The materials produced are quite unlike the early Roman pottery usually found, which has much Belgic influence

io Wollaston

in the 2nd century, and soon became surrounded by suburban ‘overspill’. In the large areas between these were very many villa-farms and smaller steads. The villa-farms generally occupied only a few acres, and so are too small to be called villages, but were rather larger than single-family modern farms. They supported the Roman Imperial economy by cattle-rearing and agriculture. Many farms were superimposed on previous Belgic or Iron Age farm sites, and probably to a certain extent used the same field systems and employed the original Celtic populace as labourers.

Proof of a continuity of Iron Age traditions came from the various hut-circle ditches found on Roman sites. At Wollaston, off Hinwick Road, a hut circle of diameter 40 feet with an entrance 13 feet wide had an off-centre hearth made of two large roofing tiles. Both of these tiles had numerals incised on them before firing. In the ditch was a large quantity of early 2nd century a.d. pottery⁴⁴.

At Deanshanger, similar penannular ditches were found⁴⁶. Gravel workings at Ringstead revealed a hut circle underlying a stone-built circular structure 30 feet in diameter⁴⁶. The most complicated stone examples known in the neighbourhood are at Bozeat. One, dating from the early 3rd century, is 48 feet in diameter with four central pier, or post, bases and a few cross walls⁴⁷.

Only a few such structures are known, and the plan is near-identical with an Iron Age wooden structure at Little Woodbury, Wilts., dating from c. 300 B.C.⁴⁸. At an estate south of Bozeat High Street there is another site with circular buildings, also of the 3rd century⁴⁹. Examples have also been discovered in Oxfordshire⁵⁰.

Villa-farms are certainly the norm of the many Romano-British sites scattered over the whole of Northamptonshire. A few of them had central heating, bath suites, mosaic floors, and painted walls. At Easton Maudit, trial excavations revealed a substantial building with hypocaust box tiles (used to conduct hot air along the walls) and a crude mosaic floor. This was substantially built with a layer of hard-core supporting firm mortar which supported a white very hard plaster in which the stones were embedded. Instead of a design composed of different coloured stones, the floor was made of small stones with a design painted on. Recently a fine floor has been discovered at Thenford⁶¹. Several have been known for many years, e.g. those at Nether Heyford noted by Morton (in 1712) and by the Victoria County History.

Bath suites are usually only recognized by large scale excavation. Total excavation of a villa at Brixworth, north of the church, revealed a complicated bath suite with hot and cold compartments⁵².

At least two of the Roman sites known at Wollaston seem likely to have been villas, according to the debris in the top soil. A fine aerial photograph of the villa site near Cut-Throat Bridge shows the plan, with a corridor and series of rooms, and some surrounding enclosures.

Painted wall-plaster does not survive in ploughsoil, and so is only known at those sites that have been excavated. At the Brixworth villa several motifs were recovered, and at the housing estate at Bozeat a considerable quantity of fine quality 3rd-century plaster survived in the building debris.

Of the Roman towns there is a very imperfect plan of Chester made by Baker, vicar of Hargrave, in 1879, showing various buildings including a temple. In the 1920s and 1930s many rich finds were found during ironstone quarrying in the cemetery east of the town. These now seem to be lost for the most part, except for some bowls in Northampton Museum. Aerial photographs show the road-plan of Chester to consist of winding lanes rather than the usual grid pattern. These probably represent a continuity from an Iron Age settlement⁵³.

Excavation and aerial photographs at Castor have led to the compilation of a very complicated plan, but again outside the town proper, and not at all regular⁵⁴.

Of Roman industry there are many remains, principally relating to potters. The invading legions brought with them their own potters, who operated wherever the military was stationed. Such a site has recently been found at Longthorpe. The materials produced are quite unlike the early Roman pottery usually found, which has much Belgic influence. Early kilns, dating from the late 1st century, have been found under the circular buildings at Bozeat. The area of the Nene valley east of Northampton was the centre of an early industry; this, however, later became less important. In later Roman times, the area north of the town of Durobrivae in the parish of Castor was the centre of a very large pottery. The main products were colour-coated wares, often with fine relief designs, finished in white on a black or red background. This pottery was traded throughout the country.

