38 yards diameter, slightly raised above the marsh, and surrounded by
a ditch. Beyond this ditch there is, on the north-east front another
enclosure with its ditch, and the canal seems to have been carried
through something of the same character. All this looks as though there
had been an earlier fortification of earth and timber, possibly the
seat of the Saxon Odo, of whom nothing is known or surmised but his
name.
There are no traces of any other masonry than the tower, and if it
stood alone this would account for the otherwise marvellous exploit of
the castle having been held out by thirteen men for many days against
the Dauphin’s army. Of course, the extent of wall which so small a
garrison could defend would be very limited; but with a tower such as
Odiham, well-victualled, and a fireproof door, an army, especially
unprovided with mining tools or military engines, as with an invading
force would not be improbable, could do but little. Nevertheless, some
of the records relative to the castle indicate other buildings besides
the tower, though all traces of them are now gone.
Odiham has no history before the time of Domesday. That it was the
seat of a Saxon lord is to be inferred from its name, though some
authorities repudiate “Odo” and his “Hame,” and substitute for him
Woodyham, Oodyham, Odiham, an etymology, no doubt, applicable enough to
the district.
In Domesday, King William is recorded as holding Odiham in demesne;
Earl Harold had held it. It is twice mentioned in that record, and was
in the hundreds of Edefele and Bermesplet, though a hundred of Odiham
is also named. Nothing is said of a castle, nor does the name of the
Bishop of Winchester, to whom it has usually been attributed, occur,
either then or afterwards, in connexion with the lordship, borough, or
castle. Among the royal tenants occur certain “Taini regis,” who were
represented in the reign of Edward I. by the “Homines et sokemanni
regis,” who then had common of pasture in Odiham.
Richard I. held Odiham. In the first year of his reign certain payments
are entered upon the Pipe Rolls of the Exchequer connected with it.
Roger Fitz-Renfrid accounted for 20s. for a cowhouse or vaccary there;
William de Bend for 100s.; and the sheriff accounted for 12d. for land
held by Richard de Rollos. The town also fined 20s. for a murder.
Odiham is frequently mentioned on the same rolls in the reign of John,
who was there nineteen times in nine years, for at least forty days
in all. In 3 John, William de Bend is probably represented by Adam de
Benderges, who appears with Richard de Rollos.
5 John. The men of Odiham had a charter concerning the manor, and they
held the vill in fee farm at a fine of 100 marks or £35. 4s. rent.
6 John, 1204. King John was here on the 28th July. Probably he had a
palace here, for such there certainly was a little later at Odiham, and
it is said to be represented by a farmhouse still known as “Palace”
or “Place Gate.” 11th March, Hugh Fitz-John was to have his corn at
Odiham, then in the king’s hands, and (26th May, 8 John, 1206) John
Fitz-Hugh was allowed in his rent the value of his chattels which the
bailiff of Robert de Vipont had taken, saving the stock sold from the
same manor for the king’s use by his orders.
9 John, 1207. On the 23rd June the king was at Odiham; and on the 29th,
John Fitz-Hugh was to take and hold the manor until the men there had
paid the debt due to the king. 10th August, the same John was ordered
to have 20 marcs from the king’s treasure for the works at Odiham;
and 26th October, a new bed was ordered for Woodstock and another for
Odiham, in which, no doubt, King John slept when there in December for
three days. There also was an order for payment for making the ditches
there at the king’s command (Close Roll, p. 94 b). In 11 John, £50 was
ordered for works there. In February, May, and October, of the same
year, 1210, John was at Odiham; in 14 John, 1212, he went from Lambeth
to Odiham, and arriving on Sunday, 6th May, tested documents there.
On Monday, 3s. were paid for the hire of three carts, travelling two
days and resting one, conveying the wardrobe from Lambeth; also 13d.
to Ferling the huntsman and Thos. de Porkericiis, with the hounds, for
their expenses and sleeping one night on the road. John then left, but
returned to Odiham on the 10th. While absent on the 8th at Freemantell,
he paid 6s. for the heads of six Welshmen,—ghastly trophies sent
to him. On the 10th, 5d. were paid for cords bought at Winchester
to string the cross-bows, besides expenses for hiring carts. John
was seven days at Odiham in the May of this year, and afterwards in
December. On 25th May, he paid 5s. to Stephen de Guildford for a wolf
caught by his master’s dogs at Freemantell.
