Goadby's history of Loughborough Chapter 3, Pt 2

Goadby continues his history of Loughborough, and in Chapter 3, Pt 2 he talks about markets, the dedication of the church, and Loughborough Park. I’ve kept both the text and the layout as it appeared in the newspaper, but have added one or two notes, where I have found useful information. As mentioned before, in the 160 years since the original publication, there have been many more discoveries and revelations about Loughborough’s history, hence some of the information contained in these serials will be wrong. I have not tried to amend these in any way.

THE HISTORY OF LOUGHBOROUGH, FROM THE TIME OF THE BRITONS TO THE MIDDLE OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

Chapter 3, Pt 2 The family of the Dispensers

In: Loughborough Monitor 1 September 1864, pg 5

Part 2 – Importance of early Markets – The Church and its early rectors – Value of the Living, and how got at – St Peter the original Patron Saint, as shewn by an old Obligation – The Chantry founded by Hugh Dispenser – Its value and probably situation in Shelthorpe “Chapel-piece” – Loughborough Park.

Under the seigneuralty of the Dispensers, Lucteburg gradually emerged from its obscurity as a village to some considerable importance as a market town. This fact we have already seen, but we are unable to comprehend the full significance of this because we cannot now enumerate the new trades that sprung up or were transplanted here immediately after the unconditional grant of 1227, and do not know what an impulse it many have communicated to existing branches of industry. The trade in corn and wooll-fells, however, undoubtedly succeeded this change, and Loughborough market was noted for both these commodities all through the middle ages. A market was of much more importance in those days than it is now, and as the greater part of all business was actually transacted in the open air, the town streets must have presented many a busy scene; wool buyers, tanners, farmers, maltsters, chandlers, butchers, glovers, hardwaremen, leadbeaters, pedlars, quacks, and jongleurs, commixed and contending with even more spirit and less order than some of them occasionally do now. The manorial officers would frequently have hard work to preserve the peace, and many a broken head and bruised body would but ill compensate for a bad bargain or an empty pocket. Noise was the greatest feature in all early markets: the louder the brawler the better the ware, people thought, in those infantile stages of advertising. Indeed, this open-mouthed puffery was all that was possible in that way for a go-ahead and perhaps not over-scrupulous tradesman. And so each man mounted his stall, shouted until his vocal cords were relaxed, his face turgid, and his wits all flewn, and then descended to distribute his precious cargoes to the bystanders; it might be a gaudy ornament for wife or sweetheart, a pennyworth of nails, a bundle of rushlights, or some Egyptian mummy-powder for the cure of love-melancholy.

Whilst commerce flourished, religion was not forgotten. Sometime during the seigneuralty of the Earls of Chester, a substantial church had been erected to replace the wooden structure or structures which we have shown to be in existence in Saxon times. The precise time when this took place no one can ascertain, but the first mention of the fact is in 1193, when the living of the church was held by Bertram, Dean of Lichfield. It is very likely that he would be the first recognised rector of the parish, as all our endeavours to discover an earlier one have failed. In 1220 Hugh Dispenser was the principal patron of the Church, four parts of the living belonging to him, and a fifth part to one Philip de Cortlingstoke. [1] Ralph de Verdon was rector of the four parts, but the Vicar, Alfred de Cortlingstoke, as he probably undertook the whole of the duties, received the whole of the profits, paying to the Rector a pension of eight marks annually [2]. This Alfred de Cortlingstoke had been instituted, says Nichols [3], by Hugh, formerly Bishop of Lincoln. Various changes appear to have been made in the living in a very short period of time. In 1224 Ralph de Turville (i.e. de) an acolite [a person assisting the priest], was admitted to a pension of three marks in this church. In 1228 Thos. De Turville, was presented to the four parts held by Hugh Dispenser. In 1238 the Vicarage appears to have been vacant, and Henry the Chaplain, who probably filled that office in the family of Hugh Dispenser, was presented to it. In 1241 Thomas de Turville, the rector, resigned and Thomas de Torp succeeded him, a pension of fifteen marks being reserved to his predecessor. Some idea as to what was the value of the living may be formed from a taxation made in the reign of Edward I, and some forty years later than the date last given. Upon the flimsy pretence of defraying the expenses of a crusade to the Holy Land, for which his previous ardour gave reasonable grounds of belief, he obtained the authority from Pope Nicholas IV for a tenth from all the livings of the clergy for six successive years. Having prospered so far with His Highness, he did not scruple to make the most of his villany. A new assessment, attested by oaths, was made throughout the whole kingdom, considerably increasing the returns of the tax. The amount paid by the Church or living of Lutheburg, as it is styled in the Taxatio Ecclesiastica, [4] was £29 6s. 8d. and if this be the whole sum paid in the six years, and we presume it is, the living would be worth some £50 a year, or something like £140 of our present [1864] money, which, for a town of the size of Lucteburg was, would be a very good living indeed.

