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www.cornard.info |
The Great Cornard Information Website |
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History - Part 2 |
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Page updated - 22 August 2008 |
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POTTED HISTORY OF GREAT CORNARD This series of Potted History of Great Cornard has been submitted by Cornard News. The articles were written by Joan Herbert who researched them from a variety of local sources.
Part 2 - 12th to 18th Centuries Abbas Hall situated on a hill overlooking Great Cornard marks the site of the medieval Manor of Cornard Magna. The Hall has been Dendro-dated with the timbers used in its construction felled in Autumn 1289. Cornard was originally known as Cornerthe and the family that came into possession of the Manor around the 12th Century assumed the name of the parish. The first of that family was Serlo de Cornerthe and he originally came from Assington. His grandson, John de Cornerthe became the High Sheriff of Suffolk during the reigns of both King Richard I and King John in the late 12th - early 13th Century (he probably did not have such a hard time as the Sheriff of Nottingham who at that time is supposed to have been chasing Robin Hood). Alice de Cornerthe, his granddaughter married Thomas de Grey and so Cornard Magna came under the lordship of the de Grey family. However very soon the Manor passed into the hands of the convent of the Blessed Virgin at West Malling in Kent and remained in their possession until the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII. Cornard did not prosper during the time it was owned by the Convent and documentary evidence shows that in 1327 only 37 taxpayers lived in Great and Little Cornard paying a total tax of three pounds, nine shillings and elevenpence farthing (about £3-50 in ‘new’ money). The Black Death came to the country in 1348-9 and it must have devastated Cornard Magna as it has been recorded that Little Cornard was one of the first parishes to succumb to the plague that ravaged England, taking one third of the population and bringing the structure of society to near collapse.
In 1539-40 the Manor belonged to Thomas Danyell passing to John Brand in 1624. Apparently it was not long in his possession as by 1643 John Eldred owned the Manor and in 1676 the population was recorded as 180 adults. The parish at that time was a farming community, growing barley, wheat, rye, oats etc. There was also some dairying, pig and horse breeding and the keeping of poultry. Occupations included weavers, farm labourers and in the records of 1600-1649 a brickmaker and miller were listed.
Compiled by Joan Herbert – Cornard News - 27 July 2003
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