15 John, 1214. Money had been spent by John Fitz-Hugh on repairs of the
king’s castles of Windsor and Odiham. The king was at the latter place
in January.
Magna Charta was tested 15th June, 1215, 17 John. In the preceding May
the king was at Odiham, from the 21st to the 25th, and from the 28th
to the 30th, seven days. On the 29th, he addressed the letter to Pope
Innocent, in which he pleaded the contumacy of the barons as the reason
why he could not go to the Holy Land. On the same day the castle of
Devizes was ordered to be repaired, and Hugh de Beauchamp’s lands were
to be taken possession of if he was with the rebels. From the 31st of
May to the 3rd of June, the king was at Windsor. On 4th June, he was
at Odiham, whence he went to Winchester and was there from the 5th to
the 8th. He thence paid a hasty visit to Merton, but was at Odiham on
the 9th, it is said, with seven knights only. On the 11th, he was at
Windsor, and there remained, visiting Runnymede, from thence to grant
the charter, and returning to Windsor till the 21st, when he was again
at Runnymede. And so to and fro till the 26th, when he was at Odiham
for a day. In that year there was also a charge for putting garrisons
into Odiham and other castles.
At this time John seems to have been preparing for the struggle by
collecting what he had portable of value. The prior of Reading brought
to him at Odiham, on the 26th June, a silver cabinet and an ivory
cabinet with precious stones and reliques, a gold cup given him by
the Pope, much silver and silver-gilt plate, various rolls of the
royal chamber and of the Exchequer and his seal, all which had been
deposited in Reading Abbey. On the following day he was at Winchester,
and there received by Adam, the cellarer of Merton, more plate and
jewels, sapphires, balas rubies, &c., which had been in keeping of the
convent there, and again on the same day a very much larger quantity
also of plate and jewels, brought by Michael, a canon of Waltham, from
the custody of the house there. The details of all these valuables are
given at length on the Patent Rolls. From Winchester he went to various
places in Wiltshire and the south of England.
In the following year, 1216, 17 John, the king was at Odiham for the
last time for five days in April, and on the 15th ordered twenty tuns
(“dolia”) of his prisage wines to be sent there from Southampton. He
issued thence an immense number of instruments, and finally left for
Farnham on the 18th. On 21st April, the manor of Odiham was to be
transferred by Bartholomew Peche to the seneschal, Engelram de Cygoyn,
or his attorney, who seems to have been John Fitz-Hugh, to whom it was
again transferred on the 29th. The transfer, however, was confined to
the manor, for by a mandate of the 31st of May, directing seisin to be
given to Fitz-Hugh, the castle was specially retained in the king’s
hands.
How strong the place was appears from the resistance it opposed in
this year to the Dauphin Louis and the invading army. Marlborough, a
very strong castle, had surrendered, when the French appeared before
Odiham. The tower, says Wendover, was held by three knights and ten
soldiers, who were besieged in form. On the third day when such engines
as were with the army were in place, and an assault had been made and
failed, the garrison sallied out and captured a number equal to their
own as prisoners. After eight, or, as some accounts say, fifteen, days,
the thirteen surrendered on terms, retaining their horses and arms
and their liberty. Wendover says the tower belonged to the Bishop of
Winchester, but all the evidence seems to show that neither the castle
nor domain were ever alienated from the Crown.
The first mention of Odiham in the reign of Henry III. is an order to
de Cygoyn to allow Bartholomew de Peche to hold the rents of the vill
for his sustenance in the king’s service (18th April, 1 Henry III.,
1217). John Fitz-Hugh appears to have been in opposition and to have
been dispossessed, for on 12th August he returns to his fidelity,
and is allowed seisin of the manor and hundred of Odiham. The great
earl marshal’s policy was to pardon and reward all who gave in their
adhesion to the new sovereign. The castle was kept up, even to storing
the ditches with fish, for John de Venuz was ordered (4th April, 1222,
6 Henry III.) to allow to de Cygoyn twenty breams from the king’s
marsh of Woolmer for stocking “our ditches at Odiham.” On 2nd May,
1222, 6 Henry III., two tuns “dolia”) of the king’s prisage wines
were ordered from Southampton to Odiham. 16th November, 1222, 7 Henry
III., the king had let the manor of Odiham to farm for £50 per annum,
but regard was to be had to the rights of the “Men of Odiham.” 15th
January, 1224, 8 Henry III., the Archbishop of Canterbury, who holds
the castle of Odiham, is directed to give up to Engelram de Cygoyn all
his chattels and farming stock at the castle (Close Roll, p. 581); and
again, on 20th February, the constable of Odiham is directed to permit
Engelram to remove all his chattels, stock, mares, &c., from the park
of Odiham, and what he bought with his own money. This done, the king
seems to have taken to farming on his own account, for on 23rd February
following, the treasurer is directed to pay to Walter de Kirkeham and
Walter de Brackel £100 to defray their expenses, and to Ralph Brito
50 marks for the purchase of oxen for the king’s ploughs at Windsor
and Odiham, and for seed for the lands there. Further, on the 5th of
May, by virtue of an order directing the distribution of wine from
Southampton to certain of the royal residences, a tun (“dolium”) of
spiced wine was sent to Odiham. On 4th June, in the place of Henry de
Feslegh, deceased, Gilbert de la Dene is appointed a verderer in the
forest of Odiham, and is to take the usual oath.
