A History of Campsall
The history of the village of
Campsall north of Doncaster, where we find our ancestors in the sixteenth
century
Settlement
There was a small
Roman Fort, Burghwallis,
about two kilometres southwest of Campsall where the A1, the once Roman Road,
crossed the small River Skell, close to where Robin Hood’s Well is today.
The area
around modern Doncaster was forested until it started to be cleared in the late
Saxon period. At some stage perhaps from late Saxon times, areas were cleared
for settlement in the process called assarting. The growth of population and
villages, including Campsall and Loversall,
by the time of Edward the Confessor suggest that assarting had been pursued
vigorously by that time.
There were
about 170 vills of human settlement by the late Saxon period.
Settlement
was sometimes the result of the need to cross a watercourse, where permanent
crossing points were found. Sometimes settlement might have been no more than
the inclination of a family to settle on land, which later grew into a larger
habitation.
The informal
process of settlement was soon replaced by a recognition of rights of occupancy
of land by an elite class who came to own large estates. Thereafter it was no
longer open to every citizen to clear woodland for his own use, Well before the
Norman Conquest a right had been recognised in overlordship.
Saxon lords
came to surround themselves with dependents who held portions of land from him,
in return for rendering services. This is reflected in culture, in such tales
as Beowulf, which focused a desire to live
within the protection of the elite class, as protection against the perils of
unsettled places.
By the turn
of the first millennium, Dadesley (now Tickhill) and Doncaster had emerged as
burgesses. Other centres were also emerging including Campsall, which was
valued at £5 in a census of Edward the Confessor, being one of the larger
settlements.
The larger
seats of population came to be governed under the authority of a bors holder
who was elected at a general assembly. Townships were grouped in tens under a hundreder,
a superior officer who held courts. These hundreds came to be called wapentakes
in the areas to the north. Doncaster
and Loversall fell within the Wapentake
of Strafford. Campsall fell within the Wapentake of Osgodcross.
From early
times the parish of Campsall consisted of six townships or hamlets of Campsall,
Askern, Fenwick, Moss, Norton and Sutton.
Norman
Campsall
At the time
of the Domesday
survey in 1086, the area was in the possession of Ilbert de Lacy, the
founder of Pontefract Castle. Campsall appeared twice in the Domesday Survey
and both times was referred to as Cansale. Before the conquest Alsi had
two and a half caracutes there.
Campsall
then comprised 5 ploughlands with two Lord’s plough teams and 5 men’s plough
teams. There was also woodland of about 1 by half a league, or 5.5 kilometres
by 2.75 km.
There were
sixteen villagers and 3 smallholders.
It was rated
at £4 before and after the Conquest.
The fact
that Domesday does not mention a church at Campsall does not necessarily mean
that there was no Saxon church. The existing church includes some pre-Conquest
evidence. There might have been a chapel attached to the manor without
parochial rights. The earliest existing work in the church dates to the twelfth
century.
The manor of
Campsall thrived after the Conquest, rather than retracting, and was owned
directly by Ilbert de Lacy. Ilbert de Lacy was given a broad belt of land
across what became the West Riding of Yorkshire. He took the whole wapentakes
of Staincross and Osgodcross. Pontefract was head of his fee, so his estate was
called the honour of Pontefract.
St Mary
Magdalene at Campsall
Campsall
Priory was an Augustinian priory founded in the twelfth century. The priory
played a significant role in the local community and religious life. Only ruins
remain today.
The Church
of St Mary Magdalene had at least two main phases of twelfth century
construction which have been identified. At first it had a cruciform plan and
later nave aisles enclosing a west tower were added. Campsall church has the
most ambitious Norman west tower of any parish church in the Riding.
Subsequently, alterations were made to the aisle arcades, windows, chancel and
south doorway.
By the reign
of Richard I (1189 to 1199) Adam de Reineviles had recovered seizin of half
the church of Camsale against Henry de Puteaco and Dionysia, his wife. This
is the earliest mention of a church at Campsall.
