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Cotes de val,
Leicestershire
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The farmhouse at Cotes de val is about two miles
north of Bitteswell. It housed members of the Howcutt family for over 70
years in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. [1]
The building originally had a moat, its access in the 18th century
being over a drawbridge. It is close to the site of a deserted medieval
village of the same name. [2] The will of John Howcutt
(1709-1769) of Bitteswell mentioned his “farm and lands at Coates”. The
chattels at Cotes de val were left to his son John
(1741-1819), suggesting that the son may already have been living there when
his father’s will was made. The younger John married Elizabeth Higginson at Leire, in 1772 and the couple seem to have spent all of
their married life at Cotes de val. The farm stands
in the parish of Kimcote but it was at Gilmorton that all of John and Elizabeth’s five children
were baptised:
Elizabeth and Robert – the two
children who died young – are both commemorated by tombstones that survive in
the churchyard at Leire. [3] John died on 3 January 1819 after
a short illness and was buried at Bitteswell four days later. When his will
was proved at Leicester on 11 March of the same year, his son John was the
sole executor and stated that the value of the goods, chattels and credits
did not exceed £6,000. Elizabeth Howcutt remained at Cotes de val until her own death
in 1826. Her son John (1773-1850) seems never to have married. He still
living at Cotes de val at
the time of the 1841 census, in which he is described as a farmer whose
household also included two female and three male servants. John died at Bitteswell
of “general decay” on 8 October 1850 and was buried there six days later. His will was proved by his
nephew John Howcutt on 14 February 1851. The Howcutts were almost certainly
not freeholders of the property at Cotes de val at
any stage when they lived there - the 1798 land tax list records John Howcutt
as an occupier of lands at Cotes de val and Gilmorton that were owned by Thomas Pares [4] and in 1838
John Howcutt (his son) was recorded as a tenant of the manor of Cotes de Val,
paying his landlord Thomas Pares of Hopwell Hall,
Derbyshire £8.11s.0d per annum, with £1.9s.0d being deducted for Land Tax.
[5] Notes [1] Cotes de val is
a short distance to the east of the M1, with access from the A428 via its own
bridge over the motorway. [2] The moated site is a scheduled Ancient
Monument. A detailed description and map can be found on the Historic
England website. [3] Leire, Kimcote and Gilmorton are all
within a few miles of Cotes de val. [4] The National Archives: IR23/44/79. [5] Report of the Commissioners enquiring
into Charities in England and Wales, 32nd Report, Part V – Leicester, page
140 (HMSO, London 1838). |
