Notes, stories and other information
THE BATTLE OF NIBLEY GREEN
The following is taken from:
"A Sketch of the History of Berkeley
Its Castle, Church, and the
Berkeley Family
by James Herbert Cooke,
Land Steward to the Right Hon. Lord Fitzhardinge."
William I. Twelfth Lord, Marquis of Berkeley. 1463 to 1491
WILLIAM the late Lord's eldest son, who succeeded him, was born in 1426 and had been brought up in the household of Henry Bishop of Winchester, and a Cardinal. He received the honour of knighthood before he came of age, and his father then settled on him the Manor of Portbury, and all his other lands in the county of Somerset. Three years after William granted Portbury on a lease for twelve years to the Earl of Ormond and Wiltshire, which greatly offended his father and caused a bad feeling between them. William was of an unusually haughty and headstrong disposition, and made himself so much feared by all around him that for several years before his father's death none of the tenants would accept any lease without William's joining in it.
Scarcely had he entered upon his patrimonial honours and estates when the old feud which had been so recently patched up for the late lord's lifetime, broke out between the lord William and the old Countess of Shrewsbury, "two merciless natures not unevenly encountering," as Smyth remarks. The various pleadings, bills, and replies on either side are most voluminous, and are interesting as shewing the mode of legal procedure in those days. Lord Berkeley in his petition accuses the Countess of unjustly keeping possession of his manors of Wotton, Symondshall, Cowley, and some others; of plotting and corrupting his servants to get possession of Berkeley Castle, and finally of compassing his death by means of a hired assassin. The Countess in her reply denies some of these charges, especially that of the intended murder, but boldly avows her claim to the Castle and manors of Berkeley, justifies her attempts to gain possession of them, and prays that justice may be done her. The first petition and reply were referred by the king, (Edward IV.,) to the Lord Chancellor, to whom the subsequent pleas and counter-pleas were addressed, and in these proceedings, varied by predatory incursions upon each others' manors and frequent fights between their servants and tenants, five years passed away without any decision being pronounced.
In 1468 the Countess of Shrewsbury died leaving all her property and the disputed manors and claims to her grandson Thomas Talbot, Viscount Lisle, then twenty years of age, and recently married to Margaret the daughter of William Herbert Earl of Pembroke. Lord Lisle took up the quarrel with all the energy and impatience of youth, and found a ready instrument in Thomas Holt, lord Berkeley's keeper of Berkeley Castle and Whitcliff Park; by this traitor's help, Maurice King, the porter of the Castle, was gained over by the promise of a lucrative office in lord Lisle's service, to deliver up the Castle to lord Lisle. Smyth gives copies of the letters which passed between Holt and King and Robert Vele, lord Lisle's' chief agent, relative to this plot, but King turned round and disclosed the whole scheme to lord Berkeley, and thus saved his master. Holt fled to Wotton, to lord Lisle, and the latter was so enraged and disappointed at the failure of the plot, that he wrote the fatal letter and challenge to lord Berkeley, which led to the fight at Nibley Green and his own death. The challenge was dated and delivered on the 19 of March 1469, and the reply was sent back the same day, fixing the morrow as the time, and Nibley Green as the place of meeting, as laying midway between Berkeley and Wotton.
Lord Berkeley was at this time keeping a garrison at Berkeley Castle, as a precaution against a surprise, but there must have been much hurry and bustle and riding to and fro of messengers on that day, in order to collect the army which shewed itself at sunrise the next morning on Nibley Green, and which is stated to have been not less than one thousand strong. Lord Berkeley's brother Maurice came with a chosen band from Thornbury where he resided, and a strong party of miners from the Forest of Dean joined the Berkeley banner. It was also said that two rich Bristol merchants, Philip Mead, whose daughter Maurice Berkeley had married, and John Shipward, led a band of citizens to join in the affray, but in the enquiry which took place some time afterwards they succeeded in disproving the charge.
