|
About the Village |
It is
hard to imagine how a village happens;
first one house, then another and it
slowly grows until a community is formed
with all the facilities necessary to
allow it to survive. No one can be
absolutely sure where the first building
appeared or indeed, why here at all.
Geography often forms a reason for the
existence of an inn or place of
business, such as on a crossroads, or
nearby a river crossing, adding to the
desire for new residents to put down
their roots.
Week St. Mary (St. Mary's village) was
originally a settlement on the frontiers
separating the early Saxon invaders from
the old Celtic inhabitants. The frontier
ran southwest from Bude between the
village and the coast. The deep valleys
and tumbled hills made a natural
boundary, further defended by such camps
as Ashbury and Whalesborough.
Situated just a few miles inland from
the Atlantic coastline, the settlement
has grown from humble beginnings into a
substantial thriving community. It is
firmly planted in Cornwall albeit only a
mile or so from the Devon border. |
|
The same Richard holds WEEK
ST MARY. Cola held it TRE
and it paid geld for half a
hide. Yet there is 1 hide.
[There is] land for 8
ploughs. There are 3
ploughs, and 4 slaves and 6
villans and 10 bordars, and
2 acres of woodland, and
pasture 1 league long and as
much broad. Formerly 20s;
now it is worth 30s. The
same man holds PENHALLYM.
Erneis held it TRE and it
paid geld for half a hide.
Yet there are 1 & ½ hides.
[There is] land for 10
ploughs. There are 6
ploughs, and 6 slaves and 8
villans and 22 bordars, and
6 acres of woodland. [There
is] pasture 1 league long
and as much broad. Formerly
40s; now it is worth 30s.
The same man holds
DOWNINNEY. Maeligrle-Sveinn
held it TRE and it paid geld
for 1 hide. Yet there are 2
hides. There is land for 12
ploughs. There are 10
ploughs, and 10 slaves and
10 villans and 20 bordars.
[There is] pasture 1 league
long and as much broad.
Right: A
translation from the
Doomsday Book for
Week St. Mary, formerly
known as 'Wich'. |
|
 |
Although difficult to grasp at
first it is still noticeable
that it mentions quite a bit of
ground and a number of people -
this shows that the village has
already grown to some substance
by this period in our history.
Week St. Mary is thus recorded in the
Domesday Book as the small settlement of
'Wich' and this manor was granted to
Richard Fitz Turold, steward of the Earl
of Cornwall, Robert of Mortain, a half
brother of William I. The settlement had
a recorded occupancy of about six
villagers and ten smallholders. This
period of our history was apparently
quite a bloody one; the military
conquest of England by William, duke of
Normandy (later William I), was mainly
through his victory over Harold II at
the Battle of Hastings. Edward the
Confessor had designated William as his
successor in 1051, so when Harold, duke
of Wessex, was crowned king of England
in 1066 instead, William assembled an
invasion force of some 5,000 knights.
After defeating Harold's army near
Hastings on October 14 and advancing to
London, he was crowned king in
Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day,
1066. Native revolts continued until
1071, notably in Northumbria. The Norman
Conquest brought great social and
political changes to England, linking
the country more closely with Western
Europe and replacing the old English
aristocracy with a Norman aristocracy.
The English language was subjected to a
long period of influence by
Anglo-French, which remained in literary
and courtly use until the reign of
Edward III and in legal reporting until
the 17th century.
Week St. Mary was allegedly a small,
typical medieval market town which
served the surrounding countryside;
generally of up to half a day's walk
away. This ancient borough is noted for
the arrangement of 'strip fields'
(burgage stitches) radiating outwards
from the church and castle. Whilst other
examples of strip fields can be found
nearby at Forrabury they do not follow
the same layout.
It seems probable that for centuries it
was a place of some importance in the
surrounding countryside. A few fields
westward of the present village and
church is a flat-topped circular hill
known as Ashbury: it is now a field, but
all round it can be seen the earth-works
which surrounded a prehistoric fortified
"bury" ("burgh" or "borough").
Later came the Normans to settle in a
hostile country. Anyone coming from the
coast, who has seen Week St. Mary church
tower persistently pushing itself into
view, can imagine a Norman Baron finding
hereabouts a good place on which to
build his castle. This is what certainly
happened. The field adjoining the
Churchyard on the west is still known as
“Castle Ditch,” and in it is a large
mound, which marks the site of an old
building, and which from its shape tells
us that it was a Norman Castle. Under
the shelter of this castle we may
suppose was built the Church of “Our
Lady of Week” on the same site as the
present Church.
The Castle, together with the Manor and
Borough of Week, belonged in 1085 to the
powerful Baron Fitz Turold, Lord of
Cardinham. A member of his house settled
here, and about 1171, Osbert, Prior of
Tywardreath, with eight of his monks,
witnessed a deed by which Walter de Wick
and Aliz, daughter of Richard de Wick,
granted to the Priory the right of the
advowson3 'in the Church of the Blessed
Virgin Mary of Wick'. It is plain
therefore that the family called “de
Wick” took its name from Wick St. Mary.
