Bourne
Archive: Aveland:
http://boar.org.uk/abiwxo3Moore’sAveland.htm Latest edit 25 Jul 2009
Web page &
commentary© 2008 R.J.PENHEY
The Bourne Archive
John Moore’s Notes on the Wapentake of Aveland (1809)
This document was
transcribed from a book lent by the Willoughby Memorial Library, to the
trustees of which I offer my thanks.
It is
presented here as an historical document so the credibility of what it says
should be assessed. The reliability of old essays on history is usually best on
points to do with the writer’s own time. I have retained his spellings and
punctuation.
This is the
first of four web pages in which the essence of the book is transcribed. They
deal with:
1. the Wapentake of Aveland (this page),
2. the Town
of Bourne,
3. Bourne Abbey as the monastery
and as the
4. Bourne Castle.
[Title
page]
Collections
for a
Topographical,
Historical and Descriptive
Account
of the
Hundred of
Aveland. 1
-----------------
by John
moore.
-----------------
Sad are the ruthless ravages of time.........
Sad are the changes man is doomed to feel,
And all that man can boast!
Wm.
Fox. 2
-----------------
printed for the author,
by a. stark, high-street; and
sold by lackington, allen, & co.
cuthell
& martin, and crosby & co.
1809.
The dedication page appears on the web page dealing with Moore’s notes on Bourne Abbey.
The small book is divided into
three parts: a preface on pp. V to VII, an introduction, on pp. IX to XXVIII, dealing
with the wapentake of Aveland generally and the more detailed descriptions of
features of Bourne, on pp. 3 to 20.
In his preface,
“It may,
perhaps, be expected (as is generally customary with authors) for me to assign
my reasons for publishing the subsequent account. My first is the desire of
seeing a history of the place of my nativity laid before the public, on which
account I have made it my chief study to render the account of Bourn, correct
and satisfactory.”
So, he was
born in the town of
In his
introduction, he sets aside ‘those rude periods of uncultivated nature’ which
happened before the classical authors were writing. It has to be remembered
that when he was writing, although people had long learned clues to help them
with mineral prospecting, Geology and Palaeontology still had much development
to undergo. According to one school of thought, the Catastrophists, the fossils
found in rocks were attributable to Noah’s flood. When dealing with ‘the
Britons’ and ‘the Romans’ he is much influenced by the Roman authors. One
little curiosity is his seeing the Gyrvii as forerunners of the Celts. He sees
In his
treatment of ‘The Heptarchy’, he seems,
probably indirectly, through the authors he cites, to have had access to
information from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles. After dealing with the subject of
the relationship between the Saxons and the Britons,
Crida was the first
Mercian sovereign,
and began his reign in 586.
At this time
Mr. Turner supposes, that the whole island was governed by eight Anglo Saxon
monarchs; whence it should rather be denominated an octarchy than an heptarchy.
During the
establishment of these petty kingdoms, the Saxons were in constant warfare with
the romanized Britons; and after these were subdued, they were repeatedly
embroiled in conflicts with each other. In the midst of these civil commotions,
christianity was introduced, and gradually made its
progress through the island. Peada, the son of Penda, was the
reigning monarch there, when this religion was offered to, and accepted by the
South Mercians. Its benign precepts gave a new turn to human pursuits, and soon
diverted and engrossed the attention of the barbarous heathens.
Peada founded
a monastery at Mederhamsted, now Peterborough; and,
according to Speed, governed all the middle part of Mercia, and after the death
of Oswy, king of
Northumberland, received by gift, all the southern part of that kingdom.* This
was only given on condition of his adopting the christian faith, when he was
also to marry Alfleda, daughter of Oswy. Peada was soon afterwards murdered, as
is supposed, by his wife.†
Edwin the great, by force of arms, obtained all the
In 677 the
episcopal see of Sidnacester, was erected
by Egfrid son of Oswy, king of
Northumberland, in favour of Eadhell, who had been chaplain to his brother,
king Alkfrid.
The South
Mercian kingdom and bishop’s see, being thus established, we hear of few other
public events, till the incursions and pillages of the Danes. These free-booters
were particularly active in this county.
According to Ingulphus 5 they landed
at Humberstan, A. D. 870,
and spoiled all that country; and about Michaelmas they came into Kesteven, where they
committed like murders and desolations.
At length, in
September, 870, count Algar and two knights, his seneschals, called Wibert and Leofne,
drew together all the youth of Holland, and being
joined by Morchar lord of Brunne with his brave and numerous family, gave them
battle on Saint Maurice’s day, at a place then called Laundon, but now Threckingham; a
circumstantial account of which will be given in the description of that place.
“The sovereignty
of
Ethelred was the first earl of
On Ethelfleda’s death,7
At this period
Aveland was included in the
In the time of king Henry I, it was enlarged and afforested by royal mandate. The extent, as described by Dugdale, “was from the bridge of East Deeping, now Market Deeping, to the church of Swaiston, on the one side; and from the bridge of Bicher to Wragmere Stake, on the other side; which Metes divided the
north parts, and the river of Welland the south; excepting the fen of Goggisland, 8 in regard it
was a sanctuary of the holy church, as belonging to the abbey of Croyland; and being
thus made forest, it continued so until king Henry III. time, who, in the sixteenth year of his reign, (1231,) 9 granted unto all
the inhabitants within the same, that it should thenceforth be disafforested.”*
10
King Edward III. confirmed this patent in the twentieth year of his reign,
(1345). “The men of Kesteven gave 250 mares 11 to have the
king’s charter for deforesting this of Kesteven according to the boundaries
contained in that charter.” †
* Dugdale’s Imbanking and Draining, Pages 194, 195.
