Thorncote Green (often known only as Thorncote) is a

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...

located in the

Central Bedfordshire Central Bedfordshire is a unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of Bedfordshire, England. It was created in 2009. Formation Central Bedfordshire was created on 1 April 2009 as part of a structural reform of local government in Bedfor ...

district of

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated Beds) is a ceremonial county in the East of England. The county has been administered by three unitary authorities, Borough of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Borough of Luton, since Bedfordshire County Council wa ...

, England. The settlement is located to the north of the village of

Northill Northill is a village and civil parish in the Central Bedfordshire district of the county of Bedfordshire, England about southeast of the county town of Bedford. The 2011 census showed the population for Northill village as 338 and for the civ ...

, and practically next to

Budna Budna is a hamlet located in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census the population of the hamlet was included in the civil parish of Northill. Budna is located to the north of the village of Northill, and near to Thorncote Green and Hatch. B ...

. Thorncote Green lies near to the border between Central Bedfordshire and the

Borough of Bedford The Borough of Bedford is a unitary authority area with borough status in the ceremonial county of Bedfordshire, England. Its council is based in Bedford, its namesake and principal settlement, which is the county town of Bedfordshire. The bor ...

Commercial Activity

Although rural, Thorncote Green supports several small businesses:- * London Electronics Ltd * Franklins Farm, online butchers and farm shop * Skysport Engineering Ltd

The Manor of Thorncote

The Victoria County History equates this manor with a holding of Eudo the Steward, also known as Eudo, son of Hubert in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

of 1086. That entry simply lists the manor under Beeston; the Domesday survey does not mention Thorncote, Hatch or Brook End in any of its entries. On Eudo's death the manor became property of the Crown and was attached to the Barony of Lindon incoln By the 13th century the manor was held by Drew de Sutton and later by William Dru. In 1313 it was conveyed by John de Wresle to Walter de Huntingfold and Joan, his wife. At some time before 1377 Agnes, wife of Henry de Huntingfold was dispossessed by William de Brounsford who alienated the manor to Nicholas Westerdale and others who obtained a licence in 1386 to convey it to

Warden Abbey Wardon or Warden Abbey, Bedfordshire, was one of the senior Cistercian houses of England, founded about 1135 from Rievaulx Abbey. It is a Grade I listed building. History The patron was Walter Espec, who had founded the mother house and se ...

in exchange for the abbey's granges at Ravensholt and Burdon in Cambridgeshire. The manor stayed in the hands of Warden Abbey until it was dissolved in 1537. For more than a century, the Crown leased out the manor but in 1652, it granted the manor to John Eldred and others. This group were speculators who divided the land into four parts. In 1658, one of these parts was conveyed by Nathaniel Parcell to Jasper Edwards, Chief Registrar of the Court of Chancery. During the next hundred years the manor seems to have been reconstituted and appears in the ownership of Samuel Cockayne and Bromsall Throckmorton. By 1801 it was in the hands of Godfrey Thornton of

Moggerhanger Moggerhanger is a village in the English county of Bedfordshire. It is west of Sandy on the road to Bedford. Its population in 2001 was 636, but had reduced to 620 at the 2011 Census. In the twentieth century the village name was spelled vario ...

, who had purchased it from Thomas Smith of Grays Inn. The manor remained in the hands of the Thornton family until a succession of Law of Property Acts in the 1920s abolished manorial fines and incidents as well as

copyhold Copyhold was a form of customary land ownership common from the Late Middle Ages into modern times in England. The name for this type of land tenure is derived from the act of giving a copy of the relevant title deed that is recorded in the man ...

land tenure, thus abolishing manors in practically all but name. Since April 2011, the title of Lord of the Manor of Thorncote has been held by Ian J. Wilkinson of nearby

Peterborough Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and North ...

Notable residents

Christopher Layton Christopher Layton (March 8, 1821 – August 7, 1898) was a Mormon colonizer and Patriarch who founded the cities of Kaysville, Utah; Layton, Utah; and Thatcher, Arizona. Layton, Utah, is named after him. Life Layton was born at Thorncote Gree ...

, a

Mormon Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's death in 1844, the movement split into several ...

colonizer and

Patriarch The highest-ranking bishops in Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Catholic Church (above major archbishop and primate), the Hussite Church, Church of the East, and some Independent Catholic Churches are termed patriarchs (and in certai ...

, was born in Thorncote Green in 1821

References

{{Places in Bedfordshire Hamlets in Bedfordshire Central Bedfordshire District