The Story of England Read online

  By the same author

  In Search of the Dark Ages

  In Search of the Trojan War

  The Smile of Murugan: A South Indian Journey

  In the Footsteps of Alexander the Great

  Legacy: The First Civilizations

  Domesday

  In Search of England

  The Story of India

  The Story of England

  MICHAEL WOOD

  VIKING

  an imprint of

  PENGUIN BOOKS

  VIKING

  Published by the Penguin Group

  Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

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  First published 2010

  Copyright © Michael Wood, 2010

  The moral right of the author has been asserted

  All rights reserved

  Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

  ISBN: 978-0-14-196115-6

  Contents

  List of Illustrations

  List of Maps

  Acknowledgements

  Introduction

  1. Searching for England

  2. The Roots of a Community

  3. Angles and Saxons

  4. The Beginnings of Kibworth

  5. Under the Danelaw

  6. The Kingdom of England

  7. The Norman Yoke

  8. The Community of the Realm

  9. The Scholars of Merton

  10. The Great Famine and the Black Death

  11. Rebels and Heretics

  12. From Villeins to Yeomen

  13. The End of the Old Order

  14. The Reformation in Kibworth

  15. A Century of Revolution

  16. Agricultural and Industrial Revolution

  17. The Victorians

  Epilogue. The Twentieth Century

  Further Reading

  Index

  List of Illustrations

  1. St Wilfrid’s church, Kibworth. (Mark Read Photography)

  2. The ‘Spear Tree’: the site of the Gartree on the Roman road north of Kibworth. (Stuart Kendall)

  3–5. Merton College, Oxford: the lords of Kibworth Harcourt from 1270. (The Warden and Fellows of Merton College, Oxford)

  6. Merton’s survey of Kibworth Harcourt from around 1280. (Archival document: Merton College MCR 6371, photographed by Scriptura Ltd, copyright © Warden and Fellows of Merton College, Oxford)

  7. St Wilfrid’s, Kibworth, in the late eighteenth century. (Engraving from John Nichols, History and Antiquities of the County of Leicester (1798), reprinted by kind permission of Leicestershire County Council)

  8. ‘Soldiers turn into reformers’: the mood on the eve of the Civil War. (From John Vicars, A Sight of ye Transactions of these latter yeares [148140], reprinted by kind permission of Huntington Library)

  9. A fifteenth-century set of Lollard vernacular sermons from Leicester, perhaps written close to Kibworth. (Maya Vision International Ltd)

  10. The burning of Sir John Oldcastle at St Giles’ Fields in 1417. ([7e8be3] reproduced by kind permission of Cambridge University Library)

  11. An eight-ox plough team still working in the 1920s in Sussex.

  12. Black Death pits: the first scientific excavation in Britain near Tower Hill, London. (Museum of London Archaeology)

  13. Fifteenth- and sixteenth-century housing in Erle Street, Coventry.

  14. Framework-knitters: a family room with the redundant technology of the spinning wheel.

  15. Harold Bromley at a hosiery frame, 1950s. (Eileen Bromley)

  16. The Johnson & Barnes factory in the Victorian ‘New Town’ in Kibworth Beauchamp. (Kibworth Historical Society)

  17. Medieval technology: the post windmill at Kibworth Harcourt. (Leicestershire County Council)

  18. The bridge at Debdale Wharfe on the Grand Union Canal below Kibworth. (George Weston)

  19. Theatrical tradition was strong in the village: 1790 poster advertising a topical anti-slavery play.

  20. Plough Monday processions and dances were an old East Midlands tradition. (Steve Roud)

  21–22. The coming of the railways saw the transformation of Kibworth: navvies. (Leicestershire County Council)

  23. Kibworth station. (George Weston)

  24. Albert Dalton’s Reliable Boot Stores. (Kibworth Historical Society)

  25. George Lynn’s general store. (Kibworth Historical Society)

  26. Eli and Floss Bale’s draper’s shop. (Kibworth Historical Society)

  27–29. There were once twenty-three inns and coaching houses in Kibworth: the Old Swan; the Rose and Crown; the Coach and Horses. (Kibworth Historical Society)

  30. The brass band was a fixture in village life from the 1860s. (Kibworth Historical Society)

  31. Cricket in Kibworth goes back 200 years: the village ground. (Kibworth Historical Society)

  32. The Old House, home to Kibworth’s famous dissenting academy and where Anna Laetitia Barbauld grew up. (Kibworth Historical Society)

  33. Three heroic figures in the workers’ struggle: Amos Sherriff, the Rev. F. L. Donaldson and George White. (Leicestershire and Rutland Record Office)

  34–35. Forty village men died in the First World War: George Maynard Ward (Eileen Bromley); Percy Bromley (Clive Hillcoat).

