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Saturday 21 January 2012

The ANGLO-SAXON ORIGIN of St Ann’s

10044367Not very far from my home in St Ann’s is situated Plantagenet Street, nothing unusual about that, except its name commemorates a point in History. The Romans departed from Britain in AD407 to be replaced by the Anglo-Saxon empire up to 1066, the battle of Hastings. In this period of history we have the Angevines, often known to historians as The Plantagenet's. The significance here lies in a great battle between the Plantagenet's and the Danes that took place in an area quite close to Sneinton Market, which the Danes won. The first inhabitants that settled in the Clay fields were therefore almost certainly Anglo Danes, while Anglo paganism lay behind local customs for more than five centuries.

This marked the beginning in Britain of Danish rules known as the Dane law that lasted during the 11th - 12th centuries. It was customary during this period to buy peace from the Danes by paying a tax known as the geld that was based on the number of hides of livestock, and land owned by individuals. Plantagenet Street is therefore of singular importance in the history of St. Anne's.

King_William_I_('The_Conqueror')_from_NPGWe owe our earliest knowledge about the King's realm known as the Coppice, on which is located St Ann’s Well, to the two volume Doomsday book of 1066-86 set up on the orders of William the Conqueror (William-I), shown here on the left.

The Doomsday book records geld assessments on about 45,000 land holdings in 14,000 named places. The book tells us that in King Edward's time (1042-46) he owned "1 meadow and Underwood, six furlongs in length and five in breadth." Described as 'The Coppice,' "it was divided among 38 burgesses, and rendered 75 shillings & 7 old pennies from the rent of the land, the services of the Burgesses, and 40 shillings from two moneyers."

The book also tells us that apart from the King another landowner of The Coppice was Berenger de Tosny, Second son of Robert de Tosny, who had Holdings in Lincs. Oxon., and Yorkshire as well as Nottingham. Tosney had one carucate (15 acres) of land of which the King use to have the 2 pennies and Tosney himself the third.

domesday-bookThe Doomsday book, shown here on the right, records that "Hugh, the son of Baldric, the Sheriff [of Nottingham], found 136 men dwellings, now there are sixteen less." The final account records that "Hugh built 13 houses that were not before."

Documents remain scarce for this period of history and the next three centuries, until we are able to read the book of Nottingham Historian Dr Charles Deering "Nottingham Vetus Et Nova," published in 1781. Deering informs us that in the 'Forest Records' "William Chaundeler of Nottingham, keeper of St Leonard's (1357-58), made an encroachment of half acre of ground in the King's domain, within the court of the town of Nottingham, in the hermitage that is called Oswell."

This provides us with a connection between the disability illness of leprosy and the hermitage at what was then known as Oswell. Nottingham had five hospitals or alms-houses, between the 12th - 15th centuries, two of which, that of St Leonard's and St Mary's, were for the lepers of the town.

Dr Charles Deering continues "William of Copole, clerk that is now dead, held an assert of old time, that is called hermitage Wong, within the covert of the King's wood [The Coppice], of 20 acres of ground."

As I have briefly mentioned, King Henry-IV may have visited the site of St Ann’s Well on a number of occasions during his reign, and of great interest here is that the King did suffer leprosy during the last few years of his life; he died in 1514.

The Borough Records of Nottingham dated 1552 also contain an interesting account concerning The Coppice, that in 1875 it was the Council's chosen site for an "astronomical observatory." However, nothing became of this as their public subscription and application to parliament failed to secure the necessary funds. A careful look at the 1881 ordnance survey map does show the site of an observatory at the bottom of Thyra Grove, Mapperley, built by the late Thomas Bush in 1877. No connection here with St Ann’s along with its famous holy well, however, upon investigating the life of Bush it proved to be a fascinating history.

148We have already read about the Borough Records in the time of Queen Anne (1702-14). One account in the Records, and given by Dr. Charles Deering, notes the story of the first introduction of the potato crop in St Ann’s. Historically it was Captain Cook in the 1590s who introduced the potato to England. The English celebrated by introducing the Poor Relief Act and performing the plays of Shakespeare —

"Robert Purcell, a native of Ireland, came to Nottingham to cultivate wastelands and to grow the field potato. Before that time, this root had only been grown in the garden. He took up his abode at the farmhouse kept by a Mrs Blee. Robert Purcell was here given permission to clear away the Underwood of a piece of land, which he planted with potatoes, his crop was abundant and he realised great profits."

SA_Page_061_Image_0001On the ‘Picture the Past' website, there is a woodcut illustration showing the hermitage attached to the side of the main house dated 1820 (Image Reference NTGM007625). The account of Robert Purcell given here by Deering seems to suggest that the date of this woodcut may be in error by about a century, unless this is nothing more than the actual date of the publication of the drawing. However, we have confirmation of Mrs Blee running the farmhouse in 1741 due to the published account of a murder of one of Mrs Blee's young servants.

On the morning of 22 September 1741, just after midnight, John Clark, a young servant with "widow Blee," heard a noise among his mistress's poultry in the "farmyard." He got up and went down stairs into the "little farmyard," which he had scarcely entered, when a gun was fired at him killing him instantly, but the murderers escaped detection, and nothing further was known or heard of the dreadful catastrophe until late 1796.

In 1767, a framework knitter of the town, John Shore, gave information to the magistrates that to his knowledge the murder was committed by John Wilkins, James Cuff, and two brothers, all soldiers in "General Churchill's" regiment of Dragoons, then quartered in the town. He knew that they had been out deer stealing, but having been unsuccessful, they determined to have some of "Mrs Blee's" geese on their return, in this they were disappointed by the appearance of the servant, the unfortunate John Clark.

Wilkins & Cuff were immediately arrested in the neighbourhood of London, being then out patients of Chelsea Hospital, and were brought back to Nottingham and lodged in the town jail [Which was then a dungeon below the original Guildhall in the Lace Market].

154However, as the other parties were dead who might have witnessed against them, sufficient evidence was not obtained to convict, and soon after, on his deathbed, one of them confessed his "own" guilt and that of his "three companions."

Between about 1796 to exactly 1824, Mrs Blee's farmhouse had become a venue for socialising with beer and alcohol being readily sold. However, a number of brawls along side unruly behaviour took place at the big house, and the Borough Records record that the venue lost its victualler's licence in 1824 for disorderly behaviour.

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