The history of Fitzharris Manor from the Middle Ages to the end of the Second World War
The lands on which our houses are built were originally part of the estates of Abingdon Abbey. This was one of the great monasteries of England following its re-foundation in about 950, with substantial holdings in Berkshire, Oxfordshire, and beyond. After the Norman conquest the Abbey was allowed to keep its properties, but only if it provided 30 mounted knights who could be called on to fight for the crown. The Abbey supported these knights by allowing them holdings of land. One of the Norman knights was called Oin or Owen, and was allocated 3 hides of land in Abingdon and 2 hides elsewhere at some point between 1071 and 1084. This land, which probably comprised about 350 acres in Abingdon, would have been scattered in parcels around the great open fields of the town, with rights to graze livestock in the meadows near the Ock. However there must have been a core holding in the area of our estate, because this is where Owen constructed a small moated and fortified building – the Motte.
Over one hundred years later the land was still held by a descendant of Owen – Hugh Fitz-Harry. The Motte clearly did not meet current needs and there was now also, in the words of a chronicler from the Abbey, “a roomy and pleasant mansion fittingly embellished with meadow and pasture, streams of water, abundance of fish-ponds, thick woods and a variety of buildings”. We know this because in 1247 Hugh agreed to sell the estate back to Abingdon Abbey, but apparently had second thoughts at the last moment. There was a stand-off, with a great crowd of interested spectators, but in the end the exit of Hugh and his household was successfully negotiated. The manor passed back to the Abbey, but it was Hugh’s name which stuck to the estate.
At first the Abbey farmed the land itself, using the labour of the peasants who held land as part of its estates, with the produce helping to supply the needs of the monastery. But the ravages of the Black Death and the resulting shortage of labour meant that this was no longer economic. In the fifteenth century the Abbey began to lease out its estates to tenants. With the dissolution of the Abbey in 1538 the manor was briefly in the hands of the Crown, before becoming part of the property of the new Borough of Abingdon.
The Borough continued the policy of leasing out the estate, and over the years a number of important local families occupied the property, including the Tesdales and the Bostocks. It was probably Thomas Tesdale who rebuilt the manor house in the mid-sixteenth century – possibly incorporating some stone from the dismantled Abbey buildings. In the Regency period this house was refaced and a new brick-built wing in Gothick style added by the Bowles family, who were prosperous maltsters.
In 1862 T H Graham purchased the title to the estate from the Borough, and Fitzharris Manor passed through various private hands. The farmland which had been part of the estate was progressively disposed of, but the manor house was still surrounded by extensive grounds. During the Second World War the house was occupied by a girls school which had been evacuated from Kent. By 1946 the house was again left empty, and it is at this point that the story of the modern estate begins.