Ufton Nervet - History

History

An excavation at Ufton Green revealed a site which showed evidence of stone-working for the manufacture of tools or weapons and a number of scattered stone artefacts dating from the Mesolithic era.

The toponym Ufton is derived from the Old English Uffa-tūn = "Uffa's farmstead" and the Domesday Book of 1086 records it as Offetune.

Three manors have existed in this area: Ufton Robert, Ufton Nervet and Ufton Pole. The Domesday Book records the first two.

The original Ufton Nervet, also known as Ufton Richard, was about 1 mile (1.6 km) north west of the current village, in the current location of Ufton Green. It had its own parish church of St John the Baptist, the ruined west wall of which still survives. The place was named after Richard Neyrvut, later corrupted to Nervet, who held the manor in the 13th century.

Ufton Robert manor house was just west of the current village and had a moat, which still survives. Excavations in the 19th century found bridge piles, a gateway and other foundations. The moat is also part of a set of linked medieval fishponds fed from an artificial stream which flowed into the south pond. The water was controlled to the ponds and moat by a series of sluices. The manor came into the hands of the Perkyns family around 1411. When they bought the manor of Ufton Pole in 1560 the two manors were combined and the main residence moved to Ufton Pole, which is now Ufton Court, a large Elizabethan manor house south-west of the village.

In 1434–35 the parishes of Ufton Nervet and Ufton Robert were merged and Ufton Robert's parish church of St Peter became the church of the merged parish. Although the original parish of Ufton Nervet had ceased to exist, this eventually became the name of the current village and parish.