Trethowans , solicitors

The manor of Yeoveney was presumably included in Edward the Confessor's grant of Staines to Westminster Abbey. Between 1087 and 1100 the land of Yeoveney was referred to as pasture belonging to Staines: this may indicate that it was then an uncultivated appurtenance of the parent manor, rather than a berewick, though it is possible that the pasture referred to was the adjacent moor, which seems to have been regarded as part of Yeoveney manor in the 14th century. In any case, Yeoveney had become a manor by the 13th century, and had about 200-300 acres of demesne, lying to the east of Staines Moor. In 1758 there were only five copyholders, holding less than 20 acres between them, and the manorial rights lapsed soon afterwards. The demesne lands comprised between 365 and 400 acres from the 17th to the 19th centuries.

Yeoveney formed part of the abbot's demesnes. It was leased continually from 1363, except for part of 1376 and possibly for other short periods before the mid-15th century. Leases for terms of years were replaced in the 17th century by leases for three lives, frequently renewed, which remained the rule until the abbey gave up the property. From the 16th to the 19th century the rent remained virtually constant at about £25. In 1494-6 and 1522 Robert Durdant was lessee. (Nicholas Durdant (d. 1538) was in possession in 1525 and was succeeded by his son Andrew. The abbey tried to oust Andrew or his son in 1587, but Andrew Durdant, grandson of the earlier Andrew, was in possession by 1610. His widow, then in occupation of the estate, secured the freehold in 1649. After the Restoration Charles Durdant was made to surrender his lease, and in 1665 one was granted to William Dolben (d. 1694), later a justice of King's Bench and brother of the then Dean of Westminster. William was succeeded by Sir Gilbert Dolben, Bt., the Dean's son. His grandson Sir William Dolben sold the lease in 1775 to William Gyll of Wraysbury (Bucks.), whose descendants were lessees when the manor was transferred to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners.

The Durdant family lived at Yeoveney, but the later lessees sublet the farm. No one family appears to have held the sub-tenancy for a long period. In 1881 the Ecclesiastical Commissioners sold their reversionary interest to Henry Fladgate, who was then in occupation of the farm. Since then it has passed to the county council, and in 1957 their tenants, Greenwood Bros., farmed 150 acres, including the land which had earlier in the century been used as a rifle range.

There is no evidence that the manorial buildings have ever stood elsewhere than at the present Yeoveney Farm. In the 14th century the buildings included a hall and gatehouse as well as two granges, a byre, a cowhouse, and other farm buildings. The house was rebuilt in the first half of the 18th century. It is L-shaped and has two rather high stories of red brick with a tiled roof. The main front has a slightly projecting centre bay with a pediment, between two narrow bays on each side. The large timber-framed barns to the north, which are now (1957) covered with corrugated iron, probably date from the 17th century.

From: 'Staines: Manors', A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 3: Shepperton, Staines, Stanwell, Sunbury, Teddington, Heston and Isleworth, Twickenham, Cowley, Cranford, West Drayton, Greenford, Hanwell, Harefield and Harlington (1962), pp. 18-20.