The other industry practised in the south and north of the county was iron smelting. Large areas of black dense slag can be found in fields in the old Rockingham Forest. Each represents a bloomery site where iron was smelted. Some of these sites are several miles away from the nearest ironstone because it was easier to carry the ore to the wooded areas where charcoal was made. This was because the ratio of iron to charcoal needed is about 1:5. Recent excavations of a slag patch at Wakerley⁵⁵ showed the small clay furnace to be quite miniscule, about 9 inches in diameter. Analysis of the slag shows that no flux was used, and much iron remains as dense black silicate.

Industry and agriculture meet in the process of corndrying. The sitesio Wollaston

in the 2nd century, and soon became surrounded by suburban ‘overspill’. In the large areas between these were very many villa-farms and smaller steads. The villa-farms generally occupied only a few acres, and so are too small to be called villages, but were rather larger than single-family modern farms. They supported the Roman Imperial economy by cattle-rearing and agriculture. Many farms were superimposed on previous Belgic or Iron Age farm sites, and probably to a certain extent used the same field systems and employed the original Celtic populace as labourers.

Proof of a continuity of Iron Age traditions came from the various hut-circle ditches found on Roman sites. At Wollaston, off Hinwick Road, a hut circle of diameter 40 feet with an entrance 13 feet wide had an off-centre hearth made of two large roofing tiles. Both of these tiles had numerals incised on them before firing. In the ditch was a large quantity of early 2nd century a.d. pottery⁴⁴.

At Deanshanger, similar penannular ditches were found⁴⁶. Gravel workings at Ringstead revealed a hut circle underlying a stone-built circular structure 30 feet in diameter⁴⁶. The most complicated stone examples known in the neighbourhood are at Bozeat. One, dating from the early 3rd century, is 48 feet in diameter with four central pier, or post, bases and a few cross walls⁴⁷.

Only a few such structures are known, and the plan is near-identical with an Iron Age wooden structure at Little Woodbury, Wilts., dating from c. 300 B.C.⁴⁸. At an estate south of Bozeat High Street there is another site with circular buildings, also of the 3rd century⁴⁹. Examples have also been discovered in Oxfordshire⁵⁰.

Villa-farms are certainly the norm of the many Romano-British sites scattered over the whole of Northamptonshire. A few of them had central heating, bath suites, mosaic floors, and painted walls. At Easton Maudit, trial excavations revealed a substantial building with hypocaust box tiles (used to conduct hot air along the walls) and a crude mosaic floor. This was substantially built with a layer of hard-core supporting firm mortar which supported a white very hard plaster in which the stones were embedded. Instead of a design composed of different coloured stones, the floor was made of small stones with a design painted on. Recently a fine floor has been discovered at Thenford⁶¹. Several have been known for many years, e.g. those at Nether Heyford noted by Morton (in 1712) and by the Victoria County History.

Bath suites are usually only recognized by large scale excavation. Total excavation of a villa at Brixworth, north of the church, revealed a complicated bath suite with hot and cold compartments⁵².