There is a little dispute as to what Saint or Saints the church was originally dedicated. Nichols says that it was dedicated to St Peter and St Paul, quoting as his authority a document which cannot now be discovered, so that the traditional dedication to All Saints’ would appear to be left undisturbed. We are, therefore, happy to be able to throw some definite light upon the matter by a somewhat curious document, which clearly proves that it was originally called the Church of St Peter’s alone. The document singularly enough, appears to have entirely escaped the attention of Nichols and other, and may be seen in the original Latin in Madox’s Formulare Anglicanum. [5] It is entitled, “An Obligation by Thomas Spornecurteis to pay the Abbot and Convent at Garundon [Garendon] a sum of money in the Church of Saint Peter’s Loughborough,” and continues as follows:

“To all the Faithful in Christ, who may see or hear this Writing, Thomas de Spornecurteis of Leicester, sends Greeting.

Know ye, that I am bound to the Abbots and Monks of Gerondon in the payment of four marks of silver, which I will pay to the same at four terms in the Church of the Blessed Peter of Loughborough (Luctebur’); in the year of Grace one thousand two hundred and fifty, namely on St Michael’s day, one mark, and in the year of Grace one thousand two hundred and fifty one, on St Michael’s day, one mark; and in one thousand two hundred and fifty two, on St Michael’s day, one mark; and in one thousand two hundred and fifty three, on St Michael’s day, one mark; in the presence of Geoffrey, son of Ralph, and Richard, son of Geoffrey of Loughborough; and of others whom the Abbot and Convent may be willing to summon. If, however, I Thomas shall in anywise fail in the payment of the said money at the said terms, then I consent, wish, and positively command, for me and my heirs, that the said Abbots and Monks shall put themselves into full and bodily possession and seizin of that house of mine in the town of Leycester, which lies near the lane between the house of William Rande-Ride, and the other road which extends from the Cross, which stands in the common market-place towards the eastern gate; and that they may dispossess me of that house, or whomsoever of my successors that they may then find in that house; so that they may hold that house freely, quietly, and peacefully of me and my heirs, according to the tenure of my Charter of Enfeoffment, which I have delivered, confirmed by my seal, to the said Abbot and Monks. And I, Thomas, in the meantime, will give to no man, nor sell, nor pledge, nor in anywise alienate, nor shall any of my heirs or successors, the house aforesaid or any part thereof. And if I, Thomas, shall in any manner contravene this Obligation, or any of my heirs or successors, I do subject myself and them to the authority of the Lord Earl’s Bailiffs in the borough of Leycester, for the time being, that they may compel us to keep this Obligation positively and without delay, all contradiction, dispute, defence, impediment, grievance, or injury laid aside, and all recourse to law, Canon as well as Civil. If, however, I shall pay the said debt at the said terms, or even any of my heirs, then all the stipulations of the said Obligation shall be quashed; and my Charter of Enfeoffment, which the said Abbots and Monks hold, as well as this Writing, shall be delivered back to me of my Heirs, without any delay, contradiction, or trouble. And for the greater security of the said Obligation, I have made affidavit and to this present Writing have set my Seal.

