HAIL WESTON
About Hail Weston
Hail Weston is a village and civil parish in Cambridgeshire, England and lies approximately 7 miles south of Huntingdon.
Hail Weston is situated within Huntingdonshire which is a non-metropolitan district of Cambridgeshire as well as being a historic county of England.
Further information about Hail Weston’s History can be found at the following links:
Time Trials
c.1300
A few Neolithic implements have been found indicating that early humans had been in this area. An important Romano–British bronze statuette was discovered a few years before 1824.The name Hail Weston derives from the river forming the northern and eastern parish boundaries (now called the River Kim), which was originally called the Hayle or Hail, and in earlier times the village was called Heilweston (12th Century), evolving to Hailweston and Haleweston later.
During the reign of Edward the Confessor the manor was held by two men- Saxi and Uluin Chit, who were Earl Harold’s Men. However their manor was not part of the great Kimbolton estate which was held by the Earl.
After the Norman Conquest, Hail Weston was split into four Manors – and there was much contention as to who owned them!
In the 13th Century the Manor of Hail Weston was apparently worth two thirds of a knight’s fee and was held by two sub-tenants, but the records are unclear as to their names. However four sisters, Aubrey de Windlingbury or Launcelin, Agnes, wife of William of Grafham or Brampton, Felicia de Buckworth and Cecilia de Soke are recorded as tenants c.1244/5.The owners of the Manors at the start of the 14th Century are documented as being members of the Ferrers family of Eynesbury... READ MORE.
At the start of the 16thcentury, part of Hail Weston, called Harvey’s Manor was held by Sir George Harvey who died c. 1521 or 1522. Having no direct heirs, he left it to Gerard (a son of Margaret Smart). There is conjecture that Gerard may have been an illegitimate son of Sir George...READ MORE
In 1617 Sir William Dyer bought a Manor in Hail Weston and it remained in his family until a different William Dyer (possibly a great-nephew) sold it to Henry Carter in 1699.One other manor in Hail Weston was sold by Nicholas Luke to John Rawlins and Richard Weaver in 1638. Richard Weaver was chief tax-collector in the Hundreds of Hurstingstone, Leightonstone and Toseland for Charles II...READ MORE.
Henry Carter acquired the Manor in 1699, however he became bankrupt and it was sold in 1715 to Sir William Scawen. (The only Knight of this name I could trace was the Cornish Member of Parliament, who was also a governor of the Bank of England from 1697 – 1699.) He soon sold the manor to Richard Houlditch in 1720, who resold it in the same year to William Astell. He was a merchant and member of the ill fated South Sea Company (of the South Sea Bubble – the original credit crunch!), and he in turn, had to sell the manor again. It was auctioned on 6th November 1723...READ MORE
By 1803 the manor had been sold to John Pyne and was passed to the Rev. Hele Selby Hele in 1811. In 1814 John Hyde bought the manor. A long association with the Reynolds family, started with Lawrence Reynolds in 1819, whose trustees continued to hold the manor in 1841. Edward Reynolds of Little Paxton took over in 1885 and was succeeded by his son, another Edward, who died in 1893. The Edwards family paid for the extensive refurbishment and restoration of St Nicolas Church around this time and the stained glass east window commemorates this. In 1893, after the death of his father, Captain Edward Reynolds inherited the manor...READ MORE.
The 20th Century, a century of very rapid change, has a vast amount of recorded, and often photographed, history for our village. There are a lot of living memories that should be recorded...READ MORE
If you have any history stories or photos please share them with our community: clerk@hailweston.org.uk