CHAPTER 1
In all the books published about Eton, the great College and
School naturally form the absorbing centre of at-traction. Very little
attention has been paid to the history of Eton itself, and yet there is much
about it which many would like to know. It would be interesting to trace its
first beginnings, as a town and parish; to discover what people first settled
there, what their occupation was, and what brought them there.
It would be a matter of interest, to find out whether the
place was inhabited at all in the days of the ancient Britons, or only in the
days of the Anglo-Saxons or the Normans; whether the first settlers were Christians;
and, if so, what spiritual provision was made for them.
But we have to curb our curiosity. The materials to help us
to any complete knowledge are somewhat scanty and uncertain. Eton seems to have
no Roman or British remains, nor any buildings old enough to throw light on
those very remote times. Buckinghamshire is not like some counties, fortunate
in possessing the records of ancient chroniclers.
Until about the year 1030, no written records are
forthcoming, and for many years later only sundry scraps of information are
available.
But something may be learnt from the study of names and
existing customs; enough at any rate to form strong circumstantial evidence.
First, as regards names, there is hardly any trace of Danish
influence in this corner of the county, but the neighbourhood abounds in names
with the well-known Saxon termination of 'ham' or 'home.' Burnham, Farnham,
Wexham, Cippenham and many others will at once occur to our readers. Another
common sign of Saxon settlement is the termination ' ton,' as in Upton, Horton,
Cole Norton, and Eton itself. We shall see presently how this throws light on
its early history.
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| Field Map by H. Walker 1839 |
Then within the limits of the parish itself, many of the old
names of the fields bear distinct witness to Saxon origin. A glance at the map
of Eton Parish reveals several: 'shot' (e.g. two acre shot), butts' (e.g. wheat
butts), Mill ‘furlong' or furrow long, ‘ward,’ ‘croft,' even 'acre' itself, are
Saxon words; and what we still call 'eyots' and ‘weirs' were Saxon terms too,
though ‘weir' had then a wider significance, and was used also for wattled baskets and other such contrivances for catching fish.
Further we find the same evidence accorded by certain
institutions and customs, which, although slightly modified and altered in name
under Norman rule, were undoubtedly Saxon, and were firmly established before
either Danes or Normans appeared.
There are three such in Eton. The first of these is the
existence of Common lands, of which Long Common and Little Common are samples.
These commons take us back to the times of the earliest settlers, when, besides
the wooden hut and the enclosed plot of ground (described as a 'close,' see
map for many examples) which each settler cultivated as his private holding,
there were certain pasture lands or woods which the community or tribe shared
together, and into which they could turn their cattle or pigs under certain
agreed conditions.
But apart from these Common lands, which of course exist in
most parts of England, much of the meadow and cultivated land in Eton is open
and unenclosed, and subject to what are known as Lammas rights.
These rights entitle householders, according to their rate,
to graze so many head of cattle on these fields from the 1st of August to the
31st of October.
This too is an institution which has come down from the
seventh century. The name Lammas ' has its origin in the first day of the
grazing season, viz. Lammas Day. It is derived from Hlaf-masse, Loaf-mass, or
Bread-feast. The day was observed in Saxon times as a day of thanksgiving for
the first fruits of the harvest; a loaf made of the new corn was offered at the
Mass, as even in those days the Holy Eucharist was popularly called.
These Lammas rights have been jealously guarded by the
inhabitants both in ancient and modern times. But for these, much of the open
land in Eton would long ago have been in the hands of speculating builders and
covered with bricks and mortar.
It is said, by good authorities, that the open or Lammas
meadows were generally in old days allotted to tenants in strips, ' butts ' or
shots ' as they were called. Another glance at the map shows how this custom
prevailed as regards both meadow and plough land, and how in several instances
the old names are preserved. It is also interesting to know that to this day
very many of these old divisions of the land are still in use, and parts of
fields are leased as separate holdings, although there is no visible boundary
mark.
There is also a third institution closely connected with the
two already mentioned, namely the Manorial system.