These being witnesses: William de Saint Land, Alderman of Leycester; Robert de Stockton, Mayor; Robert Kepegest, Peter Palmer, Henry Leffe, Thomas de Hatuton, Henry Hocwell, Thomas le Clerk, and others.”

Probably the addition of St Paul was made to the name of the church at a later date, but we are unable to give any authority, save that of tradition and modern usage, for the title of All Saints’ by which our old Church is commonly known.

Some time in the thirteenth century High Dispenser founded a Chantry within the Manor of Loughborough, wherein some priest of his choosing daily sang the mass for the founder’s soul. There was a yearly endowment for that purpose of five marks out of the revenue of the manor, an allowance of eighteen-pence per annum for wine and wax, and eight cart-loads of wood from the neighbouring forest for fuel. From a mandate issued by Edward III, under his Privy Seal, dated September 24, 1329, it appears that Richard de Whiteside was then Chaplain of the Chantry. It is curious, too, that there is no mention of a Rector or Vicar of Loughboro’ after 1243 until 1366, so that it is very likely this Chaplain held some portion of the living, if he were not Rector, during that period, for it is pretty certain that Thomas de Torp could not have been rector one hundred and twenty-three years without the fact being recorded as a remarkable instance of longevity by curiosity-hunting chroniclers.

Where this chantry, was situated is somewhat doubtful. In Charyte’s Rentals of Leicester Abbey, the ground upon which this chantry was built was called fundus. Now as a fundus usually meant a manor for supplying corn for the Lord’s household, Nichols supposed that it was some small manor subordinate to Loughborough, and that therefore the site may have been Beaumanor or Woodthorpe, and the latter especially, as a Beaumanor Court Roll of the sixteenth century speaks of a decayed “chappell” at Woodthorpe. This could hardly have been the case, we think, without some more explicit statement upon the matter, and the discovery made some years ago of the foundation of an old chapel, at the bottom of Shelthorpe Lane, to the left of the Leicester toll-bar, appears to point to that as the more likely site. Shelthorpe, Searlesthorpe, or the Earl’s Thorpe, as it no doubt originally was called, is the name given to a small tract of land lying between the Leicester and Harborough turnpike, the Soar, Mr Robinson’s nursery grounds and Mr Langham’s, and was at one time part of Beaumanor, and was very likely to have been the fundus in question. A small enclosure at the bottom of Shelthorpe Lane was until lately known as the chapel-piece, and here were discovered the foundations of a chapel, the stones of which are reported as being of immense size, and also part of a pavement or causeway. Tradition says there were formerly many houses there, and a veteran history-monger, now deceased, who well remembered the fact of the discovery, and said he had sat upon the large stones, assured us that there were mounds adjacent to the chapel-site which had all the appearance of having been graves. The ground is still considerably elevated thereabouts, as may be seen by any one who is at the trouble to examine it.

There is, then, perhaps, little doubt that this was the locality whereon the chantry was built, and that it formed the nucleus of a hamlet which would very properly be called the Earl’s Thorpe, and gradually become deserted with the destruction of the Chantry itself, and the absorption of its endowment into the living of St Peter’s of Loughborough some hundreds of years afterwards.

Besides his other possessions in Leicestershire, some of which have already been named, the Earl of Winchester held a portion of Charnwood Forest, paying yearly to the King as his tenure a pair of gilt spurs. Out of this waste, with lands perhaps already a part of the manor, he formed Loughborough Park. The Earls of Chester appear to have had their hunting park in the line of Barrow and Quorndon, coming round Woodthorpe, where Mr Potter thinks it highly probably they had their hunting-seat, so that the direction in which Hugh Dispenser could impark land was easily determined. The cause of these early imparkments is soon told. They were the result of the peculiarly stringent forest laws of the period. In earlier times little or no restrictions existed as to the right of hunting, but some of the Saxon kings made the forest laws very severe. Canute, who liberally allowed the Bishops, Abbots, and Thanes to hunt in his woods – a privilege Edgar had forbidden – nevertheless ordained that if a freeman should kill one of his deer, or strike a forester, he should forfeit his freedom and become a common serf. After the conquest, the nobility were not allowed to hunt in the Royal Chase. Hence arose numerous petitions from them for permission to enclose private parks, and they soon became so numerous, it is said, as to be at once a ridicule and a grievance. Whether the Earl of Winchester preferred a petition to the King for permission to enclose a park near his manor of Loughborough, or whether such a favour was freely granted him, we do not know, but the absence of such documentary data as would have existed had the patter been the case, inclines us to believe that he must have petitioned for the right.

