(The Goodes family first came to the notice of the History Society via an email from David Foxley, the great great grandson of David Goodes. It is mainly with the information that he provided that we have been able to write this article and we are very grateful for his help. We also thank Mr Foxley for allowing us to use the images included in this article).

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David Goodes was the founding father of the Goodes family of Wistow. He moved here sometime between 1851 and 1861 and remained in Wistow, probably in the same house, until his death in 1907. He was a boot and shoemaker, living in Mill Road with his wife, Sarah, and their large family.

Using census information we can track David Goodes movements until he arrived in Wistow in time for the 1861 census. David was born in Ellington near Grafham Water in 1826. His father John Goodes died in early 1841 when David was just fifteen years old and the 1841 census shows David living in Rectory Lane, Ellington with Mary, his widowed mother, two sisters, Elizabeth and Mary, and a brother named Thomas.

Following the death of David’s father, Mary Goodes married William Smith, a farm bailiff also born in Ellington. In the 1851 census David’s sister Elizabeth was a milliner and dressmaker in Sawtry and his brother Thomas was a cordwainer (another word for leather shoe maker) living at the Dolphin Inn, High Street, St Mary’s, Huntingdon. Later that year he married Selina Webb, the daughter of the publican of the Dolphin, and six months later their first child Thomas, was born. They emigrated to Canada, somewhere near Niagara Falls, before the 1861 census and were married for sixty five years raising six children. We lose sight of David’s other sister Mary after the 1841 census.

In 1851, ten years after his father’s death, David was married and living in Sawtry with his wife, Sarah (nee Taylor, born in 1829), and her parents, both of whom were described as school teachers. Another ten years pass and the 1861 census shows us that he is living in Mill Road, Wistow and there he stayed because in the 1881 census his widowed mother in law, Ann Taylor, was living in Wistow with David and Sarah. David’s last appearance was in the 1901 census, just a few years before he died. Sadly his wife, Sarah, had died much earlier in 1886. Her grave can be seen in the churchyard but it is quite worn and much of the inscription has fallen off so it is not possible to know for certain if David is buried with her.

Sarah Goodes’ gravestone with her great great grandson, David Foxley, holding up the fallen inscription

As mentioned earlier, David and Sarah had a large family, which was not uncommon in Victorian times. They had nine children and gave them some fairly unusual names. There was Virtue, Zeno Thomas, Enos Original, Ambrose, David Horatio, Rosina, Selina, Mary Elizabeth and Elizabeth A.

All of the daughters eventually moved away from Wistow, although Rosina lived here well into the twentieth century. Virtue moved to London, as did Mary Elizabeth. Selina became the second wife of William Brown, a widower twenty five years her senior, who worked in the shoe trade in Raunds near Wellingborough. It is likely she met him through connections with her father David, who was also a shoemaker. Elizabeth Ann went to work in London and married a gardener from Oxfordshire called John White. They had three daughters, Hilda, Mabel and Lilian, who lived their entire lives in a block of cottages on the Great North Road in Finchley. Hilda White married a Jack Gray, and one of the others married a fellow also called Brown.

We don’t know why but at the time of the 1861 census one of David and Sarah’s daughters, Mary Elizabeth, was being raised in Wistow by her grandmother, Mary Smith and in 1878, when Mary Elizabeth was about 23 years old, she gave birth to a daughter Ethel ‘out of wedlock’. It seems that Ethel was living with her grandparents David and Sarah Goodes at the 1881 census. Then in 1885 Mary married George Middleton, a scaffolder from Stepney and they went to live in Finchley with Ethel being listed as George’s stepdaughter. Ethel married a Charles Seares in London and they had three daughters named Muriel, Constance and Lillian.

Ethel’s daughters

Of David’s sons, Ambrose was listed as an unemployed carpenter in Wistow in 1881 but he eventually moved to live with his sister Mary Elizabeth and her husband George in Finchley, where he was employed as a gardener. David Horatio went to Doddington and became a postman until his death in 1907, which incidentally is the same year as his father died. Enos Original was still living in Wistow in 1901, but is missing from the census in 1911. He may have lived a long life somewhere else because there is no death record for him before 1938, which is as far as available records go at present. Zeno Thomas was the last male member of the family known to be living in Wistow.

David Horatio had a son Dennis who, like his great uncle Thomas, emigrated to Canada in April 1912 on the Laurentic, a sister ship to the Titanic, which was involved in the search for wreckage and bodies. Dennis served in the Canadian army in WW1 and emigrated to the USA in 1923. At the time he was described as a gardener. In 1933 when he applied for US citizenship, he was recorded as being in the seed business. He must have been fairly successful as he made three return trips to Europe in 1936, 1949 and 1957.

We return to the remaining Wistow residents. Rosina didn’t live in Wistow continuously. She had a break when she left to work as a domestic servant in Enfield in the household of Mrs Kircaldie, the wife of a Colonial Broker. She returned when she became the second wife of William Gifford, a draper and grocer who lived and ran his business from the house now known as The Old Post Office in Bridge Street. William’s first wife was called either Ann Burrows or Ann Goodman (it has not been possible to separate the names in the records). Ann died in 1884 and William married Rosina in Barnet, near Enfield, in 1886. They had two daughters, Rose and Lilian. William Gifford was the grandson of Thomas Meadows, a long standing resident of Wistow, farmer and in 1832 the owner of the William IV public house in Bridge Street. William makes his first appearance in relation to Wistow in the 1851 census aged nine when he and his brother, Thomas aged seven, were recorded during a visit to their grandfather. He moves to Bridge Street prior to the 1871 census and stays there until his death in 1911.

