Old Weston

Ailwyn son of Athelstan the ‘half king’, earldorman of East Anglia, inherited Brington from his father and Old Weston from his mother, who received it from her foster child King Edgar. These places he gave to Ramsey Abbey when he founded that house, while his brother Alfwold gave Bythorn to the monks. Edgar, Edward the Confessor, William 1, other Kings and Pope Alexander Ш confirmed these gifts.

The Abbey held the ‘manors’ of Brington, Bythorn and Old Weston in 1086, assessed to the geld respectively as 4 hides, 4 hides and 10 hides.

By the 13th century, when Brington had become the ecclesiastical head of these three places, Old Weston had become the manorial head, and so remained. The three ‘vills’ were united in the time of Henry 1 to supply a full farm, and this was allocated to the monks hospitality.

Some time before 1177, one, Henry, increased the Ramsey lands by a hide and 8 acres in Old Weston, and in 1279 the manor or vill of Old Weston, with Brington and Bythorn belonged to the barony of Ramsey, it was composed of 15 hides, of which the Abbot held 8 caracutes in demesne.

The church of Old Weston belonged to Ramsey Abbey in 1086, and Ailric, the priest, held half a hide freely in the time of Henry 1. The church was confirmed to the Abbey in 1178, by the Pope.

The agrarian holdings of Ramsey Abbey in the Domesday Book for 1066, was 10 hides valued at £10 for these estates. (Ref 25)