The Evolution of an English Town Part 5

The modern rendering is generally accepted as: "Orm, the son of Gamal, bought St Gregory's minster (or church) when it was all broken and fallen, and caused it to be made anew from the ground for Christ and St Gregory in the days of King Edward, and in the days of Earl Tosti, and Hawarth wrought me and Brand the Prior, (priest or priests)."

Along the top of the dial and round the perimeter the inscription reads:--

+ PIS IS DaeGES SOL MERCA THIS IS DAY'S SUNMARKER

aeT ILCVM TIDE AT EACH TIDE OR HOUR.

It is interesting to know that the antiquaries of a century or more ago rendered this simple sentence as: "This is a draught exhibiting the time of day, while the sun is pa.s.sing to and from the winter-solstice." They also made a great muddle of the words: "& HE HIT LET MACAN NEWAN," their rendering being "CHEHITLE AND MAN NEWAN," the translation being supposed to read: "Chehitle and others renewed it, etc." With Mr Brooke's paper is given a large steel engraving of the stone, but it is curiously inaccurate in many details. At Edstone church there is another sundial over the south doorway as at Kirkdale, and there is every reason to believe that it belongs to the same period. The inscription above the dial reads:--

OROLOGI VIATORUM.

On the left side is the following:--

LOTHAN ME WROHTE A.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Saxon Sundial at Edstone. (From a rubbing by Mr J. Romilly Allen, F.S.A.)]

From the drawing given here the inscription is palpably incomplete, as though the writer had been suddenly stopped in his work. Nothing is known of Lothan beyond the making of this sundial, so that the fixing of the date can only be by comparative reasoning. At Kirkdale, on the other hand, we know that Tosti, Harold's brother, became Earl of Northumbria in 1055, we know also that the Northumbrians rose against Tosti's misgovernment and his many crimes, among which must be placed the murder of the Gamal mentioned in the inscription, and that in 1065 Tosti was outlawed, his house-carles killed, and his treasures seized. After this we also know that Tosti was defeated by the Earls Edwin and Morcar, and having fled to Scotland, submitted himself to Harold Hardrada, King of Norway, who had arrived in the Tyne with his fleet early in September 1066, that they then sailed southwards, and having sacked Scarborough defeated Edwin and Morcar at Fulford near York only eight days before the landing of William the Norman at Pevensey. Harold having made forced marches reached York on September the 24th, and defeated his brother and the Norwegian king, both being slain in the battle which was fought at Stamford Bridge on the Derwent. Harold was forced to take his wearied army southwards immediately after the battle to meet the Frenchmen at Hastings, and the great disaster of Senlac Hill occurred on October the 14th. This stone at Kirkdale is thus concerned with momentous events in English history, for the murder of Gamal and the insurrection of Tosti may be considered two of the links in the chain of events leading to the Norman Conquest.

A great deal of interest has centred round an Anglo-Saxon cross-slab built into the west wall of Kirkdale church. At the time of its discovery the late Rev. Daniel H. Haigh[1] tells us that a runic inscription spelling _Kununc Oithilwalde_, meaning "to King aethelwald," was quite legible. This would seem to indicate that the founder of Lastingham monastery was buried at Kirkdale, or that the site of Bede's, "Laestingaeu" was at Kirkdale if the stone has not been moved from its original position.

[Footnote 1: _Yorks.h.i.+re Archaeological Journal_, v. 134.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Saxon or Pre-Norman Remains at and near Pickering.]

The inscription has now perished, but Bishop Browne tells us[1] that when he had photographs taken of the stone in 1886 "there was only one rune left, the 'Oi' of the king's name." "I have seen, however," he says, "the drawing made of the letters when the stone was found, and many of them were still legible when the Rev. Daniel Haigh worked at the stone." There seems little doubt that this most valuable inscription might have been preserved if the stone had been kept from the action of the air and weather.

[Footnote 1: Browne, Rt. Rev. G.F.: "The Conversion of the Heptarchy," p.

151.]

There are several other pre-Norman sculptured stones at Kirkdale. They are generally built into the walls on the exterior, and are not very apparent unless carefully looked for. In the vestry some fragments of stone bearing interlaced ornament are preserved.

Not only at Kirkdale are these pre-Norman stones built into walls that appear to belong to a date prior to the Conquest, but also at Middleton there is a fine cross forming part of the fabric of the church tower. The west doorway now blocked up is generally considered to be of Saxon work, but the quoins of the tower, though bearing much resemblance to the pure "long and short" work that may be seen at Bradford-on-Avon, are composed of stones that are almost equal in height.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Cross Slab inserted in West Wall of Kirkdale Church.

The runes which gave rise to the belief that this was the gravestone of King aethelwald have perished.

Slab with Interlaced Ornament at Kirkdale Church.