It is doubtless the case that the term ' Manor,' as well as
most of the quaint old-world names connected with it, are of Norman invention,
and the whole Manorial system with its Courts was developed somewhat under
Norman rule but the best historians seem agreed that the system itself existed
in substance in Saxon times and is hardly distinguishable from it. The lord in
those days was called 'thegn' or 'thane,' the 'manor' was then the 'ham' or
'tun' (the township), or in Latin villata 'rendered in French ville.'
Many ratepayers, in response to a formal summons, attended a
Court Leet, or General Court Baron, and a View of Frankpledge,' held by the
Lord of the Manor or his steward in the dining-room of the Manor House of Eton;
but it is as likely as not, that, in obeying this now very occasional summons,
they have little realised that they were taking part in proceedings which were
going on a thousand years ago, and some four or five hundred years before the
College was founded.
Nowadays the Court and its jurors are only concerned with
such small matters as the swearing in a new Bailiff or appointing someone to
the office of Hayward, or possibly the amending some by-law or fining some
offender for the breach of the same, but in early days this Court was of real
importance to the whole village community. It was part of their system of local
government.
The assembled freemen or land-holders met under their thegn
or reeve, and determined whether some would-be settler should be admitted to
the privileges of the Manor or Township, and what strip of land should be
allotted as his holding. The jurors had to witness every surrender of land and
every new tenancy, and to see that the terms were duly carried out. They were
sureties responsible for the general good conduct of all on the Manor and for
the good order kept. Some of what we now call petty police cases were brought
before the Court, and the local Court assisted the Court of the Hundred and the
Shire Court in enforcing their regulations.
Many other matters also were managed by the Court, as e.g. the
keeping up of fences and dykes, the arrangement of crops, etc., to be planted
in particular fields.
But what concerns us now, is that the existence of these
three institutions is circumstantial evidence for there having been a settled
population in Eton in Anglo-Saxon times. Moreover, the fact that a large
portion of the land held by the Lord of the Manor is subject to Lammas rights,
and that his Court is still charged with the due maintenance of both Lammas and
Common rights, seems to show that these rights were fully established in the
parish before Norman days and were accepted as part of the territorial system
which prevailed throughout Wessex.
In other words, we may safely infer that Eton begins its
history somewhere far back between the seventh and tenth centuries. At any
rate, long before the Conquest we may picture in the higher ground of the
parish (perhaps near the Manor Farm, Eton Wick, or in Northfield near Cole
Norton) a cluster of small homesteads, occupied by agricultural folk who lived
for the most part a peace-able life, who ploughed with their oxen their own
strips or plots of land, or at stated times worked on the land of their thegn.
These would meet together in their little community to discuss and settle
matters which concerned their common benefit, and, at long intervals, would be
called to arms by their thegn to join in resisting the inroads of some
marauding foe.
It may be conjectured that this colony was known as Cole
Norton or North tun; 'town' or 'tun' in Anglo-Saxon being the name given to the
enclosure or hedge which surrounded the homestead of the thegn and his
dependents.
But what of the town of Eton itself? Old maps and
engravings, as well as information which belongs to the time of the Foundation
of the College, make it clear that the river and its tributaries present a very
different appearance to what they did even in the fifteenth century. The main
stream has considerably shifted its course. Several of the streams have been
diverted, some have disappeared altogether. Going back still further, we may
conjecture something of this sort. If we could have taken a bird's eye view of
the southern corner of the parish nearest the river, or even if we could have
looked down on it from the chalk hill on the Berkshire bank, which in later
days was crowned with the Round Tower, we should have noticed several
intersecting streams and a cluster of islands, and especially a stream of some
width flowing out of Cuckoo Weir stream and passing along the lane on the north side of South Meadow into Barns
Pool, re-entering the main stream to the left of the College Eyot.
On the principal island thus formed, we may conjecture that
one of the early warrior-chieftains chose a sited for his homestead which would
command the river and be secure from sudden attack, while his retainers built
their log huts or cottages round him, protected by his fenced enclosure or tun;
and out of this small nucleus the ' town ' little by little grew.
