PART 1   878-1150 AD

Extracts from A History Of Maiden Bradley By H.D.Kitching

The earliest known reference to the village occurs in a Saxon land charter of King Cyncwulf of wessex,878AD, but it was in existence centuries before as not only is it situated on the ancient track way  between Exeter and Dover but the Roman road from Old Sarum to Uphill in the Mendips ( where lead was mined) also passed through the village, while the existence of Iron age fortifications on the Little Knoll, and between it and the Long Knoll, indicates that there where people here two thousand or more years ago.

The track way continued in use as long as the Saxon, and later, the Viking pirates continued to plague the English Channel, ie ,about 1000AD.

19th century Wiltshire historian Sir William Colt Hoare records the findings of various Roman remains in Bradley and we can assume therefore that there was some sort of Roman-British settlement here by 200 AD or so, and if Bradley is of Celtic origin, ie, Broard Liegh or wide clearing, it may be that the place acquired the second part of its name at about this time in history

How long the Roman-British village existed after the last Roman Legions left Britain can only be conjectured, but presumably as the Saxon raiders gradually turned into settlers, the local Romano-British and Celts would have been driven away or assimilated into the population as slaves. It is a pity that the skeleton, enclosed in an elaborate lead coffin within a stone sarcophagus, dug up in 1965 in Bradley House grounds , and now in our local church, had no ' grave goods'  with it , for this might have provided a pointer to its age. As it is the authorities seem to think that being a pagan burial it must ante-date the general acceptance of Christianity in these parts and can be as late as 700 AD or so. If that is the date of internment , it would indicate that there must have been a thriving community in the vicinity including lead beaters and stone workers.

Although therefore there is no evidence of the continued existence of Bradley as a village between 400 and 870 AD the probabilities are that it was colonized by the Saxons and certainly at the time of the Norman Conquest it was a large and desirable manor.Some years befor the Norman conquest , the Lord of the manor was Tosti Godwinson, Earl of Northumbria and brother of Earl Harold Godwinson, later King of England. When Earl Tosti was outlawed, and banished from England, his estates, including Bradley, came to his brother King Harold but as the Normans did not not recognize Harolds assumption of Kingship and ignored any changes in land tenure between the death of Edward the Confessor and William 1's accession to the throne, in the Domesday Book the manor is recorded as having belonged to Earl Tosti. Had the Normans recognized Harold as King , the manor would have been ' Royal Demesne'  with certain privileges  accruing  to the inhabitants. 

FACSIMILE OF THE DOMESDAY  BOOK 'RETURN' FOR MAIDEN BRADLEY

Although at Domesday, and for the previous century, Bradley was in the hundred  of Mere, it had earlier been in the 'Borough' of Tisbury, the smallest of the four boroughs into which Saxon Wiltshire had been divided, for defence and administrative purposes, the others being Wilton, Cricklade and Malmesbury. At the Conquest, the Manor of Bradley was the only one in Wiltshire granted to Walter Giffard, Count of Longueville, a relation of and Standard Bearer to, William I, but over one hundred, in various countries, were also given to him and it is pleasant to know that in an age when the great feudal nobles changed allegiance when they thought it opportune, Walter Giffard never swerved his loyalty. In addition to the grant of his many Manors, Walter was created Earl of Buckingham. He was Chancellor to William 11 (Rufus).

When Earl Tosti was owner, the area of the manor (Yarnfield included) was just over 4000 acre's, assessed at £12 per annum. When the Domesday survey of Wiltshire was made in about 1086, the area was the same but the assessment reduced to £10 per annum,and it was recorded that the arable area consisted of 10 hides(1,200 acre's) of which the Lord owned four,(his demesnse) and the remaining six being shared by three classes of inhabitant, a small proportion of whom (villeins) would actually own their share, a second class (bordars) who were one of many types of hereditary tenant's and a third class (serfs) who were to all intents and purposes slaves, who were allocated to the land and had few rights.

The survey shows that there were six villeins, as it where freemen, thirteen bordars or hereditary tenant's and fourteen slaves, making a total of twenty-three plus two millers, all of whom would have a dwelling house or hut ,and most a family. 

There would also be the big house, where normally the Lord of the Manor would reside. As Earl Tosti owned even more land and houses than Walter Giffard, it is unlikely that either ever stayed in Bradley, except on visits of inspection, but even so, there must have been some sort of Manor House where the Seneschall or Bailiff lived and which could put up the Lord and his retinue at need. The stuff of such a house plus the verderers and persons enforcing the game laws and Manorial customs must have numbered at least ten or so, which means that the village must have had over a hundred inhabitants, taking four as the average household. 

This was certainly a large village in these days, for Horningsham and Baycliffe (both Manors) had only a dozen borders between them, while Warminster, a Royal Borough (and one of the six Wiltshire towns to have had a Mint) had 30 burgesses, 15 villiens and 74 others (including 13 swineherds). On the same basis of four to a household, this would give Warminster a population of 500 or so.

On the death of Walter Giffard, his title and possessions passed to his son, also Walter, who died leaving a sister, who married a Fitzhamon, their daughters joint heiresses married respectivly  William Marshall, 1st Earl of Pembroke and the Earl of Gloucester. During the second Earl's lifetime or that of his sister, the manor was given to him by a relative, Alicia De Cagny, as a marriage portion, on her marriage to another of England's great feudal nobles, Baron Manser Bisset, who owned over 200 manors and whose  principal estates were in Worcestershire, He also had considerable holding in Normandy. Thus instead of the manor being held in chief ie, direct of the King it became, after the second Earl's death , and the marriage of his granddaughter to the Earl Of Pembroke, part of the 'Honor of Pembroke' which meant that the Lord of the manor of Bradley rendered his homage and feudal dues though an intermediary, namely the Earl of Pembroke.

The feudal obligations in respect of this manor was one knights fee, or in other words, the duty to provide a knight, and his menie, when called upon, up to a maximum of fourty days service a year. As time went on the inconvenience of rendering this obligation in person was recognized, and money in lieu was accepted the amount of a knights fee being fixed at £1 per annum. Baron Manser Blisset and his wife Alicia probably never resided in Bradley, except for visits, his affairs being looked after by his seneschal, Humphrey de Bradley, from 1150 or so

Whether the village suffered at all from the lawlessness of King Stephen`s reign, history does not record, but as Manser was both a powerful noble, and a favourite at court, and the village somewhat isolated, perhaps it escaped any major trouble. At any rate, when Henry 2 succeeded to the throne in 1152, Manser (who was high in favour at the new Court) in common with many of his peers, decided perhaps for the good of his soul in the hereafter, to establish and endow an asylum for girls afflicted with leprosy.

Accordingly, sometime in the early 1150`s, Manser had a leper asylum built, on or near where the present Priory ruins stand, or it is possible that he utilised an existing building. At any rate, the site was ideal, for it was on the bank of a fast-flowing stream, the utilisation of which could not but assist even the most rudimentary ideas of hygiene. Perhaps Osmond, the miller, whose mill and mill pool was just below the asylum, had other ideas. At any rate, he duly bequeathed the mill to Mansers institution. 

PART 2