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Ebook has 835 lines and 55827 words, and 17 pages

Repton 1

Repton --The place-name Repton, &c. 6

Repton's Saints 11

Repton Church 17

Repton Church Registers 25

Repton's Merry Bells 42

The Priory 50

Repton School 61

Repton Tile-Kiln 71

Repton School Tercentenary and Founding of the School Chapel, &c. 75

School Houses, &c. 81

Chief Events referred to, or described 87

THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF REPTON. 91

Ashby-de-la-Zouch 92

Barrow, Swarkeston, and Stanton-by-Bridge 99

Bretby and Hartshorn 104

Egginton, Stretton, and Tutbury 108

Etwall and its Hospital 115

Foremark and Anchor Church 121

Melbourne and Breedon 124

Mickle-Over, Finderne, and Potlac 127

Newton Solney 130

Tickenhall, Calke, and Staunton Harold 132

INDEX 137

CORRIGENDA.

Transcriber's Note: These corrections have been made to the text.

REPTON .

Repton is a village in the County of Derby, four miles east of Burton-on-Trent, seven miles south-west of Derby, and gives its name to the deanery, and with Gresley, forms the hundred, or division, to which it belongs.

Excavations made in the Churchyard, and in the field to the west of it, have laid bare many foundations, and portions of Anglo-Saxon buildings, such as head-stones of doorways and windows, which prove that the site of the ancient Monastery, and perhaps the town, was on that part of the village now occupied by church, churchyard, vicarage and grounds, and was protected by the River Trent, a branch of which then, no doubt, flowed at the foot of its rocky bank. At some time unknown, the course of the river was interfered with. Somewhere, above or about the present bridge at Willington, the river divided into two streams, one flowing as it does now, the other, by a very sinuous course, crossed the fields and flowed by the town, and so on till it rejoined the Trent above Twyford Ferry. Traces of this bed can be seen in the fields, and there are still three wide pools left which lie in the course of what is now called the "Old Trent."

The "dear Coz" Hotspur, evidently displeased with his share, replies, pointing to the map;--

Before the Conquest the Manor of Repton belonged to Algar, Earl of Mercia. In Domesday Book it is described as belonging to him and the King, having a church and two priests, and two mills. It soon after belonged to the Earls of Chester, one of whom, Randulph de Blundeville, died in the year 1153. His widow, Matilda, with the consent of her son Hugh, founded Repton Priory.

From Sir Richard Harpur the Manor of Repton descended to the present Baronet, Sir Vauncey Harpur-Crewe. Sir Henry Harpur, by royal license, assumed the name and arms of Crewe, in the year 1800.

The Manor of Repton Priory passed into the hands of the Thackers at the dissolution of the Priory, and remained in that family till the year 1728, when Mary Thacker devised it, and other estates, to Sir Robert Burdett of Foremark, Bart.

In 1687 a wonderful skeleton, nine feet long! was discovered in a field, called Allen's Close, adjoining the churchyard of Repton, now part of the Vicarage grounds. The skeleton was in a stone coffin, with others to the number of one hundred arranged round it! During the year 1787 the grave was reopened, and a confused heap of bones was discovered, which were covered over with earth, and a sycamore tree, which is still flourishing, was planted to mark the spot.

During the present century few changes have been made in the village; most of them will be found recorded, either under chief events in the History of Repton, or in the chapters succeeding.

REPTON . THE PLACE-NAME REPTON, &c.

The first mention of Repton occurs in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, under the year 755. Referring to "the slaughter" of King Ethelbald, King of Mercia, one out of the six MSS. relates that it happened "on Hreopandune," "at Repton"; the other five have "on Seccandune," "at Seckington," near Tamworth. Four of the MSS. spell the name "Hrepandune," one "Hreopadune," and one "Reopandune."

The question is, which of these is the most probable meaning? The first three seem to suit the place and position. It is a very common thing for a hill or place to bear the name of the owner or occupier. As Hreopandun was the capital of Mercia, many a council may have been held, many a law may have been proclaimed, and many a fight may have been fought, with noise and clamour, upon its hill, and, in peaceful times, a harvest may have been reaped upon it, and the land around. As regards the two last suggestions, the arrival of the Norsemen, in the eighth century, would be too late for them to name a place which had probably been in existence, as an important town, for nearly two centuries before they came.

