ECR 02

Reference code

ECR 02

Title

Piddlehinton, Dorset

Level

Series

Administrative / Biographical history

The lands in Dorset which the college received on its first endowment had formerly belonged to alien priories.
The manor of Piddlehinton had belonged to the Benedictine Priory of St Mary of the Rock, Mortain, in the diocese of Avranches, Normandy. Few records survive from before the college received its grant, but the college was not the first recipient following its dissolution.
The manor of Little Charlton [Charlton Parva], in Charlton Marshall, appears to have been included in the appurtenances of the parsonage of Sturminster Marshall, granted to Eton College in Henry VI's original endowment. There had been an Alien Priory of the Hospital of St Giles of Pont Audemer in the diocese of Lisieux.
The lands of the priory of Ogbourne, Wiltshire, a cell of the Abbey of Bec, which are mentioned in the Letters Patent of 1451, did not long remain in the hands of the college. In 1546 the premises were exchanged with the Crown for the rectories of Great Compton, Warwickshire, Bloxham, Oxfordshire and Oakley and Bromham, Bedford. The manors of Chisenbury, Wiltshire, and Quarley, Hampshire, had also been parcels of the Alien Priory of Ogbourne.
The Manor of Hanging Langford is not mentioned by name in the original endowment but was included in the lands of the alien deanery of Mortain.
There are also references to other college possessions including Minster Lovel, Oxfordshire, formerly of the abbey of Yvry in the diocese of Evreux; the manor of Beckford, Gloucestershire and Lincolnshire, formerly an alien priory of Augustine Canons, a cell to the priory of Ste Barbe en Auge in the diocese of Lisieux which Edward IV transferred to Fotheringay College in 1462 along with the manor of Charlton near Upavon, Wiltshire, formerly a cell of the abbey of L'Isle Dieu in the diocese of Rouen; lands in Yenston or Endeston in Henstridge, Somerset, formerly of the abbey of St Sever in the diocese of Coutances; and the Cluniac priory of St Helen's in the Isle of Wight, the site of which was sold by the college in 1799. These lands were all included in the original grant by Henry VI. However, one property, the Star Inn in Shaftesbury, was purchased by the college in 1604.
The lands were sold in 1966, but the college maintained the right of presentation of the rector.