A previous Dottie Tale looked at the history of Sopwell Priory in St Albans, but the women living there were only mentioned in passing. However, some of the women of spirit and intellect associated with the priory deserve a closer look. One of them is the first woman translator whose name is known: Dame Eleanor Hull (c.1394–1460). I wanted to find out more about her.
In the early 1980s, I had the opportunity to spend a year as a German assistant at two schools in Hertfordshire, one in Hatfield, and the other one was Chancellor’s School, at the eastern side of the village of Brookmans Park.
Chancellor’s School first opened its doors to students in September 1964, so anyone expecting medieval looking buildings will be disappointed – it’s rather run of the mill sixties’ style functionality. However, the name reflects a connection to more interesting times. The teachers told me that the school owes its name to Sir Thomas More, sometime chancellor of Henry VIII, because it was built on land which once belonged to him. When during the year of A Man for All Seasons was performed in nearby Welwyn Garden City, they invited me to go and see it with them.
Imagine you were travelling in medieval times from London to St Albans. The main road was still -as it had been since Roman times – Watling Street. Originally, Watling Street ran through the Roman town of Verulamium, but medieval St Albans and its abbey, founded by King Offa in 793, lay a bit to the northeast. According to the Gesta Abbatum Monasterii Sancti Albani, the medieval town was created by the sixth abbot Ulsinus (or Wulsin) in the mid-10th century[i]:
Abbot Wulsin was famous for his spiritual and worldly achievements. He loved the district and people of St Albans and looked after their interests. He brought the people from the surrounding areas together and made them live in the town itself, providing and enlarging a market place. He helped them construct buildings by providing money and materials. He built the churches of St Peter to the north, St Stephen to the south, and St Michael to the west, with a dedicated share of land, to improve both the appearance and resources of the town, and to care for the souls of its people.[ii]
The original route of Watling Street would have by-passed his new town, so he re-routed it to attract visitors to the town and his new churches. Now travellers were to turn off at St Stephen’s Church, go down St Stephen’s Hill and up Holywell Hill.
The new route was not without problems though. The River Ver needed to be crossed, initially there was a ford, but a bridge was built in the 12th century. And Holywell Hill was – and still is – rather steep. Travellers found it easier to go along Green Lane (now Cottonmill Lane) and Sopwell Lane, which turns into Holywell Hill after the steepest bit.[iii] As a consequence many inns and hostels were being set up along the route. To this day, Sopwell Lane is regarded as one of the “best pub crawls in England”.[iv]
This little detour took our medieval traveller not only to a pub but also to the topic of this post: Sopwell Priory, dedicated to St Mary. Sopwell was one of three local daughter-houses of St Albans Abbey, the other two were another nunnery, St Mary de Pré, and a leper hospital dedicated to St Julian.
Continue readingThough the once thriving market town of Hertford declined after the Conquest, this does not mean that nothing of note happened here. Hertford’s claim to fame is that it had the first recorded commercial paper mill in Britain.
Today, Hertford has the atmosphere of a quiet country town rather than that of a bustling and prosperous trading centre. However, in its Anglo-Saxon days that was completely different.
It all started when – according to Anglo-Saxon Chronicle – Edward the Elder (reigned 899 to 924) established a burh (a fortification) on the north side of the River Lea, “betwixt the Memer, and the Benwic, and the Lea” [i] in 912 (though there is some controversy about the year, it might have been 911 or 913 as well). The following year, his forces built another one on the southern side.
Edward the Elder (Wikimedia Commons)
The Venerable Bede wrote in the Ecclesiastical History of England (731) that a synod of the church in England took place “on the 24th day of September, at the place which is called Herutford … in the year of our Lord 673”.[i] Looks like a perfectly clear statement, doesn’t it? If only it was that easy. Continue reading
This is the last of three parts dealing with Berkhamsted in Hertfordshire.
St Peter’s Church from Castle Street
I made my way back to the High Street along Castle Street, the original access route to the castle. It used to end at the South Gate, the main entrance to the castle. However, both the gate and the moat in that part were knocked down to make place for the railway in the 19th century.
I walked past Berkhamsted School to St Peter’s Church, at the corner of Castle Street and the High Street. Continue reading
This is the second of three parts dealing with Berkhamsted in Hertfordshire.
Castle Ruins
When I visited Berkhamsted, rather than the town itself, my first stop were the ruins of the castle. As the reason for my visit was to pay my respects to Cecily Neville, the mother of Richard III, it was only polite to go to where she had resided.
The castle is located a bit away from the town, on higher ground, instead of the marshy river area. Berkhamsted was an important strategic location, as it was on one of the main routes between London and the Midlands, approx. 30 miles (= 48 km) from the capital.
Don’t be confused by today’s entrance to the castle area. You will pass the Keeper’s House, but this is only from the 19th century. Continue reading
This is the first of three parts dealing with Berkhamsted in Hertfordshire. The posts are based on a talk I gave at the recent Ricardian convention at Albury, where members of the Richard III Society from Australia and New Zealand met.
(This post was updated 21 Dec. 2018)
Grand Union Canal in Berkhamsted
A few years ago, while visiting the UK, I decided to go to Berkhamsted in Hertfordshire, where the mother of Richard III, Cecily Neville, duchess of York, had resided for a long period.
(Great) Berkhamsted is a town in western Hertfordshire. Not to be confused with Little Berkhamsted, a village, also in Hertfordshire, approx. 6 km east of Hatfield. When we lived in central Hertfordshire for five years in the 1990s, Little Berkhamsted was much closer to home and easily visited. However, a trip to the other Berkhamsted so far west had been in the too hard basket at that time!
It took the distance from Australia to put things into perspective. So, when, many years later, I was going to drive from St Albans to Oxford, it was the perfect opportunity to make up for my earlier negligence. In anticipation of my trip, I told some friends that I would be going to meet up with Cecily Neville for a coffee.
Cecily Neville
Most mornings, still half asleep, I have a look at Facebook on my phone to see whether anything monumental has happened overnight. Most mornings I am disappointed, but the other morning I was suddenly wide awake: Another cleric had been found, but not just any old cleric! This one is John Whetehamstede, well-known to anyone interested in the late medieval period and the Wars of the Roses as an eye witness to the two battles of St Albans.
St Albans Cathedral seen from the east
Dottie Tales 