Monument record 0856600000 - Middle Claydon village

William [Peverel] holds (Middle) Claydon himself. It answers for 10 hides. Land for 10 ploughs; in lordship 3 hides; 3 ploughs there. 16 villagers with 2 smallholders have 5 ploughs; a further 2 possible. 3 slaves; meadow for 4 ploughs; woodland, 150 pigs. Total value £10; when acquired £12; before 1066 £10. Alwin, a thane of King Edward's, held this manor (B1).
NGR to centre of Middle Claydon.
A change of tenancy was often the stimulus for building work and when Thomas Kent succeeded Thomas Hedges as the tenant of a house in Middle Claydon, Sir Ralph Verney, as landlord, authorised extensive works of repair and new building. Although it is no longer possible to identify the building on the ground, a document surviving in the Verney Papers at Claydon House describes a number of features which are sufficient to describe its general charater. The house was timber-framed with a thatched roof and the works included the general refurbishment of the building, the creation of an integral smithy or workshop with a brick forge, the addition of a timber-framed lean-to with brick nogging, the building of a new barn and the re-roofing of a cow house. A careful distinction is made between the 'latis' windows and the other windows made by the carepnters and finished by the glazier, which suggests that even at this late date some of the windows were unglazed. The barn was a thatched and timber-framed structure resting on brick footings with walls of wattle and daub containing a quantity of dung. It is interesting to note that different carpenters were paid for 'framing the barn' and 'bilding' it which, perhaps , suggests that the timbers were worked elsewhere in a framing yard before being erected in their final position on site. A total of 26 people were employed on the works…The division between local and outside labour is striking. All the common labouring was carried out by villagers, whilst, conversely, all the craft-work was executed by workmen who did not live in the Claydons. This general classification into unskilled local labour and skilled outside craftsmen is broadly similar to the arrangement found on major building projects in the period. However, it is highly unlikely that there were no building craftsmen with the necessary skills living in the Claydons and it can only be surmised thet they were engaged on other work at the crucial time (B2).
Conservation Area designated on 19th June 2002. See appraisal (B3).