of British pottery found in the relics of pile dwellings near the
river, and two Roman vases from the bed of the stream; it has further
furnished Anglo-Saxon remains, and, indeed, there are very few points
upon the river where so regular a continuity of the historic and the
pre-historic is to be discovered as in the neighbourhood of this old
ford.
In was in the course of the Middle Ages, and after the Conquest, that
new Windsor rose to importance. It is not recognised as a borough
before the close of the thirteenth century; it is incorporated in the
fifteenth.
Reading certainly increased considerably with the continual stream of
wealth that poured from the abbey; it possessed in practice a working
corporation before the Dissolution, was famous for its cloth long
before, and had become, in the process of years, an important town
that rivalled the great monastery which had developed it; indeed it is
probable that only the privileges, the conservatism, of the abbey
forbade it to be recognised and chartered before the Reformation.
Abingdon also grew (but with less vigour), also had a manufactory of
cloth, though of a smaller kind, and was also worthy of incorporation
at the end of the Middle Ages.
Staines cannot take its place with these, for in spite of its high
strategical value, of its old Roman tradition, of its proximity to
London and the rest, Staines was throughout the Middle Ages, and till
long after, rather a village than a town. Though a wealthy place it is
purely agricultural in the Domesday Survey, and the comparative
insignificance of the spot is perhaps explained by the absence of a
bridge. That absence is by no means certain. Staines after all was on
the great military highway leading from London westward, and it must
have been necessary for considerable forces to cross the river here
throughout the Dark Ages and the early Middle Ages, as did for
instance, at the very close of that period, the barons on their way to
Runnymede; and far earlier the army that marched hurriedly from London
to intercept the Danes in 1009, when the pagans were coming up the
river, and whether by the help of the tide or what not, managed to get
ahead of the intercepting force. But if a bridge existed so early as
the Conquest, we have no mention of it. The first allusion to a bridge
is in the granting of three oaks from Windsor for the repairing of it
in 1262. It may have existed long before that date, but it is
significant that in the Escheats of Edward III., and as late as the
twenty-fourth year of his reign--that is, after the middle of the
fourteenth century--it is mentioned that the bridge existed since the
reign of Henry III., which would convey the impression that in 1262
the bridge had first needed repairing, being built, perhaps, in the
earlier years of the reign and completed, possibly, but a little after
the death of King John.
This bridge of Staines was most unfortunate. It broke down again and
again. Even an experiment in stone at the end of the last century was
a failure, because the foundations did not go deep enough into the bed
of the river. An iron absurdity succeeded the stone, and luckily broke
down also, until at last, in the thirties of the nineteenth century,
the whole thing was rebuilt, 200 yards above the old traditional site.
Staines is of interest in another way, because it marks one of those
boundaries between the maritime and the wholly inland part of a river
which is in so many of the English valleys associated with some
important crossing. The jurisdiction of the port of London over the
river extended as high as the little island just opposite the mouth of
the Colne. On this island can still be seen the square stone shaft
which is at least as old as the thirteenth century (though it stands
on more modern steps), and which marks this limit, as it does also the
shire mark between Middlesex and Buckingham.
We have, after the Dissolution it is true, and when the financial
standing of most of these places had been struck a heavy blow, a
valuable estimate for many of them in the inquiry ordered by Pole in
1555. This estimate gives Abingdon less than 1500 of population,
Reading less than 3000, Windsor about 1000; and in general one may say
that with the sixteenth century, whether the population was
diminishing (as certainly contemporary witnesses believed), or whether
it had increased beyond the maximum which England had seen before the
Black Death, at any rate the relative importance of the various
centres of population had not very greatly changed during those long
five centuries of customary rule and of firm tradition. The towns and
villages which Shakespeare would have passed in a journey up the
river, though probably shrunk somewhat from what they had been in, let
us say, the days of Edward I. or of his grandson, when the Middle Ages
were in their full vigour and before the Black Death had ruined our
countrysides, were still a string of some such large villages and
small walled boroughs as his ancestry had seen for many hundred years,
disfigured only and changed by the scaffolded ruins here and there of
the great religious foundations. Windsor, Wallingford, Reading,
Abingdon, and even Oxford, were towns appearing to him much as
Lechlade to-day remains or Abingdon still. As for the riverside
villages their agricultural and native population was certainly larger
than that which they now possess; and in general the effect produced
upon such a journey was of a sort of even distribution of population
gradually increasing from the loneliness of the upper river to the
growing sites between Windsor and London, but in no part exaggerated;
larger everywhere in proportion to the importance of the stream, or of
agricultural or of strategical position, and forming together one
united countryside, bound together even in its architecture by the
common commerce of the river.
