The Wolds Historian is edited by Joan Shaw andBob Trubshaw and published by the

Wolds Historical Organisation.

Contents copyright individual authors and illustrators© 2008.

Uncredited contributions by the editors.The moral rights of the authors and illustrators have

been asserted.No part of this book may be reproduced in any form

or by any means without prior written permissionfrom the Wolds Historical Organisation except for

brief passages quoted in reviews.

Contact: 2 Cross Hill Close, Wymeswold,Loughborough, LE12 6UJ

telephone: 01509 880725 email: bobtrubs@indigogroup.co.uk

Chairman’s report2008

Welcome to the fourth issue of The WoldsHistorian. During 2007 the WHO celebrated itstwentieth birthday with a series of specialmeetings and events. The major event was thelaunch of the quiz booklet, The WHO’s What,When and Where, at the April meeting.

The birthday year began with the AGM followedby a presentation of maps by Joan and Peter Shaw.In February Bob Payne posed the question ‘ TheMelton navigation – a typical Leicestershirecanal?’ followed in March with Freda Raphael’s‘Upwardly mobile’ talk on one branch of aNottingham family.

Saturday April 14th was the first of the specialtwentieth birthday events in the Memorial Hallwith the launch of the quiz booklet at the showingof the slides taken by Philip Brown around 1900.These slides were shown at one of the firstmeetings of the WHO. The demand for tickets wassuch that a second showing was organised for thenext evening. My thanks go to Chris, John and JoyBrown and family for allowing the slides to betransferred to computer for the presentation andfor information regarding the slide contents.Thanks also to Bob Trubshaw for all the workdigitising the original photographs.

‘Shock Horror! The radical restoration ofWymeswold church’, very well presented by BobTrubshaw, was the second of the special events.May 14th saw Wymeswold church full to hear howPugin’s restoration was regarded at the time and tohave the features pointed out as the talkprogressed.

Bob Trubshaw led a large number of membersand visitors on the summer walk to Thorpe in theGlebe deserted village followed by hispresentation ‘The Wolds: What, When andWhere’ at the final special birthday meeting atBurton Village Hall. Hellen Jarvis was the outrightwinner of the quiz, with the Thomas family thewinners of the Wymeswold section. Prizes ofhand-crafted Nine-Mens Morris sets, speciallycommissioned from Loughborough craftsman

ContentsChairman's report 1

'A dozen of oysters and rice pudding for one…'The account book of Charles William Packe

Robin Jenkins 3

Wysall's 'Wise Boy' 6

Samuel and his daughtersJoan Shaw 7

The restoration of St Mary’s, 1955–9Bob Trubshaw 14

Rev Henry Alford while at Wymeswold 17

Philip Brown – Wymeswold’s cricket legend 17

The planning of WymeswoldBob Trubshaw 19

George Kendall of Hoton: 22

Wysall Lane, Wymeswold 23

The Packe Arms at Hoton 24

Feedback on 'The Airfield in our Midst' 24

The Greyhound Inn at Burton on the WoldsJoan and Peter Shaw 25

'Well leaped, Lumley!' 28

1

Ernie Miller, were presented along withcertificates at the September meeting. The prizesto the winners of the quiz were presented at themeeting by the well-known local personality NickShaw.

I wish to thank Bob Trubshaw for his sterling workin making the special events so memorable, thecommittee for all their hard work in attendingnumerous meetings to produce the quiz bookletand deliver flyers, and to everyone who helpedcelebrate the WHO twentieth birthday.

After the special events the meetings resumed inthe normal venue of the Windmill Inn withRodney Cousins explaining the technology ofwillow basket weaving on October 16th, followedby Richard Buckley on November 20th and hisinteresting talk on the archaeology of LeicesterAbbey. The Christmas meal was once again anexcellent repast provided by ‘Fred’ and staff at theWindmill Inn.

This year began with the AGM and by a briefhistory of Bulwell given by myself, followed inFebruary by a talk on Grace Dieu illustrated with

slides given by David Whitt. The March 18thspeaker was unavailable and at very short noticeBob Trubshaw gave members more food forthought when he presented ‘The Wolds... part 2’

America during the civil war era was the contextof a talk by Anthony Jarram on April 15th with ‘FireSteam and Gunsmoke’. An account of TollertonAirfield given by Bob Hammond in May whichparticularly delighted the aircraft buffs. Althoughrain threatened for a few minutes, the walk aroundGrace Dieu Priory in June was dry and mostinteresting but no ghosts were seen, althoughcamera batteries flattened themselves veryquickly.

The meetings resume in September with a talk on‘Ashfordby and its environs’ by Richard Knoxfollowed in October by Anne Tarver about life inthe eighteenth century Leicestershire based on hernew book subtitled ‘Woolley backs and beanbellies’! WHO member Debbie Bilham will give atalk on the history of audio recording inNovember, the year ending with the Christmasdinner.

Anyone with an interest in local and wider historyis welcome to attend the WHO meetings whichare held on the third Tuesday in the month in theback room of The Windmill Inn commencing at7.45 pm. As last year I make a plea for all ‘at risk’features of local villages threatened by villagegrowth to be photographed and recorded so thatinformation of use to future generations will notbe lost.

As Chairman I thank , on behalf on myself andmembers, Joan and Bob Trubshaw for producingThe Wolds Historian, Bob Trubshaw for his majorcontributions to the birthday meetings and for hisinvaluable support as Vice-Chairman, DavidMarshall for his good work as treasurer keepingthe WHO solvent, David Keene for his secretarialskills and Debbie Bilham, Colin Lines, VivMarshall and Albert Sleigh for all their hard workand efforts as committee members.

The final thanks are to all members and visitors forcontinued support and attending meetings.Without you there would be no WHO.

Patricia Baker

The Nine Men's Morris board speciallycommissioned by the WHO from Ernie Miller andawarded in September 2007 to Hellen Jarvis, theoverall winner of the WHO's 'What, When and

Where' twentieth anniversary competition.

2

Charles William Packe (1792–1867) was the ToryMP for South Leicestershire and a chum ofShelley’s at Eton. He was a patron of the arts andcertainly did much to bring international music toprovincial Leicestershire. Locally he is perhapsbest known now as the man who had PrestwoldHall rebuilt in its present Italianate style. Now, asa result of a newly acquired account book(DE7340/1) we can say rather more about thisintriguing character.

The book is a small, vellum-bound volume,inscribed on the inside of the front cover: 'CharlesWilliam Packe Accompt Book Decbr 15 th 1810'. Ithas some 180 paper pages, lined faintly in red forthe pounds, shillings and pence. It is writtenthroughout in a small, careful, round hand;varying only slightly in appearance with the effectof newly-cut quills and different inks.

The accounts begin on 15 December 1810 with,appropriately, the expenditure of three shillingsand sixpence on an 'Accompt Book' and a furthersixpence on a haircut. From then on, we arelaunched into the intimate world of CharlesWilliam Packe – who had just emerged fromschool, with £30 from his father and 11/6'remaining in my purse from Eton'.

The first few pages record Packe’s expenditure inpreparation for and at University in Oxford. Hesets himself up with all the necessaries of anundergraduate: the 'Tea, Sugar, Soap, & candles','Inkstand' and 'Paper, pens, sealing wax, & Ink'that we might expect, as well as candlesticks,snuffers, egg cups and spoons, corkscrew,decanters and a wealth of glasses, jugs, slop pail,etc., etc. We should notice too the fee for tuition,the cap and two gowns and the regularappearance of set texts; such as ‘Murphy’sTacitus’, ‘Beloe’s Herodotus’ and ‘D’Anville’sAncient Geography’.

It is at Oxford too that Packe’s love of musicbecomes apparent, the four pence laid out on a

'A dozen of oysters and rice pudding for one… '

The account book of Charles William Packe

Robin Jenkins

‘music book for the flute’ clearly being one of hiswisest investments. Certainly it was money betterspent than the half crown for ‘Bull bait’ andprobably stood him in better stead than the fewshillings devoted to billiards about once a week.Whether the £1/14/9d charged by ‘Miss Lyne foret ceteras in term’ proved to be money well spentwe have no means of judging.

The accounts cease in 1811, to begin again withthe New Year of 1816. From then on the recordgives so complete a picture of our young fellow’sexpenditure that it is possible to follow in hiswake, as he pays for lunch here, a haircut there,and sets off across country, paying his waythrough toll bars and putting up at inns. We canfollow Charles William’s fads as they come and goand we can see those interests that remainedconstant, throughout his life.

