Lyddington History Project
Lyddington is a small rural village of about 195 houses in Rutland. It was part of a manor which included four other villages, one of which has now disappeared. At Domesday, the manor belonged to the bishops of Lincoln, who established a residence here in the mid 12C. At the Reformation, it was handed to the crown, then given to Gregory Cromwell and his wife Elizabeth for their joint lives. Three years later, it was granted on a reversion to William Cecill, Lord Burghley, with whom it has remained. Because of this a large number of records have survived.
I have spent the last 15 years unearthing the medieval history of the manor. It soon became clear to me that the East-Midland manors of Buckden, Spaldwick and Lyddington had much in common. All residential manors of the bishops of Lincoln, they had been managed in the later medieval period almost as a single unit. Steve Hindle was my external examiner for the thesis I wrote on them for the Cambridge MSt in 2003. Since then I have discovered much more and plan to write up the medieval history of Lyddington, including its relationship with Buckden and Spaldwick, for publication next year.
For the last 10 years, I have been the archivist at Burghley House where, in their collection, I have catalogued the manor court rolls and rentals of Lyddington from the mid 16C to the 20C. I have found surveys, accounts and leases relating to the manor, also deeds, letters and bills associated with the running of the Jesus Hospital (later referred to as the Bede House), which Thomas Cecill founded in Lyddington in 1600. To construct the hospital, Thomas’ father, William,demolished the hall and service wing of the erstwhile bishops’ residence and converted the store rooms underneath into rooms for 12 ‘poor and impotent men’. The Burghley archives also contain documents concerning local land enclosure, parks, mills, railways, roads, vicars and the village school, etc. I have full permission to copy and use all relevant documents. Taxation records, wills, probate inventories, directories and records from various other sources, such as the local Stamford and Rutland Mercury, the longest running local paper in the UK are, of course, also available. Indeed, there is so much available for the post-medieval period, I have been concerned how to tackle it.
Recently, English Heritage decided to revamp their presentation materials at the Bede House, which is under their guardianship, although still owned by the Burghley House Preservation Trust. To investigate its history, they appointed Christopher Thornton, with whom I have had many discussions and taken to Burghley House to see the records for himself. I have also met with their landscape archaeologist and,last month, Robert Howard from the Nottingham Tree-ring Dating Laboratory came to assess the possibility of dating the timbers in the Bede House. He was so amazed by the number of listed buildings in the villagethat he suggested setting up a project to survey and date them as well. Together we soon decided that such a project should incorporate the documentary evidence available.
In the village we have held one open meeting to discuss the idea of setting up a history group to form a society and apply for funding for the project. Over 40 villagers have offered to help. Many have skills, such as surveyors, architects, lawyers, IT managers and a retired classics teacher. I can also draw on Chris Thornton’s expertise and that of a number of retired historians living nearby. With their help I sincerely hope we can produce not only a reconstruction of the manor but also a proper history relating the events and trends here to both internal and external contexts. We hold our inaugural meeting in January.