Part 5: Historical Analysis
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Dorset Historic Towns Survey: Sherborne Part 5: Historical Analysis 25 Dorset Historic Towns Survey: Sherborne 5.1 Saxon Sherborne (AD 705-1065) 1163 which refers to the Church of St Mary 5.1.1 Historical Summary Magdalene situated next to Sherborne Castle, Sherborne holds a significant position in the with the chapels of St Michael and St Probus. history of Wessex. Although not mentioned by This document and a Papal Privelege dated name, events relating to its foundation are re- 1146 which mentions Propschirche suggest corded in both the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and that a chapel dedicated to Saint Probus was Bede’s Historia . It became a see for the dio- situated next to Sherborne Castle (O’Donovan, cese of Wessex west of Selwood in AD 705 1988, xliii). The propeschirche of the 1146 and became the capital of Wessex for a short document was located near Stocland, leading period from 860-878 while Winchester was ex- Keen to suggest that the site of Lanprobus was posed to Viking attacks. Thus the Kings Aethel- in the vicinity of Sherborne Old Castle; mead- bald and Aethelberht are thought to have been owland called Stockland is recorded here buried at Sherborne. It has even been sug- alongside Pinford Lane. Moreover, early Chris- gested that King Alfred the Great was edu- tian burials and a ditch, which appear to pre- cated in Sherborne (Wildman, 1911, 3-4). The date the 12 th century construction of the castle, origins of Sherborne may go back even further have been recorded during excavations at the into the Post-Roman period as a pre-existing castle. Five grass-tempered pottery sherds British estate, see or monastery. This idea was were recovered from these excavations, in- first explored by Baring Gould and Fisher residual contexts. This is the only type of in- (1913, 107). It rests on the mention of the Brit- digenous pottery produced in SW Britain in the ish place name Lanprobus in a forged founda- 5th -8th centuries AD. Keen concludes that Lan- tion charter contained within a collection of probus, a pre-existing British church or monas- Sherborne Charters written in the 14 th and 15 th tery, was moved from the area of the Castle to centuries and held at the British Library. This the Abbey site c. 705 by Aldhelm (Keen, 1984, charter is sometimes known as the Cotton 210-12). Hall has also drawn attention to the manuscript Faustina A. ii, it states: fact that bishoprics on the continent were nor- Kenewalc rex dedit lanprobi de c. hydis or King mally founded at important Roman administra- tive centres. In England, early sees were also Cenwalh gave 100 hides at Lanprobus [to created in former Roman towns such as Can- Sherborne]. terbury, Winchester and Dorchester-on- Recording the granting of land by Cenwalh, Thames. Hall discusses why Sherborne might king of Wessex (643-672) to the church at have been chosen above Ilchester, which was Sherborne in AD 671, this charter is clearly a a Roman town and a Saxon royal estate, or forgery because one of the signatories, Dorchester. Sherborne may have had a Ro- Archbishop Lawrence, died in AD 619 (Fowler, man settlement at Pinford Lane, but it was 1951, 30-32). Nevertheless, it is now widely never a town. It seems likely that Sherborne thought that it may represent a tradition that was chosen as see because of a pre-existing the cathedral at Sherborne was founded in AD British Church on the site with a large estate 705 on a pre-existing British monastic estate of already endowed for its support. In fact Lanpro- 100 hides centred on a place called Lanpro- bus may already have had a British bishop bus. Finberg (1953) went further and linked the prior to the creation of the West Saxon see at 100 hides at Lanprobus with the chapel of St Sherborne (Hall, 2005, 135-9). Probus mentioned in a papal bull dated AD Figure 7: The west front of Sherborne Abbey Church Figure 6: View along Marston Road looking north west with the former All Hallows Church 27 Dorset Historic Towns Survey: Sherborne However, the exact location of the proposed Brit- present vicarage, west of the west end of the Ab- ish ecclesiastical centre of Lanprobus has not bey Church. A town is likely to have developed been demonstrated beyond doubt. It remains around the cathedral, and its fortunes fluctuated possible that its site is contiguous with that of the accordingly. At the beginning of the 10 th century later Saxon cathedral. Limited archaeological evi- the diocese of Sherborne was subdivided into dence lends some support to this theory. There is Sherborne and