Lord Berkeley's army lay that night in the outskirts of Michaelwood adjoining Nibley Green, and the country people near carried them provisions. At sunrise the next morning lord Lisle's party headed by their fiery young leader was seen moving down the hill from Nibley Church, on the open green, which then extended nearly as far as where Bush-street farm-house now stands, and where it joined Michaelwood. The place of stand, Smyth says, was at Fowles-hard, from whence lord Berkeley's men discharged the first flight of arrows upon their opponents. This name is now unknown, but a field a few hundred yards to the north of Bush-street farm was formerly called Fowles Grove, now corrupted into Foley's Grove, and a rough forest road running through the midst of Michaelwood from the direction of Berkeley, extended to this place, and probably went on to Nibley Green, crossing the brook at a ford (or "hard") in the valley below. We may therefore, I think, conceive the Berkeley men issuing from Foley's Grove on the borders of Michaelwood, and rushing down towards the brook to meet their foes, discharging their arrows as soon as they got into order.
The fight was very bloody, though of short duration, lord Berkeley's party being much the stronger. Lord Lisle was shot with an arrow on the left side of his face - his visor being up - by a Dean Forester, called Black Will, and finished by a dagger-stroke; his fall completed the rout of his party, and the steep lane leading from the green to Nibley Church was soon thronged with the fugitives and their pursuers. Lord Berkeley led on his victorious followers to Wotton Manor-house which they sacked and pillaged. Lady Lisle gave premature birth to a dead son sixteen days afterwards, and by this event that family became extinct; a terrible and complete retribution by which the death of lord Berkeley's mother at Gloucester Castle, at the instance of the Countess of Shrewsbury was fearfully avenged on the descendants of the latter.
The kingdom was at this period in a very disturbed state, which probably accounts for such a serious breach of the peace passing unnoticed at the time by the authorities. An insurrection had broken out in Yorkshire; the Lancastrian party was suspected of an intention to raise their banner, and the powerful Earl of Warwick, the celebrated "King maker," to whom Edward IV. owed his crown was withdrawing his support. Seven days after the battle, lord Berkeley received the king's commission to search out and apprehend disaffected persons within the county; a few months after the king himself was a fugitive, and Warwick, who for his own purposes now espoused the Lancastrian cause, had replaced Henry VI on the throne. The Battle of Barnet however, which took place the next year, once more reversed the state of things; Warwick was slain and King Edward again resumed the sceptre.
Lady Lisle now brought her appeal against lord Berkeley, his brother Maurice, and others, for the death of her husband, but the delays which the Berkeleys found means to interpose prevented the case from being heard for two years. At length, on October 6, 1473, it was decided that lord Berkeley should have all the manors in dispute, paying lady Lisle £100 a year for her life in settlement of all her personal claims. Shortly afterwards she married Henry Bodrugan, a Cornish gentleman, a circumstance which together with her having compounded the death of her first husband for an annuity, goes far to deprive her of the sympathy and interest with which her early misfortunes tended to invest her.
Lord Berkeley now took possession of the manors which had been so long the subject of contention, and for a time probably flattered himself that he was delivered from all his troubles. He soon however became embroiled with Sir Edward Grey, who had married the late lord Lisle's sister and co-heiress, and who was afterwards created lord Lisle by King Richard III. In order to stand well with the ruling powers and to ensure the king's favour and assistance, lord Berkeley in 1477 and in 1483 conveyed many manors and lands to the youthful Duke of York, the king's second son, in acknowledgement of which he was created a Viscount. King Edward IV. died soon afterwards, and should have been succeeded by his eldest son, now aged 13, as Edward V. but Richard Duke of Gloucester, uncle to the young Prince, contrived his murder, and that of his brother the young Duke of York, in the Tower, and placed the crown on his own head. By the death of the latter the conveyances lapsed and the manors once more returned to lord Berkeley.
In 1478 by the death of Anne, sole daughter and heiress to Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, then seven years old, lord Berkeley succeeded to a moiety of the vast estates of the Duke, as heir-at-law of his mother the lady Isabel, the Duke's great-aunt. No less than 68 manors, in 15 different counties thus came into his possession, besides the half of at least fifty others, and much other property in lands and houses. So great however was his anxiety for honours and distinctions that in less then ten years he had given or granted them all away, for empty titles and patronage. In 1484, within a year after Richard had become king, lord Berkeley conveyed to him 35 manors by one deed of gift, and was in return made Earl of Nottingham. The usurper's throne was soon threatened by Henry Earl of Richmond, and the next year the battle of Bosworth, in which it was said that lord Berkeley assisted the one side with men and the other with money, terminated Richard’s life and reign, and made Richmond king, as Henry VII. By this event the thirty-five manors again reverted to lord Berkeley, as though Providence were determined to thwart his attempts to impoverish himself and his family.
