family
tree is so complex)
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Sir Anthony
Waldegrave >>>
m Elizabeth Graye |
Julian (died)
Barnaby (died)
William
Thomas
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William Waldegrave d1610
m Dorothy Donnington >>>>
Visit by QE1
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William Waldegrave d1610
( 2nd Wife Jemmimah) |
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Richard Waldegrave
d1434
>>>>>
m Jane Montecheney
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William Waldegrave
>>>>>>
m Joan Dorward
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Thomas Waldegrave
>>>>>>>>
m Elizabeth Fray
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William Waldegrave d1524
>>>>>>
m. Margaret Wentworth
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George Waldegrave 1475/1528
>>>>>> >>>
m Anne Drury
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Edward
Phyliss
Anne
Richard
William Waldegrave
1500/1554
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Anne >>>>>> |
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Sir Edward
Waldegrave
(Imprisoned) >>>>>> |
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Extracts from "The Wormingford
Story" by Winifred Beaumont:
and
"Wormingford, an English Village" by Winifred Beaumont and Ann
Taylor ,
1523: Sir William Waldegrave transformed
the gentle slopes of Wormingford into a deer park and connected it to
his grand red brick house by a bridge across the Stour. From that time
the name Small Brigg gradually changed to Smallbridge House.
1555: Smallbridge House completely
re-built by the Waldegraves.
1561: Sir William entertained his
Queen, Elizabeth 1 for two days in August.
Coming from Colchester, her progress was indeed a royal one. She travelled
with a dozen coaches, 300 baggage carts; foot soldiers ran behind, and
the local gentry followed on horseback. It left William £250 poorer
having to entertain not only the Queen but her entourage, at that time
this was an enormous sum of money.
The placing of the cavalcade on Lodge Hills is interesting for house,
road and bridge had disappeared long before the storyteller was born.
We know for certain the Queen visited Smallbridge, but the story of the
Hunting Lodge could possibly be an example of embellished village tale.
Sir Edward Waldegrave of Smallbridge
was an ardent supporter of Queen Mary and the Old Faith. In consequence
he was imprisoned in the Tower by Queen Elizabeth and his manors of Wormingford
and Bures given to his nephew William Waldegrave, Anthony's son.
William was an energetic and ambitious man he converted the rolling slopes
of Wormingford into a deer park and rebuilt Smallbridge Hall in the style
of Hampton Court. It was a fine red-brick mansion boasting forty-four
hearths. Queen Elizabeth visited it on two occasions and was lavishly
entertained by Sir William.
Noble houses where Queen Elizabeth stayed were permitted to display her
Cypher on a Tudor Rose. This device is in Church Hall and it is thought
it was removed from Smallbridge Hall.
Queen Elizabeth partook of meat and
ale in Church Hall; and was so pleased she wrote her initials on a window
pane with a diamond ring.
There may be some truth in the tale. Sir William's son (another Sir William)
lived at Church Hall with his second wife, the Lady Jemmimah. She was
the neice of Sir Francis Bacon, the Lord Chancellor, and was at one time
one of the Queen's Ladies. Therefore it is possible the Queen paid a social
call on Lady Jemmimah and accorded the honour of her Cypher to
Church Hall out of the esteem she had for Sir Francis and his family.
No matter how much money Sir William, the Elder, spent on his Queen he
never quite escaped the taint of his uncle's treason.
Lady Jemmimah's husband died eight months after his father in 1610. She
retired to the Dower House of Wormingford Hall but continued in control
of the Church Manor and the Parsonage House
1579: On her second visit to Suffolk,
she avoided Colchester where the small pox was "very bad" and
probably only came into Wormingford for a "divertisment" staged
in the deer park. Tradition says she visited Church Hall and partook of
cold meat and drank a flagon of ale, and was so pleased that she wrote
her initials on the window with a diamond ring. There is a 16th century
roundel in a window of Church Hall depicting the Tudor Rose surmounted
by "E.R." and a Crown. Other houses, known to have been visited
by her, have similar roundels.
1588: Sir William spent a fortune
on entertaining his Queen and another on raising and equipping 500 men
to resist the Spanish Armada "all choice men and singularly well
furnished".
Nichols, a member of the Royal household, travelled with the Queen and
kept a journal of her journeys. He described in detail the grand houses
visited and the wonderful entertainment's they provided but only made
a sparse report on her visits to Smallbridge, over a sour footnote:
Sir Edward Waldegrave was eventually held in the Tower of London for Treason
1600: The house is known to have
had a chapel dedicated to St.Anne and it also had a gatehouse.
1650: The Lodge indicated on a local
map of the area
1693:The
property stayed in the Waldegrave family until 1693 when it was sold.
The Waldegrave family name ceased to exist at Smallbridge.
18th cent:- The Lodge was demolished
during the 1700`s
(ref Leigh Alston)
1874: The house was again rebuilt
and further restored by Lady Phylis Macrae, daughter of the Marchioness
of Bristol in 1932.
In 1900 a story was told in the village
"how once there came a great company to visit the squire. Men on
hossback, men arunning and blowing bugles and hollering and they all had
flags". They galloped over Lodge Hills and "wor a wunnerful
sight".
A classic example of village folk-lore where the name of the
Queen and her noble host were forgotten
and only the turmoil and banners remembered
Further details on the Lodge can be found
at www.mount-bures.co.uk/lodge.htm
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Smallbridge Hall
circa 1905
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Front View taken
from Sandy Hill, Wormingford(2008)
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During 1961 excavation on Sandy Hill, Wormingford
revealed a Tudor Brick-Kiln. The bricks were very similar to those used
at Layer Marney and Smallbridge Hall **
The house is surrounded by a moat and fronts
onto the River Stour.
During the second world war, it was briefly
used as a home for evacuees from London.
NOTE:- Smallbridge
Hall is private property and has no public access. However it can
be seen from the lower road to Wormingford.
**Ref Winifred Beaumont
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