The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries did little to disturb this
equilibrium or to destroy this even tradition. The opening up of the
waterways and the great improvement of the highroads, and the building
of bridges, and the expansion of wealth at the end of the eighteenth
century had indeed some considerable effect in increasing the
population of England as a whole, but the smaller country towns, in
the south at least, and in the Thames Valley, seem to have benefited
fairly equally from the general change. The new canals, entering at
Oxford and at Reading, gave a certain lead to both those centres, and
even the Severn Canal, entering at Lechlade, did a little for that
up-river town. The new fashion of the public schools (which had now
long been captured by the wealthier classes) also increased the
importance of Eton, and towards the close of the period the now
rapidly expanding capital had overfed the villages within reach of
London with a considerable accession of population. But it is
remarkable how evenly spread was even this industrial development.
The twin towns of Abingdon and Reading, for instance, twin
monasteries, twin corporations, had for all these centuries preserved
their ratio of the up-country town and the larger centre that was the
neighbour of London and Windsor. In the beginning of the nineteenth
century, in spite of the general increase of population, that ratio
was still well preserved: it is about three to one. But the Railway
found one and left the other.
The Railway came, and in our own generation that ratio began to change
out of all knowledge. It grows from four, five, six, to _seven_ to
one. After a short halt you have eight, nine and at last--after eighty
years--more than _ten_ to one. The last census (that of 1901) is still
more significant: Abingdon positively declines, and the last ratio is
_twelve_.
It is through the Railway, and even then long after its first effect
might have been expected, that the Valley of the Thames, later than
any other wealthy district in England, loses, as all at last are
doomed to lose, its historic tradition, and suffers the social
revolution which has made modern England the unique and perilous thing
it is among the nations of the world.
INDEX
Abbots. See under separate monasteries.
Aben, legend of, at Abingdon, 98.
Abingdon, 9, 23, 37, 87, 88, 93, 97-99, 102, 139.
Abingdon and Reading, change in ratio of population of, 198.
Ad Pontes, Roman name of Staines, 33.
Alfred, his boundary neglects the Thames, 34.
Andersey Island, opposite Abingdon, 99.
Ankerwike, nunnery of, 109, 168.
Anne of Cleves obtains Bisham, 163.
Barbarian invasions, 90, 91, 94, 95.
Barlow, Prior of Bisham, becomes Bishop of St. Asaphs, 163.
Barons give Tower to Archbishop in trust for Magna Charta, 84.
Barwell obtains Chertsey, 165.
Benedictine Order, 89-100.
Bermondsey, Cluniac Abbey of, 104, 105.
Berties obtain Hinksey, 166.
Birinus receives Cynegil into the Church, 52.
Bisham, dissolution of, 110, 163, 164.
Blackcherry Fair, at Chertsey, 139.
Bowyer obtains Radley, 165.
Brackley, strategical importance of, 72.
Breedons obtain Pangbourne, 167.
Bridge, London, 17-21.
Bridlington Priory, movables of, embezzled by Howards, 156.
Britain,
conversion of, position of Dorchester in, 49;
first barbarian invasion of, 90, 91.
Burford, early name of Abingdon Ford, 23.
Burgundy, character of that province, 103.
Burnham, nunnery of, mentioned, 109.
Buscot, a royal manor in eleventh century, 28.
Canal, Thames and Severn, building of, 15.
Canterbury, Archbishop of,
holds Tower in pledge for Magna Charta, 84;
St. Thomas of (see St. Thomas).
Canute at Oxford, 55.
Carew obtains Chertsey, 164.
Charterhouse, Sheen, 108.
Chateau Gaillard compared to Windsor, 69.
Chaucer's son custodian of Wallingford, 60.
Chertsey,
foundation of, 96;
Abbey, sack of, 137;
fate of land of, 159-165.
Cholsey, Priory of, 109, 166.
Churn joins Thames at Cricklade, 39.
Civil War,
destruction of Wallingford Castle under, 66;
of King and Parliament, 86-89.
Cluny, 102, 103.
