Thrale history

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died in 1520 and brasses of the family are to be seen in Wheathampstead Church.⁵ Why the name of Heyworth, the name of John of Wheathampstead's predecessor was adopted by the Wylleys, is not clear.

John of Wheathampstead must have known the Thrale family well, for the Abbots of St. Albans owned the whole of the Great Tithes of the parish of Luton and were given considerable trouble in getting their tenths and transporting them from all corners of the parish to their barns and mill in the vicinity of Luton Church. To ease this matter John of Wheathampstead purchased a manse and 17 acres at East Hyde. As a deed confirming a grant of this land to the Abbey contains the earliest known mention of the name 'New Mill End' and shows that a new water mill had been erected there, it may be very properly assumed that this was identical with the site up to recent years known as 'New Mill End Mill'. This mill was pulled down at the beginning of the twentieth century and stood opposite the present New Mill End Farmhouse immediately to the east of the then Great Northern Railway station. Also demolished were the Barns erected by the Abbot in 1461.⁶ One other interesting relic of the past in this area is that the only cases of open field cultivation which survives in this area of Hertfordshire-Bedfordshire is at West Hyde, and a few strips lying between East Hyde and Thrales End.⁷

John of Wheathampstead also enjoyed entertaining the highest in the land, and the Abbey was visited by many distinguished people such as the Duke of Gloucester, brother of Henry IV. This type of religious and social gathering would seem to be motivated by the same sort of aims which brought into being the Religious Guild of Luton.

St. Albans Abbey with its aristocratic sympathies has been likened by historians to the Athenaeum Club, their revenue being derived from the toil of the serfs, no sympathy or understanding being given to anyone who was of a lesser rank than a knight. The townsfolk's struggles against this tyranny burst out when William Grindcobbe, a well-born citizen, championed the serfs' cause and was executed in 1381. Under the Cluniac reform, manual labour was considered as being unsuitable for the monks, and they filled their days with elaborate ceremonial. The Benedictines were also keen to improve the learning of their Order, so contributed to the maintenance of Gloucester Hall at Oxford University. St. Albans sent many scholars over the years, several Abbots having been Oxford academics, and the St. Albans armorial shield can still therefore be seen on the wall that surrounded Gloucester Hall, now Worcester

Footnotes

5. St. Albans & herts Arch. Documents 1889. Pedigree of John Bostock. 1755. 139 for. 97..↩︎
6. Austin: History of Luton Vol.I page 195.↩︎
7. Austin: History of Luton Vol.II page 275.↩︎