Medeshamstede
Medeshamstede
Nothing is known of Medeshamstede's history from the later 9th century, when it is reported in the
The name "Medeshamstede"
The name has been interpreted by a place-name authority as "homestead belonging to Mede".[4]
An alternative description is 'Medu' meaning Mead then 'Hamme' a village on a river and 'Steð'(the ð is pronounced th) meaning a bank or sea shore(the sea was about 4.5 metres higher in early saxon times), so the 'Mead village in the valley with a landing stage' [5]
According to the Peterborough version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, written in the 12th century, this name was given at the time of the foundation of a monastery there in the 7th century, owing to the presence of a spring called "Medeswæl", meaning "Medes-well". However the name is commonly held to mean "homestead in the meadows", or similar, on an assumption that "Medes-" means "meadows".[6][7]
The earliest reliable occurrence of the name is in
Another early form of this name is "Medyhæmstede", in an 8th-century
Locally, Anglo-Saxon records use "Medeshamstede" up to about the reign of
An important Mercian monastery
Royal foundation
Located in
a fair spot, and a goodly, because on the one side it is rich in fenland, and in goodly waters, and on the other it has [an] abundance of ploughlands and woodlands, with many fertile meads and pastures.[13]
Hugh Candidus also reports that Medeshamstede was founded in the territory of the "Gyrwas", a people listed in the Tribal Hidage, which was in existence by the mid-9th century. There, the Gyrwas are divided into the North Gyrwas and the South Gyrwas: Medeshamstede was clearly founded in the territory of the North Gyrwas.[14] Hugh Candidus explains "Gyrwas", which he describes in the present tense, as meaning people "who dwell in the fen, or hard by the fen, since a deep bog is called in the Saxon tongue Gyr": use of the present tense indicates that inhabitants of the area were still known as "Gyrwas" in Hugh Candidus' own time.[13][15]
According to Bede, Medeshamstede was founded by a man named
A
Numerous local saints are connected to varying degrees with Medeshamstede, and many of them are Mercian royal in nature. These include:
- Guthlac, a former monk of Repton, in Derbyshire. Repton had until recently been the Mercian episcopal see, and was most likely a colony of Medeshamstede. Guthlac is a titular saint of Crowland Abbey, about seven miles north of Medeshamstede, and is generally regarded as its founder.
- Pega, whose name survives in "Peakirk", meaning "church of Pega", about five miles north of Medeshamstede. She was a sister of Guthlac.[22]
- Cyneburh and Cyneswith, sisters of King Peada. Cyneburh founded a nunnery at Castor, four miles west of Medeshamstede, and Cyneswith succeeded her as abbess there.[23] It seems that both sisters had been married into foreign Anglo-Saxon royalty, in Northumbria and East Anglia, and perhaps Medeshamstede and Castor then formed a double monastery for men and women, a feature of contemporary monasticism. Cyneburh is the titular saint of the parish church of Castor, as "St Kyneburgha".
- Tibba, who is believed to have been a recluse at Ryhall, about twelve miles north west of Medeshamstede, as well as another relative of King Peada.[24]
- Tancred, Torhtred, and Tova: these are believed to have lived at Viking invasions.[26]
- Tondberht, "prince of the Gyrwas", and husband of St Æthelthryth of Ely. He is named as an English martyr in an early source, and, though nothing further is known of him, his name alliterates suggestively with those of Tancred, Torhtred and Tova, who thus may also have been drawn from local, petty royalty.[27]
- Tatwine, monk of Breedon, Archbishop of Canterbury, and probably mentor to Guthlac. Given his connection with Breedon, and his similarly alliterative name, he may himself have been from Medeshamstede, and would naturally have been commemorated there.[28]
Most if not all of the churches originally associated with these local saints were probably sponsored by Medeshamstede, with the exception of Ely.[15] What is known of Sexwulf, combined with the identities of these local saints, suggests strongly that Medeshamstede was a major religious centre in the kingdom of Mercia, with an especially royal character.