The new king was not backward in acknowledging the assistance he had received from lord Berkeley, who was created Earl Marshal a few days before the king's coronation, and was very soon afterwards made Great Maresehal of England. By a deed of the same date he conveyed two castles and twenty-eight manors to Sir William Stanley. the Lord Chamberlain, in return for court favour. At this time lord Berkeley was childless, a son and daughter by his second wife having died young; his brother Maurice was therefore his heir, and he with his son remonstrated against these repeated alienations of the family inheritance, but their complaints seemed not only to confirm him in his proceedings but greatly embittered him against them. By several successive conveyances he parted with many more manors to Sir William Stanley and other influential personages, and finally by his will he entailed Berkeley Castle and the whole of the remaining ancient family possessions upon the king, reserving only a life interest in them to himself and his third wife, whom he had recently married! In return he was, in January, 1490, created Marquis of Berkeley.
To confirm these grants, and, as was supposed, to render them more effectual, an Act of Parliament was passed in 1492. Thus did William lord Berkeley become successively Baron, Viscount, and Marquis of Berkeley, Earl of Nottingham, and Great Mareschal of England, and after inheriting more manors and lands than any of his ancestors had ever possessed, he coolly gives them away in return for empty honours and titles, leaving his brother and heir not sufficient land to set his foot upon! To crown his stupendous folly, he now, at the age of sixty-six contracts with various persons for the erection of a fine house at Great Chesterford, in Essex, but died before it could be completed, in 1492. He was buried in the church of the Friars Augustines (Austin Fryers) in London, to which he had been a great benefactor, and where also his second wife, the lady Jane, had been interred.
The Marquess having thus disinherited his own family, the Crown took possession of Berkeley Castle and all the immense estates left by him, except such as were included in the jointure of lady Berkeley, who did not however survive many years. The king (Henry VII.,) came to Berkeley at Christmas, 1495, and remained there ten days. Among other preparations for the royal visit, the hall of Wotton Manor-house was pulled down, and the timber and lead used in new roofing the great kitchen at Berkeley Castle.
THE BERKELEY HUNDRED, VIRGINIA
New-Found-Land, the first British Colony in America, was founded in 1583. Two years later Sir Walter Raleigh sought to establish a settlement in Virginia- so named in honour of Queen Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen. The attempt failed, and it was not until the opening years of the next century that interest was again aroused and the Virginia Company of London came into being.
John Smyth of Nibley and Agent of the Berkeleys soon appreciated the possibilities of great financial gain in the enterprise. This resulted in a Berkeley Company being formed. The backers of the venture were Richard Berkeley (Stoke Bishop), George Thorpe (Wanswell Court, Berkeley), John Smyth (Nibley) and Sir William Throckmorton. These negotiated with Sir George Yeardley Governor of Virginia, for a grant of land. The party sailed from Bristol in " The Margaret" on 16th September 1619, and landed at the Berkeley grant, designated the Berkeley Hundred, on 4th December, They, following instructions issued before they had left England, at once held a Thanksgiving Service.
In spite of a heavy death roll in the first winter and the difficulties in becoming self-supporting the Berkeley Plantation slowly developed until Good Friday (March 22nd, 1622). On that day the Indians staged their biggest massacre of settlers in American history. In this surprise attack 349 out of a total of nearly 1200, men, women and children, in the whole colony were killed. Of the 90 who had "ventured"' to the Berkeley Plantation 14 only returned later to begin life afresh amidst the charred remains of their former homes.
Berkeley, today the most historic plantation on the James River, is still a working plantation, and its mansion house, built in 1726 and the home for generations of the Harrison family-William Henry and Benjamin became Presidents of the United States in 1841 and 1888 respectively, is open daily to the public.
