Edwinstowe – founding and early years
Story of King Edwin – King of Deira
Bernicia, Deira = Northumbria (name meaning)
Aethelfrith (Eds bro in law) drove him out & became king of all Northumbria – Edwin to E Anglia & King Raedwald (S Hoo fame) forming an alliance to retake Northumbria.
616 marched on Aethelfrith & met at Battle of the River Idle (nr Doncaster) Aethelfrith killed & Ed & Rad marched to take control of all of Northumbria. Rad established as de facto Bretwalda.
Edwin converts to Christianity. Pagan Kings Penda of Mercia and Cadwallon of Gwynedd form alliance and march on Northumbria to take control of a wider kingdom.
Routes – how did anyone know where they were going?
Penda and Cad set off from Tamworth, Edwin sets off to intercept them, and they meet at?? History books until recently had the battle at Hatfield Chase and located it at a marshy area NE of Doncaster on S bank of R Don.
Latest investigations suggest Cuckney in an area SE of the church. Why?
Name of Edwinstowe. Area of Cuckney known as the heathfield (Hatfield). Discovery 1950/51 of over 200 skeletons in mass burial pit under St Mary's Church – all male, evidence of injuries to bones – removed and reburied in pit on site, but location unknown. Church will not approve further exhumation.
Battle took place 12th October 632/33. King Edwin killed and his body taken from the field by his supporters.
King Penda becomes King of Northumbria.
Edwins body removed as far as the site that is now called Edwinstowe – Edwins Holy Place – where his body lay attended by mourners and prepared for a journey “home”. Did some stay to establish a place of worship? The beginning of a settlement?
Note – nothing else much there, even by Domesday Book 1086 only 5 households recorded, but notes a church. Compare with Ollerton (15 households 3 mills).
How to prepare a body for the journey. Viscera likely at the site, recorded that his head was buried at York, and the body later at Whitby.
Then Edwinstowe is in the foggy mists of time until Viking place names begin to appear nearby – Budby, Thinghowe, Thoresby, Perlethorpe and so on. Then records begin to appear after 1066.
King William establishes Forest Laws, and Sherwood Forest is established as a royal hunting ground. Edwinstowe very minor in comparison to the newly established “Kings Houses” at Clipstone, first recorded 1164, and thought established by Henry II. (Visit at ///advances.carpeted.places).
Visited by Henry II, Richard I, John (only 9 times, discuss current name KJP), Henry III, Edward I, II & III, Richard II. Parliaments held here, including K Edward I in 1290 just prior to his journey N on which Q Eleanor (of Castile) died at Harby – then on to London leaving the route with the 12 Eleanor Crosses to Westminster Abbey.
1175 K Henry II commissioned the building of a stone church to replace the wooden chapel dedicated to K Edwin. Consecrated in the name of St Mary – as are many in the area – but strongly liked still to Edwin. How do we know?
Church has an unusual alignment – or “orientation” in original Latin sense of the word – at 106.5' rather than due E (set at sunrise on either equinox).
Churches sometimes align with the Saints Day of the named St. - and St M's should align at sunrise 12th October if that's true.
It doesn't! Using the calendar to back calculate, the alignment occurs on the 19th October, 7 days adrift. However, the investigation recalculated taking account of the change of calendar from Julian to current Gregorian, taking account of astronomical time rather than our constructed calendar time – resulting in back calculation now showing sunrise on the 12th October 1175 as being at 106.5'. Result! Saints Day!! (1st rise 106, clears at 107).
Puzzle
In 1205 K John endowed a chapel of St Edwin which is found between the Parliament Oak (///important.unionists.friction) and Edwinstowe (Chapel at ///face.planet.presuming). Why?
Edwinstowe church now St Mary's? Was the chapel location somewhere Edwin was initially taken in the rush away from the battle site, later to be moved to a more suitable site?
Current theory (Gaunt) of the whole Kings Houses/KJP site is that, at some point after founding,
the whole area was subject to detailed design around an Arthurian romantic landscape theme – complete with white painted castle walls to be viewed across a large lake, and hunting areas in which privileged hunters would come across various features that would enhance the experience. This might include a chapel, complete with hermitage...and a hermit...reminding hunters of the legends of King/St Edwin. Entirely possible, and fun to interpret and imagine, but ….
Slowly fell apart in 15th and 16th C.
Edwinstowe moved on and fell under the spell of an outlaw!