The manor of Arches
East Hendred was divided between several manors in the Middle Ages. One, named after the Arches family who held it in the 13th and 14th centuries, passed through the heiress Isabel Stowe to her husband John Eyston in the 15th century. The Eystons have held it ever since, and the village and the family both date their tenure to 1443. Their house, Hendred House, stands on the High Street just south of Champs Chapel.
The house
From the street the house looks Georgian, because it is rendered and has 18th and 19th-century additions. Behind the render is an older building, probably of the early 15th century, originally a hall with a cross-wing at each end. The Victoria County History noted that the hall keeps a fine 15th-century fireplace with a four-centred arch and panelled frieze. It is listed at Grade II*.
St Amand’s Chapel
The private chapel of St Amand forms the east end of the south wing. Its side walls keep lancet windows of 13th-century origin; local histories say that permission to build it was granted in 1256. It contains roundels of 17th-century Continental glass and initials said to be those of Hugh Faringdon, the last Abbot of Reading, who was executed in 1539. The Eystons remained Roman Catholic after the Reformation, and the chapel is often described as one of only three chapels in England built before the Reformation that have never been used for Protestant worship. It was ransacked and desecrated in 1688, the year of the revolution against the Catholic James II.
The family’s Catholicism shaped the village: East Hendred has a Roman Catholic church of St Mary, built in 1865, as well as the Anglican parish church, and in the 19th century it had separate Catholic and Protestant schools. The Eystons descend from the family of Sir Thomas More, and they are reported to keep relics of More and of St John Fisher, including More’s drinking cup and the staff Fisher is said to have used on the way to his execution.
Visiting
Hendred House is a private family home and is not open to the public. It can be seen from the High Street. The Eyston chapel in the parish church of St Augustine, with family brasses and floor slabs, including a brass to John Eyston (died 1589), can be seen when the church is open.
Nearby
Champs Chapel, now the village museum, is just to the north on Chapel Square.