CHURCHWARDENS
Berkeley was at one time among of the largest parishes in the Gloucester Diocese. It was as late as 19(…) that the new parish of Sharpness and Purton was formed from the northern end of the Berkeley parish; although it had effectively been run as a separate parish with a Priest-in-Charge for some time.
Berkeley Church has four Churchwardens. Traditionally they represented the three tythings of Alkingtion, Ham and Hinton along with the Borough of Berkeley. Now that Hinton has been ‘lost’ to Sharpness and Purton the fourth churchwarden represents the civil parish of Hamfallow.
There are old Churchwarden accounts sheets but the three account books that we have start: Ham 1714, Hinton 1750 and Alkington 1757; they finish between 1853 and 1868. Most costs for the church were paid by the three Tythings. The payments from the Borough are recorded in the Poor Books; they are mainly payments for the organist, which were divided four ways.
CIVIL WAR
The Church bears the mark of the Civil War when in 1645 the Parliamentary troops under Colonel Rainsborough stormed the Church and Castle. The Church always formed part of the outer defenses of the Castle, and the West Doors were loop-holed for muskets by the defenders. These loopholes and also bullet holes may be seen from the outside. As soon as the Church was captured and the Roundheads started to get their ordnance on to the Church roof the governor of the Castle, Sir Charles Lucas, sounded a parley, and an honourable surrender was arranged.
See North Door, West Door & Priest’s Room; there are also traces of damage around the south-west corner.
CURFEW
The old custom of ringing the curfew bell at eight o'clock every night from October 10th to March 25th was being practiced in 1842.
In 1889 the curfew was still rung at 8 o’clock from Old Michaelmas Day to the 25th March.
Mr. A.E. Knott, verger 1930-67, says that he last performed this rite in 1934 when it was abandoned.
CYCLAMEN
Flowers with a history. The story of the introduction of the cyclamen that bloom under the trees in The Chantry garden (now the Jenner Museum), as recorded by the Rev John H.W. Fisher, a Vicar of Berkeley.
The central figure is Mrs. Stackhouse, wife of Canon Stackhouse, a former vicar of Berkeley. Towards the end of the 19-century Canon and Mrs. Stackhouse went on holiday to Italy and one of the places they visited was the Vatican.
In the Vatican Garden the cyclamen (Cyclamen Neapolitanum) were in bloom. Mrs. Stackhouse loved to bring back a souvenir from any garden she visited, and the habit of a lifetime pressed upon her. Swiftly, she dropped her umbrella, and under the very eyes of the Papal Guard, managed to conceal a cyclamen corm inside it as she retrieved it. Some years later an old gentleman called and asked if he could look inside The Chantry again, as he had been a regular visitor there when Canon Stackhouse was vicar. Rev. Fisher asked him if the story of the cyclamen was true.
Indeed it is, the gentleman replied. I called to welcome them home and Mrs. Stackhouse was still unpacking. She came downstairs into the drawing room with her sponge bag. What have you got there, I asked. Triumphantly holding it up she answered "The Papal Cyclamen!"
This corm was planted under the plane tree, which Dr. Jenner had planted 100 years before. It has grown and flourished, and can still be seen today.
EDWARD II (1284-1327) [Plantagenet King of England (1307-1327), whose incompetence and distaste for government finally led to his deposition and murder].
Edward was born on April 25, 1284, at Caernarvon, Wales, the fourth son of King Edward I and his first wife, Eleanor of Castile. The deaths of his elder brothers made the infant prince heir to the throne; in 1301 he was proclaimed Prince of Wales, the first heir apparent in English history to bear that title. But he was idle and frivolous, with no liking for military campaigning or affairs of state.
Believing that the prince's close friend Piers Gaveston, a Gascon knight, was a bad influence, Edward I banished Gaveston. On his father's death, however, Edward II reinstated his favourite. Gaveston incurred the opposition of the powerful English barony. The nobles were particularly angered in 1308, when Edward made Gaveston regent for the period of the king's absence in France, where he went to marry Isabella, daughter of King Philip IV.
