Hertfordshire Part 5 – a town destroyed!

This week – 7 more sites completed! Here are some of the highlights with reported town that was destroyed and others with a suggested different medieval location…….

• Great Munden
• Oxewiche
• Pendley
• Stagenhoe
• Stanstead Abbots
• Stevenage
• Stiwicesworde

Great Munden – clear evidence of dispersed settlement across a wide area – with no evidence of nucleated settlement at the church, as is the case with many of the suggested DMVs in Hertfordshire.

Oxewiche – a landholding mentioned in Domesday but even at that point had probably disappeared as it is recorded that Codicote and Oxwick had been two manors before 1066 but were now one – Codicote survives, Oxwick all but disappears from the record.

At Pendley it is recorded in 1506 that about 80 years ago ‘a great town, whereof part lay in the parish of Tring and part in the parish of Aldbury. The part in the parish of Tring was held of the archbishop of Canterbury as of his manor of Tring and the part in the parish of Aldbury of the manor of Aldbury. At that time there was no great mansionhouse there, but there were in the town above thirteen plows besides divers handicraft men, as tailors, shoemakers and cardmakers with divers others. The town was afterwards cast down and laid to pasture by Sir Robert Whittingham, who built the said place at the west end there as the town sometimes stood, for the town was in the east and south part of the same place.’ See the Victoria County History for the account. No remains of the town have so far been spotted.

Stanstead Abbots – 7 burgesses at Domesday – but the medieval settlement is likely to be at the current location and it was just the manorial centre and church that were isolated. Likewise, Stevenage has an isolated church and manor – even though now they have been encroached upon. But it is likely the medieval settlement was always where the old town is centred. Two examples where the medieval manor stayed away from the hustle and bustle of the economic centre.

Stiwicesworde an unloacted Domesday landholding which the Phillimore editions record as Stetchworth, but with the possibility this is the one and the same manor of this name recorded in Cambridgeshire….

More next week – nearly at the end of the list of settlements in Hertfordshire from 1968 – for more info on the list – see our main website: Beresford’s Lost VIllages. Most of the list have been shown to be unlikely DMVs!

Hertfordshire Part 4 – Domesday puzzles

This week the quest continues with these 7 sites…… we have now passed the half-way mark looking at the 44 sites in Hertfordshire…..

• Hainstone
• Hodenhoe
• Ichetone
• Lewarewiche
• Libury
• North Mimms
• Minsden

This week there was a lot of unpicking Domesday entries – for more information on the Domesday Book as a resource and the information it contains see the sources section of our main website.

Hainstone is an unlocated Domesday Manor but the Phillimore Editions of the Domesday Book (these ones really dig much deeper into the entries and should be anyone’s key source for Domesday) not that this may well be Hinxworth that still survives….. for their full explanation you need to read their notes section!

Ichetone does not suffer from being an unlocated Domesday Manor – but has too many other names! There are 5 records at Domesday but they are all noted as Buntingford by the Phillimore editions. It was also mentioned as belonging to Layston but this is just the church and has been identified as the one and the same as Ichetone. In both cases they have been said to be subsumed in the area of Buntingford.

Lewarewiche was unidenitifed Domesday manor but was identified as Leverage/Levenage by the Phillimore edition. Leverage is only represented by Leverage Springs on modern maps, but common land was noted on the Tithe maps. So now identifed, but in an area that appears to have no evidence of settlement and not later records than the Domesday entry.

Libury was known as Stuteshele in the Domesday Book and was mentioned in no less than 12 entiries, recording over 10 hides. There were only 11 people recorded across all entries. Libury Hall is now just a modern care home (although interesting history as a farm colony opened in 1900 to support unemployed German-speaking men). This was probably a manorial centre in the medieval period and never a nucleated settlement.

North Mimms is a clear Domesday Manor with a large population – and a population that continues through the surviving taxation records – but seems to have never been a nucleated settlement – this was recognised by the VCH who say ‘It may be said of North Mimms that it consists of many hamlets rather than of one compact village’.

Minsden – not so much of a puzzle, manor at Domesday and ruined church at the site, but was never a nucleated settlement.

Onwards to the next 7 sites!

Hertfordshire part 3 – and a murder!

This week we have moved onto the next 7 sites….. Again much evidence of dispersed settlement and many of these were probably never a nucleated medieval village but a scatter of hamlets and farms.

• Chesfield
• Cockenach
• Cockhamsted
• Corney Bury
• Digswell
• Flaunden
• Gilston

All that survives at Chesfield are the ruins of the church and the manor. It was always connected in the records with nearby Graveley – but it seems that there was some medieval rivalry. The parsons of the churches and Graveley came to blows as in 1384 the parson of Graveley was pardoned for murdering the parson of Chesfield! See the VCH for the story!

Cocknach is mentioned in the Domesday Book, but only in 1220 on the E179 database that records tax records from the 13th to 17th centuries. Cocknach hall survives but looks like there was never a settlement. Cockhamstead is similar with no later taxation records.

A village history of Digswell was written by Dora Ward in 1953. It seems like there are very few copies available (my library could not find one to borrow!) – but what seems to be suggested is that the main settlement at Digswell was away from the manor and church, and lay instead at Digswell Water, 900m to the east.

Flaunden – a ruined medieval chapel but no medieval tax record! Was there ever a settlement here? Where was the location of the manor of Flaunden and where was it administered from have remained unresolved, but the chapel was a rare cross-shape in design and had wall paintings, but is now sadly lost.

And a note on locations – while reviewing the villages of Hertfordshire – it is clear that a number of the longitude and latitude conversions of the original grid references have been inputted incorrectly – and settlements to the east of the Greenwich meridian that goes through the country have been placed to the west of the line. I am correcting these as I go on the master database, and will hand edit those on the website in batches – so just beware if you are looking at the following sites that need correcting!

• Beauchamps
• Bozen
• Cocknach
• Cockhamsted
• Gilston

Hertfordshire part 2 – the quest continues

So this week the focus has continued on Hertfordshire and more interesting stories. It includes two of the excavated sites in Hertfordshire. The sites that were researched this week are:

• Boxbury
• Bozen
• Bricewolde
• Brickenden
• Broadfield
• Burston
• Caldecote

Boxbury is associated with the remains of the village of Box. Located on Forest Commision land are a range of earthworks which some suggested were a village while others suggest this is a much smaller site, linked to the dispersed settlement in the area. Boxbury Farm lies to the north and possibly was the manorial centre. A chapel is recorded at Box but is location is uncertain but 18th century writers note seeing the ruins. A report by the Forestry Commission from 1961 can be accessed freely but needs to be read with caution due to the time it was produced, and some of our thinking has progressed since then.

Bozen or Bordesden is a small settlement that although known from the medieval period only really disappeared in the last 100 years. A local recounts how the last residence left when five of the last six cottages burnt down in 1920s.

Bricewolde is the first unlocated site in Hertfordshire. Mentioned in the lands of two Domesday landholders – but no further references. It was in Hertford hundred, but that is as much as we know of any suggested location, and it was very small. Perhaps never a settlement?

Broadfield was excavated in 1974 with the church being revealed. A very small structure, the HER does question why it was so small, but the burials inside the church confirm it was a church. This was excavated using small trenches to reveal key features. In contrast the excavations at Caldecote were open areas were used. Excavated between 1973 and 1977 was the area of 6 houses, the moated manor house site and the rectory. The results of these excavations have been published, but 30 years later.

The excavation report tackles the difficultly with clearly identifying the early houses on the site with limited post-hole evidence.

Next week – more settlements in Hertfordshire!