Looking at Norton Bury farmhouse, or activity centre, you mainly see the late Victorian yellowish-grey brick walls, very similar in style to the village school, which was built in 1877. The farmhouse, however, has one chimney stack of red brick which is much older, and it seems likely that there are red brick walls hidden from sight - possibly from the Stuart period, and perhaps built by William Pym. Even these, however, cannot be called the original walls of the house, for Norton Bury has obviously been altered, added to, and rebuilt, many times since the fourteenth century. In the topmost room there is an access to the inside of the roof, where the beams appear to be medieval. And even these must have been put up over surviving parts of earlier farm houses from Saxon times. The remains of the moat are still here, though no longer surrounding the old manor house. If Mrs Bailey and the Victoria County History are right, it seems that manor courts may have been held at Norton Bury. These courts began when the Norman barons were the only kind of local authority in England, and only gradually lost their powers as the King's courts took over the administration of justice. Norman Manor Courts continued to be held until August 1916, but for their last 50 years were mostly brief formalities in solicitors' offices in Baldock. In 1977, however, Messrs Balderston and Warren discovered the Manor Court books dating back to 1757. The first of these hand-written accounts begins: "The Special Court Baron of William Pym Esquire Lord of the said Manor there held in an for the said Manor on Thursday the Twenty Fourth Day of March in the Thirtieth Year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord George the Second by the Grace of God of Great Britain France and Ireland King Defender of the Faith and so forth and in the Year of our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Fifty Seven Before Isaac Wilkinson Gentleman Steward there." "In and for the said Manor" certainly suggests that the courts were held at Norton Bury, which will be an impressive thought for any future meetings to be held on this historic site. Prepared by Kenneth Johnson in 1978 from material available at Letchworth Public Library
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