  36. Kibworth, photographed by the Luftwaffe in November 1940.

  37–38. The Home Front: Rose Holyoak, ploughing as some of her medieval women ancestors did. (Kibworth Historical Society)

  39. The Forces’ Journal, which was sent to all serving villagers. (Kibworth Historical Society)

  List of Maps

  Modern Kibworth and its surroundings

  Kibworth Harcourt in 1086, after the Norman Conquest

  Kibworth Harcourt in 1340, before the Black Death

  Kibworth Harcourt in 1609, from a Merton Estate map

  Kibworth Harcourt in 1781 after enclosure, from a map in Merton College

  Acknowledgements

  A project like this involving book and films is a team effort in the best sense of the word. The last year we have spent great deal of time in Kibworth, and this book could not have been written, nor the films it accompanies made, without the help of the people of Kibworth Harcourt, Kibworth Beauchamp and Smeeton Westerby; to them my heartfelt thanks for their hospitality, generosity and friendship. What Leslie Clarke wrote about their predecessors in 1944 (see p. 402) is still true. Warm thanks are also due to the Warden and Fellows of Merton College, Oxford, and the staff of the Leicestershire and Rutland Record Office at Wigston; we have made many visits to these institutions, whose members have been incredibly generous with their time and access to their wonderful archives; to both not only thanks but our deep appreciation of their role in promoting the humanities today. Julia Walworth, Librarian of Merton College, and Julian Reid, the college archivist, were unfailingly generous with their time and their expertise: it was a true privilege to have access to one of the most extraordinary libraries in the world. Thanks, too, to Robin Jenkins at the Wigston Record Office for his tremendous help, good humour and knowledge, and his generosity in bringing his precious documents out to the places where they were written: at a time of cuts to the humanities such a welcoming and accessible institution shows exactly why history matters to all of us. A very special thanks is also due to the ‘onlie begetter’ of this project, Cicely Howell, who from across the other side of the world, amid all her other commitments, most generously fired off advice and suggestions, and between trips to the outback for her present work in conservation, scanned transcripts of medieval documents and supplied maps from her old Kibworth researches. Thanks as well to George and Pamela Weston, Philip Porter and the members of the Kibworth History Society: founts of knowledge on the story of the village and unstinting in answering our frequent requests for help and advice; to Professor Chris Dyer, who generously gave his time and anchored us in the real lives of our medieval ancestors; likewise to Peter Liddle of Leicester County Council, who offered his unfailing generosity and many memorable insights; to Dr Carenza Lewis and Cat Ranson, who set the ball rolling with a fantastic weekend on the Big Dig and helped us afterwards as the impact of the finds sank home, aided and abetted by Paul Blinkhorn, w
ith his irrepressible verve and great expertise. Thanks also to Charles Phythian-Adams, the staff of the Jewry Wall Museum, Leicester, the National Archives at Kew, the British Library, the Women’s Library, the Harborough Museum and the Bodleian Library in Oxford.

