In the mid-to-late-13thC Richard, Earl of Cornwall, or his son Edmund, as Lords of Benson, Granted an Independent Manor of Nettlebed to John de Mandeville (d.1275), who was succeeded by his under-age son John. He may have been deprived, however, since in 1284 the Manor was apparently included in a Grant by Edmund to Rewley Abbey, along with his ‘whole Wood at Nettlebed‘ & 2-Parks called Highmoor. The Abbey acquired additional small parcels from 2-Tenants-in-chief in 1303, when Edmunds widow Margaret claimed Dower in a 3rd of its alleged 2,000-acres of Wood in Nettlebed and Benson. In 1362 the Abbey exchanged the Manor for Lands in Cornwall with Edward the Black Prince (d.1376), whose widow Joan (d.1385) was assigned it in Dower. Thereafter it reverted to the Crown and was given to Richard II’s Chamber Knight Sir John Salisbury, Executed in 1387.
In 1393 the Manor was Bestowed for Life on Thomas Hatfield, a minor member of Richard II‘s Household & in 1414 on another Royal Servant, William Bangor. His life Possession was confirmed in 1423 when his Rent formed part of the Dower awarded to Queen Catherine (d.1437) & in 1443 Henry VI re-Granted the Manor in Survivorship to Bangor & a Royal Porter, John Watts. From the late-15th to the mid-16thC the Crown Leased the Demesne to unnamed Farmers & appointed Bailiffs to collect the Rents, but in 1544/45 the Manor was briefly Granted to a London Mercer & in 1547 to Thomas Seymour, Baron Seymour of Sudeley. On his Fall in 1549 it was Granted to William Grey (d.1562), Baron Grey of Wilton & John Bannaster, for their Service against the Scots.
The date & circumstances of the Stonors‘ Acquisition of the Manor are uncertain: neither Sir Francis Stonor (d.1564) nor his son Sir Francis (d.1625) appear to have Held it at their deaths, though both Held Lands in the Parish. In 1585, however, it was among Manors Forfeited by Lady Cecily Stonor (the elder Sir Francis‘s Widow) for Recusancy, and the Crown subsequently Leased it to her Son, who was then a Conformist. Sir Francis Stonor’s Lordship was contested by Thomas Box (d.|1610), who claimed that his father William had Bought the Manor from Grey & Bannaster: Box certainly owned Land in the Parish & was an active Inclosing Farmer, with interests in the Woodland & former Parks. Whatever the Case the Stonors regained Possession & from the mid-17thC until its Sale in 1894 Nettlebed Descended with Stonor Manor.
In 1894 the Manor was bought by H H Gardiner, a London Businessman who was forced to Sell following Financial Losses. Robert Fleming (1845-1933), a Scottish Financier, bought the Estate in 1903 & Built a New Mansion House at Joyce Grove, becoming the 1st Resident Lord since Box. In 1906 he Surrendered his rights over Nettlebed Common, effectively causing the Lordship to Lapse. Fleming was succeeded by his son Philip, who in the late-1930s gifted the entire Nettlebed Estate (then 2,000-Acres) to his Nephew (Robert) Peter Fleming (d.1971). The Estate remained in the Fleming Family in 2015.
A separate Freehold at Joyce Grove (33-a in 1840) was incorporated into the manor in 1895, together with an evidently substantial House. Earlier Owners included James Thompson of Wallingford, who acquired it in 1637 & in the early-18thC (when it belonged to John Toovey) it was a Farm called ‘Russels House & Close‘, which owed Quitrent to the Stonors. John was succeeded by Thomas Toovey (1766-1849) & his Descendants, and the Estate was later occupied by various Minor Gentry until its sale to Gardiner.
Manor Houses: John de Mandeville had a Manorial Curia & Garden in 1275 & in 1520 the King Leased the ‘Site’ of the Manor (Held separately from the Demesne) to one of his Servants. It subsequently passed to the Stonors, whose ‘Manor House’ at Nettlebed was mentioned in 1675. Probably that was the later Nettlebed or Manor Farm, which lies next to the Church on the South side of the Henley-Oxford Road, and in the 1720s was the Farmhouse for the Stonors‘ Nettlebed Estate. In 1894 it was Sold with the rest of the Stonor Lands, but was separated from the Fleming Estate in 1973 when it was Sold with 5-acres.
Joyce Grove The large Jacobean-style Mansion House at Joyce Grove was Built for Robert Fleming in 1904/5 on the Site of an earlier-Building, shortly after his Acquisition of the Nettlebed Estate. Built of Red Brick with Bath Stone Dressings & Stone-slate Roofs, it was designed by the Architect C E Mallows (1864-1915) of Bedford & London, and enlarged after a Fire in 1913. It was not, however, much liked by Fleming‘s Descendants & in 1940 was given to St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington as a Convalescent Home. The Hospital later Sold it to the Sue Ryder Charity. 2-Storeyed with Attics and highly irregular in Plan, the House features a multiplicity of shaped Gables, Transomed and mullioned Stone windows and Brick & Stone Chimney Stacks & has a Balustraded Parapet to the Roof. The 13-Bay east front includes 2-off-centre Stone Porches, the more Ornate (on the right) giving access to the Hall. An extensive Service Wing extends Westwards from the Main Ranges South-west Corner, while the Interior retains good-quality Louis XV & Jacobean-style Panelling and some Large Stone Fireplaces. Mallows also designed the Entrance Gates to High Street & a Lodge in Beaux Arts Style on the Reading Road. The Houses predecessor may have existed by 1665, when the Hearth Tax Assessment listed Several Large Houses in the Parish. A Map of 1725 shows a 3-Gabled Building, which may have been rebuilt or remodelled following Thomas Toovey’s death in 1849. In the 1890s it was an ‘old Red Brick Mansion with Modern additions’, with a 3-Storeyed symmetrical Front and prominent end-Stacks.