The monks of Tywardreath did not long
retain the patronage, for at an early
date the manor of Week came into the
possession of the Blanchminster family.
Ralph de Blanchminster, of whom there is
a monumental effigy in armour in
Stratton Church, died in 1348.
That Week St. Mary was still considered
a place of some importance may be
inferred from the following story:
Richard Buvyle, Rector of the
neighbouring parish of Whitstone, died
in 1358, slain either by his own hand or
by some enemy. He was doubtless buried
at cross roads. Rumour had it that he
was a saint, and some remarkable cures
having taken place at his grave, the
body was translated to Whitstone Church.
Meanwhile the “cult” of this new saint
had taken hold of all North Cornwall and
Devonshire. Bands of people kept nightly
vigils at the first place of his burial,
saying prayers for his soul. These, with
the friends who brought them victuals,
turned the place into a regular fair,
resulting in such behaviour that Bishop
Grandisson felt bound to interfere. He
ordered the “cultus” to cease until due
enquiry into the alleged cures had been
made. In 1361, a jury consisting of
three vicars, three curates and six
laymen was specially summoned at Week
St. Mary for the purpose, and they sent
to the Bishop a certificate of ten cures
performed on five men and five women.
After this the matter seems to have died
a natural death, for we hear no more
about it.
A writer in 1799 says: “The Churchtown
is in all ancient records called the
Borough of Week St. Mary, and the
occupiers of certain fields are still
called Burgage holders. The custom of
electing a mayor is still kept up, but
his office is merely nominal.”
Papers in the possession of the late
Col. I'ans show that certain families
held different estates by lease, which
were tributary to the Crown; and in
particular the honour and fee of Week
St. Mary was a part of the inheritance
of the Duchy of Cornwall. Edward III
created the Duchy in 1337 for
maintenance of his eldest son, then aged
7 years. Christopher Pollard, Esq.,
after having granted leases of several
burgage tenements, sold the fee to
Prince Charles, afterwards Charles I, in
a warrant dated February, 1616, and
addressed to the free tenants of the
Manor of Swannacott and Week St. Mary.
In 1637 an order was issued for the
steward and bailiff of Week St. Mary to
appear “within goat skin mantles” and
account before the court.
The descendants of the Blanchminsters
and their connections including such
famous names as Tresillian, Granville,
Earl of Bath, Carteret, continued to be
patrons of the Living of Week St. Mary
until 1786, when, by agreement with the
Master and Fellows of Sidney Sussex
College, Cambridge, Lord Carteret
exchanged it for that of Wilshampstead,
which was close to his family seat near
Bedford.
Following on from the Domesday reference
the manor of Week St. Mary was held by
the De Wyke family, then, during the
13th century the village passed to the
Blanchminster family. The seaside town
of Bude, just seven miles northwest of
Week St. Mary still has a number of
properties owned by the Blanchminster
Trust.
The major components of the ancient
borough are the church, 'castle' and the
market site. The ruins of this castle
located in the field adjoining the
church and locally named Castle Ditch,
would almost certainly have been of
wooden construction. Nothing but
distinct mounds are visible suggesting
ancient ramparts although there is no
evidence that the castle played host to
any attacks! The earthworks represent a
11th or 12th century castle and
reportedly it would have failed to gain
any significance past the 14th or 15th
centuries.
The church stands on the site of an
earlier Norman church - the 99ft tower
stands high and mighty and can be seen
from so many vantage points of the
surrounding countryside. Whilst mostly
of 15th century construction there is
evidence of 13th and 14th century work.
Thomasine Bonaventure: Much has been
written of this woman. Many of the
stories that have been passed down
through the generations dwell on the
romantic element of the story whilst
others pooh-pooh the whole story giving
it a totally different slant. The
Dictionary of National Biography has
registered a version in that it seems
that some of the tales about her early
life are incorrect and she belonged to
the gentry and was not a poor shepherd's
daughter.
One of the best 'popular' versions is
that of the following, from "A Romance
of Week St. Mary". In the year 1463, in
the reign of King Edward IV, a London
merchant, accompanied by his serving
man, was crossing the moors to the south
of Wyke St. Mary, and, seeking shelter
for the night, met a maiden looking
after a few sheep. This event was in the
general area of Greenamoord1. At the
stranger's request she took him to her
father's humble home, and there the
wayfarer stayed that night. Next morning
Richard Burnsby, for such was his name,
having been greatly impressed by their
daughter's wit and beauty, asked the
parents if he might take her to London
to assist his wife. So Thomasine
Bonaventure set off, travelling pillion
behind her master's servant, and in a
fortnight's time was riding through the
streets of London town, which one day
were to ring with the praises of this
unknown village maid. After Thomasine
had spent a few years as a capable and
faithful serving maid, her mistress
died, and she consented to become the
wife of her master.
