The Church in Medieval Greenwich

http://kentarchaeology.org.uk/research/archaeologia-cantiana/ Kent Archaeological Society is a registered charity number 223382 © 2017 Kent Archaeological Society THE CHURCH IN MEDIEVAL GREENWICH MICHAEL EGAN It is, of course, difficult to be precise about the nature of any vill or township in the medieval period, particularly in the earlier part. But Greenwich does have the advantage of at least being mentioned in early records from the time of King Alfred the Great (849-899). His possessions included Greenwich,1 which passed to his daughter Aelfthryth (also known as Elfrida or Elstrudis), who died in 929. St Dunstan (c. 909-988), when Archbishop of Canterbury, is also named in a document specifically concerning the vill,2 and the vicious martyrdom of St Alphege (954-1012) in Greenwich ensures that the place appears again in national records of the late Saxon, pre- Conquest era. This article will follow up some of the information provided by these and other sources dating from the periods before and after the Norman invasion, and using documents dated up to the 1480s.3 It describes the growth of the medieval settlement before going on to discuss the history of the Church in Greenwich - that of the Alien Priory and the Parish church. Growth of the Medieval Settlement The foreshore at Greenwich was a belt of flood-plain gravel at the base of the hill on which Greenwich Park now sits, and the early settlement is thought to have occupied this riverside area, and the Billingsgate area (west of where the Cutty Sark is now docked) from where in Roman times a ford may have allowed people to cross to the Isle of Dogs. The waterfront would have offered a hard standing for boats needing to be beached, greatly assisting the work of fishermen and ferrymen. It must also have been attractive to the Danes who came as invaders in their longboats, and were encamped hereabouts at inter- vals from 994 until 1017 - possibly on the drier ground of the hill- side. Their presence must have become less threatening after Canute became king of Wessex and Mercia in 1017. Professor de Montmorency argued that Greenwich was already a royal domain before the ninth century and had become the admin- 233 MICHAEL EGAN istrative centre for this area.4 He concluded that Alfred continued to use Greenwich in this role. Indeed, in the Domesday survey, the townships in the vicinity of Greenwich are listed as being in the Hundred of Grenviz, indicating that Greenwich had been the principal town or meeting place in the locality prior to the Conquest. (But Lewisham may well have become more important, temporarily at least, during the period of the Danish landings - see below.) As such, it would have certainly had a local church, possibly a minster, perhaps from before the ninth century. For reasons which will be discussed below, the details for Green- wich are included with those for Lewisham in the Domesday Book. Their total number of taxable inhabitants or heads of household was only 62. A fair estimate of the number living in both places is obtain- ed by multiplying this figure by 4.5, the generally accepted average size of household taking account of large and small families. This amounts to only 280 residents or thereabouts, and perhaps there were around 100-150 living in each vill, if Greenwich had again become a safe place to live by the time of the Conquest. The inhabitants of Green- wich at the time of Domesday may have occupied up to 35 houses. The mariners' homes would presumably have clustered near the foreshore, close to any existing wharves or jetties (Map 1). Agricult- ural settlement may have ranged along the roads/tracks to Deptford and Lewisham, and along the routes eastwards to Woolwich. One or two families may have been close to the hall of the Alien Priory (see I below), so as to work the priory's Greenwich home farm and land in the marshes on the Greenwich peninsula. The hall was to the east of the vill. As the population increased in the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries the increasing number of maritime families, along with associated tradesmen and merchants, would have concentrated near the waterfront, forcing those working on the land to move further away from the centre of the town along the principal roads, and even up the hillsides to the south. Greenwich became a significant port, required in 1328 to provide all its vessels of 40 tons or more, to join the king's seaborne defensive forces.5 The waters of the Thames have always loomed large in the history of the town, being economically productive yet producing serious flood damage, as well as allowing ready access alike to royal visitors and to Viking raiders. From documents of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, it seems