Crux Easton House (Formerly the Rectory)

The Manor House

Evidence of an earlier occupation has been found in the garden of the Rectory, when in 1856 a  woman's skeleton was found that had been buried during the time the Romans were here and an urn was also found.

It was Edward the Confessor was on the throne that Crux Easton was held by Linxi and later it was handed by William the Conqueror to Croc who was believed to be the warden of the Forest of Chute. It remained in his families possession up to 1207 when Michall de Columbiers who was owner of land near to Vernham Dean married Avice a descendent of Croc. The last of the de Columbiers Nicola, married John de l'Isle who hailed from the Isle of Wight and the family held the chief warden ship of the Forest. The estate was handed down several times and eventually a part of  the ownership was transferred to a Mr Hughes and the rest by Charles II to the Duke of Albemarle in 1660. Sir John left his Isle of Wight estates to Lancelot Lisle who was of a different line of the family and Edward Lisle one of his descendents decided to retire to the country after he lost three of his children to smallpox. And it was in Crux Eaton that he decided to settle c 1692.

Edward made records on the good farming practices, and he dreamt of these notes being published, but this did not happen during his lifetime, and it was Thomas the Rector of Burghclere, his son, who eventually got them published and they became a best seller.

Dame Alice Lisle the Aunt of Edward was recorded as being sentenced to death by Judge Jeffrey's (the Hanging Judge) for helping two of Monmouth's men after the rebellion in 1685. Edward was the father of 20 children and nine of his daughters built a grotto in what is called Grotto Copse and here there were portraits of friends on the surrounding trees. Alexander Pope was a friend of the family and a poet, and he wrote the following verse in praise of the sisters and their grotto.....

Here, shunning idleness at once and praise,
This radiant pile nine rural sisters raise;
The glitt'ring emblem of each spotless dame,
Clear as her soul and shining as her frame;
Beauty which nature only can impart,
And such a polish as disgraces art;
But fate disposed them in this humble sort,
And hid in deserts what would charm a court.

He also wrote a poem about the sisters.

Authors the world and their dull brains have traced,
To fix the ground where Paradise was placed.
Mind not their learned whims and idle talk,
Here, here's the place, where these bright angels walk.

The Lisle estates were purchased in 1770 by the then headmaster of Winchester College, John Burton, and the land became part of the Carnarvon Estate till 1939 when a publisher of technical journals, Capt Leonard Hill, purchased it and it still remains in his family's hands.

Today though Crocs manor house has bee long gone but it has been said that a new one was built in the village centre but no trace has been found.

Another mystery is that there were earthworks and brick arched tunnels that spread out from the side and were closed in the 1930s and not trace of them can be found!

In the 1428census there were 10 households in the village but today around 25 houses can be seen the newest additions being Porchester Estates cottages which were built in 1947,Charters in 1953 and new cottages in the late 1969s.

The Three Legged Cross public house was once a cottage and the De Havillands was built by Sir Geofrey de Havilland fo a holiday home. Sir Geoffrey was  the Rectors son and the founder of the aircraft company and it was while he lived at the Rectory that he first built model aeroplanes in his workshop. De Havillands first aircraft were construced at Fulham and then taken to Seven Barrows    to test and Sir Geoffrey visited his family on a  regular basis and often gave the villages rides in his plane!

The memorial tablet to the De Havillands TO THE MEMORY OF THE REV CHEARLES de HAVILAND M.A. RECTOR OF CRUX EASTON AND VICAR OF WOODCOTE FOR 23 YEARS DIED MAY 7 1920 AND OF ALICE HIS WIFE DIED MAY 10 1911 THIS TABLE WAS ERECTED BY THE PARISHIONERS AND MEMBERS OF CRUX EASTON

A "Heavy Gangw from the Hampshire Mills Group has recently helped to dismantle an 1892 John Wallis Titt Wind Engine at Crux Easton which was built on what was the Lord Caernavron's land to pump water from a 400 ft well. It could also be clutched in to grind grain or to drive a circular saw. It has been unused since the 1920's and survived the metal collection of WWII and the gales of the late 1980's. The well house was about a hundred years older than the  wind tower.

When World War I came to the village the local men folk followed the nations call for duty and it is said it was then that the wind pump fell into disrepair and in 1991 it became a Grade II listed building.

		The village was also the home of one of Britains most notorious people, Sir Oswald Mosley the leader of the British Fascits and for eight months after being released from prison in 1944 he resided here with his family in Crux Easton House the former Rectory. He had restrictions placed upon him one being that he was not allowed outside of a 3½ mile radius of the village and a policeman was assigned to him to make sure this was adhered tom sadly the policeman was not a villager. Opposite the Three Legged Cross public house was said to be a telephone exchange with only nine subscribers in 1936 and was said to be the smallest in the country and had a two figure exchange and was accessed through Newbury by ringing 01, In those days there were no dialling tones in those days and the ringing was short blasts and it was closed down in 1971 and subscribers were transferred to Highclere. But even today the village has a red call box which has been converted to modern currency. At the start of the 1900s the pub was owned by the Greenaways and when the landlord Mr Greenaway was shot in  a shooting accident his wife and son Jack returned to help in the pub. In those days there was no bar and Jack would take the beer in tankards.
The Three Legged Cross with the sign between the two upstairs windows

Crux Easton House sits on a prominent site with stunning views across Hampshire and Wiltshire, and there has been a house of quite some significance here for centuries. The main core is an important mid-eighteenth century villa, designed to strict geometric principls that were fashionable during this period.

THE VILLAGE SCHOOL

		In 1874 a school was built to serve the hamlet and it catered for up to 30 pupils but only 21 were recorded at the opening on 31st October 1881. The Certified Mistress as she was known in those days was a Sarah Brown but there were several changes up till 1891 when the first Headmaster took charge,  Benjamin Honell, his wife was the sewing mistress and the school was often visited by the rector.T he school pupils included those that daily did the walk from Binley, Woodcott and Ashmansworth and also during the Second World War it also catered for evacuees. Today the school house is a private residence and is almost opposite the church but the school mistress lived in No1 The Kennels which was known as The School House The school was eventually closed during the changes in the national education system that was part of the Education Act of 1945 but the register itself only has entries up to 1943.
The old school house

Some extracts from the School Register
May 17th 1901 'no children attended as they all had measles'.

December 1st 1910 'The Rector (the Rev. Charles de Havilland) came this morning to tell the children about the success of his son "with regard to his aeroplane" in which they have taken a great interest and, to celebrate the event, a half holiday was granted'.

February 5th 1912 'The school is very cold, one degree below freezing at 9am and later only 38 deg. The ink was frozen for the greater part of the day'.

December 3rd 1912 'School still cold. Cleaner promised to light the stove earlier'.

In 1912 'Fred Goodman excluded for unhealthy condition of head'.

November 11th 1919, Armistice Day, 'Work suspended from 11am to 11.02am'.

April 8th 1921 'Classes taken into the play-ground to see the Eclipse of the sun at 9.15am and 9.45am'.

July 3rd 1924 'Ellen Rutterford passed Junior Scholarship'.

August 1st 1935 'Miss Maberley called to inspect needlework to be exhibited at Ashmansworth Flower Show on August 3rd'.

January 28th 1936 'Although a holiday most children attended school to hear the funeral service of his late Majesty King George V broadcast and then went to the memorial service at Ashmansworth at 3pm'.