At least two of the Roman sites known at Wollaston seem likely to have

Attrebatti and Belgae

BERKSHIRE

THE irregular shape of the inland county of Berkshire

lends itself to convenient subdivision. The northern
boundary is formed by the winding Thames which, in the course of a hundred miles, provides many towns and villages with a superlative setting in this, as in the shires of Oxford and Buckingham on the opposite bank. The county’s greatest length, as the crow flies, is just over fifty miles from Wiltshire to Surrey ; the widest part is in the west (about thirty miles across), whereas from Reading it is no more than seven miles into Hampshire.
The ancient inhabitants were the Attrebatti and Belgae tribes of Britons, before the Romans came. The West Saxons gained it in the sixth century, and in their time the principal boundaries of the shire were established. It is a geographical unit, comprising 23 hundreds, yet deriving its name neither from the people nor the chief town but from the “ barked shire oak ” already described in our introduction to Wessex. The analogy is a sound one, for this leafy county is adorned with oak and beech trees.
Windsor Castle and St. George’s chapel are the chief monuments. Bisham Abbey is an Elizabethan mansion, and Reading Abbey the ruin of one of the earliest and greatest monasteries. Abingdon and the vale of White Horse, Newbury and Wantage, are ancient centres from which many others are easily reached. Perhaps The Bell at Hurley is the oldest inn in England, but there are many riverside inns and taverns that are very old. Among churches, ancient and noble, the beautifully preserved thirteenth-century wall paintings at Ashampstead and Hampstead Norris arc the most remarkable recent discoveries.
From the Thames valley the land rises towards a spur of the Chilterns in the south and south-west; to the White Horse hill (856 feet), and Inkpen Beacon, which at ion feet is the highest chalk down in England. From “ the fruitful vale of White Horse, not plentiful of wood,” but watered by the river Ock, to the valley of the Kennet, which skirts Inkpen and flows eastward to the Thames and Reading, lie the rich agricultural and dairy farming lands for which the county is famed. The river Loddon, another Thames tributary, east of Reading, marks off the only barren portion covered by Windsor forest.
BERKSHIRE
Berkshire is among the drier districts of England, and, in the fertile regions, oats and wheat are grown ; sheep, pigs and dairy farming generally prosper, and agricultural machinery is manufactured in the larger towns; in Reading, the largest, biscuits and seed are produced by world-famous firms.
221
Administration. The county town is Reading, which has also its university. The royal borough of Windsor is within the county, which comprises 23 hundreds and 192 civil parishes in all.
Communications. The best-known highway is the Bath road (A4) which traverses the entire southern section of the county for over fifty miles, from Maidenhead to Hungerford. On this old road are the famous coaching inns which, in these motoring days, are regaining something of their former bustle. The riverside road to Wallingford and Abingdon touches some of the loveliest reaches of the Thames.
The Great Western railway—the old London and Bristol has just passed its centenary—serves the county, and all its main lines, except the new Birmingham route, pass through it.
Earldom. The earls of Suffolk and Berkshire have combined, since 1621, the titles that have descended from a younger branch of the Howards of Norfolk, and are described in our reference to that county, and to Suffolk.
Regiment. The Royal Berkshire Regiment is the 49th (Hertfordshire) Foot, raised in 1714, formerly the Jamaica Volunteers who fought in the American War, and the 66th (Berkshire) Foot, raised in 1758. The regiment saw service in Holland, and then at Copenhagen, and the dragon and the word “ China ” in their colours were conferred for services in the war with China in 1841. In 1881 they were united, and the depot is Reading.
County Badge. Having no arms, the device is used of a shield, on it a stag plucking leaves from the lower branches of a tree. Above the shield a royal crown, with sprays of laurel and <>ak, and, beneath, a scroll inscribed Berkshire.
The allusion is to the barked oak, from which the name of the county is derived. The royal crown denotes Windsor Castle and Forest.
Newspapers. The Berkshire Chronicle, founded in 1770, and issued at Reading, is the oldest newspaper of the county, but the Reading Mercury dates from 1723, and this, with the more recently established Reading Standard (1885) cover the chief centres of news.

, intelligence of a pearl fishery, attracted their avarice

The only accession which the Roman Conquest of Bri- empire received,

 during tain was the first the first century of the exception to it. C hristian ^ wag the province of Britain.

 In this single instance, the successors of Caesar and Augustus were persuaded to follow the example of the former,

 rather than the precept of the latter. The proximity of its situation to the coast of Caul seemed to invite their arms ; the pleasing, though doubtful, intelligence of a pearl fishery, attracted their avarice ;2 and as Britain was viewed in the light of a distinct and insulated world, the conquest scarcely formed any exception to the general system of continental measures. After a war of about forty years, undertaken by the most stupid,3 maintained by the most dissolute, and terminated by the most timid of all the emperors, the far greater part of the island submitted to the Roman yoke.4 The various tribes of Britons possessed 1 Germanicus, Suetonius, Paulinus, and Agricola were checked and recalled in the course of their victories. Corbulo was put to death. Military merit, as it is admirably expressed by Tacitus, was, in the strictest sense of the word, imperatoria virtus. - Caesar himself conceals that ignoble motive;

 but it is mentioned by Suetonius, c. 47. The r.ritish pearls proved,

however, of little value, account of their dark and livid colour. Tacitus observes, with reason (in Agricola, c. 12), that it was an inherent defect. “Ego facilius crediderim, naturam margaritis deesse quam nobis avaritiam.” 3 Claudius, Nero, and Domitian. A hope is expressed by Pomponius Mela, 1. iii. c. G (he wrote under Claudius), that, by the success of I lie Eoman arms, the island and its savage inhabitants would soon be better known. It is amusing enough to peruse such passages in the midst of London. 4 Bee the admirable abridgment given by Tacitus, in the life of Agricola, and copiously, though perhaps not completely, illustrated by our own antiquarians, Camden and Horsley.