that around one-third of the townsmen were mariners of some kind. The number of adults (of 15 and over) who paid the Poll Tax of 1377 in Greenwich was 399 (cf. 227 in Lewisham, 147 in Eltham),6 equating to a total population of around 600 individuals. This in turn 234 THE CHURCH IN MEDIEVAL GREENWICH ti * * «* «J ^ Hall of Greenwich River Thame. Manor (site of) Combe ^ ^ fc # & Saxon Cliurcli(es) St Alphcgc To London GREENWICH Watling Street * Map 1 Sketch map of the Greenwich area showing the main locations Lewisham Priory mentioned in the text (site of) suggests that there might have been up to 1,000 people living in Greenwich in the early years of that century, before the ravages of the Black Death. From 1218, documents were increasingly referring to the manors of Greenwich and Lewisham - previously, Lewisham was given priority - indicating perhaps that the pendulum had swung back to Greenwich as being the most important town in the Hundred.7 Doubtless, the pace of life in the township quickened in the 1430s when Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester and brother of King Henry V, acquired the land to create Greenwich Park; he was also licensed to crenellate his mansion house,8 which was transformed into the sophisticated palace of Bella Court. (Later to become the site of Henry VII's Palace of Placentia, and - in modern times - of the Royal 235 MICHAEL EGAN Naval College.) Humphrey was devoted to the Church, and would surely have had his own chaplain to serve a private chapel in the palace. The Alien Priory Lewisham, Greenwich, Woolwich, Mottingham and Coombe were several vills in this area which Princess Aelfthryth had apparently acquired by the time of Alfred's death. Her husband was Baldwin II, Count of Flanders, who died in January 918, and a document records that in September of that year, Aelfthryth gave the churches, chapels and lands which she owned in these places to the Benedictine abbey of St Peter in Ghent, in memory of her husband and other departed members of her family.9 In this charter, she speaks of 'hereditatem meam', but there is debate both as to the authenticity of the deed, and whether or not she may have been granted Greenwich, say, as a dowry. Suffice to say that other genuine charters - of King Edgar in 964, and of St Edward the Confessor in 1044 - mention Aelfthryth when con- firming the benefaction to the abbey in Ghent of lands in Gronewic, Liefesham and Uuluuic (Woolwich).10 King Edgar was persuaded, at the request of St Dunstan, to give written confirmation of the princess's benefaction. This was endorsed by the Crown and the Papacy during the next 150 years but, after the Conquest, only Lewisham and Greenwich are specified as belonging to Ghent. The other places had been allocated to friends of the new regime. In each of these confirmations, Lewisham always precedes Greenwich in the text, suggesting that as far as the Abbey was con- cerned, Lewisham was the more important place. Perhaps Greenwich had become such a dangerous area during the Danish attacks, that the townsfolk had moved inland, conceding rank to Lewisham once the Abbey had placed its representative there. The Flemish monastery appointed one of their monks to become their bailiff or prior to manage these embryonic manors and their churches. This 'Alien Priory' was only a small 'cell', comprising the prior's own residence with room for perhaps another one or two com- panions," and may have contained a small chapel for their own use. Possibly it was close to the parish church in Lewisham. It would have acted as the manor house of Lewisham, where manorial courts and business was conducted, and have had barns and other farming out- buildings to hold the tithes and produce of the home farm of the manor. Likewise, a manorial hall or court house was established in Greenwich. In a report on the Abbey's holdings written in 1396, we 236 THE CHURCH IN MEDIEVAL GREENWICH find that it was the first house as one approached Greenwich by river from Flanders (Map l).12 It was well kept and was also used as a guest house, with a gatehouse which was tiled (rather than turfed or thatched?), as were some of its other buildings. Its caretaker was then Henry Brioul, recorded as a one-eyed man. In various other sources, this house is referred to as the Old Court, the Parsonage and the manor house. Initially, the general responsibilities of the prior seem to have been similar to those of any resident steward or bailiff acting on behalf of a tenant-in-chief. The Priory was the tenant of the whole of what was later known as the parish of Greenwich - an area of approximately 1,700 acres (including about 500 acres of marsh on Greenwich peninsula) - and thus held the lordship of the manor.

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