Rev Joseph
Hunter in his South Yorkshire, the History and Topography of the Deanery of
Doncaster in the Diocese and County of York wrote that Campsal church
was the joint work of the Lacis, the chief lords, and the Reineviles, the
subinfudatories. It exceded the churches of Bramwith, Owston and Burgh in
magnificence as much as it did in the extent of country that was attached to it.
The Lacis
and the Reinvilles seem to have united in the foundation of the church at
Campsall. There were originally two rectors, one appointed by each family and
this continued until about the time of Henry III. Much of the church of
Campsall is the church erected at this time.
The
Reinevilles appear to have been succeed in the sub tenancy of the Campsall
lands by the Newmarches.
There is a
record in the Patent Rolls in 1285,
during the reign of Edward I, to deliver the gaol of Oxford of William de
Campsale, who was put in exigent …
The benefice
of Campsall was in the Taxatio
of Pope Nicholas IV in 1291. It had an annual value
of £66 13s. 4d, under the patronage of Henry de Lascy, Earl of Lincoln. By
a curious arrangement, the chapel
of St. Clement in Pontefract Castle had a one ninth share in the tithe from
Campsall (or the church’s right to a one tenth levy). This was probably because
Ilbert de Lacy and his successors held both estates and adopted this method of
supporting their Pontefract chapel.
The
evolution of Campsall into a centre of learning
Henry de
Laci, Earl of Lincoln, in the reign of Edward II, left a daughter, who was the
wife of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, the grandson of Henry III. On the accession
of the House of Lancaster to the throne, the estates of the Lacis came to be
held directly by the Crown, but were still held by tenants.
In 1293,
during the reign of Edward I, Henry Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, Lord of the Honour
of Pontefract, obtained a royal charter for a market at Campsall, which would
suggest that it was a place of some consequence by that time. This charter
entitled the village to hold a weekly Thursday market and an annual four-day
fair each July during the festival of St Mary Magdalene. The fair continued
until 1627.
Over time
the Church dedicated to St Mary Magdalene came to resemble a collegiate church.
By the sixteenth century, the Valor
Ecclesiasticus records indicate that there was a vicar and a deacon at
Campsall. There were also chantry priests in the vicinity who sang masses for
the repose of the souls of individuals who left endowments to the church. The
chantry priests were supernumerary to the parish clergy and may have been
involved in teaching. It has been suggested that the first floor chamber above
the vaulted west bay of the south aisle at St Mary Magdalene, dating from the
late thirteenth century, might have been a space used for such a purpose.
The
emergence of the theologian Richard of Campsall (c1280 to c1350) suggests a
well established tradition of teaching in Campsall. Richard
of Campsall, or Ricardus de Campsalle, was a secular theologian and
scholastic philosopher at the University of Oxford.
He was
arguably one of the most important philosophers at Oxford just before the time
of William of Ockham.
Recent research suggests that several views described as Ockhamist by the end
of the fourteenth century might have originated with Richard of Campsall. A
fellow of Balliol College prior to 1306, Richard of Campsall became a fellow of
Merton College in 1306. By 1308 he was a regent master of arts. From 1322 to
1324 he was regent master of theology and in 1325 he served as locum tenens
for the chancellor. How long he lived is not known but he probably lived until
about 1350 or 1360.
Richard
of Campsall’s extant works include his Quaestiones super librum Priorum
analeticorum (c 1308), the Contra ponentes naturam (on universals),
a short treatise on form and matter (Utrum materia possit esse sine forma),
and Notabilia de contingencia et presciencia Det, all of which were
probably written about 1317 or 1318. Campsall’s Sentences commentary is
not extant, but Walter Chatton, Adam of Wodeham, Rodington, Robert Holcot, and
Pierre de Plaout cite him in their Sentences commentaries.
In the Questions
on the Prior Analytics Richard of Campsall proposed that training in logic
was the basis for all other sciences. He discussed the concepts of syllogism,
consequences, and conversion. He argued that the crux of logical thinking was
the syllogism and knowledge of consequences and conversion was necessary for
the study of syllogism, especially for converting “imperfect” syllogisms into
“perfect” syllogisms. In the area of supposition
theory, Campsall proposed views usually first attributed to Ockham,
including his distinction between simple and other types of supposition.