It seems that William Gifford’s property did not automatically go to his widow, Rosina. A conveyance document dated 14/11/1914 found in the deeds of Bridge House, formerly The Oddfellows Arms, states the following:

Conveyance of property from John James Bryant (Draper of St Ives) and Arthur Cope (Farmer from Wistow) executors of William Gifford’s (shopkeeper) will to Rose Gifford (widow) for £290. The property was Dwelling house and shop with outbuildings and appurtenances in Bridge Street then in the occupation of R Gifford.

Also the Messuage of Tenement adjoining formerly used as a Public House and known as the Oddfellows Arms with the outbuildings and appurtenances then in occupation of Zeno Goodes.

Bridge House on the left and part of The Old Post Office

Rosina continued to run the drapers shop in Bridge Street and is remembered by both Harold Lindsell and Peggy Glover (see their Memories articles also in Wistowpedia). Rosina Gifford nee Goodes died on 24^th January 1944, Probate was granted to Lilian and Rose Gifford on 16^th March 1944 and on the 27^th Assent in favour of Lilian and Rose was given. Then on Christmas Day that same year Lilian died leaving just Rose. David Foxley has told us that he never met Lilian Gifford, but “Aunt” Rose, who would have been his third cousin, lived close to his family in Peterborough when he was a youngster and visited regularly. She was a very accomplished pianist and organist, who played in several churches and chapels around Peterborough. At the time of the 1901 census Rose was a boarder in at a school in St Ives that seemed to specialise in the teaching of English and Music. Although talented enough to do so, Rose did not teach music but worked instead as a lady’s companion and she died just before Christmas 1962, at the start of that terrible winter.

Rose Gifford, daughter of William Gifford and Rosina Goodes

(Taken by a St Ives photographer, possibly while she was in school there)

We return to Zeno Thomas, Rosina’s brother, and the last person with the name Goodes known to have been living in Wistow. Zeno (often wrongly transcribed as Leno) Thomas Goodes was listed in several censuses (1891, 1901 and 1911) as a publican and pig dealer, living either in Mill Street or Church Street. He was born in 1857 and married Frances Rebecca Crawley, who was born in 1858 and died of kidney cancer in 1906. They had two daughters, Sarah Ann and another Rosina.

Rosina, David Foxley’s grandmother, moved first to Ramsey on her marriage to George William Rowell in Wistow Church on 21^st July 1909, and then to Peterborough. So far as he can recall, his mother said that Zeno only once came to visit them in Ramsey, and she never mentioned seeing him again. Sarah Ann, always known as Annie, went to live in London with her aunt Virtue sometime before the 1901 census and returned to Wistow when her mother died in 1906. It is not known how long she stayed in Wistow, but she moved to Lancashire (alone) to work in the hosiery trade before Zeno’s death in 1937. It appears that Zeno did not get on very well with his immediate family and David Foxley suspects that Annie did not stay looking after her apparently disagreeable father for very long.

Rosina Goodes, Zeno’s daughter, taken in the family home before her marriage in 1909

Rosina Goodes and her grandson David Foxley

Sarah Ann (Annie) Goodes

Annie Goodes and Edie Hayes (Virtue’s daughter)

Zeno was described as a publican in Rosina and William Rowell’s marriage certificate. The Kelly’s directory of 1903 records a Thomas Goodes at the Plough Inn. This is certainly Zeno Thomas Goodes and he was obviously a publican at the Plough Inn for quite a few years, at the very least between 1903 and 1909.

The Plough Inn

Here’s what the census’ say of Zeno Thomas:

1861 Zeno is three years old

1891 Goodes family in Church Street

Leno T (agricultural labourer) 33; Frances (wife) 33; Sarah A (daughter, scholar) 9;

Rosina (daughter, scholar) 7

1901 Goodes Family in Church Street

Zeno (Pig Dealer/cattle w) 44; Francis (wife) 44; William Crawley (lodger, agricultural labourer/herdsman) 28

1911 Goodes Family

Zeno Thomas, widower 54, dealer pigs, from Wistow, Hunts; Sarah Ann, daughter 27, single from Barham Hants; Arthur Crawley 37, single, boarder, farm labourer from Leighton Hunts

(William and Arthur Crawley are probably related to Frances in some way. Arthur seems to be her nephew as her brother Charles Crawley had a son called Arthur).

We know from the earlier conveyance document that by 1914 Zeno Goodes was living next door to his sister, Rosina Gifford, in the property she owned next to her shop in Bridge Street. At that time it was referred to as the cottage formerly known as The Oddfellows Arms and today is called Bridge House. The Oddfellows Arms had erstwhile been used as a beer house or pub, certainly in the 1861 census it was a beer house run by a widow called Eliza Wilkinson. In 1871 Thomas Peach was described as a publican at the Oddfellows Arms and by 1881 George Harding was the publican. By 1891 the house had ceased to be used as a beer house because the Hardings still lived in the cottage but were no longer described as publicans.

