Manorial History - Gladley Manor

In the Domesday Book this manor was held of the king in chief. During the 13th and 14th centuries the holders of the honour of Gloucester appear as intermediary lords between the lords of the manor and the Crown.

In 1086 the tenant was Gozelin de Breton, and it descended from him to his son Hugh, and subsequently to his grandson Walter. The heiress to Walter was his daughter Amabilla. The manor was brought in dower by the marriage of Geoffrey de Lucy to Amabilla's daughter and heiress (Geoffrey was her third husband). The manor subsequently passed to their son Geoffrey, who died in 1284, leaving it to his son Geoffrey. This Geoffrey also acquired Woodcroft alias Halyard Manor, Luton, with which the manor of Gladley descended until the mid 1400s.

The manor passed out of the Lucy family in 1460, after the death of Sir William Lucy without issue. Gladley Manor was inherited by his sister's children, namely Walter Hopton and Elizabeth wife of Roger Corbet. Woodcroft was inherited by a son of another of Sir William Lucy's sisters. Walter Hopton did not enjoy Gladley for very long as he died within half a year of his uncle, and his interest in the manor passed to his sister Elizabeth. On Elizabeth's death in 1498 the manor passed into the possession of her grandson Robert Corbet. He was the son of Richard Corbet (a son of Elizabeth's by her first husband, Roger Corbet), who probably died whilst on service for the king in foreign parts.

At this time the manor was fairly small, consisting of three messuages, 100 acres of land, 10 acres of meadow and 40 of pasture. In 1513, when Robert died, the estate passed to his son Roger (see Robert's will), and then subsequently on Roger's death in 1538 (see also Roger's will) to his son Andrew. When Andrew's eldest son Robert died without male issue the possession was inherited by Robert's two daughters, Elizabeth who married Henry Wallop of Farleigh, Hampshire, and Anne the wife of Adolphus Carey. Anne Carey died in 1602 without issue, and her interest in the manor passed to her sister Elizabeth Wallop.

The manor subsequently descended in the Wallop family until 1652, when Robert Wallop sold it for £2,500 to Stephen and William Sedgwick, and it was subsequently purchased by the Duncombes of Battlesden. In 1697, William Duncombe was holding the manor under the name of Nares, or, Nares Gladley Manor. In 1704 it was sold by William and his wife Elizabeth to Edward Stare. In 1754, a member of the same family, William and his wife Mary, alienated it to John Mortimer.

In the 19th century the manor passed to the Lords of Grovebury Manor, and in the early 1900s it was in the possession of Mr J. T. Mills, under the name of the manor of Heath & Reach.