In 1311 the barons, led by Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, forced the king to appoint from among them a committee of 21 nobles and prelates, called the lords ordainers. They proclaimed a series of ordinances that transferred the ruling power to themselves and excluded the commons and lower clergy from Parliament. After they had twice forced the king to banish Gaveston, and the king had each time recalled him, the barons finally had the king's favourite kidnapped and executed.
In the meantime, Robert Bruce had almost completed his reconquest of Scotland, which he had begun shortly after 1305. In 1314 Edward II and his barons raised an army of some 100,000 men with which to crush Bruce, but in the attempt to lift the siege of Stirling they were decisively defeated (see Bannockburn, Battle of). For the following eight years the Earl of Lancaster virtually ruled the kingdom.
In 1322, however, with the advice and help of two new royal favourites, the baron Hugh le Despenser, and his son, also called Hugh le Despenser, Edward defeated Lancaster in battle and had him executed. The Despensers thereupon became de facto rulers of England. They summoned a Parliament in which the Commons were included and which repealed the ordinances of 1311, on the grounds that they had been passed by the barons only. The repeal was a great step forward in English constitutional development, for it meant that thenceforth no law passed by Parliament was valid unless the House of Commons approved it.
Edward again futilely invaded Scotland in 1322, and in 1323 signed a 13-year truce with Bruce. In 1325 Queen Isabella accompanied the Prince of Wales to France, where, in accordance with feudal custom, he did homage to King Charles IV for the fief of Aquitaine. Isabella, who desired to depose the Despensers, allied herself with some barons who had been exiled by Edward. In 1326, with their leader, Roger de Mortimer, Isabella raised an army and invaded England. Edward and his favourites fled, but his wife's army pursued and executed the Despensers and imprisoned Edward. In January 1327, Parliament forced Edward to abdicate and proclaimed the Prince of Wales King as Edward III. On September 21 of that year Edward II was murdered by his captors at Berkeley Castle, Gloucestershire.
HEATING
Some Hot Air in Berkeley by Peter Yardley
In 1994 I was given a crisp box full of old letters, second copies of plans etc. This story was based on some of the letters. It was written for ‘A Sense of Place’. The documents are now deposited at GRO.
When Mr. Thomas Pearce Bailey of Walgaston died his widow agreed to pay for a central heating system in the Parish Church. After much discussion the tender of July 2nd 1917 was accepted from Mr. Woodyatt of Stroud. It included the construction of a “boiler house of sufficient depth and the installation of 'one Robin Hood boiler ' to give a temperature of 58°F to 60°F when 32°F outside". This was to cost £260 0 0d but within three weeks the churchwardens wanted four more radiators at an extra cost of £13 5 0d, Mrs. Bailey agreed to this new estimate from Mr. Woodyatt “on condition of carrying out the work to her satisfaction”
The vicar, Rev H.C. Armour, was stationed at the Remount Depot, Swaythling, near Southampton, during the Great War and agreed to return for a “Vestry Meeting on Thursday July 19th …. to consider the advisability of applying for a Faculty…. I think Mr. Woodyatt ought to be asked to attend.” Mr. Clark, one of the four churchwardens, wrote to Mr. Woodyatt and received the reply “I will attend at the Church and endeavour to explain any points which may be raised. I do not wish to be detained longer than necessary as I wish to return to Stroud the same night. I shall cycle.”
Mr. Woodyatt later wrote to Mrs. Bailey “I shall hope to commence on Monday Aug. 13th” By late September they were expecting the boiler to be delivered but while digging downwards for the foundations of the boiler house they had hit water. Mr. Woodyatt wrote to Mrs. Bailey “Water continues to run into the heating chamber.… I did not expect to find a running stream there. .… I had the brickwork built in cement also exceptional thickness of concrete in the bottom and 1 put a drain tap …. there is evidently only one thing to be done which is to put a drain in from the boiler house to a lower level. The cost of this would be £24.0.0d …. I have not received the colour decided upon for radiators."
By this time Mrs. Bailey was becoming concerned and wrote to Mr. Clark “What is to be done …. Possibly the stream of water he speaks of has been the cause of some of the dampness in the church. I would willingly pay the £24 had it not been that already I have sanctioned the additional £13.5.0d." The letter was written on paper with a thick black border.
