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The Redvers Tombstone in the Priory Church
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The Castle Project – 2003
In August 2003 a group of unsuspecting members met Peter Fenning in glorious sunshine by the motte of Christchurch Castle to begin what I believed would be at most a couple of weeks on site. Whilst our licence from English Heritage was valid for three months until the end of October, little did we realise what Peter had in store for us! Thanks to Peter and his various contacts throughout the world (yes), we were kept busy for the whole of the three months and by then some of us had seen enough of the motte to last a lifetime. The thought of another line of SP surveying was enough to send shivers down several aging spines!
Since the end of the survey we have been analysing the results and putting together the report for English Heritage. This will be completed shortly and there will be a meeting for all members at which the information will be presented and a discussion of the way forward will be held. The work we carried out last year was very much a reconnaissance survey to understand what techniques would work on the site, to analyse the data obtained and then to determine what further work would be needed to clarify the detail. Our objectives were to locate the flanking ditches of the bailey and the accompanying internal banks, to identify archaeology in the bailey and to understand the composition of the motte. We now know which survey techniques work better than others and much more about the layout of the site although this year should see an improved definition of the below-ground features.
The motte has begun to give up its secrets although the exact location of the surrounding ditch is difficult to define, as there are many buildings sitting on its presumed position. The interface of the flanking ditches with the motte ditch has yet to be resolved and the inner banks have been landscaped out, so no trace of these was discovered on the radar. The southern ditch flanking the bailey was very much where we thought it was but the northern ditch remains problematical and probably lies under Castle Street, which presents survey challenges. The bailey area proved to very disappointing with very little identifiable archaeology, and more surveying at a greater depth will be needed this year to tease out the data.
Despite the various physical constraints confronting us we were successful in obtaining a great deal of data that begins to provide a solid basis for the history of Christchurch and to destroy some of the myths that have been taken as facts. In conjunction with this research Ray Baxter has been leading a group who have been gathering historical information on Christchurch to complement the survey. Also a building research team led by Adrian Tattersfield is being established to look at the buildings adjacent to the motte on the north and west sides. More on these projects elsewhere in the newsletter.
Roger Hills |
The Redvers Tombstone in the Priory Church
The de Redvers family, who obtained their numerous estates in England through the generosity of Henry I, held Christchurch from c 1100 to 1293. Five members of the family are known to have been buried in Christchurch Priory with the possibility that a sixth was also buried there.
One of these tombstones is still in the Priory Church and I believe that it is the only extant tombstone in England of any member of the family. It is the tombstone of the third Baldwin out of the five Baldwins that appear in the Redvers pedigree. He was the only son of the aged William de Redvers, the 5th Earl of Devon, and he predeceased his father by a year. By January 1200 Earl William had two daughters only, both of whom were still under ten years of age, and they were betrothed to royal favourites. A royal charter dated April 28th of that year confirms Joan’s betrothal to Hubert de Burgh and lists some of the lands that Hubert will hold after the Earl’s death unless a son is born to Earl William’s wife. Baldwin, therefore, was born after April 28th 1200 and as he died on 1st September 1216 it is impossible for him to have been any more than sixteen years of age. He had been married to Margaret the daughter and heir of Warin FitzGerald who was King John’s chamberlain and whose name appears in the introduction to Magna Carta. Margaret was old enough to have lived with her husband for she bore him a son who was to become the 6th Earl of Devon. It seems certain that the child was born posthumously as he was not invested with his lands until Christmas 1239.
The tombstone is under the carpet in front of the high altar in the Quire. Visitors had the opportunity to view it in 1994 when the carpet was removed. It is situated in the top step by the altar rail with its worn latin inscription on the riser. Spread over two lines it reads “Baldewin Fili Willi Comitis Devonie” which translates as “Baldwin son of William Earl of Devon”. In 1994 I noticed that the stone had a diagonal crack across it which probably occurred when the tombstone was moved during the 15th century rebuilding of the Quire and the alterations to its crypt.
David Eels |
Historical Research Team
Members will be aware that the Historical Research Team (comprising Sue Ellis, Charlie Haddon, Sarah Williams and myself) have been busy researching Christchurch Castle in the Hartley Library at Southampton University for a number of months. When this first phase of the research project has been completed the results will be indexed and made available to any member who wishes to conduct their own research into Christchurch Castle and its environment.
Much interesting information about the Castle is beginning to emerge, not least of all the fact that the Castle ditch to the north of the bailey was still visible, in whole or in part, up to the time of Elizabeth I. This, as far as we can ascertain, is much later than previously thought.