So far as to its name. Now we will put together the various historical references to it.

"Here was, before A.D. 600, a noble monastery of religious men and women, under the government of an Abbess, after the Saxon Way, wherein several of the royal line were buried."

As no records of the monastery have been discovered we cannot tell where it was founded or by whom. Penda, the Pagan King of Mercia, was slain by Oswiu, king of Northumbria, at the battle of Winwadfield, in the year 656, and was succeeded by his son Peada who had been converted to Christianity, by Alfred brother of Oswiu, and was baptized, with all his attendants, by Finan, bishop of Lindisfarne, at Walton, in the year 632. After Penda's death, Peada brought from the north, to convert Mercia, four priests, Adda, Betti, Cedda brother of St. Chad, and Diuma, who was consecrated first bishop of the Middle Angles and Mercians by Finan, but only ruled the see for two years, when he died and was buried "among the Middle Angles at Feppingum," which is supposed to be Repton. In the year 657 Peada was slain "in a very nefarious manner, during the festival of Easter, betrayed, as some say, by his wife," and was succeeded by his brother Wulphere.

The names of several of the Abbesses have been recorded. Eadburh, daughter of Ealdwulf, King of East Anglia. AElfthryth who received Guthlac, . Waerburh daughter of King Wulphere. Cynewaru who in 835 granted the manor and lead mines of Wirksworth, on lease, to one Humbert.

Among those whom we know to have been buried within the monastery are Merewald, brother of Wulphere. Cyneheard, brother of the King of the West Saxons. AEthelbald, King of the Mercians, "slain at Seccandun , and his body lies at Hreopandun" under date 755. Wiglaf or Withlaf, another King of Mercia, and his grandson Wistan , murdered by his cousin Berfurt at Wistanstowe in 850 . After existing for over 200 years the monastery was destroyed by the Danes in the year 874. "In this year the army of the Danes went from Lindsey to Hreopedun, and there took winter quarters," , and as Ingulph relates "utterly destroyed that most celebrated monastery, the most sacred mausoleum of all the Kings of Mercia."

For over two hundred years it lay in ruins, till, probably, the days of Edgar the Peaceable when a church was built on the ruins, and dedicated to St. Wystan.

REPTON'S SAINTS .

"The sober recital of historical fact is decked with legends of singular beauty, like artificial flowers adorning the solid fabric of the Church. Truth and fiction are so happily blended that we cannot wish such holy visions to be removed out of our sight," thus wrote Bishop Selwyn of the time when our Repton Saints lived, and in order that their memories may be kept green, the following account has been written.

ST. GUTHLAC.

At the command of AEthelbald, King of the Mercians, Felix, monk of Crowland, first bishop of the East Angles, wrote a life of St. Guthlac.

He derived his information from Wilfrid, abbot of Crowland, Cissa, a priest, and Beccelm, the companion of Guthlac, all of whom knew him.

Felix relates that Guthlac was born in the days of AEthelred, , his parents' names were Icles and Tette, of royal descent. He was baptised and named Guthlac, which is said to mean "Gud-lac," "belli munus," "the gift of battle," in reference to the gift of one, destined to a military career, to the service of God. The sweet disposition of his youth is described, at length, by his biographer, also the choice of a military career, in which he spent nine years of his life. During those years he devastated cities and houses, castles and villages, with fire and sword, and gathered together an immense quantity of spoil, but he returned a third part of it to those who owned it. One sleepless night, his conscience awoke, the enormity of his crimes, and the doom awaiting such a life, suddenly aroused him, at daybreak he announced, to his companions, his intention of giving up the predatory life of a soldier of fortune, and desired them to choose another leader, in vain they tried to turn him from his resolve, and so at the age of twenty-four, about the year 694, he left them, and came to the Abbey of Repton, and sought admission there. AElfritha, the abbess, admitted him, and, under her rule, he received the "mystical tonsure of St. Peter, the prince of the Apostles."

For two years he applied himself to the study of sacred and monastic literature.

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