Brook in the parish of Heywood, north of Westbury in Wiltshire, England, is an historic estate. It was the seat of Robert Willoughby, 1st Baron Willoughby de Broke (c. 1452 – 1502), KG, an important supporter of King Henry VII, whose title unusually incorporates the name of his seat,[1] in order to differentiate him from his ancestors Barons Willoughby of Eresby, seated at Eresby Manor near Spilsby in Lincolnshire. A medieval wing survives of the mansion house known as Brook Hall, a Grade I listed building which stands near the Biss Brook.
The estate was held by Stanley Abbey from the 13th century until the Dissolution.[2] It formed part of Westbury parish until 1896, when Heywood civil parish was created from the northern part of Westbury.[3]
The earliest recorded holder is the Paveley family, which held it in the reign of Henry I of England 1100–1135). Rogers gives the descent of Brook as follows:
The Cheney family (alias Cheyney, Cheyne, etc.) Latinized to de Caineto, possibly from the French chêne, an oak-tree, was an ancient family, branches of which were scattered throughout southern England, from Kent to Cornwall, and in the Midlands. Their name survives attached to several of their former manors. The family which inherited Brook was seated at Upottery in Devon from the time of King Henry III (1216–1272).[7]
Sir Ralph Cheyne (c. 1337 – 1400), was thrice a Member of Parliament for Wiltshire and was Deputy Justiciar of Ireland in 1373 and Lord Chancellor of Ireland 1383–4. He was Deputy Warden of the Cinque Ports. His monumental chantry chapel survives in Edington Priory Church in Wiltshire. He was the 2nd son and eventual heir of Sir William Cheyne (died 1345) of Poyntington in Somerset by his 2nd wife Joan Gorges, a daughter of Ralph Gorges, 1st Lord Gorges of Dundalk in the peerage of Ireland, of Bradpole in Dorset. Sir Ralph Cheyne inherited the estates of his childless elder half brother Sir Edmund Cheyne (d.1374/83), Warden of the Channel Islands. Sir Ralph Cheyne married Joan Pavely (1353–d.pre-1400), daughter and co-heiress of Sir John Pavely, of Brook (in Westbury), Wiltshire.
Sir William Cheyne (c. 1374 – 1420), only son and heir, MP for Dorset in 1402. He married Cecily Stretch (c. 1371 – 1430), younger daughter and co-heiress of Sir John Stretch, of Pinhoe and Hempston Arundel in Devon, Sheriff of Devon, 1379–80, Sheriff of Somerset and Dorset, 1383–4, Knight of the Shire for Devon, 1385, 1386, 1388, by his 1st wife, Maud, daughter and heiress of John Multon, Knt. Cecily was the widow of Thomas Bonville, third son of Sir William Bonville (died 1408)[8] of Shute in Devon.[9] Sir William Cheyne's younger son was John Cheyne, who was given by his mother the manor of Pinhoe,[10] where he established his own family, having married Elizabeth Hill, daughter of John Hill of Spaxton.[11]
Sir Edmund Cheyne (born 1401, died 1430), eldest son and heir, of Brook, MP for Wiltshire in 1429. He married Alice Stafford (died 1469), widow of William Boteler, de jure 6th Baron Sudeley (died 1417), of Sudeley in Gloucestershire,[12] and daughter of Sir Humphrey Stafford II of Hooke, "With the Silver Hand," of Hooke, Dorset and of Southwick, Wiltshire, by his wife Elizabeth Mautravers (died 1420), daughter of Sir John Mautravers of Hooke. Alice Stafford was the aunt of Humphrey Stafford, 1st Earl of Devon (died 1469). Alice survived her second husband and married (3rd) Walter Tailboys, of Newton-Kyme, Yorkshire, by whom she had a daughter Eleanor, wife of Thomas Strangeways, of Melbury, Dorset, ancestor to the Earls of Ilchester. Sir Edmund Cheyne's landholdings included: Brook (in Westbury), Avon (in Bremhill), Ditteridge (in Box), and Imber, Wiltshire, Cheyneys (in Steeple Morden) and French Ladys (in Long Stanton), Cambridgeshire, Birch, Fair Oak (in Upottery), Rawridge (in Upottery), and Upottery, Devon, Cheyney-Cottered (in Cottered), Hertfordshire, Poyntington and Norton Hawkfield (in Chew Magna), Somerset, etc. Sir Edmund Cheyne died without male progeny, leaving two daughters and co-heiresses:
Robert Willoughby, 1st Baron Willoughby de Broke (died 1502), was born and raised at Brook Hall.[16] A close confidante of Henry VII, he was created the first Baron Willoughby de Broke.[17]