David Foxley, Zeno’s great grandson, tells us that Zeno Goodes died on Aug 19th 1937 in Eaton Socon at a place called White House, even though he was listed as living at Bridge Street, Wistow and described as a cattle dealer. He was puzzled by this because, although Eaton Socon is not too far from Wistow, he could not think of a connection that Zeno might have there. On further investigation he discovered that White House is listed as the current name of what was previously the St Neots Union workhouse. Many workhouse buildings were “rebranded” as old people’s homes, so we can only assume that Zeno was unable to look after himself and was taken into care before his death.

This glimpse into one family’s history gives us an insight into some aspects of Victorian life.

People were willing to move in order to find work with London being the same magnet that it is today. Some were adventurous enough to take the plunge and emigrate to Canada like David’s brother Thomas and his grandson, Dennis. David Goodes travelled the short distance from Sawtry to Wistow; some of his children moved a bit further to places such as Doddington, Barnet and London and his granddaughter Sarah Ann was brave enough to move on her own to Lancashire to seek employment.

On the whole people lived where they worked and David Goodes was able to make a living as a shoemaker in a small rural village such as Wistow. Also people would turn their hands to anything in order to make a crust and remain in the village. For example Zeno Goodes was at times both a publican and a pig dealer.

Family bonds were important and kept families together wherever they lived. The stigma of illegitimacy did not stop Mary Goodes’ grandmother and parents from supporting her and her child. We know too that Ambrose lived in Finchley with his sister Mary Elizabeth; Sarah Ann lived in London with her Aunt Virtue and the Crawleys boarded with their aunt Frances, Zeno’s wife. Also the bonds were strong enough to pull people back to Wistow. The older Rosina Goodes returned to marry William Gifford and Sarah Ann came back to live with her father, Zeno, after her mother died. Although the younger Rosina Goodes didn’t see her father often after she married, despite only living in Ramsey then Peterborough, she still maintained contact with her cousin Rose Gifford and the ties lasted two generations down to her grandson, David, who knew his “Aunt Rose” until she died in 1962.

We hope you have enjoyed this look into the lives of some previous Wistow residents.

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Althea Walker

June 2010

Remembers her and her sister going to see the Soldiers in the 2nd World War where the searchlight was near where the Allotments are now.
Was born in the village 85 years ago (Flo Bish), lived as a child in Bridge Street (near where old shop was) in a cottage (now demolished)
Belonged to the Girl Guides in Wistow
Went to the village School till she was 12, then had to walk to Warboys School till she left at 14 years old.
Remembers teachers of Olive Howes (Polly) and Alice Harding
Her dad worked for the Council, and was a road sweeper/ maintenance man.  He was also a Sergeant Major in the 1st World War, and did the drill every year for Remembrance Day outside the Wistow Church.
Her husband Arthur Moulds also lived in Bridge Street, in a cottage opposite her family.
He worked for Johnny Bance as a farm labourer
She remembers the Village Dances on the Promenade Field (Miss De La Pryme’s land) at the end of Oaklands Close, and the dances in the Dance Hall behind Porch House
Nip Peacocks dad was the village special constable
Shenny Garton was Arthur Moulds Auntie
The Bridgeford family lived at the end of Oaklands Close
The Buddles Family kept the Plough Pub
Before her time, was a pub by the Wistow Toll, where the Gartons lived
Ted Clark did the Undertakers business and the Blacksmiths was next to the Fleur De Lys pub
The Foster family ran a farm down Church Street, Ralph Greenwood was another farmer locally
She remembers the Harding family running the 3 Horseshoes Pub
Mrs Saunders in the photo got from Mr Howes lived in Bridge Street
She also remembers the Mill House bakehouse
Fluffy Burton lived with his mother in a cottage in Bridge Street, and Flo and her sisters used to play with him sometimes

by David Titmarsh

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Joe Howes (son of Olive Howes nee Hales)

Aunt Lizzie (Polly) was the Wistow School Teacher for many years.
Polly lived on land opposite Juggins Farm in a bungalow no longer there.
Harry Woolley ran the school from 1913 onwards, which was church run.
The Howes family ran the Three Horseshoes pub from 1912.

The Three Horseshoes landlords were as follows;-
Howes family
Closed as a pub but occupied by a man called Adams
Reopened by Frank Harding (nicknamed ‘Pop’)
Bomber Wells
Mrs Rose
Mr Lilley (ex policeman)
Reg Stanton
Rolph Turner
John and Eileen Cooper
now Julia and Gerry

