Claybrookes Manor Harrold

The Russell family coat of arms

Volume III of The Victoria County History for Bedfordshire, published in 1912, gives details of all the manors in Harrold. It states that Claybrookes Manor was first mentioned in 1554 when Francis, Lord Russell and Margaret, his wife, alienated it to John and Frances Dobbe. In the 1580s it was in possession of Henry Laurence, a Bedford mercer.

Henry Laurence died in 1587 and the manor passed to his cousin Edward and his son Geoffrey. In 1589 Edward and Richard Laurence sold the manor to John Blott, who died in 1630. In 1637 his son William died and the manor was found to be only a single cottage and thirteen acres of land. This is the last mention of Claybrookes Manor in the historical record.