valour without conduct, and the love of freedom without the spirit of union. They took up arms with savage fierceness ; they laid them down, or turned them against each other, with wild inconstancy ; and while they fought singly, they were successively subdued. Neither the fortitude of Caractacus, nor the despair of Boadicea, nor the fanaticism of the Druids, could avert the slavery of their country, or resist the steady progress of the Imperial generals, who maintained the national glory, when the throne was disgraced by the weakest, or the most vicious of mankind. At the very time when Domitian, confined to his palace, felt the terrors which he inspired, his legions, under the command of the virtuous Agricola, defeated the collected force of the Caledonians, at the foot of the Grampian hills; and his fleets, venturing to explore an unknown and dangerous navigation displayed the Roman arms round every part of the island. The conquest of Britain was considered as already achieved; and it was the design of Agricola to complete and ensure his success, by the easy reduction of Ireland, for which, in his opinion, one legion and a few auxiliaries were sufficient.1 The western isle might be improved into a valuable possession, and the Britons would wear their chains with the less reluctance, if the prospect and example of freedom were on every side removed from before their eyes. But the superior merit of Agricola soon occasioned his removal from the government of Britain ; and for ever disappointed this rational,* though extensive, scheme of conquest. Before his departure, the prudent general had provided for security as well as for dominion. He had observed that the island is almost divided into two unequal parts by the opposite gulfs, or, as they are now called, the Friths of Scotland. Across the narrow interval of about forty miles, he had drawn a line of military stations, which was afterwards fortified in the reign of Antoninus Ptus, by a turf rampart, erected on founda

For besides King Arthur, and Lancelot du lake,

ST. GEORGE FOR ENGLAND.

 THE FIRST PART. I 

(Tills ballad is given from an old black-letter copy in the Pepys collection.] | 

W h y doe you boast o f Arthur and his knightes, 

Knowing ‘ well ’ how many men have endured fightes ? 

For besides King Arthur, and Lancelot du lake, I 

)r Sir Tristram de Lionel, that fought for ladies sake;

 It cad in old histories, and there you shall see I low St. George,

 St. George the dragon made to flee, hi, George he was for England;

 St. Dennis was for France j

 Sing, IToni soit qui mat y pense. 

Mark our father Abraham, when first he resckued Lot I inely with his household, what conquest there he got:

 I hivid was elected a prophet and a king, I le slew the great Goliah, with a stone within a sling :

 Vet these were not knightes of the table round; I Nor St. George, St. George, who the dragon did confound. Ill, George he was for England ; St. Dennis was for France ; 

Sing, Honi soit qui mal y pense. 

.biphthah and Gideon did lead their men to fight,

 I hey conquered the Amorites, and put them all to flight I (ercules his labours ‘ were ’ on the plaines of Basse;

 J And Sampson slew a thousand with the jawbone of an asse,

 * Suffer.

4000 years

(1)

Dartmoor is an area unequalled in Southern Britain for its collection of visible remains of human occupation covering some 4000 years.

The preservation of these remains has been due to their existence in a large area of high moorland, but little disturbed by later agricultural or other activities, that involve the breaking of the soil.

The nearest comparable collection is on the western slopes of the mountain mass of Merioneth in North Wales.

But Dartmoor, which lies nearer to the Continent from which successive groups of settlers came, is likely to yield the more valuable information.

Scientific study requires that the area be considered as a whole.

Irreparable damage has already been done in the part farther north, including the Tavy Valley, and it is therefore the more necessary to preserve what remains. (2) The Plym valley is one of the richest areas in the whole of Dartmoor in respect of antiquities. Detailed evidence is being Submitted on behalf of the Council of British Archaeology and the Devon Archaeological Exploration Society.

Their schedule and map list over 60 sites of pre-Roman date.

one willing to murder flowers and behead wild rosebuds

Trippers ready to believe that their name denotes: a rider in bangs, a litter distributor, one willing to murder flowers and behead wild rosebuds with paper streamers: not “one who walks nimbly, or dances with light feet.” Motor horns seem to be “The passing bell, also called the soul bell, ” sounding the knell of better days. 