† Mag. Rot. 14, Henry
III. M. 2, 6. Madox’s History of the Exchequer, Page 288, as quoted in
Gough’s
When the division drain that separates
the lordships of Bourne and Thurlby was repaired some years back, several
trunks of trees were dug up at the depth of four feet from the surface. They
were chiefly oak. 12
Earls of
ACCORDING to Dugdale, Hume, and
Creesy, the following earls of
ETHELBERT,
first earl of Mercia
ALFERE succeeded him A. D. 959. 14 And in 983 was succeeded by his son Alfric.
edward, grandson of Leofric lord of Leicester, was created earl of
LEOFRIC was earl in 1062; but
soon after the conquest we find Hereward his son enjoyed the title. He is the
last of those mentioned as resident at this place.
WHEN Alfred divided
AVELAND contains the following
townships and hamlets, viz.
Aslackby Kirkby-under-wood
Bourn Loughton
Billinboro’ Morton
Birthorpe
Cowthorpe Osbournby
Dyke Pickworth
Dembleby Pointon
Dowsby Rippingale
Dunsby Spanby
Folkingham Swaton
Hanthorpe
Haceby Threckingham
Hackonby Walcot, and
Horbling
-----------------
MONASTERIES.
the
Names of places Orders Founded Granted to
*Aslackby Knt. Templars Temp.
Richd. I. Ed. Lord Clinton
*Bourn Austin Canons Ante
Conquest. Richard Cotton
Brigend Cithertine
priory 17 .......................... ..........................
*Sempringham Cithertine
priory 1139 Ed. Lord
*Where an asterisk is affixed, it implies that some of the buildings
remain.
-----------------
EARTHQUAKES. 18
ON the 30th
of September, 1750, a severe shock of an earthquake was felt in Bourn, and its
vicinity which created a general alarm. It happened about half an hour after twelve
at noon, and was perceived generally on this county, in most parts of
Leicestershire, and part of Northamptonshire. The houses tottered, plates and
glasses fell from the shelves; and slates, tiles, and some chimnies fell from
houses; but happily no great mischief was done. In some churches where service
was not over (it being a Sunday), the people ran from their devotions in the
utmost consternation, The shock was attended with a
rumbling noise.
AGAIN, on the
24th of February, 1792, Bourn and the neighbouring towns experienced
another shock of an earthquake.
-----------------
STORMS.
on the 25TH
July, 1760, a terible storm of thunder, lightning, and hail, came from the
west, beating fruit from the trees, and breaking the windows facing that
quarter. It lasted about fifteen minutes.
On Sunday the 4th of May, 1800, at
half an hour past two o’clock P. M. a dreadful storm of thunder, and lightning,
accompanied with hail, commenced, and continued raging with unceasing fury for
the space of thirty minutes. It came in a south west direction; lacerating
trees, and destroying windows facing the above-mentioned point. Several elms
were torn up by the roots; birds killed in their nests; and
the corn was destroyed in the fields. The hail stones measured five
inches in circumference, and weighed upwards of three ounces. 19
The book continues with a description of features of
the town of Bourne.
1. ^ In
most of
2. This may be William Fox
(1736-1826), the Sunday School pioneer. He came from
Clapton, Gloucestershire and was a founder of the Sunday School Society in 1785.
(DNB)
3. See the article on his graffiti.
4. See the Old Grammar School article.
5. ^ Ingulph
was the first Norman appointee as abbot of Crowland.
6. Regulus is a petty king, so here we have an ‘under petty king of
the Mercians’. The point was that at this stage, the small kingdoms of
7. This is not strictly true
since her daughter, Ælfwynn held the position of Lady of the Mercians for a
few months before she was deposed.
8. Goggisland was part of the
extent of the sanctuary of Crowland Abbey. It lay on the north-west side of the
river
9. This is an unusually clear
statement of the date of this event but it agrees with that in the
Parliamentary Gazetteer’s article
on Kesteven (1843).
10. ^ Later
in the century, Bourne seems to have been quite prosperous. This was a
development which was fairly general in
11. This is likely to be a
misreading of ‘marks’ when the word was spelt as ‘marcs’.
A mark was 13s. 4d., two thirds of a pound sterling.
See the 1843 Parliamentary Gazetteer article on Kesteven.
12. These bog oaks are the
remains of the forest which grew on the floor of the Fenland valley before it
was flooded as a result of rising sea level. Once air gets into the peat as a
result of fen drainage, the peat oxidizes, becoming carbon dioxide and water.
These are gas and vapour so dissipate, leaving the surface of the peat to
shrink ever nearer to the old land surface. When a ditch is re-cut, the work
will newly expose more bog oaks.
13. Bourne appears to have been
the main property, the caput, of an estate in south
14. Ethelred was immediately succeeded
by Æthelflæd, his wife and the daughter of Alfred the Great of Wessex. When she
died, their daughter, Ælfwinn took over briefly, until pushed out by Edward the Elder, her
uncle. There succeed a period in which
15. ^ Here,
16. Viz. is a conventional
abbreviation of the Latin videlicet
and is read as ‘namely’ or ‘in other words’.
17. The origin of the name Cithertine is hard to track down but it looks as
though it comes from the name of the Cistercian Order. The two
houses mentioned by
18. Fenland
Notes and Queries gives a list of earthquakes noticed
in the
19. ^ This
storm is described by Fenland Notes and Queries. (FNQ 22) Another meteorological
phenomenon happened in 1661. (FNQ
151)
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