Packe dashes back and forth across RegencyEngland, closely pursued, Sancho Panza-like, byhis servant, Richard Wade. This image is renderedeven more vivid by the fact that we can picture‘Richard’ so well too – in his hat from Manby’s(18/-) blue livery cloth coat (£1/11/6d) scarletwaistcoat (10/7½d) dressed with buff nankeen(6/8d) cord breeches (8/3d) and boots (£1/12/0);his pockets jingling with his £10 wages perannum.

Packe’s mode of travelling is almost as interestingas the reasons for his trips. Take the races andballs around Stamford in the first week of July,1817. There is the cost of two balls, wine, a box atthe theatre and hat cleaning but the entries for‘logistics’ easily outnumber those for ‘fun’. Therewas the chaise back to Burghley (7/6d) the stableman there (3/-) turnpikes (1/-) three nights’ bed atMrs Priest’s (7/6d) tips to the chambermaid andostler (1/- apiece) horse feed (7/6d) sandwiches(1/-) stabling at the George, Stamford (7/-) moreturnpikes (6d) Richard’s expenses (7/-) and threeitems for the horses: a pair of horse girths (3/-)sponge (2/9d) and mane comb (2d).

3

The routes taken are instructive too. Often Packeand Richard travel locally by gig or chaise, payingfor stabling and ‘baiting’ en route. There arehackney carriages in London – such as the oneshilling ride from the Blue Boar in Holborn toLincoln’s Inn, with an additional shilling for‘dirtying cushion’! Just as often they resort to thecoaches: the ‘Union’ to Leicester from London (£1each outside), the ‘Express’ to Leeds, the ‘Hope’ toLeicester and Loughborough, the ‘Lord Nelson’from York to Newark and by ‘Perseverance’ to‘Deeping’. On several occasions the pair maketheir way across country, via Uppingham, to pickup the London coach at Connington on the GreatNorth Road.

Young Mr Packe (as has been said) seemssomething of a faddist. Some fads were so longlasting and all-consuming that they might betterbe termed passions. We’ll leave those for now.Others however, were passing and typical of ayoung chap making his way in the world.

For a start there is food. We have alreadyencountered the sandwiches at Stamford but for atime there are regular helpings of honey (2 lbs for4 shillings, plus four pence for the jar!) or ‘apples

and filberds’ washed down with porter. And thenthere is the ‘Damson tart for dinner for two’ thatcost a shilling in March 1817! I shall say nothingof the dozen of oysters and ‘Rice pudding for one’the following month and the two lobsters, twodozen oysters and a cucumber (for which C.W.P.appears to have paid half) will remain anunspoken reproach as far as I am concerned. I cansympathise with the one and nine penny ‘pot ofPiccalilla Pickle’ and the ‘ounce of scotch snuff atLoughborough’ but ‘a bottle of French olives’ ? Idon’t know. It surely was an age of indulgence: ‘3ounces of refined Liquorice at Bells, Oxford St’indeed! And don’t tell me it was medicinal!

Nor was Packe one to neglect his appearance.Probably the two most regular items ofexpenditure are ‘haircutting…6d’ (later thisbecomes ‘hair curling’ and a shilling – or 2/6 if itwas ‘haircutting and dressing’) and new watchribbons. Young Charles had at least two watches(as he specifies a silver watch, for cleaning by Kingand a new main-spring by Palmer, both atLoughborough, and later pays ‘Mr Grignon forcleaning gold watch &c’) but even so, the wearand tear on ribbons was shocking. It must havebeen a sound investment when, in 1821, Mr

Prestwold Hall in the late eighteenth century as depicted in John Nichols' History and Antiquities ofthe County of Leicester.

4

Garrard was paid £13 for a ‘Gold and Platinawatchchain’.

By the end of the account book there are frequententries for dentifrice, bears’ grease, Naples soapand bottles of rose and violet essence. Thepurchase and repair of clothing and footwear is aconstant presence too; sometimes suggesting thepursuit of fashion but at times indicating otherinterests – such as cricket outfits or the purchase ofitems of Yeomanry uniform.

Packe’s greatest love however, without a doubt,was music. He appreciated the Arts generally,visiting galleries and historic buildings but music –both as listener and player – is a constant theme.His accounts reveal many trips to Drury Lane,Covent Garden or to unspecified theatres, musicrooms and operas, as well as expenses at aBirm[ingham?] music meeting’. His earlypurchase of flute music paid off too, as the flutewas to became an abiding passion. There arepayments for repairs to the flute, ‘entrance money

to Jackson for learning flute’ and, regularly,purchases of flute music. On one day, 18 June1817, Packe records £8/8/6 spent on ‘Mr Laust 17lessons on Flute’, followed by Laust’s ‘Study forFlute’, and five sets of flute and piano music. It isby no means unusual, though there was, perhaps,an element of consolation as the very next item isfor £31/10/0 to a Mr Wadd, ‘for surgicalattendance’.

I could go on – there is no shortage of amusing,quaint and revealing expenditure. The strength ofthe accounts, more than anything, is in theirdepiction of ordinary life. However, there areoccasional references that tantalise and I shall endwith a few of those. Some crave furtherinvestigation, others will remain curios. There is,for example, the 2 guinea trip to Mr Thompson,the dentist, on 5 May 1818, ‘cleaning andstopping teeth’; followed the next day by‘Camphorated tincture of opium at Savory’s’ for ashilling. Our sympathy, Mr Packe!

A different view of Prestwold Hall at a similar time to the Nichols illustration, from John Throsby'sSelected Views of Leicestershire.

5

In August 1817 there was a trip along the southcoast, buying a guide book at Portsmouth, ‘ice’ atChichester, and gaiter straps at Worthing – not tomention ‘Taken in by smugglers for 8 yds & ½ ofEast India muslin for neckcloths’. The year beforethere had been a shilling spent on ‘seeing WildBeasts’ at Huntingdon and, to cap it all, perhapsmy favourite; half a crown on 10 November 1811,for a ‘Medal of Sadler the Aeronaut’.

Don’t take my word for it though – have a lookyourself, order up DE7430/1 and spend an hour orso in the company of Charles William Packe. Heis an agreeable companion!

This article was previously published in the Spring2008 edition of The Dustsheet (No 38), thenewsletter of the Friends of the Record Office forLeicestershire, Leicester and Rutland. Our thanksto the editors of The Dustsheet for permission toreprint.

‘Sadler the Aeronaut’

Wysall's 'Wise Boy'

In November 1623 fifteen people from fivedifferent parishes in Nottinghamshire (UpperBroughton, Lenton, Trowell, West Bridgford andWollaton) were brought before the church courtaccused of visiting the 'Wise Boy', also known asthe 'Stroking Boy', of Wysall. He seems to havebeen a young healer.

Interestingly the churchwardens at East Leake‘present the following: that concerning the child atWysall, they have none in their parish that went tohim.’ The Costock churchwardens also claimednot to be able to find any ‘that were supposed togo to the child at Wysall.’ Whether this is accurateor disingenuous cannot now be established!

Unfortunately, nothing further is known of theWise Boy despite the fact that his reputation musthave been widespread judging by the distancepeople were prepared to travel to visit him.

Presumably people from north Leicestershire alsovisited – or at least were aware of – the Wise Boybut the jurisdiction of the Nottinghamshire churchcourt did not extend over the county boundary.

All the accused pleaded guilty and weredismissed. Although such prosecutions wereprevalent in the reign of James I the authoritieswere reluctant to formally punish such activities.

Information from Dr Martyn Bennett'sSociety, Religion and Culture InSeventeenth Century Nottinghamshire(Edwin Mellen Press 2006). The sourcedocument is online at:www.nottingham.ac.uk/is/services/mss/online/online-mss-catalogues/cats/an_presentment_bills_297-314.html

Thanks to Mark Orridge for drawing theeditors’ attention to the Wise Boy.

6

The name of Samuel Shalcrosse appears butfleetingly in the records of Burton on the Wolds,yet no one person played a greater part in shapingour modern village. Burton Hall was not built untillate in the eighteenth century, but Samuel had laidthe foundation for the Burton Estate over ahundred years earlier.

The Shalcrosse background

The Shalcrosse family originates in Derbyshireand takes its name from the ‘shall’ or ‘shackel’cross close to Taxal. The form of the name isremarkably varied; Shalcrosse genealogists haverecorded almost a hundred different spellings.One version only is used here in the interests ofclarity.

The name appears in parish registers aroundnorth-east Leicestershire from the mid-sixteenthcentury. Entries in the registers of MeltonMowbray parish church confirm the marriage ofWilliam Shalcrosse to Johan Richardson in 1549and his second marriage to Agnes Masser in 1561,the baptism of Simon Shalcrosse’s daughterAgneta in 1552, and the marriage of JoanShalcrosse to James Guilson in 1564.