In 18 Henry III. the royal forests of Windsor and Odiham were committed
to the care of Engelram de Cygoyn—then a very old servant of the Crown,
and (20 Henry III.) he had also the park of Odiham. In 21 Henry III.,
Alianor, Countess of Pembroke, the king’s sister, had the castle,
and afterwards (33 Henry III.), as Countess of Leicester, the manor.
Meantime, however (28 Henry III.), her husband, Simon de Montfort, held
the park as the king’s tenant. In the same year, de Cygoyn had a writ
of “allocate” for £40, due to the king for two years’ rent of the manor
of Odiham; also in the same year, however, de Cygoyn was dead, and the
sheriff was to receive from his executors all his ploughs and stock,
and to deliver them to de Montfort.
In 30 Henry III., Richard le Male held the manor. The Bishop of Bath
and Wells had a grant of three acres of land out of Odiham to augment
the park of Dogmersfield. In 34 Henry III., John, the representative of
the de Beninges family, long connected with Odiham, had been outlawed,
and inquiry was directed as to what he held in chief there, which
appears to have been three virgates. In 35 Henry III., William de
Synago had a grant of Stapelegh in the parish of Odiham, and Gilbert
de Eversley appears among the tenants, as (38 Henry III.) does William
Villiers for two acres.
It appears from a document of this reign, printed by Rymer, that upon
William, the son of Durandus Nanus (the dwarf), proposing to become a
monk, the king allowed his land to pass to his cousin Margaret, wife
of Alexander de Barentin. The land lay in Warnburn (Warnborough) and
Odiham, and had been purchased by Durandus “de suffacio” in the time
of Henry I. with the king’s consent. The land carried with it certain
rights of herbage, cutting firewood, enclosing within hedges, &c., and
the whole was evidently held direct from the Crown.
The chief interest of Odiham ceases with the reign of Henry III. Edward
I. was much engaged in the north and west, and the value of fortresses
in the interior of England was small under a prince whose sway no
Englishman ventured to contest. His visits to Odiham were but few.
The park or forest seems to have been kept up, but only as a place of
diversion, and the castle probably was allowed to fall into decay.
2nd September, 1274, 2 Edward I., the king was at Odiham. In the third
year of the reign, John de London, the king’s escheator, was to hold
the castle during pleasure. He probably did not hold it long, for (10
Edward I.) it was committed to Nicholas le Gras in succession to Ralph
de Sandewych, and in 12 Edward I. Hugh le Despenser had it. In 27
Edward I. the castle, park, town, and hundred of Odiham were included
in the ample jointure settled on Queen Margaret, and described as
“Castrum et villa de Odeham et appruamentum [emolument] parci ibidem”;
or, in another schedule, “The castle and vill, with the park and
hundred and appurtenances in the county of Hants.” In 33 Edward I.,
John de Beauchamp of Fyfhed held the manor.
Edward II. appears to have seen little of Odiham. In 5 Edward II. the
castle, which Queen Margaret had, was committed to Robert le Ewer
during pleasure. In 9 Edward II., Robert atte Burgh had licence to
enfeoff for Stapelegh Manor and Odiham Manor with suit of court, and a
document of this date throws some light on the extent of the hundred
of Odiham, which, it appears, included the vills of Odiham, Greywell
(now Grewell), Monks Hartley, Helvethan (now Elvetham), Wynchesfelde,
Dogmersfelde, Bynteworth (now Bentworth), Brocham (now Burkham),
Lassham, Shaldene (now Shaldon), Weston-Patrik, Horefeld, and Lys—the
two last only not having been identified, unless Lys be the present
chapelry of Lyss-Turney. Of all these, Odiham only belonged to the
king. Next year (10 Edward II.) Thomas de Warblyngton held the manor,
and (12 Edward II.) Ewer again held the castle, manor, vill, hundred,
and park. The change was perpetual—inspired probably by perpetual
distrust. In 13 Edward II., Hugh le Despenser, junior, held the castle
and manor, and (15 Edward II.) the former was again committed to Ewer.
