Tracing the origins of Mitcham Grove

Supplementary material to accompany 'From medieval estate centre to 18th century mansion: excavations at Mitcham Grove 1974-5'. The outline history of the Mitcham Grove site has been traced with confidence back to the late 16th century when held by the Smyth or Smythe family. However, some details are not as straightforward as local historians had surmised, while its earlier history has been even less clear.1 The recent identification of excavated material from Mitcham Grove as ranging from the 10th or 11th century to the 19th supports the view that this was the medieval estate centre of Wicford, not the moated site later known as Mitcham Hall proposed by Eric Montague.2 This article traces the early history of the Wicford estate before it passed to the Smyth family and untangles that family's complex lines of descent and its various property transactions, to discover how much, if any, of the Mitcham Grove estate can be securely linked to one of the Wicford holdings described in Domesday Book. (Deletions and superscript insertions reflect the use in the documents being quoted).