Cobham, Manor of, twenty acres possessed by Chertsey in, 149.
Commons, Dissolution House of, significant names in, 146, 147.
Conquest, Norman,
See of Dorchester removed to Lincoln, 52, 102.
Constantine, legend of, at Abingdon, 98.
Conversion of Britain, position of Dorchester in, 49.
Cookham, early importance of, 191-194.
Cricklade,
importance of, 38-41;
small Priory of, 107;
ford at, 22.
"Cromwell," Oliver. See Williams, his destruction of Wallingford
Castle, 61.
Cromwell, or Smith of Putney, family of, 153-161.
Crown,
loses its manors, 144;
British, might have led the modern period in Europe, 145-146;
cause of ruin of, weakness of Tudor character, 148.
Culham, attempted fortification of bridge of, 87.
Cumnor granted to Thomas Rowland, 139.
Currency, 134.
Cynegil, baptism of, at Dorchester, 50, 51.
Danes at Oxford, 54, 55.
Danish invasions destroy Chertsey, 97.
Davis obtains Pangbourne, 167.
Diocletian, his boundaries, 33;
legend of, at Abingdon, 98.
Dissolution and destruction of monasteries, 110-152.
Domesday Survey,
Oxford in, 56-58;
Survey, ambiguity of, 57;
indecision of, 176, 177.
Dorchester, 33, 47-52, 107, 108.
Dover, isolated defence of, 75.
Drainage of swamps, monastic work in, 97, 98.
Dudley obtains Pangbourne, 167.
Durham, appearance of, before the Dissolution, compared to Reading,
114.
Duxford, ford at, 22.
Ealing, tidal river passable at, 24.
Eaton, meaning of place name, 31.
Economic aspect of Dissolution, 115-137;
aspect of monastic system, 116-118;
of the rise of gentry, 143, 144.
Edge Hill, battle of, 88.
Edmund Ironside at Oxford, 55.
Edward the Confessor,
manorial lord of Old Windsor, 70;
the Confessor rebuilds Westminster Abbey, 96.
Edward I.,
prisoner in youth at Wallingford, 60;
his march when a prince to the Tower from Windsor, 85.
Edward II. leaves the Tower, 85.
Edwardes obtains Cholsey, 166.
Elizabeth restores purity of currency, 134.
England, history of, dependent on river system, 1-3.
Englefield, Sir Robert,
obtains Cholsey, 167;
obtains Pangbourne, 167.
Essex occupies Abingdon, 87.
Essex, earldom of, conferred on Thomas Cromwell, 158.
Eynsham, 10;
monastery of, 107.
Fawley, parish with special water front, 9.
Fords, 22-34, 33, 99.
Forest, Windsor, 70, 77, 78.
Fortifications,
rareness of, along Thames, 47;
on Thames, examples of, 47;
theory of, 62, 63;
mediæval, never urban, 66,
urban, Louvre an example of, 67.
Fosse Way, 38, 44.
Fuller obtains Chertsey, 165.
Fyfield, example of parish with special water front, 10.
Gentry, territorial, their origins before Reformation, 141-143;
See Oligarchy.
Godstow, nunnery of, mentioned, 109.
Goring, track of Icknield Way through, 42.
Gundulph, Bishop of Rochester, 83.
Hammond obtains Chertsey, 164.
Harold, his council at Oxford, 56.
Henley, growth of, 187-190.
Henry I. enlarges Windsor, 70.
Henry II. at Wallingford, 37.
Henry III., his misfortunes connected with the Tower, 83.
Henry VI.,
his childhood passed at Wallingford, 61;
buried at Chertsey, 97.
Henry VIII. loses the spoils of the Dissolution, 145.
Hinchinbrooke, seat of the Williamses, 159.
Hind obtains Chertsey, 165.
Hinkseys, fate of land of, 166.
Hoby, Edward, son of Sir Philip Hoby, 163.
Hoby, Sir Philip,
obtains Bisham, 163;
Peregrine, son of Sir Philip Hoby, 164.
Horseferry Road, Westminster, 44.
Howards, noble family of, embezzled property, 155.
Huntingdon, two foundations in, given to Richard Williams, 156.
Icknield Way, 38, 40-44.
Islip,
birth of the Confessor there, 55;
a private manor of Queen Emma, 55.
Jews in Tower, 85.
Joel, Solomon, contrasted with gentry of the Dissolution, 158.
