1066-1485.
A time of the manors and settlement. This period opens with the Domesday Book recording that there was a substantial manor, Chrishall Bury, here in 1066 and two smaller manors of Crawley Bury and Chiswick Hall. Chrishall Bury was still named on maps as late as 1777, 700 years later!
After the Norman Conquest the village of Chrishall was presented to Eustace III (1050-1125) who became Count of Boulogne in 1087. It is said that Eustace decided he would live in the village and had a house built on an elevation to the south of the Church. (Before the Conquest a small Church dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary stood on the spot where the present church now stands and continued there till well over a century after the Conquest.)
Eustace married Mary of Scotland and they had a daughter, Matilda (1105 – 1152), who grew up to marry King Stephen and become Queen Matilda.
There is on record a letter sent by Queen Matilda to Hubert the Chamberlain and several other dignitaries in the village commanding them to look after the people in her village of Chrishall. She went into some detail as to what they had to do to look after them. There is one telling sentence towards the end of the letter, when she finished off her story with: ‘As my father did before me’. However Eustace fell out with William II in 1088 and had returned to Normandy and then went on Crusade so although the village passed to Matilda when he died in 1125 I have my doubts about how much time she spent in the village, if any.
We have recently been asked the reason behind the name Engleric and are delighted to re-produce this article written many years ago for the village magazine. Mrs Irene Cranwell, village historian, wrote articles for many years under the guise of the village pumps. ...
In Chrishall Church there is a large brass that covers (or once covered – it has probably been moved) the tombs of Sir John de la Pole, who died probably in 1380, and his wife Joan (née Cobham), who died probably ten years or so later. And the stone effigy that is...
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