Bedfordshire Archives Service Catalogue
  • Reference
    X173
  • Title
    Documents relating to Caddington
  • Date free text
    1685-1912
  • Production date
    From: 1685 To: 1912
  • Admin/biog history
    History Woodside Farm, Caddington, comprises two farms known in the 17th century as Rickards and Cantletts, and also various cottages and small pieces of land added in succeeding years. The deeds begin in 1685 and the first refers to a “messuage called Cantletts, a cottage and 62 acres of land” (full description given later). It was then owned by William Whitley of Caddington, yeoman. Whitley got into financial difficulties and mortgaged the property several times, selling out finally in 1701 to William Newman junior of Houghton Regis, gentleman. Rickards in 1701 was also owned by the Newman family. They obtained it in 1689 from Alice Purratt of Caddington widow of Thomas Purratt and her daughter Sarah who was married to John Beech of Bonners in Flamstead. (A description of the property is given later). In 1706 William Newman senior, who owned Rickards, died and left his property to his grandson William who lived at Woodside. In 1716 William of Woodside settled Rickards on his wife Anna Christina. He died the next year, leaving his wife and a daughter Anna Maria. She, in 1740, married Thomas Day of Hampstead, a salter, and Rickards was settled on her. Her mother was still alive and appears to have removed to Hampstead to live with her daughter. Day, after mortgaging the property several times, was forced to sell it in 1748 to George Wilkins of Markyate Street, brewer, for £1,553, with which he paid off his debts. Cantletts in the meantime had been sold in 1719 to Thomas King of Esher by another William Newman of Houghton Regis who may have been father of William of Woodside. King married Dame Philadelphia Cotton, widow of Sir Thomas Cotton of East Hyde in Luton, and he left her all his property in Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire when he died in 1755. Dame Philadelphia held Cantletts until 1755 when she also sold to George Wilkins. The two properties remained in the Wilkins Family until 1790, when both were sold to John Arkley of Bankside, Southwark, dyer. They remained in his possession until his death in 1810 and the estate now for the first time called Woodside Farm was sold to Edmund Morris of Chorleywood. Woodside farm was owned by the Morris family until 1898 when it was sold to Horatio G Regnart. There are two chief subsidiary pieces of property whose history can be traced. First a messuage and “wick” or orchard called Wedgecroft which was owned by William Whitley in 1725. He sold it in 1738 to Thomas Proctor a Luton grocer and it was held by the same family until 1775 when it passed to a nephew Christopher Tatham of Nottingham and from him to the Wilkins family in 1793 and so was merged with the main estate. The other property comprised a messuage, 3 closes called Minnings or Ninnings and Collier’s wood. In 1750 Sarah Beech of Caddington widow bequeathed it to her daughter Mary Brace. Mary’s sons sold to John Swaine, a London innholder in 1758 and from him it passed in 1774 to Francis Wilkins of Farley, yeoman. How it eventually became part of the main estate is not clear. It was separate in 1841, when it was described as “a barn and garden fronting the Luton – Markyate road, on one side the Plough Inn; Cupid’s grove, Collier’s wick and Collier’s wood”. Woodside Farm The first owner of Rickards for whom we have evidence is a Thomas Purratt, gentleman, who died about the year 1664, and whose son, another Thomas, succeeded him, dying in 1688. In 1689 Alice Purratt, the son’s widow, together with his daughter and heir, Sarah the wife of John Beech of Flamstead, sold Rickards and an estimated 135 acres of land to William Newman of Sewell in Houghton Regis, gentleman, for £1,600, although Alice retained 2 rooms in the house, a small piece of garden, and a small annuity, for her lifetime. William Newman moved to Caddington to live at Rickards, and in 1713 left the farm and estate to his grandson, William Newman, the eldest son of his son William Newman. The farm then went to the grandson’s only daughter, Anna Maria Newman, who married Thomas Day of London, and for a time the farm was left (one tenant was Thomas Hadnutt). It was also heavily mortgaged, and in 1748 was sold to George Wilkins, a Flamstead brewer, for £1,800. The property was included 2½ acres land exchanged in 1705 with Zachary Neale of Oynions, Caddington, yeoman (X173/39). Mortgagees included Sarah Hitchin of Hitchin, who later married the Reverend Thomas Whitehurst. Cantletts This farmhouse stood a little east of Rickards, on the corner of Wigmore Lane. It seems to have been an ordinary farmhouse, not as fine as Rickards, which was suitable for a gentleman’s residence. In 1685 the owner and occupier was William Whitley