|
Blithbury
Stebbing Shaw sees Blithbury as the most
ancient settlement in the area:
‘In the time of the Saxons
and Danes, and perhaps still more early, it
is likely that this was a place of some
consequence, therefore it would be soon
cultivated and improved, which might induce
the Normans to settle here in preference to
any other part of the manor; and
accordingly, the first of the Malveysins
whom we find in Rideware appears at
Blytheburg’h.
A religious house was established on the
south bank of the Blithe at Blithbury (now
Priory Farm) during the episcopate of Roger
de Clinton (1129-1148). This religious house
was at first for hermits or monks but was
later transformed into a nunnery. The
founder was Hugh de Ridware or Malveysin,
whose family seat at that time was at
Blithbury, on the site of Blithbury Bank
Farm, before it was moved to the banks of
the Trent at Mavesyn Ridware.
He made two grants to Blithbury. The first
was to two monks or hermits called Guthmunde
and Saxe; the second was to Guthmunde, Saxe
and the nuns of Blithbury. They were to hold
it in free alms for the service of God and
St Giles. It was witnessed by Bishop Roger
who excused it from all synodal and
episcopal dues.
There is evidence that, soon after its
foundation, Blithbury was closely associated
with the nuns at Brewood and that it was
eventually absorbed by them. The largest
item in the revenues of the priory at
Brewood in the 1530s was income from land at
Blithbury.
Writing in 1798, Stebbing Shaw observed that
the old Priory had been destroyed and its
foundations torn up long ago. There was a
good farmhouse on the spot but ‘scarcely a
vestige of antiquity’ remained. He referred
to two small enclosures still bearing the
name ‘Nun’s Walk’ (as they do today), and
noted a hollow way from the high road to the
ancient nunnery, which was still called
Nun’s Lane (as present day Ordnance Survey
maps still describe it).
The only remaining fragment of the Priory
was part of the walls of a small ruinous
building about 25 feet long by 14 feet wide,
originally in stone, but partly renewed with
brick, which still bore the name of ‘the
chapel’ though long used as a store for
lumber. This had been taken down in 1795 and
not rebuilt. The pulpit had remained in this
chapel in the memory of a person still
living and the font was said to have been
converted into a pig trough.
Adjoining the old chapel westwards was
another building of the same materials and
the same width, about 24 feet long, and used
as a stable. This had also been taken down
in 1795, except for part of the original
north wall, which had been converted into a
fishing house with Gothic windows and some
fragments of painted glass. Shaw drew
attention to the shield of Malveysin and the
motto of Isaac Walton, ‘Piscatoribus
Sacrum’, engraved in sandstone high on the
west wall.
Shaw records that on 15th December 1795
after digging about two feet deep within the
site of the chapel, the remains of six or
seven bodies were discovered, all lying on
the solid marl and covered with a light
soil; and on January 11th 1796 three more
were found within the other building under
the floor of the present fishing house. The
bones were generally strong and sound and in
most of them teeth remained but there was no
appearance of any coffins.
The site of the other buildings which formed
part of the original Priory is uncertain at
present. It may be that the existing
farmhouse was erected on the ancient site.
But there is also evidence of foundations of
earlier buildings in the adjacent area known
as Priory Plantation where the ancient
stew-pond is also located.
Shaw records that in Blithbury in March 1797
there were 24 houses, and 24 families with a
total population of 115. Of these, there
were three farmers, two blacksmiths, one
shoemaker, one lawyer, one publican, 16
labourers and one pauper.
The Bulls Head appears in the first
Staffordshire Trade Directory of 1834 and
was licensed to J. Haywood as late as 1876.
By 1892 it had acquired its present name –
the Bull and Spectacles. Another hostellery,
the Swan, is registered in the same
Directory of 1834. It appears in the later
Directory of 1854 but had gone by 1876. In
1834 it was run by Sampson Robinson and
other landlords of the same surname also
figure. The building still stands, now
called Swan Cottage, below the Bull and
Specs on the left towards Hill Ridware.
Enclosure appears to have been problematical
in Blithbury. The existence today of many
long narrow fields suggests the enclosure of
small groups of parallel 'lands' directly
from the open fields without the benefit of
consolidation. The effect of this piecemeal
approach is that farms were often
fragmented. An example is Blithbury Bank
Farm which was offered for sale in 1979 with
its 52 acres divided into six separate
blocks, the most distant being half a mile
from the homestead. As a result of the sale,
five of the plots were incorporated within
the boundaries of adjacent farms thereby
achieving at last one of the principal
objectives and benefits of the Inclosure
Acts – consolidation.
|