In 1599, one Simon Shalcrosse of Twyfordemerges. He is obviously from the same familybecause in 1622 he represented his aunt, JoanGuilson, at the trial of Bartholomew Brooksby forhigh treason. Simon is described as a gentlemanand in 1628 his son James was the richest man inTwyford.

James was probably the parish priest since thefamily held the rectory and rights to the tithes.James and his son, James the younger, along withhis mother, Elizabeth, sold these, with severalacres of land and their rights to the commonpasture, in 1630. He may be the James Shalcrossewho graduated from Trinity College, Oxford, in1625.

James Shalcrosse the younger married and madehis home at Hoby. The Hoby parish registers list

three children: Samuel baptised in 1643, An[n] in1645 and Elizabeth in 1648.

A Shalcrosse who at one time was living veryclose to Burton was William Shalcrosse BA, whomatriculated from Trinity College Cambridge in1638 and took up the post of usher atLoughborough Grammar School and priest at theparish church.

Samuel Shalcrosse of Burton

In 1676 Samuel Shalcrosse negotiated with thefamily of Sir Henry Hudson to buy land at Burtonon the Wolds. He paid £300 for 90 acres ofmeadow and 250 acres of pasture.

Four years later, he paid John and Joseph Earl ofQuorn £160 for a house and two cottages, threegardens, three orchards, 70 acres of land, 24 acresof meadow, 60 acres of pasture, and common ofpasture, in Quorn, Woodhouse, Mountsorrel andthe Forest of Charnwood.

Quorn was still working the old open field systemand some of Samuel’s land there would have beenin small scattered plots and strips. Enclosure ofBurton parish had been progressive over severalyears, and by 1676 the open fields had gone.Samuel’s Burton land would have been in ‘closes’or enclosed fields and this may have influencedhis decision to make his home at Burton. In theyear 1687 he was described as ‘Samuel Shalcrosseof London, gent’, but by that time he had probablybeen settled in Burton for several years.

Samuel was educated and well read. He was oneof several men of standing and influence to beappointed trustees of the Quorn Charity Fund,following misappropriation of moneys, and he islisted among some of the most prominent men inthe County who raised money to support WilliamIII in 1701. (Leicestershire raised 25,674 pounds,5 shillings, 4 pence and 1/8 of a penny; theBorough of Leicester raised 479 pounds and 14shillings.)

Samuel and his daughters

Joan Shaw

7

Samuel had two wives. In 1663 he marriedElizabeth Chisholme, and their daughter Hannahwas born in 1670. At the time of her death in 1683Hannah was their only child. Elizabeth died inearly August 1689 and was buried at Prestwold.Three weeks later Samuel married Ann Bushnell atSt Mary’s Marylebone. She was a widow, andbrought with her two daughters: Roe Bonfoy, thenabout nine years old, and little Ann Bushnell. Annhad married John Bushnell at St Mary’sMarylebone in July 1683; the assumption must bethat Samuel was her third husband. Her firsthusband may have been Nicholas Bonfoy as JewitFranciscus, son of ‘Nicholai Bonofoy and Annae’,was baptised at St Martins in the Fields on 16th

April 1676. Roe was born around 1680.

A possible clue to Ann Bushnell’s identity couldlie in the name given to her daughter, Roe. Annwas about 57 years old when she died in 1713,which fits the date of baptism given in thePrestwold registers for Ann Roe.

In Autumn 1698 Samuel Shalcrosse proudlywalked arm in arm with Roe Bonfoy to Prestwoldchurch, and gave her in marriage to WilliamStevens. William was a citizen of London and agentleman, but he was also described as aclothworker. He was in his early twenties, Roewas about eighteen.

Samuel made a generous marriage settlement. Roeand William benefited from the house andhomestead that he had bought all those years agofrom the Earles – the White House on the northside of Meeting Street. He also included the twocottages, 96 acres of land in the Quorn fields, a

further 42 acres of land in Quorn, Brink’s Close,Landland Close, and Lea Close in Woodhouse.The settlement was made on the condition thatWilliam and Roe were not contributing to thesupport of William’s parents or his sister’s family –a seemingly odd stipulation because on the face ofit William was an eligible young man from arespectable family. His father was a Londongentleman and a Member of the CommonCouncil.

Samuel continued to invest. In August 1700 hepaid £300 to Thomas Farnham of Quorn, plus £30in silver, and five guineas in gold to MarthaFarnham his mother, for another thirty acres ofland in Quorn. The following November he paid£50 to Clifton Packe of Prestwold for a cottage inBurton on the Wolds in the tenure of a lady calledSarah Noone, and two cow pastures ‘to be hadand taken in a place called the Twenty Acres andother commonable places of Burton’. Some of theold houses in Burton still retain their grazingrights, usually called cow or beast gates. TwentyAcres is close to Six Hills.

Samuel found himself playing a new role – that ofgrandfather to three boys: Shalcrosse, Samuel andWilliam. Roe and William Stevens were destinedto have a large family and these three werefollowed by Thomas, Elizabeth, Charles, Morton,Hannah, Ann, Juliana, Robert, George, Hannah-Shalcrosse and Roe. There was a good measure ofgrief – as in many families at that time – littleMorton died of convulsions when he was just‘three-quarters’, and Hannah, Juliana, George andHannah-Shalcrosse all died when they wereyoung. But most of Roe’s children survived,succeeded and multiplied.

Roe’s half-sister, Ann Bushnell, was married at StMary’s, Leicester, on 29 th August 1707, toNicholas Mason of Walton. They too knewsadness. Little Maria died in 1712 and theirprecious son Shalcrosse in 1718, but they had fourhealthy daughters and in 1720 they were blessedwith another son, William Shalcrosse.

William Shalcrosse Mason grew up in thecompany of Hannah, Ann, Elizabeth and Lucretia,first at Barrow, later at Burton on the Wolds.

Samuel Shalcrosse died in 1729. He was said tobe in his ninetieth year, and John Nichols, in hisHistory and Antiquities of the County of Leicester,records his monument as a flat stone on the south

The White House, Quorn in 2008.Photograph by Tim Rodgers.

8

side of Prestwold Church but it is no longer there.Several stones removed from the church nowstand, half buried, in front of the south wall of thechurchyard. Most are no longer readable but theyinclude one that appears to have been the cover tothe Mason family vault. Evidence suggests that thevault was beneath the nave and there is an oldventilation shaft by the south door that could beassociated with it.

Samuel, his daughter Hannah, and his secondwife, along with Nicholas and Ann Mason, arecommemorated by simple brass plates on thesouth wall of the nave. There are three similarplates, probably made in 1890 when the churchwas restored. The wording on one may have beentaken from the actual coffin:

Here lyeth interred the body of Hannahonly child of Samuel Shalcrosse gent andElizabeth his wife who departed this life15th August in the year of Our Lord 1763aged 13 years 3 months 5 days.

Nowhere else is Hannah’s precise age given.According to John Nichols, the original stonemonument stated simply that she died August 19th

1683, aged 13. There is no obvious explanationfor the incorrect year.

Who was Samuel?

Known facts suggest that Samuel Shalcrosse wasborn around 1639. He may have been Samuel theson of James Shalcrosse of Hoby, however,according to Nichols there was a second SamuelShalcrosse buried at Prestwold whose age at death– 70 years in 1713 – makes him more likely to beSamuel from Hoby. He was doubtless related tothe older Samuel, perhaps a cousin.

There is no solid information about Samuel’sorigins and nothing to link him for certain withother Leicestershire Shalcrosses, but it is probablethat he was related to William Shalcrosse thepriest. William was intruding vicar atWhissendine during the Commonwealth periodand Nicholas Mason Snr of Walton – ‘aliasCastledine’ as he styled himself – the father-in-lawof Ann Mason (née Bushnell), belonged to theMason family of Whissendine. His kinsmen thereserved William Shalcrosse the priest aschurchwardens. Perhaps Nicholas Mason Snr ofWalton and Samuel Shalcrosse of Burton were oldfriends.

Samuel’s roots could really have been in London,or he might have been from Derbyshire where themain branch of the Shalcrosse family lived, but itis far more likely that he was a local man retiringto a part of the country he knew and loved.

Samuel’s legacy

Samuel left his personal and real estate to ‘mydaughter’ Ann Mason, and in the event that Annand her husband predecease him, leaving nochildren, to sons of Roe Stevens, by then allLondon businessmen: Samuel the distiller,William the cheesemonger, Thomas the grocer.He left several legacies, and to his godson JohnJames he gave ‘ye house which Jacob Baradaildoth now inhabit or dwell in’. It probably stood inthe middle of the new David Wilsondevelopment.