of Caddington, yeoman, but he was mortgaging the property, which then comprised a messuage and 62 acres of land, with another cottage and piece of land adjoining next to Caddington Common. In 1701 William Whitley sold to William Newman, junior, of Houghton Regis, gentleman, the son of the William Newman now next door at Rickards. William Whitley reserved the right to live in part of the house for the rest of his life. William Newman let the farm, and never seems to have moved to live in Caddington, for in 1719, when he sold Cantletts to Thomas King of Esher in Surrey, he was still living at Houghton Regis. Thomas King did not move to Caddington, but he did come to the locality, to East Hyde in Luton. In 1755 his widow conveyed the premises for £1,100 to George Wilkins, the Flamstead Brewer, who already owned Rickards. Cantletts house was obviously in need of repair, and by 1785 it was down. Rickards and Cantletts, now Woodside Farm In 1787 George Wilkins’ heirs sold both properties to John Pope, a prosperous London butcher, for £3,900, and hence forth they were one farm, soon to be called Woodside Farm. Francis Wilkins, one of George Wilkins’ sons, was living in the farmhouse of the Rickards homestead. The Cantletts estate had included a cottage next to Caddington Common, and in the 1787 deed it was described as “the sign of the Harrow”. John Pope moved to Woodside to farm, and lived at Rickards, though he quickly sold “The Harrow”. But within three years he had conveyed the remaining estate (1790 for £4,000) to John Arkley, a London dyer. Messuage and Wedgecroft In 1797 Arkeley added another house and small piece of land to his property. The house seems to have stood next to Cantletts, probably a little up Wigmore Lane, and the land, Wedgecroft, was an orchard south of the Woodside to Luton road, on the east of Wood Lane. The first owner of whom we have knowledge was in 1725, and was William Whitley of Caddington, presumably a member of the same family that had previously owned Cantletts. The Whitley family continued to live in the house, but in 1738 sold to Thomas Proctor, a Luton grocer. His heirs sold in 1793 to James Wilkins, who in turn sold the property in 1797 to John Arkley for £150. Enclosure of Caddington in 1800 The map and schedule that go with the 1800 enclosure award for Caddington tell us a great deal about the property. Arkley took the opportunity to exchange a few pieces of land at a distance from the house (marked in green on the photocopy of part of the enclosure award map) for other land nearer his house (outlined in purple). All the rest of the fields he owned are outlined in red, with a “C” for land that probably once went with Cantletts, and an “R” for land originally going with Rickards. By now the buildings were the capital messuage on the site of the farmhouse of Rickards farm; the site only of Cantletts which was down; and the messuage that went originally with Wedgecroft, a little way up Wigmore Lane, and adjoining the spot where Cantletts had once stood. Woodside Farm in the nineteenth century John Arkley’s heirs sold in 1812 to Edmund Morris of Chorley Wood, Rickmansworth, for £13,174. 18s. 4d. The Morris family owned Woodside farm for the rest of the century and turned it into a gentleman’s residence. Sometimes they lived at Woodside, but at the end of the century John Hight Blundell was tenant for many years. In 1898 Horatio Grece Regnart bought Woodside farm. House near the Plough, Cupid’s Grove, Collier’s Wood In 1898 too Regnart bought a small estate (a house near the Plough, and land, Cupid’s Grove and Collier’s Wood) which lay, inclosed by his own land, to the east of Wigmore Lane and north of the road to Luton. At the time of the enclosure in 1800 it had been owned by Francis Wilkins. The estate bought in 1898 is outlined in brown on the copy of part of the enclosure map. This estate had belonged to the Beech family (and the Beech family was once connected with Rickards) in 1751, and in 1758 it was conveyed by Sarah Beech’s heirs to the Swaine family of London. It was tenanted by Elisha Bradwin. A member of the Wilkins family purchased the estate in 1774. There were several owners in the last century before the purchase in 1898 by Regnart. Six small estates to John Hight Blundell The last part of the collection consists of the title deeds of six small estates bought up by John Hight Blundell, and later (though there is no note of a conveyance in this collection ) sold to Regnart. Some adjoined the property in the Collier’s Wood, Cupid’s Grove quadrant; some were elsewhere in Woodside.
  • Scope and Content
    All the title deeds in this collection relate to property at Woodsdie, Caddington. bought by H.G. Regnant at the turn of the twentieth century; the largest estate being Woodside Farm.
  • Level of description
    fonds
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