KENCOT
At the time of the Doomsday survey (1086) Kencot was held by the important d'Oyly family, members of which came over with the Conqueror in 1066. This family was in possession for many years and was succeeded by various persons of importance including, in the second half of the fifteenth century, the Lovells of Minster Lovell. A century later and for much of the seventeenth century the manor was held by the Yate family which was originally established at Charney Bassett, Berkshire, and later acquired the manors of Buckland and Lyford in the same county. The family fortune was made by John who became a Merchant of the Staple early in the sixteenth century. His grandson, Francis, bought the manor of Kencot sometime before 1574. The Yates remained staunchly Catholic and in spite of fines and imprisonment managed to survive. It was in their house at Lyford that Edmund Campion, the famous Jesuit martyr, was arrested in 1581 after saying Mass. After cruel tortures he was executed at Tyburn. Queen Elizabeth offered him his life and preferment if he would become a Protestant.  The manor house at Kencot was built by Francis Yate or his son and in 1920, during renovation work, a priesthole was discovered in the parlour chimney.