The hasty marriage of Ann’s mother and stepfatherdoes suggest they had a close relationship prior tothe death of Elizabeth Chisholme, and is bound toprompt questions about Ann’s parentage. WasSamuel her natural father? The fact that he madehis younger stepdaughter his heir does reinforcethe theory. However, there is no evidence thatAnn ever used the name Shalcrosse. Samuel hadalready provided very well for Roe Bonfoy andAnn was doubtless the support and comfort of hisold age.

William Shalcrosse Mason was seven years oldwhen Samuel wrote his will. At the age ofseventeen he was a very wealthy young man,having inherited the Shalcrosse estate from hismother and Mason property from his father. Hemarried well. His wife was Judith Jenkinson,

Memorial to Samuel Shallcrosse and his daughterHannah in Prestwold Church

9

whose mother was the daughter and sole heiressof William Fiennes and granddaughter of ViscountSaye and Sele, and he was related by marriage tothe Packe family of Prestwold and the Pochins ofBarkby. Sadly, William and Judith’s only child, adaughter, died within a few hours of birth.

William’s childhood home in Burton wasprobably a small manor house, part of – or on thesite of – the row of cottages to the east of the oldMethodist chapel. He set about building a newhouse at the top of the hill, south of the village. Itwas known as the Manor House and is nowManor Farm though William never held themanor of Burton, nor did his parents or SamuelShalcrosse.

Burton Hall was built in the final decades of theeighteenth century by his nephew, John Noon,son of his sister Lucretia. Only two of Lucretia’sthirteen children survived beyond childhood:John and his brother Edward.

When William Shalcrosse Mason came to writehis own will in 1788, one of the charities thathelped Burton’s poor – Kirk’s charity – had failed.The charity’s name remained but its work

continued only thanks to William who created afund and left money to support it. The charity wasset up to provide £4 for a schoolmaster atPrestwold, £4 to buy coals for the poor, £4 toclothe six poor boys with caps, coats, stockingsand shoes, and additional money to bind themapprentice. However, in 1836, the CharityCommissioners reported that ‘a great deal ofevidence was gone into on this subject, but it wasfound impossible to trace the charity’.

William Stevens of Quorn did adopt the nameShalcrosse for several years and his eldest sonbecame Shalcrosse Stevens Shalcrosse, perhaps toplease Roe’s stepfather to begin with but thepractice continued for some years followingSamuel’s demise. Despite their London businessinterests the Stevens family retained theirassociation with Quorn. Following Roe’s death in1738 William married Ann, the daughter ofCaptain Henry and Martha Farnham, and SamuelStevens, his son, married Hannah Sophia, sister inlaw to Sevile Hyde. In 1740 Samuel purchasedQuorn Place (now the Quorndon Fox Hotel).

By 1763 the Stevens were considerable owners ofproperty in the area and they received one of the

Above: The Mason family's vault cover, now half-buried in Prestwold churchyard.

Top right: The Mason coat of arms as depicted inNichols.

Right: The ventilation grille, supposedly for theMason vault, by the south door of Prestwold

church.

10

John Noon had no children and left Burton Hall and the Burton Estate to CharlesGodfrey Mundy of Markeaton.

From 1838 to 1920 the Hall and the Estate were owned by the Dukes of Somerset.

From 1920 to 1954 they were the property of the Earl and Countess of Huntingdon.

* John Nichols says that Thomas Greasley the second husband of Ann Mason andThomas Greasley the first husband of Elizabeth Mason were cousins.

Family tree showing children of Roe Stevens and Ann BushnellBold denotes owners of the Burton estate

Elizabeth Chisholm (1)died August 1689

(2) Ann Bushnell1656–1713

Hannah1670–1683

no known children

(1) ?Bonfoy (2) John Bushnell

Roe Bonfoyc. 1680–1738marriedWm Stevensc. 1676–1755

Ann Farnham (2)

Ann Bushnellc. 1687–1737marriedNicholas Masonc. 1686–1733

Shalcrosse Samuel Will'm Thos Charles Ann Eliz. Rob't Roe five children c.1699 1702 1703 1706 1708 1711 1713 1716 1718 died young

Hannah Ann Maria Elizabeth Lucretia Shalcrosse Williamc. 1708 1710 1811– 1813 1816 died 1818 Shalcrossemarried married 1812 married married MasonWm Henton (1) ?Fuller (1)Thos* Thomas 1720–1788

(2) Thos* Greasley Noon married Greasley (2) ?Loe

John Noon Edward eleven other children1741–1811 1756 all died youngmarried marriedAnn Tyler Mary Wellbourn

Samuel Shalcrosse marcirca 1639–1729

Judith Jenkinson

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largest allotments under the Quorndon EnclosureAward.

In his account of Quorn written at the end of theeighteenth century, John Nichols lists the RevThomas Stevens DD among the principallandowners and says he owned a good housewithin the village. He also mentions Mrs Peachwho was the daughter of Samuel Stevens andgranddaughter of William and Roe. In writingabout the Stevens family, John Nichols had thehelp of Robert Stevens, the son of William andRoe, then in his eighties.

In 1811 John Noon died, leaving Burton Hall tothe son of a friend. By this date the name Stevensno longer appears among the freeholders ofQuorn.

The Burton Estate

It had been William Shalcrosse Mason’s wish thatthe estate that Samuel founded should remainwithin the family. Instead John Noon chose as hisheir Charles Godfrey Mundy of Markeaton inDerbyshire.

There is no way of monitoring the prosperity andgrowth of the estate while it remained in the handsof Samuel Shalcrosse’s heirs, but in 1834 CharlesMundy was forced to put it on the market. By thattime, Samuel’s original 340 acres had grown to1,200 with several farms and cottages and the

Upper Mill on the River Soar close to Cotes. Therewere reserves of alabaster and limestone, osierbeds, woods and plantations, a fox covert, arableland, meadow and pasture. Burton Hall had beentransformed from a country gentleman’s homeinto a fashionable mansion with conservatories,hot-houses, pineries, walled gardens, hot walls,grottoes, fishponds, flower gardens, shrubberies,coach houses, stabling and an ice house. JohnNoon’s original house had been on the villagestreet, but Charles Mundy completely changed theappearance of Burton, closing and re-routingroads, so that his much grander establishmentstood in its own park with impressive gates and asweeping drive.

It was Charles Mundy that laid out the plantationsaround the village and built the lion’s mouthfountain.

Also included in the sale was the Manor ‘orreputed Manor’ of Burton, with all its rights andprivileges. Charles Mundy had purchased theManor of Burton from the Hastings family, thoughits extent and status must be questioned. AtDomesday, Burton was split between three ofKing William’s barons and its subsequentmanorial history is far from clear.

The last remnants of the Burton Estate were soldoff in 1954, two hundred and seventy-eight yearsafter Samuel bought his first land from Sir Henry.

Houses and bungalows have been built on thepark and gardens of the Hall, and the house itselfhas been divided into apartments to suit modernliving. Charles Mundy’s Fishpond Plantation hasbecome Burton’s newest amenity: the communitywood.

Samuel left no descendants and the Mason linefrom Nicholas and Ann died with their grandson.John Noon had no children but did have severalnephews and nieces. His reasons for disposing ofthe estate outside the family remain a mystery.

There are still Stevens in the Charnwood area, andRoe Stevens and her sister had several daughters.Genealogists researching their ancestors amongthe Hentons, Greasleys, Fullers, Loes, Kings,Warwicks, Peaches, Bostocks, Hydes, Norths,Orams, Simpsons, Wrights and many other northLeicestershire families can expect to come acrossthe odd Shalcrosse hiding in the branches.

The Manor House, Burton, now Manor Farm. The prominent cross-wing was added in the late

nineteenth century by the Duke of Somerset.Photograph loaned by Margaret Marshall.

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Sources

Parish registers and transcripts of monumentalinscriptions in the Record Office forLeicestershire Leicester and Rutland (ROLLR) andlocal librariesLeicestershire wills, ROLLRLeicestershire marriage bonds, ROLLRPapers relating to the Herrick family ofBeaumanor, ROLLRPapers relating to the Pochin family of BarkbyHall, ROLLRMaps and sales catalogues, ROLLRQuorndon Records, 1912, George F. FarnhamLeicestershire Medieval Village Notes, George F.Farnham

History & Antiquities of the County of Leicester,Vol 3, Part 1, 1800, John NicholsHistory & Antiquities of the County of Leicester,Vol 3, Part 2, 1804, John NicholsHistory of Loughborough Endowed Schools,1969, Alfred WhiteSelect Views in Leicestershire, Vol 2,1790, JohnThrosbyRambles Around Loughborough, 1868, ThomasRossel PotterWolds Reflections, 1997, the Wolds HistoricalOrganisation2000 Years of the Wolds, 2003, the WoldsHistorical OrganisationWHO Newsletter 2000, the Wolds HistoricalOrganisation

This picture of the Hall family at Gorse Farm hangs in the Local Studies Room of LoughboroughLibrary.