Joe Howes was born at 10 Oaklands Avenue in 1928, then lived at Upwood for a short while.
The Wistow Feast was on the weekend of 20th June for about 3 days.
They had a Wistow Cricket Match all week as well then, playing a different team every day.
There was an Open Air Prom dance on Miss De La Pryme’s lawn.
Ramsey Town Band played on these occasions as well.
The Church was full every Sunday back then.
There used to be a walk from Moss Lawn to Blackhurst Farm.
Joe went to the school in the village.  Children could then either go to the Grammar School or Warboys.
The Assistant Teacher was Alice Whitehead.
There was a cobblers business run outside the Three Horseshoes pub.
A name from the village that Joe remembers was Mr James Swiffen who died on 20/7/1917.
There were May Pole dances on Miss De La Pryme’s lawn as well.
The Aggar family sold milk from a three wheeled trolley in the village.
Olive Howes helped to deliver the bread from the bakers in Mill Road.  She even went to Kings Ripton on foot.
She found the Reverend Noble in the ditch one night, drunk, on the way back from Kings Ripton.
There were twelve Hales children, all survived, four children went to live in New Zealand.
Bert and Fred Hales lived in Manor Street.
The family had an unexploded bomb they used as a doorstop for many years -  they weren’t aware it was unexploded!!
Names from the village were the Fosters (farmers), Dorringtons (farmers- lived in Ted Benson’s house, Mill Road), Miss Saunders and her dog, Mr Cook (lived in the Juggins house – he was the old miller, and had a big dovehouse in the front garden.)
The Brook used to be a lot deeper than it is now and could take small boats.

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David Titmarsh

Interview 2009

Harold (Jack) Lindsell – Harris Lane (in his 80′s)

At 12 yrs old he used to walk to Warboys for school.

Came to live in village at 4 yrs old from Warboys.

In Church Road, by the Bance’s land, was a place that mended horse’s harnesses.

Rev Pratt lived in Rectory.

Where Phone Box is now, used to have a Coconut Shy during Wistow Feast time and the Ramsey Band played there as well.

They used to regularly do a Xmas party for the children in the school.

Mrs Murrell and her son ran the Old Shop (the Shielings)- they did newspapers and was also the Post Office.

The Giffords ran the other shop which did womens clothes, but not food.

There used to be a row of cottages facing the old school.

There was also wooden air raid shelters in many of the gardens.

The Fosters, Dorringtons and Moss’s were the local farmers.

Used to have a May Pole during the Wistow feast as well.

There used to be a Bowling Green and an orchard down Church Road.

For the Coronation, they had a kids party by the old bowling green.

There was a beuatiful hand-drawn hearse in the Fleur de Lys, which was the funeral directors.

The Fleur de Lys landlord did the bell ringing as well.

The Gartons lived up the hill past the Bridge, which was an old Brickyard.

Harold’s dad was the old Blacksmith in the village, who worked from the Fleur de Lys.

In 1956 he remembers the Windmill being there, but not working then.

Oaklands Avenue near Harris Lane end was mostly blackberry bushes and grass, no houses at all.

In the Mill House lived Mr Bell, who ran a taxi business and was the local postman.

Rooks Grove Farm used to be called Lime Tree Cottage.

Ann Juggins is believed to have an old map of the village in her hall

Harold’s dad used to wind the clock in the church.

Toll Bar House used to be on the right by the Toll, which was the only house on that side of the road.

The Bus only came into the village on Saturdays.

For many years, most of Bridge Street was flooded.

Harold used to be the gravedigger in the village.

In the alley way half way down Mill Road, used to be barn, where a man hanged himself. (He might have been a Sansum).

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David Titmarsh

Interview 2009

Peggy Glover (nee Coles)- Kingston Way (about 75-80 years old)

Remembers a water pump near Fleur De Lys and by the Old School.

There was a Blacksmith in the Fleur De Lys, who came daily from Wennington village.

Also in Fleur De Lys, was the undertakers business, lovely hearse used to be parked there.

Charlie Buddles parents ran the Plough Pub.

The Sheilings was the local Shop and Petrol Pump and Post Office, which sold everything.

The other shop that closed only few years back, used to be run by Mrs Gifford, sold only certain items.

No electric in village till 1951/52.

Mr Harrison the vicar lived in the Rectory on his own.

Nick Peacocks dad was the local Special Constable.

John Green’s house by back of old Plough pub was the site of the local bowling green, which proved very popular.

There was a Wistow Football team for men in the village.

Had a Street Party for the Queens Coronation in 1952.

The Village Hall used to be the Chapel, which had Lantern Shows on there when Peggy a girl.

Peggy used to live in some cottages on land which is now the 3 Horseshoes Pub Car Park.

The Gartons used to live in a house on the left past the Bridge half way up the hill to the Toll.

Bridge Street often got flooded completely.

Opposite the Allotment Field, there used to be searchlight in the 2^nd world war manned by soldiers.

Lots of evacuees in the village in the war, many stayed in the Fleur De Lys.

Girl Guides and Boy Scouts groups used to meet in the Village hall.

The young men of the village used to congregate outside the Plough Pub on the corner.

Mrs Buddle used to arrange several coach trips from the village, men went to Ascot annually, and there was a ladies club outing as well.

Peggy’s husband, Mr Glover used to volunteer to cut the grass in the churchyard.

Kit Garton lived in Vine Cottages on the left going towards the Bance’s farmhouse.

There is a small photo which the History Society has in its possession, which was of the May Day celebrations held every year in Miss De La Pryme’s place (called the Lodge)

On the 19th June or so annually, was held the Wistow feast, on Mrs Foster’s lawn (property called the Tellings). A fair was also held there.

There was also a Promenade dance held every year, which stopped in the 1950′s.