In this year the king’s circumstances probably led him to look to his
strong places, for William de Kyngeston, clerk, is made receiver and
keeper of provisions, stores, &c., within the castle. In 17 Edward II.,
Margery de Burgh held the castle and suit of court, as had (18 Edward
II.) John de Loxle and Constantia, his wife. In this year is an order
to repair the king’s houses within Odiham Castle.
Edward III. seems to have turned Odiham to account as a place for
breeding horses, and he kept up the castle. At his accession, John de
Meriet and Maria his wife had the manor, and (4 Edward III.) John de
Mohun had it, and it was in the hands of Joan, widow of John, 6 Henry
IV. The custody of the castle was then in John Wodelok—he paying for
it £60 per annum, and Nicholas de la Beche had the reversion after
the queen’s death. In 5 Edward III., the king committed to Master
William Mareschal the care of the great horses, and the supervision
of the royal stud in the park at Odiham. The king himself was there
October 25th. In 7 Edward III., Sir Bernard Brocas had a grant of
the lordship for life. In 14 Edward III., Richard de Rokeland was
keeper of the colts (“pullanorum”) in the king’s park at Odiham. In
1346 (19–20 Edward III.) the battle of Nevill’s Cross was fought and
King David Bruce was taken prisoner and committed to Odiham, where he
stayed the better part of fifteen years. In 25 Edward III., John atte
Berwe held twelve acres in Odiham of the castle of Winchester, and
William Talemache and others held four virgates of land there; and (33
Edward III.) the sheriff is to provide oats, litter, and carriage for
the support of the royal stud in the parish of Odiham, and there is a
specified allowance for grooms, their robes, and their shoes. In 38
Edward III., the people of Odiham had been making free with the boards
and timber purchased for the king’s work at the park. Five years later
(43 Edward III.), Walter Walsh holds the castle, vill, &c., providing
carpenter, park-keeper, and tiler for the repair of the houses outside
and inside the castle, except the covering of the great tower and the
working stone for the castle walls. He was also to feed the beasts in
the park. In 46 Edward III., Elizabeth, wife of James de Wyndesor, held
the manor.
It appears from a record (2 Richard II.) that Odiham contained places
called Shepcote, Smethes, Romeles, and Dunton. We read also of the
“campus de Odiham”—probably the common field. In 5 Richard II., Henry
Esturmy held the manor—probably the son of a man of that name who
had it 33 Edward I. In 15 Richard II., Alianore, wife of William
Fremelesworth, has Le Potte and other lands in the parish.
The castle does not seem to have attracted the notice of royalty during
the reigns of Henry IV. or V. In the former reign Lord Beaumont had
it for life, probably after the death of Joan de Mohun. The domain
was still held by the Crown. In 19–23 Henry VI., a jury affirms that
within the king’s manor of Odiham was a house called “le Shippe,” which
Joan, Queen of England, held in dower. Also, in 1450 (28 Henry VI.),
the lordship, manor, and hundred of Odiham, for which £21. 7s. 3d. is
paid by John Basket, Esq., form an item in the royal civil list; and in
1454 (32 Henry VI.) the “Castrum, dominium, manerium, et hundredum de
Odyham,” form a part of the jointure settled on Queen Margaret, who,
indeed, seems to have had a previous settlement (22 Henry VI.). Later
in the reign (35 Henry VI.) William Warbleton has a grant in fee of the
office of constable of Odiham Castle and park.
In 1467–8 (7 & 8 Edward IV.), Odiham again was included in a royal
jointure in favour of the queen of that prince.
In 1 Richard III., the king took advantage of his brief power to
appoint Richard Hansard constable and porter of the castle, parker
and warrener of the lordship, and steward for life. Whatever might
be the arrangements as to its mesne lords, the principal officers
seem to have been always appointed by the Crown, and in the Act of
Resumption of 1485 (1 Henry VII.) is a saving clause in favour of the
right of Nicholas and John Gaynesford to the offices of steward of the
manor, constable and porter of the castle, and keeper of the park and
warren—all held for their lives. The interest of the Crown was not
finally extinguished until the reign of James I., who alienated the
whole.
