[Burton upon Trent history]
history
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watercolour of High Street, Burton upon Trent, by Thomas Townsend, 1883 |
Burton upon Trent: from the Romans to the coming of the Pagets
Little evidence has been found of human habitation in the Burton area in prehistoric times, but before the Roman invasion of Britain in AD 43, the region was inhabited by a Celtic tribe known as the Cornovii. By AD 60, the Romans had built a major road to their fort at Derventio (modern Littlechester near Derby); Icknield Street clung to the western side of the Trent valley, and the A38 now follows or closely parallels this line. After the Roman legions left Britain, Anglo-Saxons took their place, in the Burton area settling on the higher terraces within the flood plain at such sites as Newton, Stretton, Branston, Walton and Burton itself. Their Anglo-Saxon origins are betrayed by the suffix tun in their names, Old English for 'enclosure' or 'village'. The name 'Burton' is a common one: there are 43 examples of it in Mercia, the Anglo-Saxon kingdom that covered much of central England. It has been suggested that the word means 'armoury town'; in such locations stocks of weapons, horses and provisions were concentrated to supply the forces of the kings of Mercia who waged many wars against their neighbours in the late 8th century.
The Anglo-Saxons were eventually converted to Christianity. When Peada, sub-king of the Mercians, became Christian in order to marry the daughter of Oswiu, king of Mercia, Celtic missionaries arrived from Northumbria, Scotland and Ireland to effect the conversion of Peada's subjects. One of the missionaries was Chad, who became bishop of the Mercians in 669. This was the period when, according to tradition, St Modwen arrived in Burton.
the founding of the abbey
It could have been the association of Modwen with Burton that, at the beginning of the 11th century, prompted Wulfric Spot -- a Mercian nobleman with royal connections -- to found a Benedictine abbey near the spot where she was buried. In his will, dating from about 1002, he endowed the monastery with 48 estates (including Burton) and appointed King Ethelred (979-1013, 1014-16) its 'lord'.
For much of its 500-year history, Burton abbey probably presented a generally Norman appearance, with added decorated Gothic features, and a standard Benedictine plan. It was much larger than the present church, which occupies part of the same site. The north range of the abbey cloister was approximately where the fish market is today, and the present market hall stands on the site of some of the other abbey buildings, as does the Manor House and The Abbey Inn. Soon after its foundation, it attracted many pilgrims, who were able to see the shrine of St Modwen inside the abbey, where her remains were deposited, and a statue of her in her chapel on Andressey, the island in the Trent where she is supposed to have lived. The water from a nearby well was believed to have healing properties. As late as 1535, offerings to the shrine and chapel totalled £2 a year -- a large sum.
Two surveys of 1114 and 1126 give us some idea of how Burton had fared in the century or so since the Norman invasion. The population is estimated to have been about 60 households, and the arable demesne land within the manor of Burton -- which was scattered about the open fields in pieces called 'flatts' -- totalled about 500 acres. The area of the manor was limited by the fact that Burton was a town -- demesnes elsewhere on the abbey estates were larger. Crops grown included wheat, barley, oats, rye, peas, beans and vetch. The abbey itself was largely self-sufficient in food: the fertile soils of the river plain provided for both arable cultivation and cattle-rearing, and the river produced fish and the power for watermills to grind corn.
fairs and markets
In 1200, King John granted to Abbot William Melburne (1197-1213) the right to hold a three-day fair on the vigil, feast and morrow of St Modwen and a weekly Thursday market. (The fair is still held during the first week after Michaelmas -- usually in early October -- but is now known as the Burton Statutes.) The first recorded market hall was built by Abbot Thomas Feld (1472-93). This was demolished in 1772 and replaced by a town hall, also with stalls, erected at the expense of the earl of Uxbridge. This in turn was demolished to make way for the present market hall, which opened on 23 October 1883.