Monastic colonies
King Wulfhere's charter, and
The importance of these daughter churches, and indeed that of Medeshamstede itself, is indicated by the likely relationship with royal Repton; by the consecration of the Breedon monk
Later Anglo-Saxon history
Viking destruction
Medeshamstede is traditionally believed to have been destroyed by
[the] survival of a handful of genuine documents from the pre-tenth-century period [at Medeshamstede] might be better explained by the hypothesis that there was some kind of institutional continuity between the ninth century and the refoundation of c. 970, with the story of total destruction a convenient fiction.[36]
Tenth-century refoundation
Medeshamstede was refounded c. 970 by
Physical remains and archaeology
The most visible remnant of sculptural and architectural activity at Medeshamstede is the sculpture now known as the Hedda Stone, dated by Rosemary Cramp to the late eighth or early ninth century, and kept on show at Peterborough Cathedral.[39] Remnants of Anglo-Saxon buildings on the site of Medeshamstede have been identified in modern times, though it is not clear that any are remains of the original church.[40] These include foundations under the crossing and south transept of the Cathedral.
Early buildings on the site incorporated materials, or "
See also
References
- ^ Emphasis on the syllable "ham" presumably follows the common interpretation of the name. If it is believed to mean "homestead belonging to Mede", then it would better be pronounced /ˈmiːdsˌhæmstɛd/.
- ^ The most recent survey of the Anglo-Saxon history of Peterborough Abbey is in Kelly, S.E. (ed.), Charters of Peterborough Abbey, Anglo-Saxon Charters 14, OUP, 2009.
- ^ The manuscript is the Peterborough "Liber Niger", or "Black Book", Society of Antiquaries of London, ms. 60 (f. 66).
- ^ Ekwall, Eilert, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names (4th edition), 1960, p. 364.
- ^ Saxonhistory.co.uk - Saxon Place names and their logical explanation
- ^ a b A History of the County of Northampton: Volume 2, Serjeantson, R.M. & Adkins, W.R.D. (eds.), 1906. British History Online. Retrieved on 9 May 2008. A typically anachronistic account.
- ^ Cf. Ekwall, Eilert, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names (4th edition), 1960, p. 320 ("Medstead").
- ^ a b Bede, Ecclesiastical History, iv, 6.
- ^ Anglo-Saxon Charter S 34 Archive Rochester Archived 20 July 2007 at the Wayback Machine British Academy ASChart project. Retrieved on 11 May 2008. Anglo-Saxon charter references beginning with 'S', e.g. 'S 34', are to Sawyer, P., Anglo-Saxon Charters: an Annotated List and Bibliography, Royal Historical Society, 1968: see eSawyer.
- ^ Ælfric, 'Vita Æthelwoldi', in Three Lives of English Saints, Winterbottom, M. (ed.), Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, Toronto, 1972, c.17. Dolley, R.H.M., 'A New Anglo-Saxon Mint – Medeshamstede', in British Numismatic Journal xxvii (3rd series, vii), 1955. These occurrences are probably related, and may represent an early corruption, which did not survive.
- ^ A Topographical Dictionary of England, Lewis, Samuel (ed.), 1848. British History Online. Retrieved on 9 May 2008 (“Northamptonshire": uses the form "Medeshampstead").
- ^ Stenton, F.M., 'Medeshamstede and its Colonies', in Stenton, D.M. (ed.), Preparatory to Anglo-Saxon England Being the Collected Papers of Frank Merry Stenton, Oxford University Press, 1970, p. 191.
- ^ a b Mellows, W.T. (ed. & trans.), The Peterborough Chronicle of Hugh Candidus, Peterborough Natural History, Scientific and Archæological Society, 1941, p. 2. (This is a "popular" edition, in English translation (hereafter "Mellows, 1941"). A scholarly edition, in Latin, is Mellows, W.T. (ed.), The Chronicle of Hugh Candidus a Monk of Peterborough, Oxford University Press, 1949 (hereafter "Mellows, 1949")). Cf. Mellows, 1949, p. 5.