OSWESTRY, SHROPSHIRE.
OSWALDESTRE.
The hundred of Oswestry, though but of moderate extent, represents a
tract of country which was for centuries a field of contest between the
Britons and the men of Mercia, the Welsh and the English; for it was
placed within the old Welsh district of Powys-Fadog, in the centre of
the English march, and itself a marcher lordship. Its changes of name
have been numerous, adopted as either language prevailed, or as any
event occurred which seemed to the party in possession worthy to be
commemorated.
The earliest known name of the district is “Maesdir,” compounded of
the Welsh _maes_, a meadow, and _tir_, land, which in the hands of the
English, and, no doubt, upon becoming the seat of a _burh_, or strong
place, became Maesbury, and afterwards Maserfield, an unconscious but
not uncommon reduplication of the same idea in the two languages.
It was so called when here was fought the great battle between the
Christian Oswald and the pagan Penda, about A.D. 642, in which Oswald
fell; and his members are said to have been suspended to a cross or
tree, in remembrance of which the place was long afterwards known as
“Croes Oswald” and “Oswaldestre,”—a not very probable etymology. No
doubt the former name really indicated a cross erected in memory of
the Christian king; and the latter, also part Welsh and part English,
meant “Oswald’s strong place.” The old Welsh _maes_ possessed much
vitality, and may be recognised in “Mersete,” the name of the hundred
in Domesday, and probably in “Meresburie,” the name of the manor.
The next change was consequent upon the erection of a handsome Norman
church, the precursor of the present structure, when Oswaldestre became
Blanc-Minster, or, in the language of the records, “Album Monasterium.”
Later on, however, as Oswald’s fame as a martyr gained ground, his
name took the ascendency, and both town and hundred became known as
Oswestry. The church was probably transferred from the Saxon foundation
of Maesbury.
The oldest work of man in the district is, no doubt, a British
entrenchment placed on high ground a little north of Oswestry, and
known as “Hên Ddinas,” the old fortress, and which in later days has
been called, for no sufficient reason, Old Oswestry. “Hên Ddinas,”
however, though the British, did not become the Mercian centre; this
was probably in the first instance at Maesbury—a name found about 3
miles south of Oswestry—but, so far as is known, not connected with any
earthwork, the usual mark of an early residence. This evidence is found
on a large scale at Oswestry, which, therefore, there is reason to
suppose was the English centre at least as early as the tenth century.
The contention for the possession of the district does not seem to have
commenced in the Roman times,—at least there are no Roman remains at or
very near to Hên Ddinas. The Welsh assert that, before the departure of
the legions, the district was held by Cunedda Wledig, a prince of the
Strathclyde Britons, 328–89, who gave it to his son. However this may
have been, it would seem that in the seventh century the Cymric Britons
had retired from Hên Ddinas, and it had become part of the Mercian
territory, so that Penda (635–55) held it, and fought the battle of
Maserfield against the Northumbrian Oswald. This was a short time
before the Mercians accepted Christianity. That the English held the
district in the latter half of the eighth century is evident from its
position within the Dyke of Offa (759–94); but as it is just outside
of, or slightly intersected by, Wat’s Dyke, generally regarded as a few
years earlier than that of Offa, it may be that the possession was at
that time but recently settled. No doubt, after the construction of the
greater dyke, the boundary, though often transgressed by either people,
on the whole, in ordinary times, served its purpose, and established
what the English at least came to regard as a right. The greatest, and
before the arrival of the Normans the last, Welsh incursion was that of
Griffith ap Llewelyn in the eleventh century, in alliance with Algar,
the rebel Earl of Mercia. The result of their frequent and severe
attacks was to lay waste the whole country, which, like Irchenfield
in Herefordshire, so remained, and is so recorded in Domesday. The
long period of English occupation is marked here, as all along the
border, by frequent and strong earthworks in the fashion employed by
Edward the Elder and Æthelflaed in the tenth century, of which those at
Oswestry and Whittington are among the chief; and those of West Felton,
Aston, and Belan Banks, though smaller, are said to be of a similar
pattern. Maesbury was, no doubt, at one time the _caput_ of the English
lordship; but it is evident, from the fashions and dimensions even of
the poor remains of the earthwork at Oswestry, that it became the chief
place at least as early as the commencement of the tenth century, and
so remained, although not actually designated in Domesday.