Country Contentments 
STO LEN goods are sweetest when a title is needed for extracts from the “ Cunynge Curiosities” of 10th- to 18th-century writers; books “wherein, thou o Reader (if thou canst but read) art sure to finde abundance and plenty of matters most dainty.” Gervase Markham, the author of 16th-century Country Contentments, writes, like Sir Hugh Platt in The Garden of Eden, “to the pleasuring of others,” and title thief though I am, I can not feel that kindly Master Markham grudges me my stolen heading. “ I shall not blush to tell you I had some ambition to publish this book” for the “ pleasing” of “ all Gentlemen and Ladies and others delighting in God’s vegetable creatures.” 
“When the greate books at large are not to be had but at greate price,” or after hours of search in ancient libraries, many modern readers must be denied access to the “Truths and Mysteries” early writers deemed all important, and occasionally, as Platt says, “rolled up in the most cloudy and darksome speech” after having“wrung them from the earth by the painfull hand of experience for your good entertainment.” Surely in a world which pessimists insist is being given over to the devil all should hear of a reliable Anglo-Saxon Salve against “Temptations of the Fiend”? A famous politician begged for the inclusion of a “Leechdom against a man full of elfin tricks,” and suggested that certain citizens of the U.S.A. would welcome “A lithe soft drink against a devil and dementedness,” and might not Scotland Yard consider the possibilities of a prescription said to be infallible “If any evil tempting occur to a man” ? Such simple remedies, brewed, pounded or devised from garden herbes— “honest wortes,” mingled with Holy water, prayers, and flowers whose very names bring healing:— Love o’ the ground, All healand True Love, 
Mothers wort and Queen of the Meadows. As for a salve wherewith to anoint the forehead against visits from “Elf or goblin night visitors,” our nurseries still need it, while an ointment inducing Elves to return and restore our lost childish faith in them would be of even greater value to some of us. 2


Miss Rohde in her exquisite Garden of Herbs quotes a 16th-century receipt 

“ To enable one to see the fairies,” 
a charm I never saw written down, 
though one very similar was told me over thirty years ago by an old woman in the West Country.
 As in Miss Rohde’s version,
 Rosewater and Marigold water, herbs and flowers gathered to the East, played their part, but first in importance
           — or perhaps first in my memory— was, thyme and grass from a fairy ring.
 I often wanted to test its magical properties, but never succeeded in waking at dawn. 

According to my informer, dawn, or just before set of full moon, was the correct hour at which to make one’s first bow to the little unseen folk. 

At that time of my life the inner wonder of her beliefs and friendship with the fairies— which none of her neighbours seemed to doubt— was just as it should be, and nothing much out of the ordinary. 

Now, when I could better appreciate it and have no unsympathetic nursemaid to scoff at pleadings to be allowed a hedgehog in bed to keep me awake on important business, the old lady sleeps forever, and the wood where she said the fairies could be found was cut down in 1916. 
To have missed collecting all the details for preparing such a truly content-giving charm still makes me “monstrous melancholy” ; old adjectives, “prodigious,” “vastly,” and their like, express better than modern words the seriousness of such a loss.
 The loss of enjoyment and belief in ancient charms and customs, not to mention courtesies, has spread like a pest amongst country-folk since Trippers “boomswisshed” into their midst, 

Trippers ready to believe that their name denotes: a rider in bangs, a litter distributor, one willing to murder flowers and behead wild rosebuds with paper streamers: not “one who walks nimbly, or dances with light feet.” Motor horns seem to be “The passing bell, also called the soul bell, ” sounding the knell of better days. 
The above paragraph was gently censored by one with a knowledge of “ Gardens and their Godly treasure to be found therein” that ranks him kin to Thomas Hill, who wrote as finale to The Profitable Art of Gardening, “The favour of God be with thee always.”
 At his suggestion I add a quotation from Grose: 4
“ The passing Bell was antiently rung for two purposes, one to bespeak the Prayers of all good Christians for a Soul just departing; the other to drive away evil Spirits who stood at the Bed’s foot, and about the House, ready to seize their prey, or at least to molest and terrify the Soul in its passage: but by the ringing of that Bell (for Durandus informs us Evil Spirits are much afraid of Bells) they were kept aloof and the Soul like a hunted Hare gained the start or what is by Sportsmen called Law.” Even if many of the old Contentments are gone beyond recall, we can, as he says, loudly “ring the funerall peale” over such fiendish customs as the games of “Mumble Sparrow” and “Cat in Bottle”— inflicting intense suffering on helpless animals.
 The charm and sheer word magic of most of the old writers incline one to forget that the Country Contentments of our ancestors generally were balanced by discontentments.