It would seem that work stopped and when Mr. Clark wrote to Mr. Woodyatt about the delay he was sent the following reply on October 9th, which addressed a number of points:
Colour of Paint
“Please note had I known colour decided upon the same would have been ordered”
Boiler not installed
"But I would respectfully point out the boiler cannot be fixed until the water difficulty is got over "
Draining away the running stream
"Altho I have offered to meet your friend …. to discuss the matter. The only remedy is to drain it as I have pointed out to you …. and for which I have submitted an estimate "….from Mr. Woodyatt
Another letter to Mr. Clark followed on Oct 13th "I have received no reply to my communication. I shall be in Berkeley on Wednesday next …. I want the job completed.”
Inside the north door of the church is a plaque:
To the Glory of God
In loving memory of her husband
Thomas Pearce Bailey
the heating apparatus in this church
has been installed by his widow
Xmas 1917
Over the years the boiler has been variously rebuilt, modified and replaced; the fuel used has been changed from coke to oil and then gas; but the pipes and radiators remained as they were installed for nearly eighty years.
RICHARD II
AN EVENT LEADING TO THE DEPOSITION OF KING RICHARD II
The coalition between Henry of Lancaster and Edmund Duke of York against Richard II was ratified in the Church.
Holinshed records that on 27 July 1399 in Berkeley Church, the Duke of York, accompanied by the Bishop of Norwich, Lord Berkeley, Lord Seimore and others, "communed with the Duke of Lancaster", Thomas Arundell (banished Archbishop of Canterbury), the Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland and others. It is clear, from subsequent events, that they discussed the deposition of King Richard II.Error! Bookmark not defined.
Richard II resigned his crown on September 30th 1399. The next day Bolingbroke was confirmed as King Henry IV.
Richard II (1367-1400) [King of England (1377-1399), whose reign was marked by national disunity and civil strife].
A younger son of Edward, Prince of Wales (the Black Prince), and Joan, called the Fair Maid of Kent, Richard was born on January 6, 1367, in Bordeaux, France. He was created Prince of Wales in 1376, the year of his father's death, and was placed in the care of his uncle John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. In 1377, on the death of his grandfather, King Edward III, Richard became ruler of England, then a country devastated by plague and oppressed by heavy taxes, the result of a war with France. Parliament, which had obtained greater power in the last years of Edward III's reign, now sought to secure control of the government, but was opposed by John of Gaunt and his followers.
The speedy suppression of the Peasants' Revolt in 1381 was largely the result of Richard's courage and daring. A year later, at the age of 15, Richard married Anne of Bohemia, daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV, and began to seek the downfall of the great nobles who controlled Parliament and prevented him from acting independently. Led by Richard's uncle Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, in 1388 a coterie of noblemen known in history as the lords appellant “appealed” or accused Richard's adherents of treason, banishing some and having others executed. The following year Richard, with the help of John of Gaunt, succeeded in asserting his authority.
Trying to re-establish English authority in Ireland, Richard led an expedition to the country in 1394; in the same year his queen died. In 1396 a marriage treaty was concluded between Richard and a French princess, Isabella. In 1397 Richard had Gloucester arrested and imprisoned at Calais, where he died, perhaps murdered. He also exiled John of Gaunt's son, Henry Bolingbroke, Duke of Hereford, who later became Richard's successor as Henry IV, and executed or banished others of the lords appellant. On his return from a second military expedition to Ireland in 1399 Richard found that Bolingbroke had returned from exile and placed himself at the head of a formidable army.
Richard was captured by Bolingbroke in Wales and brought captive to London, where on September 30, 1399, he formally resigned the crown. On the following day his abdication was ratified by Parliament, which then confirmed Bolingbroke as King Henry IV. Richard was secretly confined in Pontefract Castle, where he either died of starvation or was murdered in February 1400.