John, King, 71-76.
Kelmscott, loneliness of neighbourhood of, due to nature of soil, 7.
Knowles obtain Cholsey, 166.
Lanfranc colonises Bermondsey Abbey, 105.
Lechlade, small Priory of, 107.
Lincoln succeeds Dorchester as a see, 52.
Little Marlow, nunnery of, mentioned, 109.
Littlemore, example of parish with special water front, 10, 11.
London, 65-68, 73, 86, 87, 89.
Longchamps surrenders Tower, 84.
Long Wittenham, ford at, 23.
Lords, House of, utterly transformed by Dissolution of monasteries,
151.
Louis of France called in by barons, 75.
Magna Charta, 29, 71-76, 84.
Maidenhead,
probable origin of name, 32;
growth of, 190-194.
Mandeville holds Tower, 83.
Manors,
in monastic hands in Thames Valley, 124-126;
English, probably Roman in origin, certainly Saxon, 141, 142;
royal lapse of, 144;
mutability of ownership in, after Dissolution, 161-169.
Matilda, fealty sworn to, at Windsor, 70.
Medmenham, Priory of, 109.
Mill, family of, succeeds Hobys at Bisham, 164.
Monasteries, system of, 91-93.
Monastic foundations on Thames, list of, 122, 123.
Monastic possessions in Thames Valley, list of, 125-126.
Monastic system, 108, 116, 117, 127, 148, 150.
Montlhéry, originally dominated Paris as Windsor London, 67.
Mont St. Michel, connection with Cholsey, 166.
Morgan, first known of the Williamses, 152.
"Mota de Windsor," 70.
Mortimer holds Wallingford, 60.
Municipal system,
English, different from that of other countries, 170-175;
Roman, 171;
in Roman Britain, 172.
Naseby, battle of, women massacred after, by Puritans, 88, 89.
Norman Conquest, 52, 82, 93.
Normandy, modern boundaries of, fixed by Diocletian, 33.
Nuneham Morren, example of parish with special water front, 11.
Observants at Richmond, 93.
Ock, River, original marsh at mouth of, 8.
Offa, Wallingford mentioned under, 37.
Oilei builds Osney, 105.
Old Windsor, 69, 70.
Oligarchy rose on ruins of Catholicism, 140-152.
Orby obtains Chertsey, 164.
Osney, Abbey of, at Oxford, 105;
loot of, by Henry VIII., 106;
appearance of, before Dissolution, 112, 113.
Owen obtains Hinksey, 166.
Oxford, 22, 31, 53, 58, 86, 87, 106, 183-186.
Oxford Street, Roman military road into London, 68.
Pangbourne, ford at, 34;
held of Reading Abbey, 167;
fate of land of, 167.
Paris, dominated by Montlhéry as London by Windsor, 67;
an example of fortification following residence, 77.
Parishes, shape of, 8, 11.
Penda, his opposition to Christianity, 51.
Peregrine Hoby, 164.
Perrots obtain Hinksey, 166.
Philiphaugh, battle of, massacre of women after, by Puritans, 89.
Place names,
on the Thames, 30, 32, 33;
Celtic, rare in Thames Valley, 30;
Roman, disappeared in Thames Valley, 32.
Pole, his estimate of population, 196.
Population,
of Abingdon and Reading, typical of change in nineteenth century,
198;
of Oxford in early times, 56, 57.
Prices and values at time of Dissolution compared with modern,
130-136.
Priory of Medmenham, 109.
Puritans, their massacre of the women after battle of Philiphaugh, 88,
89.
Radley, fate of land of, 165, 166.
Ramsey Abbey,
given to Richard Williams, 157;
value of, 158.
Reading, 64, 88, 103, 104, 113, 114, 129, 166, 167, 182.
Reading and Abingdon, change in ratio of population of, typical of
nineteenth century, 198.
Religious, numbers of, at time of suppression, 122, 123.
Richard Williams or "Cromwell" born at Llanishen, 152.
Riches obtained Cholsey, 166.
Rivers, importance of,
in English history, 1-3;
as early highways, 5-8;
military value of, 46, 47.
Roads,
original, of Britain, four in connection with Thames Valley, 37;
original in Thames Valley, 38.
Rochester, Bishop of, builds Tower for the Conqueror, 83.