- ^ Potts, W.T.W., 'The Pre-Danish Estate of Peterborough Abbey', in Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society 65, 1974: this paper contains some substantive errors, but is of interest. Cf. Hart., C., The Danelaw, Hambledon, 1992, pp. 142–3, for a similar comment regarding Medeshamstede, and Wilfrid's church at Oundle.
- ^ a b Roffe, D., 'On Middan Gyrwan Fenne: Intercommoning around the Island of Crowland', in Fenland Research 8, 1993, p. 83.
- ^ Mellows, 1941, pp. 3–4; Mellows, 1949, 8–9.
- ^ Whitelock, D., 'The pre-Viking age church in East Anglia', in Anglo-Saxon England 1, 1972, pp. 38–41.
- ^ Colgrave, B. (ed. & trans.), The Life of Bishop Wilfrid by Eddius Stephanus, Cambridge University Press, 1927 (reprinted 1985), c.xlv.
- ^ "Anglo-Saxon Charter S 68 Archive Peterborough". British Academy ASChart project. Archived from the original on 20 July 2007. Retrieved 8 May 2008. This reference is to a later, grossly expanded version of the charter. A copy of what is no doubt the original version, modest by comparison, is printed as Birch, W. de Gray, Cartularium Saxonicum, 3 vols., London, 1885–93, no.22a.
- ^ See Levison, W., England and the Continent in the Eighth Century The Ford Lectures Delivered in the University of Oxford in the Hilary Term 1943, Oxford University Press, 1946, pp. 217–9. Also Potts, W.T.W., 'The Pre-Danish Estate of Peterborough Abbey', in Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society 65, 1974. Rather than Medeshamstede's 'pre-Danish estate', the materials discussed by Potts probably identify a 7th-century tribal territory, which would be a unique survival: cf. Higham, N., 'The Historical Context of the Tribal Hidage', in Hill, D. and Rumble, A. R. (eds.), The Defence of Wessex: The Burghal Hidage and Anglo-Saxon Fortifications, Manchester University Press, 1996.
- doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/21682. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.). Retrieved 21 March 2013.
- ^ Colgrave, B., The Life of St Guthlac by Felix, Cambridge University Press, 1956.
- ^ 'The Life of St Kyneburgha From Northumbrian Queen to Mercian Saint', Morris, Avril M. (undated). Archived 13 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine Castor Church. Retrieved on 12 May 2008.
- ^ Rollason, D.W., The Mildrith Legend A Study in Early Medieval Hagiography in England, Leicester University Press, 1982 (e.g. p. 115, in Medieval Latin).
- ^ Mellows, 1941, p. 22; Mellows, 1949, pp. 42–3.
- ^ Rollason, D.W., 'Lists of Saints' resting-places in Anglo-Saxon England', in Anglo-Saxon England 7, 1978, especially p. 91.
- Old Englishpersonal names, see also Gelling, M., Signposts to the Past (2nd edition), Phillimore, 1988, pp. 163–4.
- ^ A Tatwine is an important figure, local to the Fenland area, in Guthlac's "Life" by Felix. Roffe, in 'On Middan Gyrwan Fenne', p. 83, assumes that Crowland and Repton were both colonies of Medeshamstede.
- ^ Blair, J. & Sharp, R. (eds.), Pastoral Care Before the Parish, Leicester University Press, 1992, especially p. 140. See also Yorke, B., Kings and Kingdoms of Early Anglo-Saxon England, Seaby, 1990, p. 110.
- ^ Stenton, F.M., 'Medeshamstede and its Colonies', in Stenton, D.M. (ed.), Preparatory to Anglo-Saxon England Being the Collected Papers of Frank Merry Stenton, Oxford University Press, 1970, and Blair, J., 'Frithuwold's kingdom and the origins of Surrey', in Bassett, S. (ed.), The Origins of Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms, Leicester University Press, 1989. Other candidates, apart from Repton, are Bardney and Crowland, in Lincolnshire, Brixworth, in Northamptonshire, Hanbury, in Staffordshire, Hoo, in Kent, and Shifnal, in Shropshire.