He rebuilt Brook Hall and installed many heraldic stained glass windows, which were recorded and described in 1650 by John Aubrey on his visit to Brook. A common image in these windows was the heraldic badge of a rudder, which was noted earlier by John Leland (1503–1552) when he visited Brook. Sir Ralph Cheney's heraldic badge was a rudder, as is visible sculpted on his monument in Edington Priory church, but had apparently first been adopted by his ancestors the Paveley family of Brook. Aubrey stated concerning his visit to Brook Hall: "Mr Wadman would persuade me that this rudder belonged to the Paveleys who had this place here". Use of the badge descended to Cheney and then to Willoughby. William Camden stated of Cheney's descendant: "Lord Willoughby, by report Admiral, used the helme of a ship for the seal to his ring". A small rudder is sculpted on the alabaster monument and effigy of Robert Willoughby, 1st Baron Willoughby de Broke (died 1502) in Callington church in Cornwall. Two relief sculptures of rudders survive today in Edington church, and Aubrey noted in a chapel south of the chancel in Westbury Church "in one window some rudders of ships or".[18] They were also formerly visible in Seend church.[19]
While the title Baron Willoughby de Broke survives today, held by the Verney family formerly of Compton Verney in Warwickshire, the family's connection with Brook faded away in the 17th century. Brook Hall went into a long decline and for most of its subsequent history was a tenanted farm.
In 1968, three related buildings were recorded on the National Heritage List for England. The Early Wing, from the 15th century, was designated as Grade I while the adjoining farmhouse (c. 1600) and a barn (late 17th century) are Grade II.
For 20 years the Early Wing was listed on Historic England's Heritage at Risk Register. Following many years with shoring scaffolding for structural support following local authority statutory powers enforcement, following a change of ownership in 2014 the hall was subject to repairs in 2017/18 and was described as a success story for the register.[20]
Brook House is described by the antiquarian John Leland (1503–1552), which text was commented on in an article called "Leland's Journey through Wiltshire" published in the Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine, 1883. Part of the old House of the Paveleys was visible when Leland visited. His description is as follows:[21]
"There was of very aunciente tyme an olde maner place wher Brooke Hall is now, and parte of it yet appearithe, but the buyldynge that is there is of the erectynge of the Lorde Stewarde unto Kynge Henry the VII. The wyndowes be full of rudders. Peradventure it was his badge or token of the Amiraltye. There is a fayre parke, but no great large thynge. In it be a great nombar of very fair and fyne greyned okes apt to sele howses. The broke that renithe by Brooke is properly caulyd Bisse, and risethe at a place namyd Bismouth, a two myles above Brooke village, an hamlet longynge to Westbyry paroche. Thens it cummithe onto Brooke village, and so a myle lower onto Brooke Haule, levinge it hard on the right ripe, and about a two miles lower it goith to Trougbridge, and then into Avon"
The Antiquarian John Aubrey (1626–1697) visited Brook Hall and in his 1650 work on South Wiltshire wrote describing it as "a very great and stately old howse" with "a hall which is great and open, with very olde windowes". There was a "canopie chamber", a dining room, parlour and chapel, and the windows were filled with coats shewing the armorial descent of Willoughby, which he described. The windows "are most of them semée with rudder of a ship, or. He observes "the Rudder everywhere".[22] This was the heraldic badge of Robert Willoughby, 1st Baron Willoughby de Broke, apparently inherited from Cheney, as it is shown also on the monument to Sir Ralph Cheyne (died 1400) of Brook, in Edington Priory Church. Aubrey wrote as follows, describing the coats of arms then visible in the stained glass windows of the Great Hall and the "Canopie Chamber":[23]
"Brook House in Westbury parish is a very great and stately old howse. In the Hall, which is great and open, with very old windowes, remaines only the coate of Paveley: Azure a cross flory or (illustrated as plate xxxvii., No. 549). In the Canopie Chamber, in the windows:
The Wiltshire historian Sir Richard Colt Hoare, 2nd Baronet (1758–1838) described Brook House in his work "Modern Wiltshire", concerning the hundred of Westbury.
The poet Edward Thomas (1878–1917) in his book In Pursuit of Spring,[24] says this of Brook Hall (which he calls Brook House):
Michael Ford says of Brook Hall: