The oldest groups of houses in Nash are in the Pond area, Wood End, The Cross and Towns End (where the High Street meets Whaddon Road) and this suggests Nash was originally three settlements. Groups of Victorian buildings are to be found in Winslow Road (Great Horwood end), The Hill (on the bend of the High Street) and Stratford Road (church, school, rectory, mill). Groups of 20th century houses are to be found in the High Street, Stratford Road (next to the Cross, and Holywell Cottages), Thornton Road and Whaddon Road.
Most of the buildings built before the 1920’s would have been Copyhold, that is it was owned by the Lord of the Manor (in this case Whaddon) – “Manors themselves were freehold property, and were bought and sold between major landowners.
Smaller landholdings within manors were held by copyhold tenure. Title deeds for these pieces of land do not exist in quite the same form as for freehold land. This is because copyhold land was technically owned by the Lord of the Manor. The people who actually lived on and farmed manorial lands were only tenants of the manor. They held their land by custom, which varied between manors.
Nevertheless, most copyhold land could be bought and sold, inherited by descendants, left in a will, mortgaged, and settled, just like freehold estates. Many landholdings were held by members of the same family for generations. However, every transfer of land had to go through the Lord of the Manor. The land was surrendered back to him before the new tenant was admitted. The Lord of the Manor had the right to take fees from new tenants, and to receive a payment called a ‘heriot’ on the death of one of his old tenants.” (Nottingham University)
Copyhold was changed to Freehold in the 1920’s upon receipt of money to compensate the Lord of the Manor for the loss of rights, this was called enfranchisement.
This section looks in detail at every house in Nash as well as the church and the village hall, and it is written as if you were walking through the village. Some information is in the form of photographs and these come from 5 main sources – Ron Unwin; the Millennium Chronicle; the 1965 and 1982 Nash WI Scrapbooks; a set of postcards produced in the 1930’s; and estate agent sales details. Other data includes the Census; Register of Electors; Directories; and Deeds.
If you have other data that can be added, or you feel should be removed, or would like copies of other photographs I haven’t used then please contact me.
Winslow Road (starting at the Great Horwood end)