Something that should be made clear is that the history of this old estate is much more complicated than used to be supposed and by necessity this has to be an abridged version of the intricacies of the lives of various people connected with it, whether as owners or tenants prior to the 20th Century. The uncertainties of family-trees, multiple ownership of land beyond Charlton Park and complexities arising from marriage and intermarriage are not matters that can be fully illuminated here. Nevertheless, an attempt will now be made to reveal some of the main movers and shakers, the men and women who helped create, shape and pass this lovely old estate down to us. Chunks of its history and some of its characters are now obscured forever, whilst others have been overlooked or touched upon lightly, but overall a reasonable view of the bigger picture should begin to emerge. Further research will be required on the part of readers wanting to satisfy their curiosity by delving into the many side-avenues that lead off from this self-declared brief history.
Mary Paget tells us that the Saxon settlement at nearby Cheltenham must, from the place-name ending 'ham', be older than Charlton, with the place-name ending 'ton'. The first element of Charlton, (OE cheorl), tells us that this area was developed by the lord of Cheltenham (the king) to provide land for the men who worked his demesne (estate). Before that they may have been landless labourers living in his hall. We have to imagine the whole of modern Charlton as undeveloped waste, wood or scrub. It was cleared gradually, perhaps by groups of younger men under leaders, each of whom built a farmstead named for himself and cleared the land around it. So we have such early place names as 'Baedela's tun' or farm (Battledown), 'Cuda's hill' (Cudnall) and 'Babba's ford' (Bafford). Post 1066 Norman Conquest settlements may also have started out as homesteads but people called them 'Ends' because they represented new land developed on the edge of existing cultivation. So we get Church End, Up End, Crab End, East End, Moor End and Dowdeswell End.
A great deal of Charlton land had been developed by the last half of the twelfth Century, when a small manor was cut out of Cheltenham to reward Walter of Ashley. Before the end of that century, a chapel had been built at Charlton, so initiating the process which in time would create a new parish. The frankpledge system demanded that every adult male should belong to a tithing, collectively responsible for public order and individual good behavior. So Charlton was divided into three tithings. One was Ashley, the land now held under Walter's manor, the second was Bafford, the area we know as Bafford plus Moor End, and, significantly for this account, land on Forden Bank - all this still held the manor of Cheltenham, and the third was Charlton, the rest of the land held from Cheltenham lying scattered over the whole 'parish' and especially at Ham (OE hamm - water meadow). We may presume that when Charlton was divided in this way, the thirds each had roughly the same number of tenants with their respective holdings.
The site of 'Forden House' (the house situated in and surrounded by Charlton Park) was part of Bafford tithing. It was freehold, held of the manor of Cheltenham. Whatever the history of Forden House, it was never Walter's capital messuage (dwelling-house, outbuildings, orchard, gardens etc) or the place where his manor courts were held.
If we consider the whole of Bafford tithing in relation to Cheltenham, it is apparent that the brook by Forden Bank was the first obstacle that settlers coming by this track had to cross to reach fresh land to the east. So it seems very likely that the primary homestead for Bafford was here, on the east bank of the stream, on a deep bed of gravel, and that this was the original Babba's Ford. Such a hypothesis can never be proved but it seems to be borne out by the names of medieval tenants of the earlier house - Simon de la Forde (before 1233), Thomas de la Forde (1272-1304), John de la Forde or John ate Fordeye (c1335, 1352), Agnes ate Ford of Charlton (1353) and in the late 14th century another Thomas de la Forde, who was succeeded by John Greville senior and his son John (II).
The house is mentioned by name as "Forden Mese" in 1504, when it featured in a fictitious suit in the manor court. The manor of Ashley and The Forden, with land in Charlton, Naunton and Cheltenham, came into the possession of Robert Greville of Arle, sometime between 1520 and 1528.
This entry merely confirms the enigmatic status of The Forden and its proper relationship to the Greville family, after William Greville of Chipping Campden became owner of the manor of Ashley, and has puzzled various people. The Forden looked like a manor house, yet it was not. A Charlton witness before the Council of the Marches at Montgomery Castle in 1541 thought that there were two Greville manors, "thone cald Ashley cowt & thither cald Forden Cowrte", and there may have been a grain of truth in the notion that Robert Greville would have liked to withdraw his small estate at Forden from Cheltenham's jurisdiction. If that were his ambition, it was frustrated. The house was freehold of the manor of Cheltenham in 1557 when Thomas Wye and Edmond Benbowe occupied it.
Giles Greville the younger, gentleman came of age in about 1562, inheriting the old timber-framed courtyard house and messuage, with 37 acres after it had been occupied by tenants during his minority. He also held five Ashley tenements, including one occupied by Giles Greville Snr, gentleman. Estate building had begun and probably house-building too and it is believed that c1562-8 is the period in which the new timber-framed building was repaired and upgraded, possibly almost rebuilt, some of it still forming the core of the main St Edward's School building today. The Greville family was not yet rich enough to do more than bring the old house more in line with current fashion, for at this period they had not yet been afforded the title of Esquire.
Of the two roads that border Charlton Park today, Sandy Lane (Sandig i.e. sandy) was an ancient road from Cirencester and London into this valley, and passed (until diverted in 1827) close behind the house and across the river Chelt by Cudnall's bridge, past the Mill, and then on to Prestbury. The diverted road was called New Carriage Road (subsumed by Moorend Road) and the diversion meant there was no longer any need for a public road through Charlton Park, enabling the Prinn family to turn the former road into two private driveways - achieving a long held desire for a completely enclosed country estate, it having taken them over 120 years to do this after John Prinn Snr (1660/1 - 1734/5) took possession in 1701. The Old Bath Road, leading into the valley from the Cotswolds, was there in May 1471 when the Army of Edward IV is said to have come down it from the Cotswolds - "a right hot day," - May the 3rd - the day before the Battle of Tewkesbury. They had already marched 28 miles when they passed through here. After a meal from their chuck-wagons at four o'clock in the afternoon, and water from the Chelt, they apparently went on for another six miles before night and camped near Tewkesbury.