Belgravia Living
Before the Grosvenors (1066-1662)
The history of the area which later became the Grosvenor Estate goes back to the time of the Norman Conquest. It was called the Manor of Eia in the Domesday book, then Eye, then Ebury. This Manor seems to have covered all the land between the Roman road (which is now Oxford Street), the Thames in the South, the Westbourne river on the West, and the Tyburn river (also known as the Eye Brook) on the east.
Geoffrey de Mandeville was granted the Manor of Eia by William the Conqueror as a reward for his services. He gave it to the Abbey of Westminster, which continued to own it until 1536 when Henry VIII broke with the Roman Catholic Church and dissolved the monasteries – and seized their property for the Crown.
Henry turned the area of Hyde into a royal park - Hyde Park. What was left was known as the Hundred Acres. James I sold the land to Sir Lionel Cranfield, an important Government official, but kept back some land which later formed part of the grounds of Buckingham Palace. He also included some additional land at Millbank. By 1626 Cranfield had fallen from favour and was being impeached for corruption.
Cranfield sold the land to Hugh Audley. He was born in 1577 and died in 1662 at the age of 85. He began his career as a law student from a humble background, but he became a successful businessman who acquired land and manors up and down the country. The manor of Ebury was probably among the least valuable of his properties, since it was little more than marshland, frequently flooded by the Thames. A few shepherds and farmers worked the land by day and thieves and cut throats worked the lanes by night.