Gorse Farm was built by the Packe family in 1887, and was sited on Wymeswold Road in Hoton. Itwas demolished to make way for the runways of RAF Wymeswold. The house had four-bedrooms andwas of brick with a Welsh slate roof. Behind was a complete range of farm buildings. The photographappears to have been taken when the farm was new and although the people are not named they areprobably John Hall senior and his wife Elizabeth with their granddaughter Maria (Maria married John

Harrison from Barrow).

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The restoration of St Mary’s, Wymeswold, 1955–9

Bob Trubshaw

On 14 May 2007 I gave a talk at St Mary’s,Wymeswold, about Pugin’s 1840s restoration.The day before this talk Anthony Wheldon verykindly allowed me to copy two letters from RevLawrence Jackson describing the restoration of StMary’s that Jackson supervised between 1955–9.The letters are addressed to R. Innes-Smith (whoaround the time of these letters, 1966–7,converted the Baptist Chapel on Wysall Lane intoa house).

Mr Innes-Smith contacted Rev Jackson as part ofhis research to prepare a booklet about St Mary’s.Rev Jackson replied to the first of Mr Innes-Smith’sletters on 2 March 1966. He wrote a subsequentletter on 5 April the next year, and the openingparagraphs make it clear that he is responding to adraft of Innes-Smith’s booklet. By this time RevJackson was vicar of Holy Trinity church inCoventry.

The relevant passages of the letter dated 2 March1966 read:

Concerning the major restoration ofWymeswold church between the years of1955–59, the following work was done:

1: The whole of the nave roof was stripped ofits lead, and the wooden gutter supports,which had decayed with damp rot and deathwatch attack, were replaced with cementsteppings. The whole of the lead was re-castand re-laid, according to medievalprocedure, with long water chutes replacingthe old Victorian stone headers which wereresponsible for most of the structural damage.This, as you will readily appreciate, was themajor undertaking.

2: Henry Alford’s great restoration of the1840s, which some people describe asvandalistic, had meant that A.W. Pugin, hisarchitect, according to his usual custom, had‘trued’ the walls by floating on to the rubble,Roman Plaster, i.e. lime and sand withground ashes and cow hair, in many places to

a depth of 3 or 4 inches. Because of thedecayed state of the roofs, water had poureddown between the plaster and the rubble,and in many cases the plaster was standing 6inches proud of the wall! Damp rot, fungus,grew riotously and huge fungoid growthshung on the interior of the clerestory wall.Again, the repair of this was a majorundertaking. The plaster was stripped downon the apices of the arches, and after keyingthe rubble with gravel and cement, the wholewas floated out level with the remainder andskimmed with Leighton Buzzard sand. Theevidence of this work can be seen if you lookat the clerestory and the chancel and the aislewalls with an expert eye! The stonework ofthe arches and pillars was in such a parlousstate that it would have resisted any attemptto wash it and clean it effectively. Wedecided, therefore, to treat the arcades andthe walls as a unity, in the same way as manyEast Anglian churches have been treated, andto whiten the whole of the interior. This, ofcourse, was very useful in covering the oldand new plaster surfaces.

3: The remaining work was re-setting ofdecaying stonework, in particular thecastellations on the nave roof, and re-pointing some of a limestone and soft Lias inthe exterior of the walls. The woodwork wasall treated against beetle attack and variousbits of colouring work done where it wasthought appropriate.

The installation of the new altar with itsriddell posts and scarlet dorsal curtain wasthe first move to do what our forebears haddone in the Middle Ages; that was to use apure white background to set forth primarycolours.

If you look at Nikolaus Pevsner'sLeicestershire and Rutland you will find anarticle on the church, which I wrote for himwhile this restoration was in progress.

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Unfortunately I left before my work wascomplete. The very poor Victorian chancelscreen by Pugin, which replaced a superb butdecayed oak screen of the Middle Ages, Iintended to remove and replace at the base ofthe tower arch (Pevsner says that this hasbeen done!). The nave was to have beenwidened and heating system rearranged togive great dignity to the east-facing aspect.The church was to be re-floored and colouredsconces placed on the aisle walls. Alas, I leftbefore this was done, and no further progresshas to date been made.

You ask me concerning my part in all this. Myendeavour sprang from a great interest inthings architectural and archaeological, andalso in raising the money, some £6,000,which the village worked like fun to raise –you will realise this was quite a large sum fora village the size of Wymeswold to raisequickly.

Rev Jackson’s second latter, dated 5 April 1967starts:

Thank you for your kind letter and forenclosing draft of the brochure you arepreparing for Wymeswold church, I have hada look through this and think it is very goodfor the purpose intended.

I think on page 3 of the copy if I were you Iwould find another word for the word youhave used ‘amusing’, with regard to the textswhich Pugin painted all over the church! Iwould also not regard their disappearance asbeing at all unfortunate as it was entirely aVictorian foible to paint texts all over theinterior of Gothic buildings, ruining the linesof the arcades and breaking up the unity ofwall surfaces, which were part of the Gothicbuilders’ genius.

If you want to leave this sentence in I wouldsuggest changing the word ‘amusing’ for theword ‘biblical’, for whatever else those textswere they were certainly not amusing!

On another tack I ought to tell you that I havewritten to the Vicar of Wymeswold warninghim of the reappearance of fungal growths onthe third roof truss of the north clerestory andsuggesting that immediate action is taken toprevent what I had to deal with some years

ago. Obviously water is getting in the navegutters on the North side and should beattended to without delay. If you canstimulate him to take some action, withoutsaying I have written to you also, it will be agood thing.

I particularly like your reference to the NorthPorch, which is perhaps one of the best thingsthat Pugin did, and immediately ‘belongs’ tothe building.

Anthony Weldon reports that water ingress fromthe roof into the nave has continued to be aproblem over the years. And the curiously-wordedphrase ‘the village worked like fun to raise’ the£6,000 also reflects the spirit of fundraising whichhas continued during the last twenty years.

Whether or not we can share Rev Jackson’sopinion about the ‘amusing’ – or otherwise –biblical texts, clearly the plaster of the naveneeded major restorations so some of Pugin’s textsabove the nave arches would have been lost.However the biblical texts behind the altar in thechancel were only painted over to meet Jackson’s

The start of Rev Jackson's first letter to Mr Innes-Smith

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1950s taste in ecclesiastical fashions,notwithstanding his claims of medievalprecedents. Jackson is correct that the Victoriansfavoured biblical texts, but omits to mention thatwhat he describes as the ‘Gothic builders’ genius’would originally have been decorated withfigurative painted decoration.

Pugin’s writings roundly condemned painting theinteriors of churches uniformly white, so –perhaps understandably – Rev Jackson was no fanof Pugin’s preference for the austerity of barestone (which certainly did not have medievalprecedents, as whitewashed and painted interiorswere then typical).

As ever, ecclesiastical fashions have largelydictated the changes to parish churches, and theseletters provide an unusual insight into how the1950s saw the 1840s.

Two photographs by Philip Brown takenbetween 1896 and the 1920s showing Pugin’sbiblical texts behind the altar and around the

chancel arch.

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This article is based on an article published in theLoughborough Echo on 29th June 1934 under thepseudonym Heywood.

The origins of Wymeswold cricket club are notrecorded but seem to be around the 1850s. Asecond club, the Wymeswold United CricketClub, was founded in 1922 in conjunction withthe Weslyan chapel. For a few years there was anannual match between the two sides – quicklynicknamed the wets’ and the ‘drys’ because of theMethodists’ teetotal principles – but these hadbeen discontinued some time before 1934.

According to Haywood, ‘One of the bestcricketers Wymeswold has ever produced is thepresent post-master, Mr Phil Brown, an oldLoughborough Grammar School boy, who, years

Philip Brown –Wymeswold’s cricketlegend

Rev Henry Alfordwhile at Wymeswold

Among Phillip Brown's negatives are severalcopies of exisiting photographs. One of theseshows the distinctive features of Rev Henry A.Alford. He was Vicar of Wymeswold between1835 and 1853, during which time hecommissioned A.W.N. Pugin to restore StMary's. Alford was born in 1810 so would havebeen 43 when he moved to London to take upthe Incumbency of Quebec Chapel, London,and subsequently the Deanery of Canterbury.