It is the charter also granted to Abbot William by King John that is usually accepted as the formal starting point of the borough of Burton. Both it and the granting of a fair were commercial speculations by the abbot -- today he would be called a property speculator. There were two further expansions of the borough in 1273 and 1286, but by 1319 -- with a population estimated at about 1,500 -- Burton's development had slowed down and there was little or no further growth until the 19th century.
Throughout the Middle Ages, the abbey dominated the life of the town. The Burton burgesses did not have any significant powers, and the abbot's five manor courts remained the main organs of local government. However, although they could fine people for minor offences, the abbot -- as lord of the manor -- had the right to hang thieves caught within his manor. The rolls (records) of the courts, which were held on the abbey estates, provide much information on life in medieval Burton.
the bridge and rebellion
It is likely that the first bridge over the Trent at Burton was built at about the time of the foundation of the abbey in the early 11th century, and the monks assumed responsibility for its maintenance. It was built of stone from a quarry a mile downstream, and originally was 15 ft wide and 515 yd long. The number of arches is a matter of dispute, ranging from 34 to 37.
In 1322, the bridge was the scene of a royal victory. Thomas, the 2nd Earl of Lancaster, in rebellion against Edward II, fortified the bridge in the hope of checking the king's advance north. The latter's first attack was repulsed, but then his forces forded the river above Burton. Faced with the danger of encirclement, Lancaster retreated, but not before he set fire to the town. He was defeated at Boroughbridge in Yorkshire a short time later and was then executed.
The mortality in Burton caused by the Black Death of 1349 and a second wave of the plague in 1361 cannot be measured for lack of evidence. However, we do know that the peasants who survived benefited from the scourge's economic consequences. A combination of labour shortages, poverty and peasant resistance made it impossible for the abbots to enforce the heavy payments and obligations of the earlier part of the century. In 1367, the inhabitants of the town refused to use the abbey's mill to grind their corn, and in the same year, ten villeins in Stretton refused to carry out the autumn labour services they owed to the abbey.
the end of the abbey
An Act of Parliament of 1536 dissolved monasteries valued at less than £200. When Burton abbey was assessed in 1535, its net income was said to be £424 17s. 4d. Nevertheless, early in 1538 Sir William Bassett of Meynell Langley in Derbyshire -- on the orders of Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII's vicar-general, vice-regent and deputy head of the Church -- removed the statue of St Modwen, defaced the tabernacle in which it was housed and forbade any further offerings to be made. He sent the statue to Cromwell, but what happened to it next is unknown.
In 1539, a second Act of Dissolution was passed. This time it was the turn of the greater monasteries, including Burton abbey: in November of that year, Henry VIII's royal commissioner received its surrender. However, two years later, it was reconstituted as the collegiate college church of Christ and St Mary, the former abbot William Edys being appointed dean and four of the monks becoming prebendaries. How Burton managed to obtain this concession can only be speculated upon. In any event, the college was short-lived: it was dissolved in November 1545, and two months later, the college and all its possessions -- except the parish church with its lead and bells -- were granted to Sir William Paget.
The Pagets are traditionally thought to have started as nail-makers of Wednesbury. William's father prospered enough to become sergeant-at-mace to the sheriff of London, and William himself went to Cambridge University. His talents quickly brought him to the notice of the powers-that-be, and by 1543, he had become one of the two principal secretaries of state to Henry VIII. Following the king's death, he played an important part in the coup that overthrew the monarch's will and established Edward Seymour as Lord Protector, and for his services, he was created Knight of the Garter. When Seymour, then Duke of Somerset, fell from power in 1549, Paget didn't: he had already deserted his former master and was now created a peer: Lord Paget of Beaudesert. His fortunes did take a turn for the worse in 1551 when he was imprisoned in the Tower of London and fined. He returned to office under Mary I, but retired on the accession of Elizabeth I and died in 1563. Some of his descendants, who became earls of Uxbridge and marquesses of Anglesey, lived in the Manor House that was within the abbey precincts.
The Pagets succeeded the abbots of Burton as lords of the manor and owned much of the property in the town until they sold up in the 20th century. Numerous street and public house names in Burton bear witness to the local importance of this family.
For a general overview, see the timeline
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