There was a Dance Hall on the land at the back of Porch House, the RAF men went as well during the war, Panto’s were also held there.

During the war, bombs landed at the end of Harris Lane.

Used to be a proper track leading to Upwood via Kingsland Farm

Win Robson did the costumes for the Panto’s, lived in a cottage in Manor Street.

Old family names, Gartons, Buddles, Litchfields, Coles (the Coles lived in the village for three generations), Abrahams, Sansums, Elmores, Lindsells, Peacocks, Bishs, Moulds and Burtons.

The Fosters family were large landowners in the village.

Dorringtons lived in large farmhouse on Bance’s old farmhouse land, which got burnt down.

Sansums lived in Old Schoolhouse, had one room as a school with a curtain across it, to separate younger and older children.

School closed in 1945 roughly.

Miss Geeson and Mrs Howes were two teachers.

Used to be dairy at Porch House, they used to deliver milk etc. daily on a bike.

Opposite Porch House was a bakery, Bertie Hales brought bread round to the village people.

Windmill was outside the village on the left on way to Kings Ripton before dip (called Huntingdon Road)

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David Titmarsh

Interview 2009

From Patsy Coles  Deeds of Porch House, Manor Street, Wistow

The oldest papers come from 1786, when the property was simply known as ‘the land almost nearly opposite the Manor House in Wistow.’

List of documents found:-

1786- Stanhope Pedley (lord of the manor) passed it to John Green.

1787- It was leased to Moses Joy, the local blacksmith, who worked for Daniel Bohagg.

1800- Moses Joy passed it to Thomas Robinson, with William Fisher as Trustee.

1808- Sir Walter Stirling and Richard Wallis passed it to William Dring and Henry Sweeting the younger (?may have been a trustee)

1816- John Dring passed it to Edward Johnson, who were workers for John Sherman and John Williams (John Dring marked the document with a ‘x’ – ? illiterate)

1834- Henry Foley was now lord of the manor, with Edward Western as Deputy Steward and James Western as Chief Steward.

The property was divided into several dwellings occupied by Edward Road, William Fletcher, Joseph Smeddows, John Jackson, Thomas Cooper-Nettleton and Faithful Chapman (a man) of Wistow (Innkeeper of the Plough Inn, Wistow)

1846- Henry Foley was Lord of the Manor of the Plough Inn, with Edward Western as Deputy Steward and James Western as Chief Steward. The tenants now were Joseph Smeadows, William Shepperson (carpenter), William Moulds, Jonas Samworth, Thomas Cooper-Nettleton, and John Macer.

1874- The road was now known as Manor House Street. John Thomas Shepperson (carpenter) passed it to Edward Fellowes. Frederick Robert Serjeant was Deputy Steward. Both William Henry Fellowes and Mr Fisher William Macer were reported as deceased.

1891- Edward Western now listed as Steward, and Elizabeth August Foley was Lady of the Manor. Elizabeth Shepperson (widow of William Shepperson) and formerly Elizabeth Mary Day mentioned, with tenants of Jackson Buddle, William Turnill, George Turnill and George Phillips.

Another document in 1891, talks of an Award of Enfranchisement (under the Copyhold Act of 1852), where John Thomas Shepperson got some Compensation Money.

1892- Elizabeth Shepperson was allowed to live in the property, until she died in 1896. Edward Foreman, a builder from London, bought the now four tenements, he was the nephew of Mrs Shepperson.

1899- Albert Gibson was Steward of the Manor now.

1906- Edward Foreman deceased, executors were William Arthur Foreman and Edward James Knowles Foreman of Great Raveley. Also mentioned in document were John and Mary Ann Harrity. Road still called Manor House Street, but had also been called Town Street at some point. The current tenants mentioned were Thomas Peach, George Sansome, Arthur Willows, with one empty tenement.

1933- The current tenants were Walter Smith, Ben Baker, Mrs Taylor and ?Mr or Mrs Upchurch.

1935- Mary Ann Hanritty Deceased, and passed it in her will to Sarah Jane Agger (?her daughter). It was now known as Porch House.

1961- Sarah Jane Agger deceased.

1963- Mrs Doris Jenny Fawkes inherited it and sold it to Fred Kilpack Peacock. It was still four tenements, and the street was still known as Manor House Street.

1964- Fred Peacock passed it to Elizabeth Mary Hartley.

1965- Another document showing that Mrs Hartley owned it.

1992- Mr and Mrs Coles bought it from Mrs Hartley.

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David Titmarsh

March 2010

Huntingdonshire Archives: http://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/leisure/archives

Wistow Village Website: http://www.wistowvillage.info/

Wistow History Society email: wistowhistory@hotmail.co.uk

The Church and the Three Horseshoes Pub

Church Street

Bridge Street

Manor Street

Parsonage Street

Mill Road

The Rectory

Mill House

The Old Plough

Porch House

The Sheilings

Wistow House

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Debbie Booth, Jenny Head, Althea Walker

Heritage Day 2009

A ploughman, a shepherd, a cowherd, a dairyman all earned 3 shillings in 1350

This is equivalent to £64.30 in today’s wages.