This was
deep stuff. Campsall must have been the crucible of some serious intellectual
debate to have produced a person such as Richard.
Meantime
there was continued ecclesiastical drama
in Campsall.
Writing to
the Dean of Doncaster, on 14 July 1324, the archbishop directed the Prioress at
Campsall to make Thomas de Raynevill undergo a penance imposed upon him for
committing the sin of incest with Isabella Folifayt, a nun of Hampole. The
penance was that on a Sunday, while the major mass was being celebrated in the
conventual church of Hampole, Thomas de Raynevill was to stand, wearing only a
tunic and bare-headed, holding a lighted taper of a pound weight of wax in his
hand, which after the offertory had been said he was to offer to the celebrant,
who was to explain to the congregation the cause of the oblation. The
punishment continued that on two festivals more penitencium he should be
beaten (fustigetur) around the parish church of Campsall.
The Patent Rolls, on 14 July 1328 during the
reign of Edward III referred to Meldon, parson of the church of Campsale.
The folk of
Campsall paid £7 2s 0d in taxation in 1324, the fourth highest contribution in
South Yorkshire.
In 1335 and
1336, there was a composition under the sanction of William, Archbishop of
York, in the time of Thomas de Bracton, rector and William de Mundene,
prebendary of the prebend in the chapel at Campsall, by which 100 shillings was
paid annually by the rector in lieu of tithe.
The Close Rolls in June 1335, during the
reign of Edward III referred to Thomas de Brayton, parson of Campsale
church, diocese of York.
The 1379
Poll Tax included records of taxes paid by a chapman (or ‘middleman’) and
twelve craftsman, which suggests a degree of trade through Campsall. It is
likely at this time that the town did not become more than a local trading
centre.
On 19
October 1391 a pardon was given to John Wayte, Parson of Campsall, alias of
Aldborough, for non-appearance to answer Roger Broun of Boston, or Walter
Godard, citizen and brewer of London, for debts of £34 and £33 2s respectively.
The
crucible of the Robin Hood stories
By
the fifteenth century the villagers at Campsall had formed a fraternity,
and hired their own priest to pray for the parishioners living and the souls
departed.
Most English
writers of the fifteenth century had at least some association with the Church.
Those who captured the rymes of Robehod into the written word were
therefore likely to have had some ecclesiastical background.
The earliest
references to Robin Hood are more associated with
Barnsdale Forest than Sherwood. Many of the names given to geographical
locations in Sherwood Forest were given in the nineteenth century. Some names
though are much older, such as Barnsdale’s Stone of Robin Hood, about 500m
north of Robin Hood’s Well, which was mentioned as a boundary marker in about 1540 by John Leland, in his Itinery in or about the years 1535-1543.
Robin
Hood and the Potter named Wentbridge (Went breg) in Barnsdale. In Robin Hood and
Guy of Gisborne, the action took place in Barnsdale, and the sheriff was
slain when he tried to flee to Nottingham.
Robin Hood’s
association with Barnsdale was included in early written records of the tales
including by the Scottish poet and Augustinian canon Andrew of Wyntoun in his Cronykil
of Scotland of circa 1420.
Robin
Hood in Barnesdale Stood was quoted in a case by a judge in the court of Common Pleas in 1429.
In the late
fifteenth century, the tales were brought together into A Gest of
Robyn Hode, which was structured into sections or fyttes. Various
editions of the Gest were printed between 1490 and 1550. The Gest
of Robin Hood places Robin Hood firmly in Barnsdale.
The
references in the stories of Robin Hood,
including Barnsdale, the Saylis and Wentbridge suggest a very local knowledge
of those who captured the stories into writing. Doncaster is just seven miles
to the south. By 1540 its population was about 2,000.