 The New Art and Mystery of Gossiping and early issues of The Tatler and Spectator hint that 17th- and 18th-century Housewives were faced with difficulties similar to the troubles of a Maisonette wife or Flat-wife of to-day. 5

The monument includes a tin blowing mill

Blowing mill 260m south east of Teignhead FarmList Entry SummaryThis monument is scheduled under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979 as amended as it appears to the Secretary of State to be of national importance. This entry is a copy, the original is held by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Name: Blowing mill 260m south east of Teignhead Farm

List entry Number: 1019217

Location

The monument may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

County: Devon

District: West Devon

District Type: District Authority

Parish: Dartmoor Forest

National Park: DARTMOOR

Grade: Not applicable to this List entry.

Date first scheduled: 09-Feb-2001

Date of most recent amendment: Not applicable to this List entry.

Legacy System Information

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System: RSM

UID: 28757

Asset Groupings

This list entry does not comprise part of an Asset Grouping. Asset Groupings are not part of the official record but are added later for information.

List entry Description

Summary of Monument

Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details.

Reasons for Designation

Dartmoor is the largest expanse of open moorland in southern Britain and, because of exceptional conditions of preservation, it is also one of the most complete examples of an upland relict landscape in the whole country.

 The great wealth and diversity of archaeological remains provide direct evidence for human exploitation of the Moor from the early prehistoric period onwards.

 The well-preserved and often visible relationship between settlement sites, major land boundaries, trackways, ceremonial and funerary monuments as well as later industrial remains, gives significant insights into successive changes in the pattern of land use through time.

 Blowing mills (also known as blowing houses) survive as rectangular drystone buildings served by one or more leats and are characterised by the presence of granite blocks with moulds cut into them - bevelled rectangular troughs known as mould stones - and on occasion by the square or rectangular stone built base of the furnace itself.

 During the medieval and early post-medieval period, black tin (cassiterite) extracted from streamworks and mines was taken to blowing mills to be smelted. At the blowing mill the cassiterite may have been washed a final time before being put into the furnace together with charcoal.

 To smelt tin the temperature within the furnace had to reach 1150 degrees C. 

This was achieved by blowing air through the furnace using water powered bellows. Once the tin had become molten, it flowed from the furnace into a float stone and was ladled into the mould stone, in which it cooled to form an ingot of white tin. The original number of blowing mills on Dartmoor is unknown, but at least 26 are believed to survive, whilst a further 41 are known only from stray finds and documentary sources. All examples with a clearly identifiable surviving structure are therefore considered to be of national importance.

The blowing mill 260m south east of Teignhead Farm survives well and is one of only seven examples known to contain a furnace. Important information concerning tin smelting technology survives within and around this building. The unusual mould stones containing two troughs and the particularly large furnace block are of special interest.

History

Legacy Record - This information may be included in the List Entry Details.

Details

The monument includes a tin blowing mill situated at the foot of a steep 3m high scarp adjacent to the North Teign river. The mill building is of drystone construction with the wall standing up to 0.8m high. The interior of the mill measures 13.6m by up to 3.5m and access to it was through a clearly mill, two edge set stones represent the site of the furnace, in which the black tin (cassiterite) was smelted. A hollow adjacent to the northern wall denotes the position of the wheelpit in which a wheel powered by water operated the furnace bellows. Molten tin from the furnace was ladled into a large mould stone, containing two separate troughs which stands next to the furnace. A second broken mould stone lies within the entrance. A 5.5m long by 2.3m wide rectangular structure is attached to the south eastern end of the mill building. This is defined by a rubble wall of varying height and width standing up to 1.2m high. In the area south of the mill there is a series of earthworks, some of which are the result of earlier streamworking, but others may relate to dressing and washing activities. Beyond these earthworks and adjacent to the river is a drystone wall of 19th century date. Built into the top of this, a broken mould stone and mortar stone are clearly visible. These features are included in the scheduling 

MAP EXTRACT The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract. It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features, considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.

Selected Sources

Other
Devon County Sites and Monuments Register, SX68SW46, (1995)
MPP fieldwork by S. Gerrard, (1999)

National Grid Reference: SX 63768 84271

cuckoo

southwestern slope of Hemerdon Bal

 southwestern slope of Hemerdon Bal: Hemerdon Mine (approx. 0.2 km; TUNGSTEN & TIN) Bottle Hill (approx. 0.8 km; COPPER, TIN & ARSENIC) Wheal Mary Hutchings (app...

