Celtic Cumbria (Celtic Nations)
| ALDENHAM The River Colne forms its north-western boundary and a small stream called the Brook, a tributary of that river, flows through the parish on the east side from south to north. There were formerly extensive commons and wastes in the manor, Aldenham Common, the largest, covering most of the southern part of the parish. ALDHAM (EARLS COLNE and COLNE PRIORY) lies on the south bank of the river Colne, c. 5 miles north-west of Colchester. The parish was part the centre of a large estate belonging to the ealdorman of Essex which broke up in the early 11th century. A manor in Aldham, later ALDHAM HALL, was held by Leveva in 1066; by Odo of Bayeux and from him by Beatrice wife of Aubrey de Vere in 1086. EARLS COLNE, the largest of the four Colne parishes, was the site of a medieval market and a 19th-century engineering works. The bridge from Colne Engaine to Earls Colne whose repair was ordered by Quarter Sessions in 1591 was presumably Stone bridge, first recorded by that name in 1557. |  |
BRIGHSTONE OR BRIXTON Briccheston (xiii cent.); Brizteston, Brightestone (xiv cent.); Brixton (xvi cent.). Brighstone possessed a 'great gun' which is mentioned in the parish registers as 'one gonne of brasse' as early as 1570. The gun-house and 'shott' for the gun occur as early as 1679, and the same piece of ordnance is mentioned frequently under William III. At the time of the Domesday Survey Walkelin Bishop of Winchester held Calbourne as part of the possessions of the priory of St. Swithun, Winchester. This entry represents the manor of Swainstone in Calbourne parish and includes BRIGHSTONE, afterwards a separate manor. Brighstone, one of the southern parishes of the Island, about 7 miles south-west from Newport, was formerly included in Calbourne, but was separated ecclesiastically as early as the 13th century.
BUSHEY The parish of Bushey, formerly called also Hartshead (Hertesheved, twelfth century), was apparently separated from the parish of Watford, of which it formed a part, about 1166. It lies to the south of the county, and is bounded by the River Colne on the north, and the Middlesex county boundary on the south. The town now practically joins Watford.
CALDECOTE manor has its origin in the land in Houghton granted to Dunstable Priory by Henry I. The grant by Henry I was confirmed by King John, and in 1323 the canons were granted rights of free warren in their demesne lands in Houghton. The lands of Caldecote Manor lay in the northern portion of the parish. The name is preserved at the present day by a farm known as Carcutt Farm.
CHAMBERS COURT probably formed part of the estate held by Urse in the manor of Longdon in 1086. Another manor called Longdon, held in the 16th century by the Wye family, was sold in 1596 by Elizabeth Wye to John Throckmorton. The manor of EASTINGTON (Estinton, xiiixvi cent.; Estington, Essington, xvii-xviii cent.) gave its name to its early holders, of whom William Eastington in 1220 owed half a mark to the Treasury for having a writ of pone against William Bracy for a knight's fee in Eastington. In 1277–8 there were two mills on the estate held by the Muchgros family in Longdon and Castlemorton.