 worth about £37 a year, those in Wick Hamon £20, and the two at Dagnall a further £22. (fn. 242) The manor of Deanshanger, which the 1st Lord Spencer bought in 1615 and sold a couple of years later, (fn. 243) briefly accounted for a further £29. (fn. 244) There were only two freeholders on the manor at that period, paying a total of 16s. a year in chief rent. (fn. 245) The Spencers' limited interest in the Wicken estate is illustrated by an inventory drawn up in 1628 after the death of the 1st Lord Spencer, totalling £13,950, of which just £35 was represented by a few items of furniture at 'Wicken Lodge', (fn. 246) presumably the park keeper's house. In 1641 the 3rd Lord Spencer sold the Dagnall farms to Anthony Gibbs of Wicken for £1,050. (fn. 247)
What remained of the estate was worth £570 a year in 1662, of which £300 came from the 600 acres of woods, valued as coppice cropped on a twenty-year cycle to produce £10 an acre annually. Anthony Gibbs was paying £86 7s. 6d. for the park (110 a.), three closes of pasture (21 a.), and a farm of 2¾ yardlands (probably about 100 a.), and another 13 tenants had between a quarter of a yardland and 4½ yardlands (about 160 a.) each, with rents ranging from £2 to £38. There were also 19 cottage tenants paying between 3s. and £2. (fn. 248) Gibbs's lease, which included the Park House or Lodge, was renewed for a further 21 years in 1681; (fn. 249) his son Charles surrendered the lease early in 1700 in return for a new one for 24 years at the same rent and a fine of £400. (fn. 250) The other large holding in this period, described as 'The Great Farm all lying together' (440 a., presumably the consolidated manorial demesne), was let with the Manor House in 1679 for 21 years at £130 a year to James Bevin of Deanshanger, (fn. 251) in place of Richard Pease, who had held the farm on a nine-year lease from 1670 at the same rent. (fn. 252) In the late 17th century, besides the Park Lodge and Manor House, there were 18 other holdings which included at least a small amount of land (am