  In Kibworth I would especially like to thank everybody who participated in the Kibworth Big Dig and in the History Day, the pupils and staff at Kibworth High School, Martin Brown, Bill Pringle, Clare Edgeworth, John Mulholland, John Sharman, Kibworth Parish Council and Kibworth Cricket Club. I would also like to thank the following individuals: Stephen Butt of BBC Radio Leicester, who helped it all happen on the ground, Abraham Smith and family, Andrew and Bev Southerden, Andy Cooper, Angela Edwards, Anita Harrison at the Leicester Guildhall, Simon Jones, Benjamin Nicholas and the Choir of Merton College, Betty Ward, Wayne Coleman and family, Rose Holyoak, Bryan Porteous, Celia Ponting of the Hallaton Field Work Group, Charles and Pam Tear, Chris Standish, Professor David Carpenter, David McGrory, Dr David Cox, Robert Howard, David and Amanda Churchill, Nick and Janet Davis and family, Debbie Miles-Williams, Pauline Carroll, Deborah Sawday, the staff of the Bewicke Arms in Hallaton, the Mercers’ Company, Edward Garnier MP, Eileen Bromley, Elaine Robb-Murphy, Emma Boyd, Eric Moss, Alison Foster, Fiona Ure of Leicester County Museums, Frank Hargrave, Gareth Owen and the Sealed Knot Society, Glyn Hatfield, West Stow Anglo-Saxon Village, Gordon Arthur, Dr Graham Jones, Jim and Helen French, Hilary Surridge, Iris Pinkstone, Isobel Cullum, Jamie Whitcomb of the Relay for Life Kibworth, Kibworth Methodist Church, Jane Pudsey from Coventry Archives, Jane May at the New Walk Museum, Janet Briggs of Windmill Farm, Bob and Janet Connelly, Jean Clarke and the Great Bowden Archaeological Heritage Group, Jeremy Taylor of the University of Leicester, Jess Jenkins at the Record Office in Wigston for her great generosity in allowing me to use her unpublished researches, Joan Croxford of the Manor House at Kibworth Beauchamp, Joan Fillingham, John Capps and John and Christine Brammall of the Hallaton Field Group, Judith Bayes (the daughter of Bert Aggas), Professor Judith Jesch of the Nottingham University Centre for Viking Studies, Julian Barker, Julia Aalen at Weald and Downland, Ken and Hazel Wallace of the Hallaton Field Group, Dr Kevin Feltham of the Kibworth Harcourt Conservation Society, Laura Hadland of Leicester City Museums, Lesley Gill of Kibworth Harcourt Parish Council, Linda Butt at De Montfort University, who most generously allowed the great texts of Nichols and Burton to be taken on location, Liz Lacon at Lewes District Council, Liz Mayne at De Montfort University, Liz Doull at Coventry History Centre, Ludger and Ruth Fremmer of St Wilfrid’s church in Kibworth for their tremendous hospitality, thoughtfulness and willingness to support this project in their very busy lives, Lynne Beasley-Reynolds of Kibworth Parish Council, Marcus Lynch at St Mary’s Guildhall, Margaret Bonney at the Wigston Record Office, Mark and Deborah Parr of Priory Farm, Mark and Vanessa Stanbridge of Beauchamp Grange Farm, Martin Featherstone at Anglia Battlefield Tours for a truly memorable trip with the High School to the Somme, Beaumanor Hall, Mary Ireland of Priory Farm, Fred Hartley, Matty Holmes, Maureen Bullows, Dr Maureen Jurkowski of the English Monastic Archives Project at UCL, who was so generous in sharing her exciting research on the Lollards and suggesting new leads, Michael Hawkes, Michael Kilgarriff, who splendidly oversaw the re-creation of the 1880s Penny Concerts, everyone at the Kibworth Last Minute Theatre Company for their sterling work in performing the concerts and other moments from the theatrical past of the village, Michael and Liz Vicars at Newstead Farm, Neil Christie of the School of Archaeology & Ancient History (at the University of Leicester), Neil Finn at ULAS, Oliver Creighton, Martin Carver, Neil and Jane Beasley, Professor Nicholas Orme for coming to Wigston to explore early education in the village, Nicolas Bennett at Lincoln Cathedral, Nicky and Bob Tully, Norman Harrison of Kibworth History Society, Pat Grundy at the Wigston Record Office for her great support and assistance and her transcripts of many of the documents, especially the Tudor wills from Kibworth, Jeanette Ovendon, Patrick Rooke, Paul Stone of Kibworth CE Primary School, Paul Carter at the National Archives for his advice and help and a memorable day on the Poor Law documents, Peter Clowes at the Wigston Framework Knitters Museum, Peter and Eunice Hayes at St Wilfrid’s church, Philippa Britten, Richard Clark of Leicestershire County Council, Dr Richard Jones, Richard Moore, Richard Pollard of Leicestershire County Council, Richard and Mary Green of the Last Minute Theatre Company, Richard and Julia White, Robert and Vanessa Lawson and Susie Purling and Richard Clowes for their many kindnesses, Dr Robert Peberdy of the Victoria County History, Robin Hollick, Roger Bland of the Portable Antiquities Scheme, Dr Roger Highfield of Merton, Roger Whiteway, Rosemary Culkin of the Great Bowden Archaeological Heritage Group, Rosemary and Ian Williamson of Manor Farm, Sally McDonald, Sarah and Lino Poli at the Boboli restaurant, Simon Clarkson, Stephanie and Neil Paull of the Vikings Reenactment Group, Stephen Poyzer and Anne Robinson and all at the Kibworth Chronicle, Steve Pollington for his memorable readings of Old English, Dr Sarah Salih, Stuart Rose, Robert Haigh, Roy Hendell, Colin Cree and all the farmers of Laxton – what a pleasure to film with them again after so long – John Stevens, Wendy Scott and Lyn Sturgess for their help at the History Roadshow, John Wadland, Paul Thompson, Arthur Hazilrigg, Charles Stops, Alan Axon, John Billings, the Simons family, Sherry Nesbitt, John and Penny March, James Ryan, Stuart and Emma Kendall, Terry and Alison Iliffe, Tim Porter, Tim Allen at English Heritage, Chris Baldwin, Bob Holman, Kathy Flower-Bond and all at Weald and Downland, Jean Robinson and Anne Whykes at West Stow Anglo-Saxon Village, Benedict Coffin, Sandra Orchard and all at the Viking Society, Bill Sykes and Gareth Owen and all at Sealed Knot, the Simon De Montfort Society in Evesham, William Jacob of St Giles-in-the-Fields, Dr Turi King at the Department of Genetics, University of Leicester, Ted Smith and the Kibworth Brass Band, the Kibworth bellringers, Debbie at The Bookshop, Kibworth, the staff of the King’s Head in Smeeton, Ash at Raitha’s Restaurant, Mary at the Deli, Robin and Emily at the Old Swan, the staff at the Coach and Horses, and everyone who has helped make this project happen: my apologies if I have inadvertently omitted anyone. Working together on this project has been a pure pleasure: to all, my heartfelt thanks.