The
locations with which Robin Hood is associated, like the stories themselves, are
imagined over centuries of storytelling. The places, like to stories, are
ephemeral and locating the green wood precisely is not the right approach to
take. Yet there is no doubt that the idea of the green wood has a very close
association with Barnsdale, Campsall, and the area immediately to the north of
Doncaster. Robin Hood’s domain, though flexible to the imagination of countless
story tellers, clearly stretched to Doncaster. My purpos was to haue dyned
to day; At Blith or Dancastere (Gest, Fytte 1, 22). Robin Hood’s ultimate
betrayal was to the knight, Sir Roger of Doncaster. Barnsdale forest was then
at the eastern edge of the great swamp land that dominated the land westward to
the Humber estuary.
There is no
forest at Barnsdale today, but a large area around Campsall was once forested.
It may even have stretched past Doncaster to merge with Sherwood. The medieval
records do not though suggest forest at Barnsdale was an administered royal
forest like Pickering,
with its forest verderers and regarders. Barnsdale or Bernysdale was
likely to have been a lightly wooded area that was not officially a forest, but
it was a place of ambush in the fourteenth century. Highway robbery in
Yorkshire in the fourteenth and fifteenth century was a significant problem and
there were recorded holdups around Barnsdale and Wentbridge. There was at least
one inn at Wentbridge, where stories would have been retold. The area along the
road from Doncaster and Pontefract at that time, was likely a melting pot of
storytelling.
In 1540 John
Leland described the road which followed the modern A1 near Campsall as bandit
country and on his journey from Doncaster to Pontefract, Leland wrote From
Dancaster to Causeby lesys by a mile and more, wher the rebelles of Yorkshir a
lately assembled. He also described the area The ground betwixt
Dancaster and Pontfract in sum places Yorkshire, meately wooddid and enclosid
ground : in al places reason- Rably fruteful of pasture and corne.
There is a
particular association of the stories with Barnsdale and Robin Hood’s chapel,
dedicated to Mary Magdalene.
The parish
church at Campsall, still the Church of St Mary Magdalene, coincides with
Robin’s chapell in Bernysdale. There were several churches dedicated to
Mary Magdelene, including the parish church in Doncaster itself, but the
church at Campsall is the most likely association as it sits in the heart of
the area associated with Barnsdale.
There is
only one church dedicated to Mary Magdalene within what might reasonably be
considered to have been the medieval forest of Barnsdale, being the church at
Campsall. Indeed, a local legend suggests that Robin Hood and Maid Marion were
married at the church of Saint Mary Magdalene, at Campsall.
Fifteenth
century Campsall
In 1415,
John was parish clerk of Campsall. In 1427 John Corngham, canon of Windsor, was
rector of Campsall. Robert Dykes became rector until he died, presented by
Henry VI. John Okham became Rector in 1429, presented by Henry VI and resigned
to go to the church of Menstoke in Winchester. William Normanton then became
Rector until he resigned. Robert Ayscough became Rector on 3 March 1443 until
he resigned. Robert Addy became chaplain of Campsall to the archbishop on 24
May 1466, presented by Edward IV.
A great
change took place in 1481 when Edward IV (in his second period of reign)
granted the rectory of Campsall to the Priory of Wallingwells in
Nottinghamshire, a small house of Benedictine nuns. It was a poor foundation
before this gift.
Peter Wylde
was presented as vicar of the church on 18 October 1483, presented by the
University of Cambridge. In the following year Thomas Rotherham, Archbishop of
York decreed that henceforth the benefice of Campsall should be served by a
Vicar, and gave the appointment to Cambridge University.
This meant
that the church at Campsall was appropriate to external influences, and the
local people were deprived from having a person from their own community.
Richard Balderstone
was presented as vicar of the church on 13 October 1505, presented by the
University of Cambridge and died while vicar. Henry Swaynborough became vicar
on 26 May 1507.
Later
History
After the
dissolution of the monasteries in 1536, under Henry VIII the rectorial tithes
passed into lay hands.
John Lommas
BA became vicar on 16 July 1552 until he died in 1574.
Robert
Middleton held the tithe of Campsall in 1557 as tenant to the Hastings family
of Fenwick.
On 29
October 1564, William
Farndell married Margaret Atkinson at St Mary Magdalene Church in Campsall.