STORM DAMAGE
The following information comes from Mr. Robert J. Haines:
There was a great storm in November 1703. The then vicar of Berkeley, the Rev. Henry Head (Grandfather of Dr. Edward Jenner) wrote a letter in which he said “… There is one thing more remarkable in this parish, and it is this: twenty six sheets of lead hanging all together, were blown off from the middle aisle of our church and were carried over the north aisle, which is a very large one, without touching it; and into the churchyard ten yards distance from the church; and they were all took up joined together as they were on the roof; the plumber told me that the sheets weighed each three hundred and a half, one with another. ……”
This is not all together surprising. While there was scaffolding around the upper walls of the nave during the work to stabilize the walls and replace the roofing there was a storm over the weekend of Easter 199(). A section of the scaffolding planks along the south-west end of the nave wall were blown out of their fixings. One plank was found near Thomas Peirce’s tomb, it appeared to have gone up over the nave roof, cleared the north aisle roof and landed without having done any damage. (During the same storm scaffolding around one of the caissons in the construction yard of the Second Severn Crossing was also blown down.)
There were strong winds that brought down trees by the Gravel Walk and Longbridge and also broke off the flagpole on the tower, Christmas 199().
One problem with the north aisle roof is that winds blow around the north-west corner of the nave and have a lifting effect on the roof.
THOMPSON - THE MOUSEMAN
ROBERT THOMPSON OF YORK The following is a letter written to Canon J.H.W. Fisher in 1949. Reproduced by permission of Miss. J.W. Fisher.
10-2-49
Priest’s Stall Berkeley I beg to thank you most sincerely for your lovely kind words of appreciation. I value this far more than money.
Also I am pleased to hear that my work occupies such a beautiful setting. Somehow, I don't enjoy doing work for modern churches.
The origin of the mouse as my mark was almost in the way of being an accident. I and another carver were carving a huge cornice for a screen and he happened to say something about being as poor as a church mouse. I said I'll carve a mouse here and did so, then it struck me, what a lovely trade mark, This is about 30 years ago.
Our vicar asked me what was it's meaning, I said "It means industry in a quiet place." He said "Nay, man destruction."
Again, thank you for your kind words,
yours very truly,
R. Thompson
TOAD
The Legend of the BERKELEY Toad
The steward to the Berkeley family, John Smyth, wrote a history of the family and their manors. He was writing in the early 1600s and, even today, we find his historical facts accurate. He also recorded local sayings and stories. In the Morning Room of the Castle there is a carving of a toad similar to the one in the Church. Smyth tells us about the toad in Berkeley Castle dungeon.
"Out of which dungeon in the likenes of a deepe broad well goinge steepely down in the midst of the Dungeon Chamber in the said Keepe, was (as tradition tells,) drawne forth a Toad, in the time of Kinge Henry the seventh, of an inciedible bignes, which, in the deepe dry dust in the bottom thereof, had doubtlesse lived there divers hundreds of yeares; whose portraiture in just demension, as it was then to me affirmed by divers aged persons, I sawe, about 48 years agone, drawne in colours upon the doore of the Great Hall and of the utter side of the stone porch leadinge into that hall; since, by pargettors or pointers of that wall washed out or outworne with time; which in bredth was more then a foot, neere 16 inches, and in length more. Of which monstrous and outgrowne beast the inhabitants of this towne, and in the neighbour villages round about, fable many strange and incredible wonders; makinge the greatnes of this toad more than would fill a peck, yea, I have heard some, who looked to have beleife, say from the report of their Fathers and Grandfathers that it would have filled a bushell or strike, and to have beene many yeares fed with flesh and garbage from the butchers; but this is all the trueth I knowe or dare believe."
Of these and some similar stories Smyth remarks; “Every man’s beleife is left to himselfe and I knowe what myselfe thinketh thereof, and of the like; bee it a lye or a trueth it was generally beleived.”
WITCH
The following is taken from the handbook by James Cooke.
Berkeley, as may have been expected is especially rich in tales of legendary lore, many of which have been preserved by Smyth in the invaluable series of Manuscript histories compiled by him a.d. 1600 to 1639, to which we are so deeply indebted. The most remarkable of these stories is that of the Witch of Berkeley, which Southey has made the subject of a ballad poem. The following is the version given by Smyth, taken from Trevisa’s translation of Higden's Polychronicon.