Three years
afterwards her husband died of the
plague, leaving to his wife - a young
and beautiful widow - the whole of his
property. In one of her letters she
announces her husband's death and gives
the Reeve of Week St. Mary ten marks “to
the intent that he shall cause skilful
masons to build a bridge at the Ford of
Green-a-more, yea, and with stout
stonework well laid, and see that they
do no harm to that tree which standeth
fast by the brook, neither dispoyle they
the rushes and plants that grow thereby:
for there did I pass many goodly hours
when I was a small mayde, and there did
I first see the face of a faithful
friend.”
An old chronicler says: “Her dower,
together with her youth and beauty,
procured her to the cognizance of divers
well-deserving men, who thereupon made
addresses of marriage to her, but none
of them obtained her affection, but only
Henry Gall of St. Lawrence, Milk Street,
an eminent and wealthy citizen, and a
merchant adventurer.”
Soon after their marriage we find that
“twenty acres of woodland copse in the
neighbourhood were bought and conveyed
by the gracious lady Dame Thomasine Gall
to feofees and trustmen, for the
perpetual use of the poor of Week St.
Mary, for fewel to be hewn in pieces
once a year and finally and equally
divided, for evermore on the vigil of
St. Thomas the Twin.”
After five years Henry Gall died,
leaving his wife a great fortune, and it
is written, “The fame of the virtue,
wealth and beauty of the said Thomasine
spread itself over the City of London,
so that persons of the greatest
magnitude of wealth and dignity there
courted her, Among the rest it was the
fortune of John Percyval, Esquire,
goldsmith and userer (that is to say,
banker) to prevail upon her to become
his wife.” He was very wealthy and of
high repute, alderman of his ward and of
noble character. Their wedding, about
the year 1480, was made a kind of public
festival. As a wedding gift of
remembrance to her old home she directed
that “a firm and stedfast road should be
laid down with stones, at her sole cost,
along the midst of Green-a moor, and fit
for man and beast to travel on with
their lawful occasions from Lanstephadon
(Launceston) to the sea.”
At another time she gave forty marks
towards the building of a tower for St.
Stephen's Church, above the causeway of
Dunheved, and it was her wish “that they
should carry their pinnacles so high
that they might be seen from Swannacote
Cross, by the moor, to the intent that
they who do behold it from the Burgage
Mound may remember the poor mayde who is
now a wedded dame of London Citie.”
In 1486 John Percyval became Sheriff of
London, and in 1498 Lord Mayor, and was
knighted by the King.
With the church and market area paired
together at the northern end of the
village it shows the strength and
importance of each to the community both
in the past and more recent centuries.
The relatively recent demise of the
cattle market has not detracted from the
main Square being the natural assembly
point for many village functions.
Described in 1820, Week St. Mary, or St.
Mary - Week, situated in the Hundred of
Stratton and Deanery of Trigg-Major,
just seven miles south of Stratton;
about ten miles north-west of
Launceston, which is the post-office
town; and ten west of Holsworthy in
Devonshire. The principal villages in
this parish, exclusively of the
church-town, are Bakesdown, Lower Exe,
Kitsham and Week Orchard. These names
are now only classed as 'areas' lying
within the parish boundary.
The manor of Week St. Mary belonged at
an early period to the Blanchminsters,
from whom it passed to the Coleshills.
In the process of time, the manorial
rights were transferred from Week St.
Mary to Swannacott; for in 1620 we find
that Sir Warwick Hele held the manor of
Swannacott, and Week St. Mary Burgh, as
parcel of the same. The manor of
Swannacott, including Week St. Mary, is
now (written in 1820) the property of
the Right Honourable Lord de
Dunstanville, by inheritance from the
Heles.
The surrounding properties in the parish
include the manor of Marrais, or
East-Orchard-Marrais and Marham Church,
which belonged to the ancient Marrais
family whose heirs married an ancestor
of the Rolle family. Subsequent sales
now finds Marhayes as a private
dwelling. A licence for a private chapel
was granted to the Lord of Marhays and
in 1727 the estate of Marhays was
responsible for the upkeep of an altar
in the south aisle of the church.
In these more modern times the village
has been a thriving place, but, as is
typical of so many small villages, that
independence has been eroded by the
availability of supermarkets and the
'instant purchase' options of the
internet. Over the past 50 years this
has seen most of the local industry
almost totally gone, except for the
local village shop & Post Office and a
small handfull of other businesses.
Despite that, the village has a strong
record of 'community action' and this is
demonstrated by the number of clubs and
the following that they draw from the
surrounding area. |
|
|
|
|
|