John Brooke
became rector on 27 March 1574, appointed by the archbishop, possibly because
there were questions by then about the ownership of the university regarding
the right to present vicars. In 1579 the rectory of Campsall was granted to Sir
Christopher Hutton. In 1585 Sir Christopher Hutton conveyed the rectory to
Edward Heron of Stamford.
A Survey in
1627 recorded that The towne of Campsall had in tymes past the priviledge of
a market, which is now decayed and lost by discontinuance.
A map of
1740 shows Market Flatt to the north of the village, which was probably the
site of the market.
Continuing
Campsall’s tradition as a centre of learning, the Campsall Society for the
Acquisition of Knowledge was founded in the late 1830s when the family of Charles
Wood rented Campsall Hall and employed young scholars, including from
Continental Europe, to tutor their sons Neville, Willoughby and Charles Junior.
The father, Charles Thorold Wood, had been a captain in the Royal Horse Guards,
and was an ornithologist. His wife, Jane, was an early adherent of homeopathy. Neville
(b 1818) at this time was editor of a journal called The Naturalist, a
contributor to The Analyst and had, in 1836, published The
Ornithologist's Text-Book. Their tutors included Giacomo Chiosso, later
professor of gymnastics at University College London and inventor of the
Polymachinon, a forerunner of the modern exercise machine, Edwin Lankester,
Leonhard Schmitz and Ferdinand Moller. The Society had probably ceased to exist
by the early 1840s.
A
Topographical Dictionary of England of 1848: described Victorian Campsall, the
parish St. Mary Magdalene, in the union of Doncaster, Upper division of the
wapentake of Osgoldcross, W. riding of York; containing 2149 inhabitants, of
whom 385 are in the township of Campsall, 8 miles (N. N. W.) from Doncaster.
The parish consists of the townships of Askerne, Campsall, Fenwick, Moss,
Norton, and part of Sutton; and comprises by computation 9700 acres, of which
1470 are in the township of Campsall, including the hamlet of Barnsdale. The
village is pleasantly situated on a gentle acclivity, about seven miles distant
from the river Don on the south, and on the north the same distance from the
Aire. Stone of good quality is quarried. Camps Mount, the seat of George Cooke
Yarborough, Esq., is an elegant mansion, standing at the head of a fine lawn,
and embowered in luxuriant foliage; and Campsall Park is also a handsome
residence. The living is a perpetual curacy, valued in the king's books at £16.
16. 8.; net income, £128; patron and impropriator, Mr. Yarborough. The tithes
were commuted for land in 1814. The church is a large ancient edifice, and has
some fine specimens of Norman architecture. The remains of a Roman road may be
traced.
Campsall
1857
The church
was restored between 1871 and 1877 by G. G. Scott. Restoration of stonework on
the tower was in progress in 2005.
or
Go Straight to Chapter 11 –
the Vicar of Doncaster
Campsall
bibliography
Arts Council
of Great Britain: London, Hayward Gallery, English Romanesque Art, 1066-1200,
London, 1984
Borthwick
Institute, Faculty papers, Fac. 1871/2; Faculty Book 6, 18-19
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Mary Magdalene guide, The Story of St. Mary Magdalene Church, Campsall
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K. J.
Conant, Cluny, Les églises et la maison du chef d’Ordre, Mâcon, 1968
J. Fowler,
“Note on the restoration of the west doorway of Campsall church” Proceedings of
the Society of Antiquaries of London 8 (1879-81), 130-31
J. Hunter,
South Yorkshire: The History and Topography of the Deanery of Doncaster, in the
Diocese and County of York, 2 vols. J. B. Nichols & Son, London, 1828-31
J. E.
Morris, The West Riding, 2nd ed. London, 1923
N. Pevsner,
Yorkshire: West Riding. The Buildings of England, Harmondsworth, 1959, 2nd ed,
Revised E. Radcliffe, 1967
Victoria County
History: Yorkshire, II (General volume, including Domesday Book) 1912,
reprinted 1974
There is a
separate Campsall webpage with research
notes and a chronology.