A Story in Stone

A Royal Place

Doomsday Geddington

The Norman Conquest brought fundamental changes to English life, including that of the church. There was a reorganisation of dioceses and nearly all of the Saxon bishops were replaced by appointees of King William I. From 1085 Geddington became part of a new Diocese of Lincoln and remained so until the Reformation.

At the time of the Domesday Book (1086) Geddington was a small settlement with a recorded population (which excluded those of lower status) of nine households, of whom 5 were freemen (socmen) and 4 were smallholders (cottagers). It had two ploughlands (curucates) and 2 men's plough teams. As had been the case pre-conquest, the lands at Geddington were owned partly (one hide – about 120 acres) by the King’s manor of Brigstock and partly (one virgate – roughly 30 acres) by the Abbey of Bury St. Edmonds in Suffolk.

Freemen had a special status. They were not ‘serfs’ or ‘villeins’. They had some personal freedom and were entitled to own land. They were not bound to the land in the same way as serfs, but their freedom could vary. Some rented land from the king or a lord. They would owe certain duties or services in return.

Smallholders were peasants who held a small amount of land. Their status was lower than freemen and they had fewer rights. They worked their own land but also owed labour and other services to the lord of the manor. Smallholders could be also be freemen. More often they were villeins or cottars with fewer rights, controlled by their lord.

Serfs were peasants who were tied to the land they worked on. They were the lowest class in the feudal system. They had very limited rights. They had to work on their lord’s land for certain days each week. They could not leave the manor or marry without their lord’s permission.

Villeins were slightly higher class of peasant than serfs. They were still bound to the land but had more rights than serfs. They could hold and cultivate their own plots of land. In return, they owed various services to the lord of the manor. They worked on the lord’s land, made payments in kind, and had other feudal dues.

Cottars, or cottagers, were a lower class of peasants. They had smaller landholdings than villeins. They usually lived in a simple cottage and worked a small piece of land. Like villeins, they owed services to the lord, but less than villeins.

Church Reforms

Until this time, the western church was heavily decentralised, which meant the Pope held comparatively little power outside of his position as Bishop of Rome. But, in the decades immediately after the Conquest, a series of reforms began a process whereby the church (as God’s representative) both insisted on celibacy among the clergy and increasingly asserted its separation from, and spiritual authority over, secular authorities.

Before the reforms, local bishops were granted land by secular rulers (‘lay investiture’), and a ban on this practice was a key part of the reforms, along with an insistence that lords of manors should not receive any part of the tithes levied for the support of the church – achieved by the lord donating land and property into a ‘glebe’ whose revenues accrued to the church.

Relations between Church and State

Having incurred great expense in building the church and parsonage and having suffered a loss of income, however, lords of the manor insisted on the right to select the parish priest. Equally bishops, from whom religious authority flowed, in turn demanded the right to confirm the appointment. This was part of a wider European ‘investiture’ controversy between kings and the church over the right to appoint bishops and abbots.

From this developed the right of patronage or ‘advowson’ – the right of a lord to present a nominee to the diocesan bishop for appointment as the parish priest. This right of presentation is still very widespread today: here in Geddington the right now belongs to the church’s patron, the Duke of Buccleuch.

The Council of Rockingham

One aspect of the tension between church and state concerned whether bishops owed their primary allegiance to the Pope or to the king (and indeed which Pope, as there were two in the late 11^th Century). The Council of Rockingham (1095) attempted to resolve this dispute within England. The Council was attended by St. Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, and one intriguing speculation is whether he paused at Geddington Church on his way back to Canterbury.

A King’s House

In 1129, things in Geddington began to change in a big way. Henry I’s accounts for that year show £17 being made 'in the making of the king's house at Geytinton'. Built a little way north of the church in an area later known as ‘Castle Close’ (see map), this ‘house’ was initially a hunting lodge, but eventually became an important residence, evidenced by documentary and archaeological sources, including parch-marks seen in aerial photographs.

Its location on the Stamford to Oxford road, the proximity of Rockingham Castle and the surrounding Rockingham Forest meant the royal love of hunting had given Geddington a new importance.

A Parliament

By the late 12^th Century, the royal residence must have been quite substantial, for it was capable of hosting the Great Council of the King, which was twice summoned to meet at Geddington, first in 1177 and then (following the news that Jerusalem had fallen), on 11^th February 1188, to levy a tax for a crusade that never took place:

“Henry, king of England, having returned to England after the feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary [2 February] called together all the chief persons of the whole of England including Baldwin, archbishop of Canterbury, and all the bishops and abbots, and other chief men of his kingdom at Geddington. And after he had explained his wishes to them, Baldwin, archbishop of Canterbury, and John [of Oxford], bishop of Norwich, assumed the Cross of the Lord at Bristol”.