A farm labourer earns 2s 6d, with beer in 1793, equivalent to £7 now

A woman during haymaking and the harvest in 1793 earned 1s a day, equivalent to £2.80 now

Weeding oats in the fens was worth 8s an acre in 1813, which is equal to £13.58 now

A score of eggs (20) in 1813 was 10d, equivalent to £1.42 now

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David Titmarsh

Heritage Day 2009

The Wistow Experience 410 – 1066 AD

Anglo Saxons

Very little is known specifically about Wistow during the early Anglo-Saxon years. The period of time ushered in by the fall of the Western Roman Empire has been called the Dark Ages, not because of murky sinister deeds, but because there is little documentation to shed light on the era. Most of what we know is from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle written by a variety of monks in their cloistered monasteries. It gives a year-by-year account of all the major events of the time. The Anglo-Saxon period stretched over 600 years, from 410 to 1066, and the first time Wistow appears in a written document is in 974, which is late on in the period. We have to resort to educated guesswork and conjecture from what we know generally about the Anglo-Saxons and what we can glean from archaeology, place-names and known local events to piece together Wistow’s history.

Bearing in mind this paucity of information it would be useful to set the scene and context of the period by asking who the Anglo-Saxons were and what their purpose in coming to England was? The very first ‘visitors’ to these isles were from Friesland in northern Holland and they arrived on the East coast in the early 5^th Century, probably about 420. Once word got round that there were easy pickings to be had, the floodgates opened and they poured over from the lands east and north of Friesland, including Saxony, in what is now western Germany, and Jutland. They were a motley collection of peoples made up of Frisians, Jutes, Angles and Saxons, but history has grouped them together under the label of Anglo-Saxons.

Invaders or Traders?

There are two schools of thought about how and why they came at all. Were they invaders or traders? Did they arrive as waves of warriors overwhelming the Romano British left behind when the Romans disappeared? Or were there just a few warrior bands gaining control from British regional kingdoms from whom they encouraged exchanges of goods and ideas? Some of these warriors would have been Germanic mercenaries who had lingered after the Roman army’s departure and took advantage of being in the right place at the right time.

The invasion scenario sees hordes of Anglo-Saxons, with their circular embossed shields, storming across from the North Sea in their boats, taking over the East and South of the country and thus filling the void left by the departing Romans. They pushed out from these bases, forcing the Britons west into Wales and Cornwall, the last outposts of ancient British culture. The rest of Britain became Anglo-Saxon and everything changed: Towns were abandoned in favour of small rural farming villages; the houses they lived in were different, as were the tools they used, the jewellery they wore, their beliefs and the way they buried their dead; and Old English was spoken, a new language which penetrated and persisted in every aspect of British life.

Recently some scholars have questioned this theory. They say there was no significant change in population, which would have had to happen if swarms of invaders had arrived on our shores. Also, no large-scale war graves have been found to support the notion of mass slaughter of the locals. The opponents of the invasion theory do not believe that the British were crushed and their culture collapsed, instead they think that small troops of warriors came and influenced the natives, who simply adopted the customs of this powerful military elite. However the Anglo-Saxons arrived, whether as invaders or traders, there is no doubt they remained in England and became settlers, hunkering down for the duration.

The Formation of Kingdoms

Where does Wistow fit into this jumble of invaders? Well, there was a period of jostling for position when the Britons of the southeastern Midlands were being assailed and driven out by the West Saxons from the southwest, by the East Angles from the east and by the Middle Angles from the northeast. What is now Huntingdonshire was incorporated into the territory of the Middle Angles, which in turn became absorbed by the Mercians before the middle of the 7^th century. A document called the Tribal Hidage was compiled circa 675 showing the hidage for each of the eighteen or more tribal areas, or districts of independent communities, of which Mercia was composed. The hide was a unit used in assessing land for liability to geld, or land tax. The names of several Anglo-Saxon fenland peoples are preserved in this document, showing clearly that the land of the Middle Angles was part of the kingdom of Mercia by this time. One of the peoples mentioned in the Tribal Hidage is the Hyrstingas (or Hurstingas) tribe who held 600 hides. Hyrstingas means forest dwellers and many of the local place names still refer to woodland e.g. Upwood, Woodwalton, Woodhurst and Oldhurst. The tribal name has been preserved in the hundred name of Hurstingstone, of which Wistow is a part.

The fact that the centre and east of England was settled by Angles as opposed to Saxons can be confirmed by mapping the distribution of different shaped brooches found in early Anglo-Saxon graves both here and in Europe. The Angles and Jutes wore cruciform brooches , whereas the Saxons preferred round, saucer-shaped brooches. The cruciform pattern favoured by the Angles is found along the whole of England’s east coast, including Kent, where the Jutes landed. The saucer pattern is found in the South and West where the Saxons made their bases.

Saucer-shaped	Cruciform

The early Anglo-Saxon settlers kept to small tribal groups and in the countryside the vast majority of the people lived by farming. At first most of the farms were owned outright. The ceorls worked co-operatively, sharing the expense of a team of oxen to plough the large common fields in narrow strips that were shared out alternately so that each farmer had an equal share of good and bad land. Later much of this land was consolidated into the larger estates of wealthy nobles. Ceorls might work the land in return for service or produce, or they might work their lord’s land a specified number of days per year. As time went on more and more of these large estates were established as integrated commercial enterprises, complete with a mill to grind the grain.

