The Manor of Puttenhoe Grange

The arms of Warden Abbey

Volume III of The Victoria County History for Bedfordshire was published in 1912 and gives accounts of all the various manors in Goldington. This manor derived from four hides it Putnoe held by Hugh de Beauchamp in 1086, which were granted to Warden Abbey some time before 1198. The manor thus became a grange - a manor held by a religious foundation. The abbey was dissolved by Henry VIII (1509-1547) in 1537 and the manor reverted to the Crown.

 
The Gostwick family arms

In 1539 Henry VIII leased the manor to Oliver Leader for £4/5/8 per annum. Almost immediately Leader conveyed the manor to John Gostwick of Willington, one of the household of Thomas Cromwell, the man who likely masterminded the dissolution of the religious houses in England. The manor passed in 1545 to Gostwick’s daughter-in-law who married Francis Russell, who became 2nd Earl of Bedford in 1555, though this was opposed by her late husband’s uncle William Gostwick. On her death in 1562 William Gostwick’s son John leased the manor to Robert Hatley at significantly less than its value. The Hatley family continued to lease the manor for some years before it once more reverted to the Gostwick family.

 
Arms of the Dukes of Bedford

Sir William Gostwick conveyed all the family’s Bedfordshire property to Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough in 1731. In 1774 Francis, 5th Duke of Bedford, purchased all these lands including Puttenhoe Grange. In 1877, when owned by Francis Charles Hastings, 9th Duke of Bedford, the manor was estimated as comprising 650 acres, after which time the Victoria County History suggests that the manorial rights fell into abeyance.