Roman,
place names disappeared in Thames Valley, 34;
occupation of Britain, thoroughness of, 45, 46;
origins of Wallingford, 60;
work, none certain in Tower, 79;
origins of Tower discussed, 79, 81, 82;
origin of English manors probable, 141, 142;
fortification, urban, 66;
occupation of Windsor, 65;
municipal system, 171.
Roman Britain, municipal system of, 172.
Roman roads, 68.
Rowland, Thomas, last Abbot of Abingdon, 139.
Royal manors, lapse of, 144.
Runnymede,
conjectured etymology of, 75;
meeting of barons and John at, 75.
Rupert, Prince, attempts to recapture Abingdon, 87.
St. Augustine begins the civilisation of England, 91.
St. Frideswides receives new Protestant bishopric of Oxford, 106.
Saxon Chronicle, first mention of Oxford in, 54.
Saxon origin of first part of place names on Thames, 31;
of Oxford Castle, 54;
of English manors probable, 141, 142.
Seymour,
obtains Chertsey, 165;
obtains Radley, 165.
Sheen, monastery of, late foundation of, 108.
Sinodun Hills,
fortification of, 48;
geological parallel to Windsor, 66.
Sir Philip Hoby obtains Bisham, 163.
Somerford Keynes, ford at, 22.
Sonning, fate of land of, 168, 169.
Squires, English, their origins and rise before Reformation, 140-143.
Staines, 45, 68, 69, 74, 194, 196.
Stephen, Civil Wars under, Tower besieged during, 83.
Stonehouse obtains Radley, 165.
Stow, in Lincolnshire, mother house at Eynsham, 106.
Stratton, monastic lands of, sold by Oliver Williams, 161.
Streatley, 33, 34, 48.
Sweyn at Oxford, 55.
Taxes a basis for calculation of prices, 133, 134.
Tenant right under monastic system, 150.
Thames,
surface soil of valley of, 7-9;
estuary of, unimportant in early history, 13;
probably a boundary under Diocletian, 33;
a boundary between counties, 34;
points at which it is crossed, 36, 37;
traffic upon, begins after entry of Churn at Cricklade, 39, 40;
absence of traces of Roman bridges on, 46;
military value of, 46, 47;
imaginary voyage down, before Dissolution, 111-115.
Thames Valley,
in Civil Wars, 86-89;
affords William III. his approach to London, 89;
affords Charles I. his approach to London, 89;
economic importance of sites therein, produced by the monastic
system, 117-121;
railway of, draws its prosperity from beyond the valley, 121;
towns of, 169-190.
Thomas Rowland, last Abbot of Abingdon, 150.
Thorney, original site of Westminster Abbey, 95.
Tower, the,
its importance in campaign in Magna Charta, 74, 78-86;
compared to Louvre, 79;
White, true Tower of London, 79, 82;
military misfortunes of, 83, 84;
Jews in, 85.
Towns of Thames Valley, 160-199.
Van Sittarts succeed Mills at Bisham, 164.
Wages a basis for calculation of prices, 133, 134.
Waite obtains Chertsey, 164.
Wallingford, 22, 24, 37, 58-62, 75, 76, 177-182.
Waste land, social and strategical importance of, in Europe, 75, 76.
Water front, examples of parishes seeking, 8-11.
Watling Street, 38;
place of crossing Thames by, 44;
identical with Edgware Road, 44.
Weldon obtains Pangbourne, 167.
Welsh land left to Chertsey, 97.
Westminster Abbey, 63-97, 130, 137.
Westminster, 95, 69, 93, 95, 96, 130.
White Tower, 79, 82, 83.
William the Conqueror,
crosses at Wallingford, 37;
his choice of Windsor Hill, 65;
exchanges Windsor with monks of Westminster, 69;
builds Tower of London, 82;
anointed at Westminster, 96.
William Rufus completes Tower, 82.
William III., his approach to London afforded by Thames Valley, 89.
Williams obtains Hinksey, 166.
Williams, family of, rise of, 152-162.
Williams, Henry, son of Richard, his career, 159.
Williams, Oliver, uncle of Protector, 160.
Williams, Richard,
is given two monastic foundations by his uncle, 156;
gets the revenues of Ramsey Abbey, 157.
Williams, Robert, grandson of Richard, father of the Protector, 160.
Wimbledon, manorial rolls of, evidence of William's marriage in, 153.
Windsor, 65-78, 85.