Was this photograph taken in his early forties,shortly before he left Wymeswold? We maynever know for certain but nevertheless thiswould have been more or less how manyWymeswold people remembered him afterhe left.

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Below: Photograph of the Wymeswold cricketteam taken in 1911 on the occasion of theopening of a new pavilion (this was on the

previous cricket pitch at the back of the ThreeCrowns).

Standing: C. Mills (umpire), C. Morris, J.Richardson, F. Jalland, W. Handley, F. Kirkby,

P.E. BrownSitting: J. Peel, A. Morris, J. Burrows

On ground: G. Morris, T. Hall.Philip Brown is on the right of the back row.

George Morris (on left, front row) was a‘successful bowler’. His brother Albert (middle

of seated second row) was a ‘fine stumper’(wicket keeper). F. Jalland (middle of back

row) was a ‘terrific hitter’.Tom Hall (on right, front row) was a slow

right-arm bowler. ‘One of his bestperformances was against East Leake when,

although suffering from a slight attack of gout,he took six wickets for 24.’

ago, was a familiar figure at the old boys’ match.For many years he was the most consistent bat,and for fifteen seasons was top of the clubaverages, an inspiring record which gives a clearidea of the excellent service he rendered to theclub. In his younger days there is little doubt thathe was worthy of a trial in more representativecricket. He was always exceptionally keen on thegame, and it was a great blow to him when, at theage of fifty-five, he was compelled to retire owingto recurring attacks of sciatica. In his last match,against Coalville, he played an excellent inningsof 55, and had the satisfaction of carrying out hisbat’ (i.e. was ‘not out’ at the end of the innings).

The suggestion that Philip Brown might haveplayed at county level is borne out by Haywood’saccount of another Wymeswold batsman, J.Wright, who was a ‘hard’ and ‘prolific’ hitter whowent to play professionally at Skegness, and oneof the Jallands (the unnamed son of F. Jallanddepicted in the 1911 photograph) whose ‘manyfine performances have attracted the notice of thepowers that be at Aylestone Road’ (i.e. the homeof Leicestershire county cricket).

Haywood concludes by noting that the 1934 clubwas ‘a young side with plenty of promisingmaterial and there is every reason that they will

continue to hold a prominent position in the localcricketing world.’ Well it might be stretching it tothing of their twenty-first century descendants as a‘young side’ but Haywood was correct inpredicting a prominent place for the team in localcompetitions.

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The planning of WymeswoldBob Trubshaw

Although it may seem odd, the name‘Wymeswold’ is many centuries older than thevillage itself. The place-name is usually thought toderive from ‘Wymund’s wald’, with the OldEnglish word wald meaning ‘high woodland’.Who Wymund was is lost in the proverbial mists,but he was likely to have been living around thesixth or early seventh century.1 ‘Wymund’s wald’originally referred not to a settlement but an areaof land – perhaps the whole extent of the eightparishes we now think of as the Wolds (i.e.Willoughby, Burton, Walton, Seagrave,Thrussington, Ragdale and Old Dalby) with thedifferent parishes becoming progressively definedso that, presumably before Domesday, somethingsimilar to the current parish boundaries were inplace.

Although seemingly Wymund gave his name to anarea of wald in the sixth century, people at thistime were living in dispersed farmsteads. On thebasis of archaeological evidence in southLeicestershire, these settlements were probablyspaced about one to two kilometres apart. Aboutthree hundred years later there was a radicalchange to what geographers call ‘nucleatedsettlements’ – in other words the typical Englishvillage, usually centred on the parish church.Without these villages we would not have muchof the ‘modern’ road system, so we have to thankthe Anglo-Saxons for giving England some of itsmost characteristic geographical and socialfeatures.

Earliest Wymeswold

Why go to all the effort to create villagesthroughout most of England? Historians are stillperplexed and there were probably variousfactors. Perhaps the best guess is that it wasassociated with the re-introduction of the so-called ‘heavy plough’, which required eightpowerful oxen to pull it (see Williamson 2003 fordetails). This radical social change probably tookplace in the eighth or ninth centuries, the heydayof the Mercian kingdom. Wymeswold wascertainly part of this revolution in agriculture and

the earliest phase of the nucleated village musthave clustered around the base of the mound onwhich St Mary’s church now sits.

Mercian England was Christian, although splendidparish churches were still a couple of hundred ofyears in the future. Instead priests were based atminsters, which looked after the spiritual needs ofan area equivalent to about sixty modern parishes.Instead of an impressive stone-built church,Wymeswold churchyard would have had a woodor stone ‘preaching cross’ and, maybe, a simplewooden church no bigger than the domestichouses.

Key to all life in the village was the reliable sourceof water which we know as the Stockwell – nowculverted over but still rising up near to the busshelter at the side of the churchyard. In medievaltimes this was probably thought of as a holy well.There is a twelfth century mention of a‘Wulstanwelle’ at Wymeswold, although how theeleventh century St Wulstan of Worcester came tobe linked with Wymeswold is unknown.Presumably the well was holy before thededication to Wulstan. The word ‘stockwell’ mostprobably referred originally to a stream (OldEnglish wella) crossed by a log (Old English stock)(see Cox 2004). Before culverting, such a simplebridge would have been desirable at the BrookStreet end of The Stockwell. After theReformation, when saints' wells were largelyforgotten, and as the sense of Modern English‘well’ changed to denoting a water source ratherthan a stream, then presumably the word‘Stockwell’ transferred from the bridged stream tothe well itself.

So Wymeswold had reliable pure water and astream – the River Mantle – to take waste wateraway. The soils in this part of the village are free-draining sands and gravels over a thin layer ofBlue Lias – all very ‘des-res’ for Anglo-Saxonhouse builders.

However a look at any reasonably large-scalemap of Wymeswold shows something much more

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striking than a ‘typical’ nucleated village. Many ofthe houses with their long thin gardens line upneatly – I think of them as like slices of toast in atoast rack. Academic historians call this ‘toft andcroft’ – the toft was the house and associated barn,and the croft was where vegetables were grownand a cow, pigs and poultry kept. There may havebeen a small area of orchard too in the croft.

This ‘toast rack’ of toft and croft is not the way thatsmall ninth century nucleated settlements wereplanned. But is the way that small ‘towns’ wereplanned from the tenth to thirteenth century. Yetthere was probably a village of some sort atWymeswold from around the ninth century – wellbefore the later planned town. Indeed, if we lookclosely at a map of Wymeswold, we can see thatChurch Street and The Stockwell do not fit neatlyinto the ‘toast rack’ – so these presumably are theoldest parts of the settlement.

Such planned towns were usually intended astrading places – York is a classic example, and

both Narborough and Market Harborough are lateexamples in Leicestershire. They wereintentionally set up by a landowner hoping tomake a fortune from taxes on the goods brought into trade. The homes would have mostly beenoccupied by tradespeople and craftsmen. Theseartisans would have bought most of their basicfood, apart from the ‘luxuries’ raised on their toft.

Four to three

We will never know who thought it would be agood idea to make Wymeswold into what, at thetime, would have been thought of as a new town.However there is some evidence that it happenedsoon after 1066. The reasoning goes like this: atthe time of the Domeday survey in 1086 therewere three lords of the manor but, the surveynotes, shortly before the Norman Conquest, therehad been four lordships.2 And, althoughWymeswold seems to have a ‘four-fold’ symmetryaround the churchyard, one of the quarters seemsnot have developed as the other three did.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Wymeswold in 2008. The original 'toft and croft' plan is still discernible, especially to the south ofBrook Street (bottom right of photograph).

1: The Stockwell and Church Street – the initial 'pre-planning' nucleated village?2: Manor Farm. 3: The other known manor site, Hall Field.

4: The site of a possible third manor at the bottom of Clay Street.5: Was there ever a fourth manor in the 'empty' north-east quadrant?

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The evidence is still to be seen as the sites of twoof the manors are known – one is still calledManor Farm (the Georgian house next to theCountry Pine workshop on Far Street) and anotherstood in Hall Field (on the south side of BrookStreet) until the eighteenth century. Intriguingly,both these manors are situated near the extremecorners of the planned village (ignore LondonLane as this was only fully developed in thetwentieth century). We know the manorial lordswere absent landowners so these manors wouldhave been occupied primarily by their ‘reeves’ orstewards. Could the manors have been sited as faraway as possible because the rival stewards didnot want to bump into each other too often whengoing about their business? Or were the manorslocated to give the stewards the best chance tokeep an eye on the workers going to and from thefields? Whatever, the placing of these two manorsis distinctive. So does this distinctive siting enablesome guesses as to where might the other twomanors have been?