(_Both crosses are from the a.s.sociated Architectural Societies' Reports_.) ]

The Rev. Reginald Caley has suggested that the original Saxon tower of Brompton church may have been incorporated into the present structure whose walls are of unusual thickness, the stone work in some places showing characteristics of pre-Norman workmans.h.i.+p. At Ellerburne the curious spiral ornaments of the responds of the chancel arch have also been attributed to pre-Norman times, but in this case and possibly at Middleton also, the Saxon features may have appeared in Norman buildings owing to the employment of Saxon workmen, who did not necessarily for several years entirely abandon their own methods, despite the fact that they might be working under Norman masters. There is a very roughly hewn font in the little chapel of Ease, in the village of Levisham. It bears a cross and a rope ornamentation, and may possibly be of pre-Norman origin, although it was being used as a cattle trough in a neighbouring farmyard before the restoration in 1884. The parish church of Levisham, standing alone in the valley below the village, has a very narrow and unadorned chancel arch. This may possibly belong to Saxon or very early Norman times, but Mr Joseph Morris[1] has pointed out that a similar one occurs at Scawton, which is known to have been built in 1146, and the evidence of a Saxon stone built into the south-east corner of the chancel of Levisham church supports my belief in the later date. On the south wall of the chancel of Lockton church I have seen a roughly shaped oblong stone bearing in one corner the markings of a very rude sundial, and I find that there is another on the wall of a cottage in the same village.[2] I am unable to give its position, but from a drawing I have examined, it appears to be of more careful workmans.h.i.+p than the one built into the church wall. At Sinnington church another of these very crude sundials has been discovered, and what may be part of a similar one is high up on the east wall of the chancel of Ellerburne church. At Kirby Moorside a fine cross with interlaced work is built into the porch of the vicarage. At Wykeham there is a very plain cross of uncertain age, and Ellerburne, Lastingham, Sinnington, Kirkdale, Kirby Misperton, and Middleton are all rich in carved crosses and incised slabs. Pickering church only possesses one fragment of stone work that we may safely attribute to a date prior to the Conquest. It seems to be part of the shaft or of an arm of a cross, and bears one of the usual types of dragon as well as knot or interlaced ornament. The font, which has been thought by some to be of Saxon origin, seems to be formed from part of the inverted base of a pillar, and though composed of old material, probably dates in its present form of a font from as recent a period as the restoration of Charles II., the original font having been destroyed in Puritan times (Chapter X.). It would appear that when it was decided to build a large Norman church at Pickering the desire to put up a building that would be a great advance on the previous structure--for we cannot suppose that Pickering was without a church in Saxon times---led to the destruction of every trace of the earlier building.

[Footnote 1: Morris, J.E.: "The North Riding of Yorks.h.i.+re," p. 33.]

[Footnote 2: Ill.u.s.trated, facing p. 209, "a.s.sociated Architectural Societies' Reports," vol. xii. 1873.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Two Crossheads at Sinnington Church. The one on the left shows a Crucifixion.]

Hinderwell mentions a curious legend in connection with the cave in a small conical hill at Ebberston, that has since been destroyed. The country people called it Ilfrid's Hole, the tradition being that a Saxon king of that name took shelter there when wounded after a battle. An inscription that was formerly placed above the cave said: "Alfrid, King of Northumberland, was wounded in a b.l.o.o.d.y battle near this place, and was removed to Little Driffield, where he lies buried; hard by his entrenchments may be seen." The roughly built stone hut with a domed roof that now crowns the hill is within twenty yards of the site of the cave, and was built by Sir Charles Hotham in 1790 to preserve the memory of this legendary king. In the period that lay between the conversion of Northumbria to Christianity in 627, and the ravages of Dane and Northman in the ninth and tenth centuries, we know by the traces that survive that the Saxons built a church in each of their villages, and that they placed beautifully sculptured crosses above the graves of their dead. The churches were small and quite simple in plan, generally consisting of a nave and chancel, with perhaps a tower at the west end. Owing to the importance of Pickering the Saxon church may have been a little in advance of the rest, and its tower may have been ornamented as much as that of Earl's Barton, but we are entering the dangerous realms of conjecture, and must be reconciled to that one fragment of a pre-Norman cross that is now carefully preserved in the south aisle of the present building.

