The 1300s

Around 1300, Northampton was at the height of its prosperity, but the following century marked its decline. The last Royal tournament was held there in 1342 by Edward lll. The last parliament met there in 1380 during the reign of the 'Boy King' Richard ll.

In Heyford we start to hear of the Manor. In 1313 John de Pateshull 'levied a fine of a manor' here and in 1316 he was certified to be Lord of the Manor. In 1360 after the death of Sir William de Pateshull the manor was assigned to Catherine, the wife of Sir Robert de Tudenham with whose successors in continued into the 1400s. The original Manor House was at Upper Heyford and its remains can still be seen.

During the 1300s there were a series of crop failures and epidemics of bubonic plague, including the Black Death in 1349 in which around a third of the population died. This depopulated much of the countryside and created the opportunity for some of the more powerful lords and yeomen to take control of larger areas of land. It was during this period that the neighbouring villages of Muscott and Glassthorpe became deserted.

At the same time there began a growth in sheep farming and many of the former ridge and furrow fields were laid to pasture for grazing. It was because the land was grazed, rather than ploughed, that much of the ridge and furrow survives in recognizable condition today.