King Henry VIII of England. The king had him executed

Richard Whiting (abbot)

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For other people with the same name, see Richard Whiting.

Richard Whiting
Born	1461
Died	15 November 1539
Beatified	13 May 1895 by Pope Leo XIII

Blessed Richard Whiting (1461 – 15 November 1539) was an English clergyman and the last Abbot of Glastonbury.

Whiting presided over Glastonbury Abbey at the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries (1536–1541) under King Henry VIII of England. The king had him executed after his conviction for treason for remaining loyal to Rome. He is considered a martyr by the Roman Catholic Church, which beatified him on 13 May 1895.

Contents

  [hide] 

• 1Early life
• 2Career
• 3Death
• 4Legacy
• 5See also
• 6Notes
• 7References

Early life[edit]

Whiting attended the University of Cambridge, graduating with an MA in 1483.^[1]

Career[edit]

View of Glastonbury Abbey from the former location of the North transept in East direction to the choir.

Whiting was ordained deacon in 1500 and priest in 1501.^[1] After the death of the Abbot of Glastonbury, Richard Beere, in February 1525, the community elected his successor per formam compromissi, which elevates the selection to a higher ranking personage – in this case Cardinal Thomas Wolsey. Wolsey obtained King Henry's permission to act and chose Richard Whiting. The first ten years of Whiting's rule were prosperous and peaceful.^[2] He was a sober and caring spiritual leader and a good manager of the abbey's day-to-day life.^[1] Contemporary accounts show that Whiting was held in very high esteem.

The abbey over which Whiting presided was one of the richest and most influential in England. About one hundred monks lived in the enclosed monastery, where the sons of the nobility and gentry were educated before going on to university.^[3]

Whiting signed his assent to the Act of Supremacy when it was first presented to him and his monks in 1534. Henry sent Richard Layton to examine Whiting and the other inhabitants of the abbey. He found all in good order, but suspended the abbot's jurisdiction over the town of Glastonbury. Small "injunctions" were given to him about the management of the abbey property. A number of times over the years which followed, Whiting was told the abbey was safe from dissolution.^[1] However, the 1535 Suppression of Religious Houses Act brought about the dissolution of the lesser monasteries and provided a warning of what the future might hold.

Death[edit]

By January 1539, Glastonbury was the only monastery left in Somerset. Abbot Whiting refused to surrender the abbey, which did not fall under the Act for the suppression of the lesser houses.^[3] On 19 September of that year the royal commissioners, Layton, Richard Pollard and Thomas Moyle, arrived there without warning on the orders of Thomas Cromwell, presumably to find faults and thus facilitate the abbey's closure. Whiting, by now feeble and advanced in years, was sent to the Tower of London so that Cromwell might examine him himself. The precise charge on which he was arrested, and subsequently executed, remains uncertain, though his case is usually referred to as one of treason. Cromwell clearly acted as judge and jury: in his manuscript, Remembrances are the entries:

Item, Certayn persons to be sent to the Tower for the further examenacyon of the Abbot, of Glaston... Item. The Abbot, of Glaston to (be) tryed at Glaston and also executyd there with his complycys... Item. Councillors to give evidence against the Abbot of Glaston, Rich. Pollard, Lewis Forstew (Forstell), Thos. Moyle.

Marillac, the French Ambassador, on 25 October wrote: "The Abbot of Glastonbury. . . has lately, been put in the Tower, because, in taking the Abbey treasures, valued at 200,000 crowns, they found a written book of arguments in behalf of queen Katherine." ^[1]

As a member of the House of Lords, Whiting should have been attainted (condemned) by an Act of Parliament passed for that purpose, but his execution was an accomplished fact before Parliament met. Whiting was sent back to Glastonbury with Pollard and reached Wells on 14 November. There some sort of trial apparently took place, and he was convicted of "robbing Glastonbury church". The next day, Saturday, 15 November, he was taken to Glastonbury with two of his monks, John Thorne and Roger James, where all three were fastened upon hurdles and dragged by horses to the top of Glastonbury Tor which overlooks the town. Here they were hung, drawn and quartered, with Whiting's head being fastened over the west gate^[3] of the now deserted abbey and his limbs exposed at Wells, Bath, Ilchester and Bridgwater.^[2]