WALKER'S MANOR.
Elizabeth Tottie and W. Thorpe represent the coheirs of H. Walker, whose family had held the property for three or four centuries, and as this property was not broken up and sold till 1878, and represents a single knight's fee, allotted at the Conquest to Roger de Busli, a particular notice may be of interest.
Robert Arre, 18th, Ed. 2., held this fee and gave it to Sir Roger de Joyce (of Burton Joyce) and Isolda his wife, and it passed by the marriage of a Walker to Eleonora Joyce, in the time of Edward III., to the Walker family, who apparently resided here till the time of George III., after which it was let to gentlemen farmers till it was finally sold in 1878.
Odingsells Manor House.
The house still exists very much as it was when the last Walker lived there, the barn and stables (part in old checker brickwork) which formed two sides of a square, are mostly pulled down; the garden completed the fourth side, and the whole stands high on a rock and wall overlooking the village, whilst a grass field between the house and church was formerly the green. (See Plate.).
The whole property consists of 223 acres, rather scattered (see plan); of this about 100 acres was approved from the Waste, 114 acres allotted from the arable fields in 1770, and the rest is the manor-house and some old enclosures near the village.
Its rental value at the sale of 1878 was about £350, and as the ancient owners farmed it, we may reckon that the owner of a single knight's fee enjoyed the equivalent of an income of £800 or £900 a year of present money, with house, horses, and sporting thrown in.
EPPERSTONE.
Notes by Mr. H. Hampton Copnall,
From Records at the Shire Hall.
In 1642, complaint was made that an Epperstone woman "having her last dwelling-house upon the land of John Walker, gentleman, one of the lords of that towne, is of late destitute of harbour." It appeared to the Court that there "is an ancient custome and course in Epperstone that the several lords have and doe usuallie maintaine the poore wch happen upon those several lands." The Court relieved the woman, but ordered that the greatest part of the relief be levyed upon John Walker for the reasons aforesaid.
In 1681, John Walker destroyed the highway leading from Epperstone to Southwell and Rossel Wood.
In 1715, John Walker is described as the most proper man in Epperstone for the Overseer of highways at Epperstone.
In 1717, Mr. John Walker, of Epperstone, tooke the oaths, &c., as a dissenter.
In 1725, John Walker, of Epperstone, gentleman, received the Sacrament at Epperstone church.
In 1732, the following names appear in the list of freeholders liable to serve on juries :—
Mr. Jno. Odingsel Leake,
attorny in Worksworth.
Henry Walker, gent.
Samuell Briggs.
Jno. Hopkins.
Henry fforrest.
2nd April, 1917.