Richard I (‘Lionheart’) received William, King of Scotland, at Geddington and spent the Good Friday of 1194 with him here. It seems very likely that they would have worshipped together in the church on this most holy of days. His brother John, who became King in 1199, was a regular visitor to Geddington: as chronicled in Vic Crouse’s book The Magna Carta King in Geddington and the Rockingham Forest.

A Richly-Appointed Place

During the reign of Henry III, the palace became a more commodious and richly-appointed place that had private chapels for the King and Queen painted green with spangled gold. The King’s chapel included a Chancel. Archaeological evidence of this emerged during preparation of the ground for the churchyard extension in 1907, when “several running feet of the palace foundations, varying from two feet six inches upwards in the thickness” were unearthed. The finds also included smelted iron pieces, perhaps evidence of the four royal furnaces in the time of Henry III, and these probably helped supply munitions for use in the siege of Rockingham Castle (1220).

Norman Alterations to the Church

The first major post-conquest change to Geddington Church was the construction of a new North Aisle around the year 1170. This involved removing much of the solid wall construction of the Saxon Nave’s north wall, with extensive propping by skilled Norman engineers and masons, using techniques superior to those of the Saxon epoch. Fortunately, much of the thinner high-level Saxon walls, and the NE and SE quoins remain intact. It is possible that the original Saxon Chancel may have been enlarged at this time also, although this is not certain.

The Saxon south wall, which would have included the main southern entrance, remained intact at this time, although all traces of a Saxon doorway have long since disappeared under later changes. The arcade separating the North Aisle from the Nave was built with the rounded ‘Romanesque’ arches typical of the Norman period.

The King’s Door

There was clearly a link with the nearby Royal palace: the external door in the north wall still being called the ‘King’s Door’ to this day, though the Norman door was probably a metre or so lower than today. We can imagine every English King from Henry I to Edward I, along with Queens and other magnates of the realm decked in their fine robes processing into the church for Mass.

Queen Eleanor of Castile

The last monarch to stay at Geddington was Edward I, who was a frequent visitor as he travelled around his kingdom. But it was his Queen, Eleanor of Castile, who has left the most lasting impression on Geddington. Eleanor was born in Burgos, daughter of Ferdinand III of Castile and Joan, Countess of Ponthieu and was a highly intelligent and cultured woman, though she was not fluent in English, and spoke mostly French. She married Henry III’s heir, Edward at the monastery of Las Huelgas in Burgos in 1254 and subsequently gave birth to 17 children, of whom only 6 survived into adulthood: one son, later to become King Edward II, and 5 daughters.

The available evidence suggests they were devoted to each other, and the couple were rarely apart. Eleanor was a patron of the Dominican Friars, popularised the use of tapestries and carpets, promoted the use of fine tableware and utensils and was influential in the development of garden design on royal estates. She also gave significant sums to charities.

Eleanor died at Harby, near Lincoln on the evening of 28^th November 1290, aged 49 and after 36 years of marriage. Her embalmed body was borne in great state from Lincoln to Westminster Abbey, led by Edward and a large cortege of mourners. On their way, they stopped at Geddington for one or two nights sometime between the 6^th and 8^th December. It seems likely that Eleanor’s body lay in the Church whilst here, for the King and Queen’s private chapels in the palace would probably have been too small.

Eleanor's funeral took place in Westminster Abbey on 17^th December 1290. Her tomb consists of a marble chest with carved mouldings and shields (originally painted) of the arms of England, Castile, and Ponthieu. On top is a magnificent gilt-bronze effigy (see picture) by the great 13^th Century sculptor William Torel.

After her death Edward endowed each church that had sheltered Eleanor’s body with lands to pay for a perpetual commemoration; a commitment that in Geddington is remembered each December with a Mass.

The Geddington Cross

Following the French example of crosses marking Louis IX's funeral procession, the King also commanded that:

“in everie town and place where the corps rested by the waie the King caused a cross of cunning workmanship to be erected in remembrance of her; and in the same was a picture of her engraven”.

The Eleanor Cross, Geddington

These crosses were built at Lincoln, Grantham, Stamford, Geddington, Hardingstone, Stony Stratford, Woburn, Dunstable, St. Albans, Waltham, Westcheap, and Charing. Only 3 original crosses survive, the best-preserved being that at Geddington.

Completed in 1294 or 1295, the Geddington Cross is triangular in form (perhaps representing the Holy Trinity), rising in stages from a stepped base to an ornate pinnacle. The lower two stages are beautifully embellished, and these give way to a third stage with canopied statues, below the hexagonal pinnacle.

At the base of the cross on the south-west side is a conduit house, built in 1769, making this the only British example of a public water supply incorporated into a royal memorial.