Crediton, resulting in the loss of debatable evidence for a Roman building be- endowed lands in Devon and Cornwall to Credi- neath the Abbey Church of St Mary; a number of ton. In AD 998 the Benedictine monastery of early Christian burials on the Abbey site have Sherborne was founded and in 1075 the see of recently been carbon dated and the possibility Sherborne was permanently removed to Old Sa- remains that some of them may predate the 8 th rum as part of a decree by a council in London century foundation of the bishopric (Keen & Ellis, that bishops’ seats should be in more accessible 2005, 9). places (Fowler, 1951, 19-30, 67). The implication is that Sherborne was a relatively inaccessible The earliest reliable mention of the name Sher- backwater in the late Saxon period. Sherborne borne appears in a charter dated AD 864 in which would also have served as a Minster church at King Aethelberht grants liberties to the holy foun- this time, with a Parochia comprising surrounding dation at Scirburnan (Donovan, 1988, 18-22). villages within an approximate radius of 5km. This name is topographical and derives from the Old English scir + burna meaning clear or bright Something of the character of Sherborne at the stream (Mills, 1991, 293). The name does not end of the late Saxon period can be gleaned from impart any information regarding the origin of the the Domesday entry for the town. It was clearly a town other than the Saxon Cathedral seems to large manor, the major part of which was held by have been sited next to the eponymous stream. It the bishop of Salisbury, although the monks of is likely that the Coombe Brook represents the Sherborne also held a separate manor within the clear or bright stream because it flows over lime- town for their own support. Several large estates stone whereas the Yeo flows over clay (Fowler, within the bishop’s manor were held by named 1951, 13). individuals and there were also a total of 86 smallholders within the bishops and the monks’ There is very little evidence for the precise nature manors. This suggests an intensive but dispersed of the Saxon town of Sherborne. The archaeo- settlement pattern in the manor as a whole. How- logical evidence comprises: the burials from the ever, 111 villagers are also listed, indicating a region of the Abbey (five of which have been sizeable nucleated settlement at the heart of the dated to the 7 th -11 th centuries); a few structural manor. Although Sherborne is not afforded the fragments of the late Saxon cathedral surviving status of a borough in the late Saxon period, its within the fabric of the present church or revealed size may be compared to that of the four Dorset during excavation; and similar structural frag- boroughs of Dorchester (which comprised 172 ments of the Benedictine monastery. Burials dat- houses), Bridport (120), Wareham (285) and ing from before the 12 th century have also been Shaftesbury (257). excavated from beneath the Old Castle (Bean, 1955a; Webster & Cherry, 1974) and a probably Fowler surmised from the Domesday entry that pagan Saxon crouched inhumation from south of the manor occupied the Yeo valley for a distance Tinney’s Lane (Mckinley, 1999). Although this of 5 miles long and 2-3 miles wide between does not add up to convincing evidence for an Oborne and Bradford Abbas. He suggested that urban settlement at Sherborne, it remains highly the land was broadly divided into woodland on likely that a town existed here, if not by AD 705, the steep slopes of Fuller’s Earth to the south of then shortly after and certainly by the 9 th century the River Yeo; meadow in the Yeo floodplain; when it is thought to have been the Capital of arable and pasture on the inferior oolite dip slope Wessex. Aldhelm was made the first Saxon to the north of the Yeo (Fowler, 1951, 3-6). The bishop of Sherborne and he is thought to have general impression is of a large, wealthy, industri- built a church here. The exact location of this ous and populous manor on the eve of the Nor- church is unknown; William of Malmesbury, writ- man Conquest. It should be noted however, that ing in the early 12 th century, claims to have seen William of Malmesbury, writing in the early 12 th Aldhelm’s church, but this is more likely to have century described Sherborne as a very small vil- been the late Saxon church built by Wulfsin in the lage with a scanty population and little in the way late 10 th -early 11 th century, fragments of which of the amenities of life (Fowler, 1951, 105-6). He survive today within the fabric of the present Ab- may have had a motive however, as a resident of bey church of St Mary.