Well the corresponding part of the south-westerncorner of the village is the kink at the bottom ofClay Street where the pharmacy now stands. Takeaway that kink and Clay Street points more or lessdirectly at Burton Lane. Was there a manor here? Ifso, perhaps it became disused before the HallField manor so, when brickmaking becamefashionable, the land was available for use as aclay pit and kiln – hence Clay Street and theparcel of land there known as ‘Kiln Close’ beforedevelopment. As the clay was dig out the pitwould need to expand sideways, forcing the roadto take a longer way round. There may be otherreasons for the ‘kink’ but this seems the mostprobable.

So where was the fourth manor? If the deductionabout a manor in the south-west is correct thenclearly the fourth one should have been in thenorth-east corner of the village. But take awayhouses built in the last two centuries or so and –well there’s nothing much there in the north-eastquadrant of Wymeswold. Even today this issomething of an ‘empty quarter’ as, althoughhouses on Brook Street continue well past TheCivic, when you walk up The Civic to the mainroad you are facing allotments and fields.

My best guess is that Wymeswold was plannedbefore the Norman Conquest, when there were

four lordships and hence a four-fold village plancentred around the already-historic village coreand the churchyard. One quarter remained almostempty, presumably when the number of lordshipsshrank to three after the Conquest. It may be thatthere never was a fourth manor house.

Wymeswold was not alone

We only have to look to an adjacent parish foranother example of a planned village set uparound a previously-nucleated core – Willoughbyon the Wolds. I have not looked at the history ofWilloughby in detail, but my first thoughts are thatthe planning of Willoughby is likely to becontemporary with the creation of Thorpe in theGlebe (which involved significant restructuring ofWilloughby and Wysall parish boundaries). Datesare purely speculative but tenth or early eleventhcentury seems most likely (Cameron and O’Brien1981) – the same timescale as for the planning ofWymeswold. Was one so successful that acompetitor could thrive in the next parish? Or wasthere an element of competitiveness betweenadjoining landowners? We will probably neverknow. But clearly the pre-Conquest period waskey to the planning of these two villages.

Furthermore, sometime during the tenth oreleventh centuries Walton on the Wolds was alsobeing ‘promoted’ as a market town (Clarke 2008)– although clearly the layout of the village hasnone of the toft and croft planning of Wymeswoldand Willougby. So did Walton’s role as a marketpredate the substantial development of the othertwo places, but then get ‘sidelined’ as the othertwo succeeded?

So many questions, so few clear answers. Not fornothing is this era known as the Dark Ages. Yet forall the obscurity, the ‘evidence’ of ninth toeleventh century changes is all around us as theycreated the English landscape of villages androads that has largely been sustained for over athousand years.

Notes

1. S.P. Potter in his History of Wymeswold(1913) suggested that Wymund was the son ofWichtlaf, the Duke of Wicco, who was married toAlfleda, daughter of Ceowulf, king of the Merciansuntil 883. Wymund died of dysentery and wasburied at Croyland Abbey, Lincolnshire. This is

21

based on information about Wymund given by themonastic scholar Ingulphus in about 870.However there was more than one Wymund(several people with that name enter the recordsin the twelfth to fifteenth centuries) soWymeswold may have been named after a personliving well before the ninth century, whenhistorical records are almost entirely absent.

Furthermore, Wymeswold does not necessarilyderive from Wymund’s wald but might be fromweoh munds wald i.e. the ‘wald of the weoh(pagan shrine) mounds’, conceivably referring tonow-lost mounds at or near to Six Hills (known tobe a hearg or ‘harrow’ – another Old English termfor a pagan ritual site). The Old English wordweoh also gives Wysall, the next village to thenorth of Wymeswold, and other place-namessuch as Wyfordby (the settlement at the ford witha pagan shrine) to the east of Melton Mowbray.Weoh munds wald is clearly contemporary withthe time when the area was likely to have beenheavily wooded and fits in well with mysuggestion that all eight parishes of the Woldswere once known as ‘Wymeswold’, as theeponymous mounds would have been at thecentre.

2. The Domesday Book states that in 1086Wymeswold was divided into four parts. The chieflandholder was Hugh de Grantemesnil. DurantMalet and Roger de Busli also held land, while theland of the king’s servants was held under Robertde Jorz.

References

Cameron, Alan and Colm O'Brien, 1981, 'Thedeserted medieval village of Thorpe-in-the-Glebe,Nottinghamshire', Transactions of the ThorotonSociety of Nottinghamshire, p56–67.

Clarke, Richard, 2008, ‘Medieval market towns ofLeicestershire and Rutland’, lecture at MedievalLeicestershire conference, 5 and 6 April, CountyHall, Glenfield.

Cox, Barrie, 2004, The Place-Names ofLeicestershire: Part 3: East Goscote Hundred,English Place-Name Society.

Williamson, Tom, 2003, Shaping medievallandscapes: settlement, society, environment,Windgather Press.

George Kendall was born in Hoton in 1811. Hewas the son of George Kendall, a Hotonframework knitter, and Sarah Fell of Bulwell. Hestarted work at the age of five, probably windingthe yarn for his father, and moved to Sutton inAshfield in Nottinghamshire when he was ayoung man. Like most of his neighbours there, heworked on a stocking frame; in 1850 Sutton had1,800 stocking frames. Life was grim, and “aspoor as a stockinger” was a common saying.Hosiers controlled the work and rented out theframes, and the knitters had to rely on middle-men – “putters out”, “bagmen” and “undertakers”– to provide the yarn and collect the finishedproduct. They had to accept the rates offered,however low, and frame rents always had to bepaid even though there was no guarantee ofwages.

George Kendall became the champion of theSutton knitters. He pursued a relentless campaignto rid the industry of the despised truck systemwhereby the workers were paid in goods or intokens, he was secretary of the local frameworkknitters’ trade society and helped to set up TheHosiery Board of Arbitration. He was an activesupporter of the 1870 Education Act, using hisinfluence to get fees waived for poorer familiesand encouraging parents to keep their children inschool.

George married twice and had two sons and twodaughters. He died at Sutton in 1886 and wasburied at St Mary’s Church. He was a true son ofHoton. His yeoman ancestors were living inHoton prior to 1600 and at one time owned thelargest house in the village.

George Kendall of Hoton:

Chartist and trade unionist

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of more recent topsoil. These layers overlay oldersoils and can quite easily ‘mask’ archaeologicalfeatures and artefacts. In one trench a pitcontaining traces of charcoal and a single sherd oftwelfth century pottery was discovered beneaththe top soil and colluvium layers, confirming thatthe colluvium had developed since the twelfthcentury. As the foundations of the new houses donot cut below the colluvium it may be thatundisturbed archaeological evidence still survivesunderneath the buildings and gardens along thesouthern part of the development.

The archaeologists noted that the western side ofWysall Lane in the vicinity of the developmentwas marked by a substantial ditch and bank,surmounted by a hedge (subsequently partiallyremoved as part of the development). There is nosimilar bank and ditch on the eastern side,suggesting that at some time lane was widenedand shifted to the east. Prior to this widening thelane would have been quite a deep ‘hollow way’,as might be expected to develop where livestockand horse-drawn vehicles make their way up afairly steep slope over rather soft soils.

As with Manor Gardens, developed in 2003 to theeast of Wymeswold, these pre-developmentarchaeological evaluations do not reveal anythingexciting about the history of the village, althoughthey confirm that there has never been anysettlement there previously.

Bob Trubshaw

Before George Wimpey East Midlands Ltd beganwork on the houses either side of Wysall Lane,Wymeswold, an archaeological evaluation wascarried out by members of University of LeicesterArchaeological Services (ULAS) in the summer of2006. This article is based on a report prepared byGerwyn Richards of ULAS.

Before development the land still showedevidence of ridge and furrow, the tell-taleevidence of medieval ploughing for arable crops.Two filled-in old ponds were discovered (one tothe extreme north-east of the development andone near the south-west corner) and these suggestthat livestock were kept here, at least during someof the time after the land stopped being ploughed.The ponds are shown on the 1900 OrdnanceSurvey 1:25,000 map and may date back to theseventeenth century enclosure or even earlier.

Although a total of eighteen trenches were dug(with a total area of about 1,020 square metres),finds were minimal and comprised of a fewfragments of twelfth century pottery (mostly madeat Potters Marsden, where the majority of potteryof this age found in Leicestershire wasmanufactured). This near-absence of finds ishardly surprising as the land would almostcertainly have never been built on previously.

Interestingly, the soil in the southern-most parts ofthe development is ‘colluvium’, which is soilwashed down the slope by rain. The deepestlayers of colluvium were 500 to 600 mm thick,and were themselves overlain by 200 to 300mm

Wysall Lane, Wymeswold

The Wimpey development to thewest of Wysall Lane photographedearly June 2008. Note that the vista isaligned to the tower of St Mary'schurch.