The Charter of 974

Wistow was one of these larger estates with a mill and was also known as Kingstune before it was granted to Ramsey Abbey in a charter dated 974. Oswald, Archbishop of York and friend of Aylwin, founder of Ramsey Abbey, purchased Kingstune id est Wicstoue (id est means ‘that is’ in Latin) from King Edgar and then presented it to the abbey. This is the first recorded appearance of the village name Wistow. The charter also noted that Wistow had two berewicks (daughter settlements that still retain some link with their parent) at Little Ravely and Bury. This former royal estate was most likely granted to the abbey as a fully developed agricultural unit, not as a piece of forested land to be cleared by the monks. There will be more of Ramsey Abbey later but first we have to deal with the Vikings.

Vikings and the Danelaw

The Vikings were land-hungry adventurers with a point to prove back home. Their intention was to grab what they could by any means available to them. They sullied forth from their Danish homelands in swift shallow hulled longboats, which allowed them to cross seas to the British Isles and navigate rivers into mainland Europe. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, East Anglia was settled by a Danish army under King Guthrum in 881 and became known as the Eastern Danelaw. At the same time the region to the west, Mercia, was under pressure. Huntingdonshire remained part of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia until the Danish invasion of the 9^th Century. It suffered with the rest of Mercia during the early Viking raids, but to a lesser degree than its northern and eastern neighbours. By 874 the Danes seem to have overrun all of Mercia and driven King Burhred overseas. Mercia then came under the rule of Ceolwulf, but he was no match for the brutal Danes and in 877 a treaty was made whereby Ceowulf took the western, smaller part of Mercia and the Danes held the eastern part. This land was incorporated into the Danelaw and was occupied by four satellite armies, each commanded by an earl. The Danish warriors of these outer territories mustered at fortified centres which developed in due course into the towns of Cambridge, Huntingdon, Bedford and Northampton. Wistow was in the area controlled by the Danish Army of Huntingdon 880-917. Alfred the Great was the King of Wessex at this time.

These areas settled by their respective armies became known in later years as shires. Richard of Ely, writing in his ‘Historia Eliensis’ in the 12^th Century, noted that Huntingdon was organised as a shire comprising six hundreds before the third quarter of the 10^th Century and had an earl in the first quarter of that century. Early references to Huntingdonshire appear in the narrative of the dedication of Ramsey church in 991 and in the list of counties overrun by the Danes in 1011.

Guthrum’s kingdom was completely independent and developed its own legal, administrative and economic structure and paid no tribute to the West Saxon Crown. Although Guthrum nominally accepted the Christian faith, most of the new army settlers were illiterate adventurers who retained their pagan beliefs and culture. Monasteries were plundered and abandoned and the diocesan structure swept away. The earls, although accepting Guthrum’s overall lordship, were autonomous in their internal administration. Throughout the earldoms, as in the rest of the Danelaw, there was a revolution in land tenure in which the former Anglian landowners forfeited their estates, becoming subservient to the Danish conquerors. The Wistow villagers would have had to succumb to this wholesale takeover of their land.

Danish Settlement

The Danes probably instituted their own system of strip cultivation of open fields, which entailed a considerable degree of cooperation between the owners of individual strips. This would be best achieved by concentrating the bulk of the population, both Anglian and Danish, in newly established centralised communities which replaced the earlier settlement pattern of scattered hamlets and farmsteads. This may well have been the principal motivation for the creation of villages, each farming an area with its own boundary and developing a network of lanes and footpaths for communication with neighbours. By the time of the Norman Conquest there were a little over 80 villages in Huntingdonshire and 160 in Cambridgeshire. It is probable that many of these were created during the period of the Danish autonomy.

The Danish settlement of Huntingdonshire and Cambridgeshire was one of upheaval in exploitation of land and the way of life of the former Anglo-Saxon inhabitants. The Danish Earls established fortified enclosures known as holds for the minting of their coinage and as residences for themselves and leaders of lesser status. Wistow was one of these smaller defended enclosures for the Danish Huntungdonshire Army. Strategically it was a good spot for a fortified farm and minor stronghold for the Vikings as it was by a stream and protected by woods. The surrounding higher ground made it easy to set up lookouts to see anyone approaching the area. Also Wistow was not far from headquarters in Huntingdon and conveniently positioned for keeping the locals under control.

The Battle in 917

As well as defensive towns, Huntingdon and Cambridge developed as commercial centres. There appears to have been little contact with those parts of England still under West Saxon and Mercian rule and a new pattern of trading with the rest of the Danelaw was established. The Fenland economy was based on turbaries, fishing, fowling, pasturing of livestock and harvesting of reeds for thatching. It was a time of innovation and bustling activity and because of the successful agrarian system, the Danelaw shires were more prosperous than their English counterparts in Wessex and Mercia. This difference in prosperity may be one of the motivating factors for a series of campaigns mounted in 917 by King Edward the Elder and his sister Aethelflaed, Lady of the Mercians (children of Alfred the Great), for recovery of parts of the Danelaw. After defeating the Danish Army under Earl Toglos decisively at Huntingdon, Wistow and finally Tempsford, Edward accepted the surrender of the Danes of Cambridgeshire and the thirty seven year autonomy of the two shires came to an abrupt end. Huntingdon and Wistow were firmly back under Anglo-Saxon rule.