To start with, an entry in the Descriptive Catalogue of Ancient Deeds dated two or three days before 25th March 1404 (from the reign of Henry IV 1399­–1413) states “Feoffment by Thomas Waryn and Thomas Bourle to William atte Wode and Alice his wife of a cottage and curtilage in the town of Crischurche Twynham in ‘la castelstret’ between the tenement of John de Berkle, knight, and the cottage of John Prynke, the curtilage extending southward to the Castle ditch….”
A further entry in the Descriptive Catalogue of Ancient Deeds which is dated 16th December 1445 (from the reign of Henry VI 1421–1471) refers to “Grant by Alice Browne late wife of William atte Wode, widow, to John Brytte, of a cottage and cutilage in Cryschurch Twynham in ‘la Castelstrete’, adjoining the tenement of Maurice Berkeley, knight, and extending southward to the castle moat….”
The above entries confirm that the Castle ditch or moat was visible during the 15th century and that it was being used to legally define property boundaries.
What has surprised all members involved in the project, however, is that the ditch was still visible during the middle of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Another entry in the Descriptive Catalogue of Ancient Deeds dated 19th October 1579 states “Indenture of bargain and sale, 19 October, 21 Elizabeth, by William Meriot, of Christechurche Twinham, merchant, to William Batten, of Burley, gentleman, in consideration of 30l., of a messuage or tenement in Christechurche Twinham in ‘Castle Streate’, between tenements of Henry Comptons, knight, Lord Compton, and Thomas Carpenter, the castle ditch and the highway”.
There is, therefore, clear documentary evidence that the Castle ditch to the north of the bailey was still visible to some extent during the last quarter of the 16th century, and that the features were still distinct enough to be used to legally define property boundaries. All the relevant information has been passed to the geophysical research team to assist them in their efforts to try and precisely locate the exact position of the ditch to the north of the bailey.
More information regarding Christchurch Castle and its environs is slowly emerging and the results of our endeavours will be made known to members as soon as this part of the project is complete. Many thanks to all those involved and to David Eels for his dating of the above documents and for his overall guidance during the research exercise.
Ray Baxter |
A Volunteer’s View of the Castle Survey 2003
Some of you may remember a film called “The Hill”, starring a young Sean Connery. It featured a fearsome sergeant-major in charge of a British Army detention camp in the North Africa of World War II. The “Hill” of the title was an artificial mound on which the hapless defaulters in the camp were forced to run up and down for hours on end, carrying heavy weights. Well – in August and September 2003, “The Hill” came to Christchurch!
For several weeks on end, willing volunteers from the TCA membership and beyond gave what time they could, to carry out an extensive series of geophysical measurements (“geofizz” in Time Team terms) on the Castle motte. In our case, our benevolent but firm sergeant-major was Peter Fenning, who organised the set of heavy weights and the other tasks which we had to perform up and down the sides of the motte. To stretch the analogy just a little bit further, we were even put on film through the kindness of TCA associate John Coppin.
For those who were able to take part, the exercise provided a crash course in the basics of practical geophysical measurements and on-site surveying, thanks to the expertise of those professionals in our midst who willingly shared their knowledge. If you weren’t an expert at the start, you certainly knew the basics by the end! Each volunteer seemed to favour a particular technique. Trudging up and down the motte with a 4-metre pole (the EM31), like Houdini over the Niagara Falls, was my favourite; a bit difficult to handle, but with the distinct advantage that we needed to take measurements only on the 2 metre survey lines, and not at the usual 1-metre spacing! Others liked striding over the mound with “the bottles” (proton magnetometer), and we all took our turn with surveying, using the level, or the total station kindly lent to us by Lancaster University. However, let it be said that nobody liked the dreaded “Ess-Pee” (SP or Self-Potential). This involved the painstaking removal of divots, the watering in of the electrodes and the restoration of the divots after the measurements were taken – slow and back-breaking work on the side of the motte on a 1-metre grid.
In addition to the instruments we were able to borrow full-time, we could also assist in taking measurements collected by more sexy equipment like the Ground Penetrating Radar. Even this was difficult to deploy on the steep sides of the mound, as shown by the picture of the gallant team in action, requiring two people to hold the transmitter and receiver, and a third person to catch either of the operators, or the equipment, should they fall!
In summary, “The Hill” proved to be a valuable introduction to “geofizz” to members of TCA. Did it go on a bit long? – well, we did originally plan for two weeks, rather than two to three months! But now we have the satisfaction of a huge amount of data collected, a feeling of a job well-started, and the formation of a team with the confidence to undertake anything else “The Hill” may throw at us!
Roger Donne |  |
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