A Manor is historically a unit of land, originally a feudal lordship, consisting of a lord's demesne (lands farmed in-hand) and lands rented to tenants. It has subsequently become associated with a large country house with lands. The Manor House in Mickleton is situated adjacent to the Church of St Lawrence in Church Lane. Mickleton is like many other villages in England where the Church and Manor - and in many cases the Rectory and sometimes a pub as well - were all in close association reflecting the main influences on village life at the time. The house itself has undergone a number of significant changes over four centuries. It has been both added to and even had parts removed and moved to another location. It is now a Grade II listed building and has been divided up into four homes.
The earliest reference to a Manor of Mickleton is in 960 when King Edgar (King of England from 959 to 975) granted the Manor to the Saxon warrior Brithnotus. Brithnotus would appear to be one and the same as Brithnoth (or Brythnoth), who was an Earldoman of Essex (meaning a person of high status), who died in the Battle of Maldon in 991 fighting invading Vikings. He is said to have in turn transferred the Manor to Aethelmere, the Earl of Devon. The Manor was then subsequently transferred to Eynsham Abbey, a Benedictine monastery in Eynsham, Oxfordshire between 1005 and 1538. It is not clear, however, whether this was by Aethelmere or, as also been suggested, by the Crown.
The Porter family took a long lease of the Manor in 1494, presumably from the Abbey. At the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII the Manor was returned to Crown ownership. In 1591 the lease was surrendered back to the Crown, who then sold it freehold to Lord Lomely. Ownership then passed to Sir Edward Grevill and then in 1600 to Sir Edward Fisher. Richard Graves brought the Manor from the Fishers in 1656. Richard Graves (1610-1669) claimed to be descended from an old Yorkshire family but he himself was from Richmond in Surrey where he had made his fortune as a lawyer during the Civil Wars and Interregnum (period between the execution of Charles I and Charles II regaining the throne). However, doubt has been cast on the Yorkshire origin of the Graves family and hence their status as gentry. It has been suggested that the Graves family were not originally from Yorkshire and Richard Graves’s antecedents may have adopted the Yorkshire lineage from another family of similar name to cement their claim to be “gentlemen” by acquiring an ancestry of suitable antiquity and a coat of arms.
Richard Graves descendants subsequently owned the Manor for the next 320 years, although there was a change of name by marriage to Hamilton when there was a female heir. Mary Graves Hamilton was the last of the family in direct line to be associated with the Manor. At one time, the Manor and associated lands held by the Graves family were quite considerable. During the time of Welwyn Graves the Gloucestershire and Worcestershire estates covered 1,460 acres (591 hectares). However, over time this became much reduced, and Mary Graves Hamilton recorded that by 1958 she held only 67 acres (27 hectares).
A suggested list of the “Lords of the Manor” and the timeline is given below. The dates given are indicative of the timeline only.
• Brithnotus (Brithnoth) 960 (d.991)
• Aethelmere (b.960, d.1015)
• Eynsham Abbey 1005-1538
• Porter Family, leaseholders from 1494
• Richard Porter (b.1429, d.1513)
• The Crown 1538 - 1591
• Lord Lomely
• Sir Edward Grevill
• Sir Edward Fisher, purchased Manor 1600 (d.1654)
• Edward Fisher (b.1627, d.1655)
• Richard Graves (b.1610, d.1669), purchased Manor 1656
• Samuel Graves (b.1649, d.1708)
• Richard Graves (b.1677, d.1729)
• Morgan Graves (b.1708, d.1771)
• Walwyn Graves (b.1744, d.1811)
• Richard Morgan Graves (b.1752, d.1815)
• John Graves (b.1780, d.1818)
• Elizabeth Anne Graves, eldest daughter of John Graves, married Sir John Maxwell Steel (b.1812, d1872) who took name of Graves in 1863
• Mary John Graves (b.1818, d.1885), younger daughter of John Graves, married Maxwell Hamilton (d.1867)
• Sidney Graves Hamilton (b.1855, d.1916), married Rosa Leah Pidgeon 1906
• Rosa Graves Hamilton
• Mary Graves Hamilton (b.1907), put the Manor up for sale 1976
Mary John Graves inherited the Manor after the death of her elder sister, Elizabeth, and her immediate family. Sydney Graves Hamilton in turn inherited the Manor from his Mother, Mary Hamilton. He had been a Classics scholar at Balliol College, Oxford and Fellow of Hertford College for many years but had been living in Torquay when he inherited the Manor. He was the builder of Kiftsgate Court. He married Rosa Pidgeon in 1906 and they subsequently moved to Malvern where their daughter Mary Graves Hamilton was born in 1907. During this time the Manor and Kiftsgate Court were Let. He died in 1916 and is buried in Mickleton Churchyard. However, after the First World War Rosa decide to sell Kiftsgate Court, although she kept Mickleton Manor including the Manorial rights. Kiftsgate Court was sold in August 1919 to Jim and Heather Muir whose dependents still own it today.