- ^ 'An Early History of Repton', Carroll, Quinton (undated). Repton Village History Group. Retrieved on 9 May 2008. Stafford, P., The East Midlands in the Early Middle Ages, Leicester University Press, 1985, especially pp. 106–8.
- ^ "Anglo-Saxon Charter S 197 Archive Peterborough". British Academy ASChart project. Archived from the original on 20 July 2007. Retrieved 10 May 2008.
- St Columba"), and Farmer, D.H., The Oxford Dictionary of Saints (3rd edition), Oxford University Press, 1992, pp. 127–8 (“David of Wales”). Cf. Blair, J., 'Frithuwold's kingdom and the origins of Surrey', in Bassett, S. (ed.), The Origins of Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms, Leicester University Press, 1989, p. 108.
- ^ See e.g. Stafford, P., The East Midlands in the Early Middle Ages, Leicester University Press, 1985, p. 111.
- ^ Gransden, A., Historical Writing in England Volume I c.550 – c.1307, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1974, p. 278. Principal movers of the 10th-century monastic reformation were St Dunstan, St Æthelwold of Winchester, and St Oswald of Worcester.
- ^ Kelly, op. cit., p. 9. For a view of supposed Danish, anti-Christian activity, see e.g. Dumville, D.N., Wessex and England From Alfred to Edgar Six Essays on Political Cultural and Ecclesiastical Revival, Boydell, 1992, especially pp. 31-3, 39. For the pre-Viking archive, compare the situation at Abingdon, for which see ibid., especially p. 33, n.15: Dumville observes that the 12th-century chronicler of Abingdon "has the impudence to insist both on the destruction of the abbey [in the 9th century] and on the preservation of its charters and relics!"
- ^ Kelly, op. cit., pp. 32, 36–9, 41–5.
- ^ For the wall, see Youngs, S.M. & others, 'Medieval Britain and Ireland in 1982', in Medieval Archaeology 27, 1983. See e.g. Garmonsway, G.N., The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Dent, Dutton, 1972 & 1975, p. 117, where the change of name is linked to the construction of a wall around the monastery. Hugh Candidus describes the adoption of the new name, but does not link it to the construction of the monastic wall: Mellows, 1941, pp. 19, 24; Mellows, 1949, pp. 38, 48. Kelly, op. cit., pp. 5, 36–40, suggests that Medeshamstede might have been known as "Burh" prior to the mid-10th century, to distinguish it from the nearby Castor (cf. "Chester (place-name element)").
- ^ Cramp, R., A century of Anglo-Saxon sculpture, Graham, 1977, p. 192. This date is subject to discussion: see Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland, "St Margaret, Fletton, Cambridgeshire"[permanent dead link]. CRSBI. Retrieved 24 May 2008. The attribution to Hedda is a modern, antiquarian development, presumably based on a twelfth-century text known as the "Relatio Heddæ Abbatis" ("Story of Abbot Hedda"): Mellows, 1949, pp. 159–61. It is of extremely limited historical value, but was clearly a source used by Hugh Candidus, and is first found in a twelfth-century manuscript created at Peterborough called the "Liber Niger" ("Black Book": Society of Antiquaries of London, manuscript no.60, see e.g. Willetts, P.J., Catalogue of Manuscripts in the Society of Antiquaries of London , Boydell, Brewer, 2000).
- ^ See e.g. Taylor, H.M. & J., "Peterborough, Northamptonshire", in their work Anglo-Saxon Architecture (3 vols.), CUP, 1965–78, II, pp. 491–4, and Youngs, S.M. et al., "Medieval Britain and Ireland in 1982", in Medieval Archaeology 27 (1983), pp. 168–9.
- ^ British Archaeology Issue 60, August 2001, 'Old ruins, new world'. Archived 23 May 2012 at the Wayback Machine For the villa at Castor, see 'A Guide to the Church of St Kyneburgha Archived 23 July 2008 at the Wayback Machine. Castor Church. Retrieved on 25 May 2008.
- ^ Mellows, 1941, pp. 3–4; Mellows, 1949, pp. 6, 8. At 2 oxen to the yoke, Hugh Candidus intended 16 oxen.