CHAPTER VII

_The Forest and Vale in Norman Times_

A.D. 1066-1154

In the early years of the reign of William I., when the northern counties rose against his rule, the Pickering district seems to have required more drastic treatment than any other. In 1069 the Conqueror spent the winter in the north of England, and William of Malmesbury describes how "he ordered the towns and fields of the whole district to be laid waste; the fruits and grain to be destroyed by fire or by water ... thus the resources of a once flouris.h.i.+ng province were cut off, by fire, slaughter, and devastation; the ground for more than sixty miles, totally uncultivated and unproductive, remains bare to the present day." This is believed to have been written about 1135, and would give us grounds for believing that the desolation continued for over sixty years. A vivid light is thrown on the destruction wrought at Pickering by the record in the Domesday Book, which is as follows:--

"In _Picheringa_ there are to be taxed thirty-seven carucates of land, which twenty ploughs may till. Morcar held this for one manor, with its berewicks _Bartune_ (Barton), _Neuuctune_ (Newton), _Blandebi_ (Blandsby) and Estorp (Easthorp). It is now the king's. There is therein one plough and twenty villanes with six ploughs; meadow half a mile long and as much broad: but all the wood which belongs to the manor is sixteen miles long and four broad. This manor in the time of King Edward was valued at fourscore and eight pounds; now at twenty s.h.i.+llings and four-pence."[1]

[Footnote 1: "Dom Boc," the Yorks.h.i.+re Domesday. The Rev. Wm. Bawdwen, 1809, p. 11]

This remarkable depreciation from 88 to 1 and 4d. need not be, as Bawdwen thought, a mistake in the original, but an ample proof of the vengeance of the Conqueror. All the lands belonging to the powerful Saxon Earls Edwin and Morcar seem to have suffered much the same fate.

The Domesday account also mentions that "To this manor belongs the soke of these lands, viz.: _Brunton_ (Brompton), _Odulfesmare_ ( ), _Edbriztune_ (Ebberston), _Alnestune_ (Allerston), _Wiltune_ (Wilton), _Farmanesbi_ (Farmanby), _Rozebi_ (Roxby), _Chinetorp_ (Kinthorp), _Chilnesmares_ ( ), _Aschilesmares_ ( ), _Maxudesmares_ ( ), _Snechintune_ (Snainton), _Chigogemers_ ( ), _Elreburne_ (Ellerburne), _Torentune_ (Thornton), _Leuccen_ (Levisham), _Middeletun_ (Middleton) and _Bartune_ (Barton). In the whole there are fifty carucates to be taxed, which twenty-seven ploughs may till. There are now only ten villanes, having two ploughs: the rest is waste; yet there are twenty acres of meadow. The whole length is sixteen miles and the breadth four."

The unrecognisable names all end in mare, mares or mers, suggesting that they were all on the marshes and Bawdwen is probably incorrect in calling _Locte-mares_--Low-moors. a.s.sociated with each place the Domesday record gives the names of the former landowners.

I give them in tabular form:--

Manor in Domesday Modern Name Held by

Bruntune Brompton Ulf Truzstal Troutsdale Archil Alurestan Allerston Gospatric Loctemares Low-moors or marshes Archil Torentun Thornton-le-dale Torbrand, Gospatric and Tor Elreburne Ellerburne Gospatric

Dalbi Dalby "

Chetelestorp Kettlethorp "

Lochetun Lockton Ulchil Aslachesbi Aislaby Gospatric Wereltun Wrelton "

Caltorne Cawthorne "

Croptune Cropton "

Abbetune Habton Ulf and c.n.u.t Ritun Ryton Canute Berg. Barugh Ligulf Berg " Esbern Wellebrune Welburn Grim Normanebi Normanby Gamel Bragebi Brawby Ulf Chirchebi (?) Kirby Moorside Torbrant Chirchebi (?) Kirkdale Gamel Lestingeham Lastingham "

Spantun Spaunton "

Dalbi Dalby Gamel Sevenicton (?) Sinnington Torbrand Hotun Hutton-le-hole or Torbrant Hutton Buscel Atun Ayton Gamel Micheledestun Great Edstone "

Parva Edestun Little Edstone Torbrant Mispeton, now Belonging to Kirby Misperton Chirchebi

The number of ploughs, of oxgangs and carucates, and of villanes and bordars in each manor is given in Domesday, but to give each extract in full would take up much s.p.a.ce and would be a little wearisome.

We know that the impoverished country was, like the rest of England, given by the Conqueror to his followers. The village of Hutton Buscel obtains its name from the Buscel family which came over to England with William the Norman. Hinderwell, quoting[1] from some unnamed source, tells us that "Reginald Buscel (whose father came over with the Conqueror) married Alice, the sister of William, Abbot of Whitby, and at the time of his marriage, gave the church of Hotun, which his father had built, to the monastery of Whitby." This was before the year 1154, and the lower part of the tower of the present church of Hutton Buscel, being of Norman date, may belong to that early building.

[Footnote 1: Thomas Hinderwell: "History of Scarborough," p. 331.]

On Vivers Hill to the east of the village of Kirby Moorside there are indications among the trees of what is believed to have been the castle of the Stutevilles. Robert de Stuteville is said to have come over with the Conqueror, and to have received land at Kirby Moorside as a reward for his services.