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An Ancient Village Site. Whimpton, Nottinghamshire (2)
By Dr. T. Davies Pryce and Mr. F. W. Dobson.
Historically, the first mention of Wimentun occurs in Domesday, where it figures as one of the four berewicks of the King's Manor of Duneham. "The berewick," Professor Maitland says—
("Domesday and Beyond," pp. 114-115.) "Seems primarily to signify a wick or village in which barley is grown; but like the 'barton' and the 'grange' of later days, it seems often to be a detached portion of a manor which is in part dependent on, and yet in part independent of the main body. Probably at the berewick the lord has some demesne land and some farm-buildings, a barn or the like and the villeins of the berewick are but seldom called upon to leave its limits; but the lord has no hall there, he does not consume its produce upon the spot, and yet for some important purposes a berewick is a part of the manor."
It is thus evident that the berewick did not enjoy the corporate life of the typical village community, and this gives us the clue to its occasional decay and disappearance.
Wimentun existed long after Domesday, and we find various references to it in the Pipe Rolls. In 15 Henry II., amongst the fines, we come across Roger Mercator de Wimentun 40s. In 4 Edward I., we read of Roger fil de William de Wimpton, and Thoroton, quoting records, temp. Edward III., speaks of the jurisdiction of the View of Frankpledge claimed by the Prebendary of Dunham of his tenants in Wymton.
The Rev. Howard Chadwick, of Dunham, has called our attention to a reference in the "Registrum Album" of the Chapter of Southwell. It is a decree, dated 1414 (2 Henry V.), by the Commissaries of Southwell, Richard, Andrew, and William Lambley, in a cause between the inhabitants of Dunham and Richard Allerston, Vicar there : wherein it is decreed, "that there shall be an able chaplain provided dwelling within the town of Dunham and Wimpton, and the inhabitants of the same to be restored to their former situation at the expense of the Vicar aforesaid."
A recovery of land in the Court of Dunham, 14 Henry VI., mentions appurtenances in Dunham, Ragenhill, and Wympton.
The latest mention we have seen is in an Inquisitio post mortem on the properties of Robert Nevyll, 20 Henry VIII. ("Thoroton Society Record Series," vol. iii., p. 182), and this record is doubly interesting as being the only occasion on which we have found a reference to Swarnesterne—here called Swaynstorn—the other lost berewick of the manor of Duneham.
But at this date there is no doubt that both Wympton and Swarnesterne were little more than field names, and that as inhabited sites they had ceased to exist.
Thoroton, writing 150 years later, speaking of these two berewicks, says, "Wymentun and Swarnesterne are now totally lost except the remembrance of some closes of Wymton or Swensterne still continue," and Cox, in his "Magna Britannia," published about 1730, carries on the tradition when he writes "the remembrance of it (Wimentun) is kept up by some closes called Wympton Closes."
With regard to the origin of the name Wimentun, we can only conjecture. Undoubtedly it is Saxon, and possibly comes from the same source as Wymeswold, in Leicestershire, Wymington, in Bedfordshire (spelt Wimentun and Wimtun in the Pipe Rolls), and other similar place names. The suggestion that they might have been the manors or estates of Wimund or Wigmund, a powerful Saxon thane, who, in the gth century, married the daughter of the King of Mercia, we leave unanswered.
Our thanks are due to Mr. J. T. Drewery, of Ragnall Hall, for having given us permission to make the excavations, which, we hope, may be continued at a future date.
© A P NICHOLSON | CREATED: 3 September 2007