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The Packe Arms at Hoton

This photograph of the Packe Arms was loaned tothe WHO by Bob Terry of Bingham. His coveringletter states:

The picture shows my grandfatherMr George Terry of West Bridgford on aSunday out with two friends to the left ofthe picture. He was the manager ofBurroughs Adding Machines in theMeadows area and [the] two friendsworked with him.

The photograph was probably taken in the late1920s. Note the 'PRHA' sign – this shows the pubwas affiliated to the Peoples Refreshment HouseAssociation.

The Burroughs Adding and Registering Companywas founded in America. The Nottinghamsubsidiary was founded in 1895 and beganmanufacturing there in 1898. It later changed itsname to Burroughs Adding Machine Company.

Feedback on 'The Airfield in our Midst' in The Wolds Historian 2006

Edward Packe-Drury-Lowe questioned the statementfrom Geoff Wilkes’ book that he took aircrews to usethe swimming pool at Prestwold and thought it morelikely that they used the pool at Stanford. This is quitepossible, Mr Wilkes confused Wymeswold and Burtonwhen talking about The Greyhound – with no signpostsit was difficult to know exactly where you were. MrPacke-Drury-Lowe also told us that there had beenoccasional flying of commercial aircraft since 1995,the year we gave for the last flights, and he confirmedthat the airfield land is of poor quality. He wages aconstant battle with drainage and with cables andlumps of concrete.

Colin Betts from Burton confirmed a story we hadheard before. He said his old boss was stationed atWymeswold and that social trips to Castle Doningtonwere made by plane.

John Bantick, one of our members, recalled aconversation with Joe Fellows who lived at the cornerof Wymeswold Lane in Burton. Because the lane wasso narrow and there was no footway it was consideredhazardous for the men walking back to camp,particularly at night. The Council requisitioned a pieceof Mr Fellows’ garden (an unnecessarily large piece inhis opinion) and constructed a path to the West of hishedge – there is still a hedge ‘twixt pavement and roadat the Burton end of Wymeswold Lane.

Though not strictly related to the airfield, Mr Kowalskiof Loughborough told us about a Polish pilot whosemother lived at Burton and who used to fly low over thevillage until she complained that he was frightening herhens.

Your comments are always welcome – the editors.

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The Greyhound Inn was once part of the BurtonHall Estate. It was probably named during the timeJohn Noon was at the Hall (1788–1811). John wasan enthusiastic breeder of greyhounds.

The earliest known landlord was Joseph Brown.Joseph didn’t obtain his first licence to sell aleuntil 1812 but he could have been running theGreyhound for some years by then. He may havebeen forced into making formal applicationbecause Charles Godfrey Mundy, the new ownerof the Estate, was a magistrate and noted upholderof the law.

Anthony Hart, who was landlord of theGreyhound from 1841 to 1854 supported his wifeand three children from farming 180 acres of landplus and what he made from the inn. He kept twoservants and employed a labourer.

Richard Davis Grundy obtained the licence in1861 but only stayed for a couple of years. He wasa farm labourer from Stanley in Derbyshire, andthere is no evidence that he had any experience ofthe licensed trade at all, but he shared thepremises with his brother, James, who had been apublican in Loughborough. It seems probable thatJames was really the landlord but for some reasoncould not get a licence. After their short time inBurton, Richard returned to the land and Jamestook an inn at Smalley.

The Tuckwood family kept the Greyhound forwell over thirty years. William Tuckwood Snrcame some time before 1871, when he wasalready in his sixties with grown-upgrandchildren. He died in 1877 and his wife heldthe licence for a few years before handing over totheir son, also William, who remained there until1904. (There is a family story that John, son of theyounger William Tuckwood, refused to allow thebody of his favourite horse to be taken to theknacker’s yard, and with the help of friends,

against his father’s wishes, he buried it in thegarden.)

The landlords that followed William Tuckwoodwere Samuel Stenson, John Thomas Toon,Leonard Charles Potter, William Edward Kirbyand John Wilkinson who were all tenants of theDuke of Somerset, but in 1922 the Duke sold theGreyhound to Samuel Ernest Ward who had justretired from the busy "Trip to Jerusalem" inNottingham (the Wards had long held the licenceof the "Trip to Jerusalem" and it is said that theghost of Samuel's father still haunts the cellarcaves).

Mr Ward sold it on to Shipstones, the Nottinghambrewers in 1941, though the Ward family retainedthe licence until 1945. It now belongs to theEverard chain of licensed houses.

During World War II it was a popular rendezvousfor the men and women from RAF Wymeswoldand affectionately known as “The Dog”.

It remained a small village pub catering mainly forlocal people – though attracting a few walkers andcyclists and the occasional coach outing – untilthe 1980s, when it was extended and modernised,and became the smart eating place we knowtoday.

On the following pages are pictures of theGreyhound from the time of Samuel Ward to the1980s.

The previous (2006) edition of The WoldsHistorian included two photographs taken in thesummer of 1945, one showing a group of servicemen and women from the airfield with theirchaplain, the other a group of officers with RalphWard, the landlord, and his wife and staff.Overleaf is another photograph from the samecollection, probably taken on the same occasion.Were these the cars belonging to the officers? Wenote that some of them still have light deflectorson their headlamps.

The Greyhound Inn at Burton on the Wolds

Joan and Peter Shaw

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Opposite top and centre:Landlord Samuel Ward and hisdog in front of the Greyhound

Inn circa 1930. The GreyhoundInn kept by Joseph Brown in

1812 may not have been verydifferent though when viewedwithout the rendering does it

perhaps look as if that top floorcould have been a later

addition?

Top right:Probably taken summer 1945.The sign on the front still says

the inn is a 'free house' althoughby this time it had belonged to

Shipstones for four years.

Bottom right:An aerial photograph taken

around 1980. A fairly large carpark has been constructed but

modernisation of the inn itself isstill in the future.

Centre right:Taken on a snowy day in the

1970s.

Opposite bottom:From a series of postcardspublished in the 1960s.

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'Well leaped, Lumley!'

Cotes has a wealth of stories to tell, though theone related below is not so well known as some ofthe others. It was published in John Nichols’History and Antiquities of Leicestershire.

At Cotes Bridge, near Loughborough, inLeicestershire, some boys were leaping offthe bridge. Amongst the rest was oneLumley, upon whose performance all theboys cried out ‘Well leaped, Lumley!’ At thesame time a gentleman riding by, whosename was Lumley, called for the boy, askedhim diligently about his name, made himspell it and write it, when he found it wasthe very same with his own. He took himhome, bred him up carefully, made him hisheir; and from him comes the present familyof the lord Lumley, made noble by KingCharles II in 1681, and earl of Scarboroughby King William III 1690.

The notes at the foot of John Nichols’ page do notsay when the above event is supposed to havetaken place. He quotes a Mr Cross ofLoughborough who said it ‘was a tradition in thattown’, and there follows a brief account of theLumley family:

The ancient barony of Lumley hadbecome extinct in 1609, and was revived(1723) in Richard lord viscount Lumley,father of Richard earl of Scarborough;which Richard was chief heir-male of thefamily after the decease of John lordLumley 1609, and inherited the greatestpart of the estate of his ancestors by deed

of settlement, and the last will andtestament of the said lord Lumley. He wascreated Baron Lumley 1681.

(The date given by Nichols for the revival of thebarony is wrong and should probably be 1623.)

According to Burke’s Peerage, the only break inthe direct line came in 1609, when John, the 7th

Lord Lumley, died, leaving no children. (JohnLumley was one of the peers who sat in judgementof Mary Queen of Scots and the Earl of Essex.) Hisestates devolved upon his kinsman, Richard,grandson of the 5th Lord Lumley, who was madeViscount Lumley of Waterford in 1628.

The Lumley family seat was in County Durham.Richard, Viscount Lumley, supported the Kingduring the Civil Wars, made Lumley Castle agarrison, and was one of Prince Rupert’s principalcommanders at the Siege of Bristol. He wassucceeded by his grandson who had a chiefcommand at the Battle of Sedgemoor, held severalroyal and national appointments, and was madeEarl of Scarborough in 1690.

The family went on to spawn several moredistinguished sons, and it would be good to thinkthat Cotes did play a part in its history. Doubtlessthe Nichols tale has some substance, but if theleaping boy really was the grandson of the 5th LordLumley he was probably only visiting or passingthrough and we are unlikely to find localinformation that would give the tale credibility.

Cotes bridge in the late eighteenth century fromJohn Nichols' History and Antiquities.

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