Bourne Archive: Aveland: Moore

http://boar.org.uk/abpwxo2Moore’sAveland(print.htm Latest edit 24 Jul 2009

The Bourne Archive

Collections

for a

Topographical, Historical and Descriptive

Account

of the

Hundred of Aveland.

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by John moore.

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Sad are the ruthless ravages of time.........

Sad are the changes man is doomed to feel,

And all that man can boast!

Wm. Fox.

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lincoln,

printed for the author,

by a. stark, high-street; and sold by lackington, allen, & co.

cuthell & martin, and crosby & co. london; and by all the booksellers in the united kingdom.

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, Moore explains his reasons for publishing his book and on the way, includes the following:

“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 Bourne and a graffito on the east wall of the church seems to indicate that he was active there in 1807.³ Since he shows all the signs of a formal education, he is likely to have been taught as a boy, in the Grammar School.⁴ He demonstrates a fashionable antiquarian interest so he looks to his education to explain the past but for us, what he says about his own time will be more interesting as it is more likely to be accurate. However, he may know a thing or two, from what to him was history, which has been forgotten since his time.

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 Ermine street and its branch through Aveland as ‘British’, ‘afterwards adopted by the Romans’.

In his treatment of ‘The Heptarchy’, he seems, probably indirectly, to have had access to information from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles.

He also gives a firm date for the disafforestation of the Kesteven Forest.

‘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, 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,) ⁷ granted unto all the inhabitants within the same, that it should thenceforth be disafforested.”*

King Edward III. confirmed this patent in the twentieth year of his reign, (1345). “The men of Kesteven gave 250 mares 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 Camden, Vol. II, page 350.

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.’

Earls of Mercia

ACCORDING to Dugdale, Hume, and Creesy, the following earls of Mercia resided at Bourne.

ETHELBERT, first earl of Mercia, created by Alfred A. D. 884.

ALFERE succeeded him A. D. 959.¹³ And in 983 was succeeded by his son Alfric.

edward, grandson of Leofric lord of Leicester, was created earl of Mercia, lord of Brunne, and the adjoining marshes, by Edward the Confessor, A. D. 1054.

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 England into shires, hundreds and tithings,Lincolnshire was “parted into thirtie one parts,” or hundreds, viz. Lindsey division into sixteen; Holland into three; and Kesteven into twelve. In this last division the hundred of Aveland is situated. It is thirteen miles in length, six and a half in breadth, and thirty-eight in circumference. On the east it is bounded by the south forty-feet bank, on the west by the hundred of Beltisloe, on the north by the hundred of Aswardhurn, and on the south by the hundred of Nesse.

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EARTHQUAKES.

ON the 30^th 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 24^th of February, 1792, Bourn and the neighbouring towns experienced another shock of an earthquake.

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STORMS.

on the 25^TH July, 1760, a terrible 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 4^th 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.