The position chosen for the park was an eminently favourable one. Except here and there where portions had been cleared by the energy of the early Saxon settlers, or for ordinary purposes of fuel, the forest had remained almost unbroken from the time of the Coritavi. Its caves and thickets were full of nimble and antlered game, and no doubt wolves tenanted its deeper recesses, making occasional incursions upon the neighbouring hamlets. The extent of the park is not so easy to make out, although it is highly probable that it covered the whole of the ground which appears to have been subsequently divided into two or three smaller ones. It must, however, have extended towards Beacon [Hill], as we find that the sub-Prior of Ulverscroft stated to the King and Queen’s Commissioners in 1557-8, that the “said Priors, during all his time there, have kept hounds, greyhounds, and hawks of their own, and did hunt course, and hawk throughout the waste of Charnwood unto the saulte if the Parks of Bradgate, Groby, and Loughborough.” In 1483 there were two Parks at Loughborough, as appears by the King granting to Robert Harrington, Knight, “th’ offices of Bailly, Stuard, and the Kepings of II parkes of Loughborough, and xxli of annuite of th’ issues and proufites of the same lordship for the terme of his lyf.” One of these Parks was also called Norton’s Park, but whether it was the one known as Far Park, or the Middle Park, or whether it was distinct from either, we cannot determine. There is mention of the park again in a year or two later “as oure park here,” which seems to imply that the boundaries were not very distinct. In that year Libeas Digby was named Bailiff and Park-Keeper by a grant from Henry VIII. For actual hunting purposes the parks appear to have soon fallen in desuetude, and supplied a rich grazing land for the cattle of neighbouring farmers. We see the extent of this out-pasturing in 1582, when Mr Adrian Stocks granted by his will “to William Stocks and Robert Aprice, to the proper use of the said William for his life, and after his decease to the use of Robert Aprice, his executors and administrators, all and singular, the kine, oxen, sheep, lambs, and cattle, of the said Adrian Stocks, now being, going, or depasturing, or which hereafter shall be going or depasturing, at, or in Beaumanor aforesaid, and at or in the said parishes, towns, fields, or hamlets of Barrow, Woodhouse, Quorndon, Woodthorpe, and MtSorrell aforesaid, and in Loughborough Park, &c.” Loughborough Park was disparked in 1630, and many a time must it have been the scene of gay and winsome pleasures and exciting sport, as the Lords and Ladies rode to hound and hawk, and the lichened crags of Charnwood rang with the clangour of the horn, the deep bay of the hound, the neighing of the steed, and the exultant shouts of youth, beauty, and adventurous age.

   

END OF CHAPTER 3 PART 2

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NOTES

[1] Cortlingstoke is thought to be known today as Costock

[2] A mark was equal to two-thirds of an old pound, so 13 shillings and 4 pennies, although there was never a coin to that value, but rather the term was used in accounting.

[3] Nicols, John (1802). History and Antiquities of the County of Leicester.

[4] The Taxatio Ecclesiastica contained a valuation for ecclesiastical taxation of parish churches and prebends in England, Wales, and Ireland, and was compiled in 1291-2.  

[5] Madox, Thomas (1702). Formulare Anglicanum, or, A collection of ancient charters and instruments of divers kinds. Thomas Madox (1666-1727) was a legal antiquary and an historian.

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Transcribed and presented here with the kind permission of the British Newspaper Archive. https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/ 

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Posted by lynneaboutloughborough

With apologies for typos which are all mine!

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