The Manor was for a time used for a time as a school - St Hilliard’s - in and around the 1960s. Eventually, the Manor was sold by Mary Hamilton, who by then lived in St Albans in Hertfordshire, to a private buyer. However, this was not before she had offered the house and grounds to the Parish Council, and through the Council for the entire community of Mickleton, for fifteen thousand pounds. The Council at the time set up a special sub-committee to look into the question as to whether they should buy the Manor House, and even canvassed the village but no clear decision could be reached and eventually the offer was not accepted. This may have been in part due to the potential on-going financial commitment. A part of the Manor’s grounds was subsequently developed for housing in what is now Old Manor Gardens. The Manor House and associated buildings were also in turn converted into four separate dwellings with gardens including a large lawn leading to a ha-ha wall. A ha-ha is a landscape design element that creates a vertical barrier while preserving an uninterrupted view of the landscape beyond. The design of a ha-ha involves an incline which slopes downward to a vertical face, typically a retaining wall. The wall acts as a barrier to keep grazing animals from the grounds and house. There is another example of a ha-ha wall at Hidcote Manor Garden. The ha-ha wall at the Manor was installed as part of a redevelopment of the garden undertaken by Morgan Graves.
There has been a Manor house in existence since medieval times. The house seen today has been added to and altered over time by the various owners. In the eighteenth century Welwyn Graves added a high portico and library wing. A portico is a porch over an entrance with a roof structure supported by columns. Surprisingly, these can now be seen at Kiftsgate Court and not at the Manor. That is because during the years 1887-1891 Sydney Graves Hamilton, the then owner of the Manor, had the portico and library wing moved to the top of Glyde Hill above Mickleton where he was building another house now known as Kiftsgate Court. This must have been a substantial project not just in that the structures had to be dismantled and reassembled, but also as it involved making a light railway specifically in order to transfer the materials up the hill. The Manor House as seen today is the Victorian facade given to it after the removal of the portico and library wing. The Manor house, therefore, remains today much as it was, albeit as four separate dwellings. The Manor house and attached walls are a Grade II listed building.
Another significant house, albeit situated just outside of the village, is Norton Hall. The entrance to the site, which is private, is off the road to Honeybourne from Mickleton just before the bridge over the railway. At the entrance there is a gate with two fine gate piers set to one side of what is now the road to the house. These gate piers are Grade II listed structures. The history of the site is said to be rather obscure but is known to have been owned by George Gifford in 1613. Other known owners include the Earls of Harrowby in 1840 and Samuel Brunce from about 1879 to 1925. The house was used as a hospital during World War 1. The current house, which is set in landscaped parkland, was created between 1779 and 1850 and is said to be typically Georgian. It is described as being of unadorned brick with five bays, two storeys and a stone parapet with a pedimented (a triangular architectural element) central porch on paired Tuscan columns. The house and grounds are available for private use, short term rental and events.