  On the book, I must thank Tony Lacey and Ellie Smith and everyone at Penguin who had faith in this idea and who saw this book through in record time; to Mark Handsley and Pru Cave, who edited a very difficult text so well; and a special thanks to James Evans, who researched the later films in the series and stepped into the breech as film and book deadlines collided to draft my Civil War, eighteenth-century and Victorian chapters – without his help this book would never have been finished in time, or so well.

  Finally the members of the crew who made the films of The Story of England were, at Mayavision, Jasmine Allodi, Gerry Branigan, Callum Bulmer, Stephen Butt, John Cranmer, Matt Currington, Howard Davidson, Ben Davis, Wayne Derrick, Mick Duffield, Freya Eden-Ellis, James Evans, Peter Harvey, Elizabeth Herrick, Lauren Jacobs, Aleksandar Nikolic, Tamsin Ranger, Kevin Rowan, Andrew Smith, Sally Thomas, Jon Wood and Aaron Young; and, at Envy, Marc Corrance, Bob Jackson, Jannine Martin and Vicki Matich. Martin Davidson and Janice Hadlow at the BBC backed this project from the start, and Richard Klein and Cassian Harrison saw it through. To have achieved this complex series in just over a year has been little short of miraculous: thanks to one and all.

  Modern Kibworth and its surroundings

  Introduction

  It is easy to generalize, as William Blake remarked, but ‘to Particularize is the Alone Distinction of Merit’. Historians needless to say are not quite the same kind of animal as poets, but, inspired by Blake’s advice, this book contains a very simple particularizing idea. It tells the story of one place through the whole of English history. Alternatively, it could be said that it tries to tell the story of England through the eyes of one place. It is a narrative in which as far as possible the subject is the people, not the rulers. Of course, rulers play their part in the story, but the important action takes place not in the palaces of the rich and powerful, but in the houses and fields – and in the minds – of the ordinary people. And ordinary lives are often no less dramatic, as I hope will become apparent in the tales that follow, from the Vikings to the Somme, and from the Lollards to the Suffragettes.