Uffington: the Craven Estate

The Craven Estate

Uffington became associated with the Craven family in 1630 when Elizabeth Craven, widow of Sir William Craven, bought the Uffington and Compton estates from Sir Francis Jones.

Sir William Craven had been Lord Mayor of London in 1610. He died in July 1618 at the age of 70, and advised his wife to invest in property. In addition to the Uffington and Compton estates, Elizabeth purchased Hamstead Marshall near Newbury (in 1618), Stokesay, Shropshire (also in 1618) and Coombe Abbey in Warwickshire (in 1622). The Shropshire village of Craven Arms was part of the Stokesay estate.

Sir William bought the Ashdown estate, to the west of Uffington, in the early 1660’s and became Earl of Craven in 1665. He built Ashdown House, originally intended as a residence for the Queen of Bohemia, who was the sister of Charles I. In fact she never saw it: building did not begin until two years after her death.

Ashdown House is now owned by the National Trust and part of it is open to the public. Sir William died without children in 1697, and the Uffington estate stayed in the Craven family.

In the early years most of Uffington's people were engaged in agriculture or trade for the estate. This changed slowly, and in 1851 the estate still owned all 10 farms in the parish and employed about half the working population. In addition to the farms, the estate operated a brickyard and timberyard.

With the economic changes that followed the second world war the family found it increasingly difficult to maintain their estates and eventually they decided to sell their Uffington property. Tenants were given the opportunity to buy their land and cottages, but many declined as the houses were not seen as a good investment. The cottages that had not been sold privately were auctioned in Uffington Village Hall on Wednesday 29th July 1959, ending the 329 year connection between the Craven family and Uffington.

The family never lived in Uffington itself. Their resident agent, or steward, did live in the village, in a large house on the corner opposite the Museum.

Visitors to the Museum can see a Touchscreen presentation that has more on the history of the Craven Estate, and some estate documents and maps are in the Museum's archive.