The Fleming Family’s involvement with Nettlebed began in 1903 when Robert Fleming, the Scottish Financier, bought Joyce Grove, where a House had stood on it’s present Site for many Centuries, together with 2000-acres of Farmland, Woodland, Common, Pottery & Brickworks and many of the Cottages. He came to an agreement with the Village Cricket Club under the New Nettlebed & District Commons (Preservation) Act 1906 to remove their Ground close to the Entrance of Joyce Grove in return for a New Ground on 3-acres of Land reclaimed from the nearby Clay Excavations, including a Pavilion. In 1908 he Commissioned the Architect C E Mallows to Design a completely New House. Robert Fleming died in 1933 & in 1938 his Family gave Joyce Grove and it’s Grounds to St Mary’s Hospital. The firm of Robert Fleming & Co., known as Flemings, was founded in Dundee, in 1873 by Robert Fleming, a successful Manufacturer of Jute Fabrics used for Sandbags in the American Civil War. In 1873, Robert Fleming co-Founded the Scottish American Investment Co for the purpose of investing in high risk, high return American Railroad Bonds. Flemings assumed a central role in the 1886 battle with Jay Gould for Control of the Texas & Pacific Railway, in which the Flemings Bondholder Group ultimately triumphed. Overall, Flemings claimed to have made a 40% return on Investments in US Railroads. Many of the Fleming Family are laid to rest in Nettlebed Churchyard. Col Peter Fleming the well known Traveller and Writer and his wife Dame Celia Johnson are amongst them. The Grade II-listed, Edwardian Mansion was Sold to Beechcroft at the beginning of 2022 by the Sue Ryder Hospice Charity which had owned it since 1979. The Plans, submitted to South Oxfordshire District Council, are for apartments of 1, 2 & 3-bedrooms. Fourteen will be created in the house while nine will be in the stable block. A separate applications have been submitted to convert a Squash Court and a Potting Shed on the Site each into single homes.
Soundness Manor: So-called from the 16thC, originated probably as a Medieval Freehold belonging to the Soundy Family, who were Locally Established by the 1240s-50s. In 1306 John Soundy was the Parish’s Largest Taxpayer, but in the later-14thC the Estate was acquired by Dorchester Abbey, which retained it until the Dissolution. In 1545 Richard Taverner bought Soundess from the Crown. The Family lived initially at Woodeaton (Sold in 1604), but moved later to Soundess, which passed from Richard’s 4th son Edmund (d.1615) to his son John (d.1674), to John’s daughter Mary Harris (d. 1714) & to her son Taverner Harris (d.1685). John Wallis (d.1717) acquired it through marriage, and was succeeded by his son John (d.1754) & grandson Taverner (d.1782), who c.1755 Sold it to Sambrooke Freeman (d.1782) of Fawley Court (Bucks.). In 1788 Sambrooke’s Successor Sold the House & 633-a. (in Nettlebed & Bix) to the Farmer John Sarney (d.1796), whose Descendants remained at Soundess until the 1850s. Manorial Rights were retained by the Freemans, who in 1853 Sold them to C E Ruck Keene of Swyncombe. Both House & Land were Sold by Edward Sarney to E D Lyon in 1858, passing later to the Freemans’ Successor at Fawley Court, Edward Mackenzie (d.1880). In 1926 his son W D Mackenzie Sold the then 1,350-a. Estate to A A Dale, who retained it in 1941. In the 1960s-70s it belonged briefly to one of the Fleming Family, and in the early-21stC was bought by Captain Hon Robert Yerburgh, son of the 2nd Baron Alvingham of Bix Hall.
Soundess House: In 1665 John Taverner was taxed on 12-Hearths at Soundess, the highest Assessment in the Parish. A Bower in the Garden was named after Charles IIs Mistress Nell Gwynne, who reputedly stayed there. No other Houses at Soundess were mentioned, and probably the remaining Settlement was cleared when the Mansion House was Built. By the 1830s-40s the House was surrounded by Farm Buildings, but after the Construction of a separate Soundess Farm (by 1871) it was rebuilt as a Gentleman’s Residence, and apparently Enlarged in the early- 20thC. Later re-Buildings resulted by 2011 in a substantial irregular House of Brick & Mock Timber-framing, with sweeping Tiled Roofs, Tall Brick Chimney Stacks, and multiple Dormers above its 2-Main Storeys.
Lesser Freeholds: Additional Freeholds may have been created by the Crown before Nettlebed‘s separation from Benson & included a few acquired by Religious Houses. Rewley Abbey obtained Land from Thomas Costard & Thomas Whale in 1303, which it retained (unlike the Main Nettlebed Manor) until the Dissolution, when its Nettlebed Possessions passed to the Butler Family. Dorchester Abbey acquired lands in Nettlebed and elsewhere from Sir John Stonor in 1317 in Exchange for Lands in Pyrton & in 1323 and 1338 received Additional Lands from the Veysyn Family & Others. Presumably those were absorbed into its Manors of Soundess and Huntercombe, which it also retained until the Dissolution. Secular Freeholders included Peter de Stanford (d.1252), a Clerk of the King’s Chapel, whose Yardland in the Parish passed to his brother Oliver. John James (d.1396) of Wallingford owned 40-a of Land & Wood in Nettlebed & Bix, Richard English (d.1460) Held a House and 16-a & William Stonor (d.1494) Held 7-Houses & Gardens and 6-a of Meadow, which passed to his son and were presumably later absorbed into the Stonors’ Nettlebed Manor.
Aston Rowant & Chilterns Spring Line Villages 