In old documents Eton is very variably spelt. It most often
appears as Eyton, sometimes as Eiton, in Domesday Book it is Ettone, and we
sometimes find Etone or Eaton.
The first spelling suggests that the name properly signified
the Island Town, or the Town on the Eyot, and that this name was in course of
time extended to the rest of the parish.
When the parish first appears in the pages of chroniclers,
it was in the division of Bucks which was known as the Hundred of Burnham, but it
seems to have been afterwards, either wholly or in part, transferred to the
Hundred of Stoke.
Most of the land in very early days was probably, like the
country on the opposite bank of the Thames, thickly wooded, but by the time of
the Domesday Survey, taken by the order of William the Conqueror in 1086, Eton
already was a place with some resources and importance of its own.
The land had been largely cleared and was partly in pasture
and partly cultivated, although there were still woods and copses large enough
to feed 200 swine on mast and acorns. There were two water-mills valued at a
rent of 20s. in the money of that day. One is supposed to have stood at Cuckoo
Weir, and what is known as Deadman's Hole may have been caused by the washing
of the mill-stream. The other mill stood in what is now the Playing Fields,
perhaps near the gate which now opens on to the College Eyot. There were also
large fisheries, yielding a rent of 1000 eels.
In the time of Edward the Confessor, 1050, there was an
ancient Saxon Palace at Old Windsor (near the Priory). It was here that the
royal family resided; hence the property acquired by the King in the neighbourhood.
The Manor of Eton was one of such holdings. It belonged to his wife, Queen
Eddid or Eadgyth, and on her death (1075) reverted to the Crown. A little
later, the Conqueror granted it to Walter son of Other, who was appointed
Warden of the Forest, and also was the first Governor or Constable of the
Castle Keep, which was just then erected on half a hide of land in the Manor
and Parish of Clewer, as a suitable military post to command the neighbourhood.
This Walter, who afterwards took the title of Baron Windsor,
had on his Manor fifteen 'villeins,' tenants under their lord of strips or
portions of land and working between them six plough teams, also four 'bordars'
or cottagers, who held their cottages and gardens on condition of supplying the
lord with poultry and eggs. He had besides attached to his land four servants
or serfs. The two mills, some of the fisheries, and woodlands mentioned above,
belonged to this Manor.
There was also a second Manor in this parish held of the
King by Walter son of Pont; he had thirteen villeins, five bordars and seven
servants, whose lands were not geldable, i.e. not subject to tax. He had two
fisheries and 148 acres of pasture land.
In addition to some rent, these thegns had to aid in
building forts and castles and maintaining bridges in their jurisdiction and to
provide a certain number of men for the King's army.
The building of the Keep was followed by the building of
some other parts of the Castle, and Henry I. is said to have held a Courts
there for the first time in 1110.
What communication there was between Eton and the Castle,
except by ferry, is uncertain. But, as for many years yet there was no town on
the Berkshire side of the river, we may presume that the presence of the Court
and garrison helped considerably to the development of the trade of Eton. At
any rate it had become sufficiently large and prosperous for a weekly market,
which was held on Mondays. For this, King John granted a charter to Roger de
Cauz in 1204.
Of the two manors mentioned above, one only survives under
the designation of the Manor of Eton cum Stockdales and Colenorton. From the
titles of its Courts and their powers, it would seem to have been a Manor of
consider-able importance in the neighbourhood. The other Manor is represented
by what is now Crown land and by what was in later years acquired by the
College.
OLD DAYS OF ETON PARISH by The Rev. John Shephard, M.A. was published in 1908 by Spottiswoode and Co Ltd. The text is has been copied from the original book that is now out of copyright.
Omar died in the Sidi Rezegh battle on November 21st 1941 at
the age of 25 and is buried in the Knightsbridge War Cemetery, Libya, which is
situated 15½ miles west of Tobruk and a few miles from Acroma. The cemetery
contains 3,649 burials, including 10 soldiers whose graves could not be
positively identified. The Knightsbridge War Cemetery was so named because a
strategic point of the "box" desert defences in the area had been
known as Knightsbridge. Graves and small battlefield burial places were
concentrated at Knightsbridge after the war.