Edward the Elder

Foundation of Ramsey Abbey

A period of comparative peace followed in the middle of the 10^th Century when the monasteries were founded, one of them being Ramsey Abbey in 969. The Benedictine abbey at Ramsey was almost the first monastic institution to be founded within the borders of Huntingdonshire and was granted considerable estates within the county, including Wistow in 974, making it the fourth wealthiest monastery in England and the greatest landowner in the county by the time of the Domesday survey. The monastery was also granted a banlieu, or liberty, covering Ramsey itself, Bury, Upwood and part of Wistow and Great Ravely. This gave the abbot almost monarchical powers over the inhabitants of the liberty. The church was a very important force in society as it was the only truly national entity tying together the different Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. The Anglo-Saxons were pagans when they came to Britain but were soon converted to Christianity by St Augustine. Stow in Old English is an indication of a special place, usually an assembly place or a holy place. The place where the Anglo-Saxons gathered to worship their pagan gods evolved into the place where they built their churches when they became Christians. In all likelihood, as its name suggests, Wistow was that special holy place for the surrounding area.

Danegeld

Turmoil ensued again in the days of Ethelred the Unready, 978-1016. In the 980′s a fresh wave of Danish raids began, and in the next decade armies under Norwegian and Swedish kings joined in the mayhem. London was attacked and survived, but the surrounding countryside was hit hard and in 991 the fateful decision was made to buy off the raiders with a large payment. This payment, or Danegeld as it came to be known, set a dangerous precedent. The Danes now knew that there was good money to be had just for showing up and each time the payment got bigger, from 10,000 pounds in 991 to a high of 82,500 pounds in 1018.

Ethelred  the Unready

The Danes were a constant threat and by 1011 they had again overrun East Anglia and the shires of Middle England including half of Huntingdon. They defeated Ethelred and his son, Edmund Ironside, who were both dead by the time Cnut ascended the throne in 1016. The new Danish ruler of all England was also king of Denmark and Norway. He did his best to keep the peace in his new kingdom by using English councillors and upholding the traditional laws and customs. He married Edmund’s widow, and allied himself closely with the Christian church. Cnut attempted to settle the fen country by making a road from Peterborough to Ramsey and endowing the fenland monasteries with property in Huntingdonshire. When Cnut died in 1035, however, the same old dynastic squabbles broke out, with the eventual result that Edward The Confessor, the surviving son of Ethelred, was called back from exile in Normandy to rule. Edward remained King of this united England until he died in 1066 – and we all know what happened then!

The Wistow Experience

What was the Wistow experience during these centuries after the Romans had left and before the Normans arrived? The people of Wistow would be trying to get on with their business of farming to provide for their families and keeping the landlord sweet, all the time constantly having to look over their shoulders, never knowing where the next danger was coming from or when it would occur. The Romano British were driven out by the Angles from the east and north. In turn the rolling program of terror from the Danes and Norwegians harassed the new settlers. The Saxons from the south eventually overwhelmed the Viking soldiers in a decisive battle, which brought about the end of an era. Wistow villagers were expected to cope with this upheaval to their normal day-to-day farming life and take up arms for their overlords to protect the land, themselves, their family and their livelihood. It was a time of constant struggle and strife with periods of relative peace interspersed with periods of violence. Through it all somehow Wistow managed to survive.

To summarise this lengthy period of history, when the Romans came, they saw, they conquered, hung around for a bit then went back to Italy. When the Anglo-Saxons came, they saw, they liked it and made it home. Not only that, they were prepared to fight for it. They pushed the Britons further and further west. They saw off the Vikings who came, ran around making a lot of noise and demanding money, then eventually were beaten back. Along came the Normans and, like the Romans before them, they remained as an elite conquering force. They tried to crush and intimidate the natives with their castles and impose their French language on the masses, but it was Old English that won through and in the end the Normans were forced to integrate if they wanted to stay long term. The persistence of the English language says it all. Those tenacious Anglo-Saxons loved their new homeland and were not prepared to give it up for anyone.

Bibliography:

• A History of Huntingdonshire by Michael Wickes (Published by Phillimore1985 revised 1995).
• The Victoria History of the County of Huntingdonshire Volume II (Edited by William Page, Granville Proby & S. Inskip Ladds 1932 reprinted 1974).
• An Atlas of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire History edited by Tony Kirby and Susan Oosthuizen (Published by Anglia Polytechnic University 2000).
• Face of Britain by Robert McKie (Published by Simon & Schuster UK Ltd 2006).
• The English Settlements by J.N.L. Myers (Clarendon Press Oxford 1986).
• Anglo-Saxon England by Sir Frank Stenton (Oxford University Press 1971).
• An Introduction to Anglo-Saxon England by Peter Hunter Blair (Cambridge University Press 1960).
• Historical Atlas of Britain edited by Malcolm Falkus and John Gillingham (Book Club Associates 1981).
• Britain Express Website (www.britainexpress.com/History).

Illustrations from Google Images labelled for re-use

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Althea Walker

March 2009