MAIDEN BRADLEY HISTORY PAGE

PART 2  1150-1536

Originally the leper asylum was put in the charge of a society of seculars, headed by a 'proctor'. What manner of men the proctor and his assistants were is difficult to envisage, but they must have been extraordinarily  brave and devoted, for leprosy was regarded with even more horror then than it is now. We know little of the history of the leper institution between the foundation and 1189; it had three proctors during that period , and a few years previously  permission had been granted by Hubert, Bishop of Sarum, for Manser to build a chapel for the use of the leprous sisters, dedicated to St Mathew.

In the year 1189, after the death of Manser Bisset , Bishop Hubert of Salisbury decided to replace the proctor and his helpers by a Prior and Canons of the Augustinian order. This was done and institution was henceforth known as the priory of St Mary and St Lazarus.  It prospered and flourished under Royal protection, King John and his son Henry 111 in particular being extremely generous . One of johns grants in 1214 was for the October fair , while Henry 111 in 1267 also granted it a market. In these days such rights would mean little or nothing to a village such as this , but in those days, the rights brought in many different kinds of fees.

Sometime in the 13th century Bradley  acquired its prefix 'maiden' and just why is pure surmise, but the most likely explanation would be an allusion to the original unfortunate patients of the leper asylum, referred to in contemporary charters as the 'leprous maidens'. 

The two major events in English internal history of the fourteenth century, the black death and the peasants revolt, do not appear to have affected the village. The black death was endemic in Bristol and district by 1349, but although places quite near us , such as Witham Friary, suffered heavily, the village does not seem to have been unduly affected, for there still exists land surveys of 1367 and 1365 , which show that all the Priory lands where still tenanted and worked . Furthermore the contemporary taxation records confirm this, showing that Maiden Bradley had 245 tax payers, responsible collectively for 65 shillings (the respective figures for Mere being 489 and 210 shilling). It should perhaps be explained that in the mid thirteenth century , the old system of tax assessment , based on land and knights fee , gave way to a collective tax or levy based on the value of certain objects  of personal property or 'movables' .  Naturally this would hardly effect the ordinary people of the area, and thus although in the village  there were 245 possible tax payers , the actual number paying would be Lord of the Manor and other knights and squires.

The peasants revolt of the 1380's does not seem to have affected the area , for this was the period when extensive additions  to both church and priory were being made, and in 1390 the Archbishop of Canterbury visited the Priory. 

Most of the little we know of the fourteenth and fifteenth, century period relates to the priory , and can be found in 'The History of Maiden Bradley Priory' by Mr Hugh Kitching. And moving to the sixteenth century ,from its records we know there were at least two inns in the village owned by the priory, one 'Le Swan' and the other La Bell. One Coles was the landlord of the' Swan' in 1509, and his rent being 32/- per annum, while Thomas Ruggesley was landlord of 'La Bell' at 20/- per annum. Where Le Swan was is not known, but may have been in Church Street just south of the cross roads, but there was a public house still going in 1805. 'Bell Ground' was the name of a narrow strip of land which ran from the rear of the Bell to Back Lane, and would have been used for growing vegetables, keeping pigs , and possibly the grazing of travellers horses. It was the first house in Church Street to the north of the present 'Somerset Arms'.

The village itself was in two sections as it were. The original village was between the church and the cross-roads ,and the other, the Priory village between the cross-roads and the mill with a maze of lanes and streets. The main street in the Priory section ran from the Frome road (opposite Katesbench ) to the Priory and was called 'Pley Street'. It still exists as a farm track. There were several houses fronting into 'Pley Street', which was also where the Priors six day fair was held . Another road running roughly parallel to Pley street, on the Frome side was 'Le Mill Lane', which still exists as the entry road to the Mill Pond and Priory Farm. Unfortunately the names of other streets are lost, except for the easternmost, which was called Cox's Street'. This street began at Carver's Gate and the present Horningsham Road follows it for about 500yards from Carver's Gate , then swings right  while Cox's Street went straight on and then down the hill through Penny's Wood, where a left handed turn bought it to the East Common, above the Mill Pond where it divided , the road running downwards becoming Coxes Lane.

Luckily , many of the street names , of the original village are recorded in various old records, but the whereabouts of most of them cannot be fixed with any certainty. The ten names so far found are : Church Street, East Street, The Highway, Hollow Lane, Honeypot Lane Little Street, Little Lane , Midland Way, Stony Lane,  and 'The Way South Towards mere'. If High street and The Highway are one and the same , as they probably are,. The Midland way , from its context in some thirteenth century land charters , may well be what is now the private road to Rodmead farm.

When in 1536, the priory in common with hundreds of other small religious institutions in the kingdom , was dissolved, the village must have felt the effects for there must have been two or three dozen families entirely dependent upon the Priory for their leavings; some would be lay brothers responsible  for the running of the mills, brew house tannery and the like-industries of which the priory was the hub, while others would be shepherds and general agricultural workers,for the Priory still retained its Home Farm.

At the dissolution, Thomas Seymore (as then spelt) (The Lord High Admiral) and brother of the first Duke, was owner of the site of the Priory and its local lands but he did not live long enough to enjoy them and on his death they went to his brother, the 'Protector ' the first Duke Of Somerset. On his death there was some doubt as to the ownership of the Priory and its local lands  and the Marquis of Winchester was appointed to adjudicate . His award (now in the county archives) gave the Priory and Manor to John Seymore, eldest son of the Proctor , and on his death, childless, a few years later, an act of parliament of Edward vi  provided that the late Protector's second son, by his first marriage, Sir Edward Seymore, should inherit , and the property has remained in the family ever since.

PART 3