Photograph of Baddesley Manor House, 1920
The subject presented for this afternoon's consideration is the Manor of North Baddesley, because since we together visited that Church and Manor House in 1910, several discoveries have been made that add to their interest. But since the members of the Ramblers' Club were there so recently as last summer it was thought that the present meeting might more comfortably be held at Highwood, where the church can be seen from the grounds, and the site of the parish boundary crosses in an adjacent field. But the lovers of old traditions must be prepared for shocks, and for being made to assist at the building for Baddesley, of one of those funereal piles that modern historians make for old romance.
First, we must abandon the time-honoured belief that the kitchen of the Manor House once served that purpose for the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, and that the " pots " in which were wont to simmer their "herb repasts," ever hung from the great chimney, above blazing logs upon its wide hearth. Moreover, it is now believed that the chimney itself is too modern for the Hospitallers' time, and this your Vice-President, Mr. W. J. Andrew, pointed out when he visited the spot with his friend and guest, the late Dr. Cox, the historian. But since then, Mr. Andrew has been able to definitely decide the question by reference to the map of the county in the Museum at Winchester, dated 1759, where a large house close to the church at Baddesley, can be clearly discerned. "It represents an Elizabethan Mansion of considerable importance," says Mr. Andrew, "built with three projecting gabled wings," adding that the original kitchen chimney, with its smoke jack similar to that at St. Cross, is of Tudor brick, and proves that the modern Georgian house was built almost upon the same site but to the west, instead of to the east, of the kitchen.
He suggests that the date of the erection of the Elizabethan Mansion was between 1560 and 1580, and that the mediaeval preceptory, which was of stone, has gone, but its foundations may still be traced further to the east. The Rev. John Marsh (who was Rector of Baddesley from 1802 to 1824), when writing his memoranda of the parish in 1808, said of the Hospitallers' Preceptory, " Their ancient building some years ago was destroyed by fire, but is still remembered by the name of the 'Old Monastery.' " He adds that "the whole building was not quite destroyed ... the kitchen having escaped with little injury, and this is still standing and answers the same purpose to the present mansion." From this it is to be inferred that the Elizabethan building was the one that perished, possibly in the 18th century, and that the present Georgian house was built upon its remains. Another time-honoured tradition is that the church served as the Hospitallers' Chapel, and this also Mr. Andrew disproves, rejecting the suggestion in the account of Baddesley by the Rev. Mr. Minns, that " the knights and serving brothers with their chaplain gathered within its walls for their daily offices, the latter entering by the priest's door in the wall of the chancel, the others by the massive half-timbered porch." Perhaps future pilgrims to the spot will deplore the passing of this last tradition even more poignantly than the other for there has ever been fascination in the thought that sometimes, in the gloaming, a long line of black cloaked forms might be seen, filing down the aisle, and the echo of their solemn chants be heard on winter's nights. But, unfortunately, the history of the Order confirms Mr. Andrew, since a chapel seems always to have formed part 'of a preceptory, where the offices were said by its private chaplains; and in one case we have his name, in a return, as to the possessions at Baddesley, made to the Prior Philip de Tame in the year 1338, when it was given as " Brother John Couffen," when the head of that house was " Brother William de Multon " and the chapel itself is specially mentioned.