“About that time a woman in Berkeley accustomed to evil arts, when as upon a certaine day shee kept a feast, a Chough which shee used delicately to feede cackled more loud and distinctly than shee was wont to doe, which when shee heard, the knife fell out of her hand, her countenance waxed pale, and havinge fetched a deepe groane, with a sigh said, "now this day is the plowe come to my last furrowe," which beinge said, a messenger coming in, declared to her the death of her sonne, and of all her family exposed to present ruine, the woman presently laye downe and called to her such of her other children as were monkes and a Nunne, who cominge shee thus spake unto them“I a wicked follower of an evil art and worse life vainly thought to have beene defended by your praiers, now I desire to be eased by you of my torments, because judgment is given against my soul, but peradventure you may keepe my body if it bee fast sewed in a stags skin, make yee for mee a chest of stone, fast bound and cemented with iron and lead, settinge the same upright, and also bound about with three iron chaines, use singers of Psalms forty nights and pay for soe many masses by dayes; and if I shall soe lie for three nights, on the fourth day bury my body in the ground” But all was in vaine, for in the two first nights which the psalmes were in soundinge, the Divells havinge easily broken the doores, as lightly brake the two utmost iron chaines; and on the third night about cock-crowinge, the place shakinge, one with a terrible countenance and of a mighty tall stature, havinge broken open the cover of the chest commanded the dead body to arise, who answeringe that shee could not by reason of the bonds, ‘bee thou loosed’ quoth hee, ‘but to thy woe,’ and presently all the barres being broken, hee draweth her out of the Church, and setteth her upon a blacke horse, neighinge before the doore, and soe went away with loud soundinge cries heard four miles off.”
The same story is told by William of Malmesbury, and also in an old Manuscript entitled "Chronicon de Abington," formerly belonging to Sir Robert Cotton, now in the British Museum.
Tales like this were often invented by the monks in mediaeval times, by way of revenge upon deceased persons, and as a warning to survivors, and the incidents were sometimes even acted by persons in disguise.A similar story is related of the body of Charles Martel, King of France.
The first part of the story as given by Canon J.E. Gethyn-JonesError! Bookmark not defined. is perhaps easier to follow.
No account of Berkeley is complete without mention of the Berkeley Witch whose woeful end is recorded with graphic detail which chills the spine.
The witch, having received a message that the devil desired full payment for his help, called a son and daughter, a monk and nun respectively, and gave instructions whereby, after her death that night, the devil might be cheated of his reward.
The children were to wrap mum's dead body in a stag's hide and encase it within a type of sarcophagus, which in its turn would be secured by three stout chains Finally the whole would be taken to Berkeley Church where prayers and psalms would be said and sung around it for 40 days and nights.
Let the grim conclusion of this story be recorded in the words of Reinuiph of Chester:
"But all was in vaine, for in the two first nights which the psalms were in soundinge, the Divells havmge easily broken the doores, as lightly brake the two utmost iron chames, and on the third night about cock-crowinge, the place shakinge, one with a terrible countenance and of a mightly tall stature havinge broken open the cover of the chest commanded the dead body to arise, who answennge that shee could not by reason of the bonds 'bee thou loosed' quoth hee, 'but to thy woe', and presently all the barres being broken hee draweth her out of the church, and setteth her upon a blacke horse, neighinge before the doore and so went away with loud soundinge cries, heard four miles of."
The following is taken from:
"A Sketch of the History of Berkeley
Its Castle, Church, and the
Berkeley Family
by James Herbert Cooke,
Land Steward to the Right Hon. Lord Fitzhardinge."
William I. Twelfth Lord, Marquis of Berkeley. 1463 to 1491
WILLIAM the late Lord's eldest son, who succeeded him, was born in 1426 and had been brought up in the household of Henry Bishop of Winchester, and a Cardinal. He received the honour of knighthood before he came of age, and his father then settled on him the Manor of Portbury, and all his other lands in the county of Somerset. Three years after William granted Portbury on a lease for twelve years to the Earl of Ormond and Wiltshire, which greatly offended his father and caused a bad feeling between them. William was of an unusually haughty and headstrong disposition, and made himself so much feared by all around him that for several years before his father's death none of the tenants would accept any lease without William's joining in it.
Scarcely had he entered upon his patrimonial honours and estates when the old feud which had been so recently patched up for the late lord's lifetime, broke out between the lord William and the old Countess of Shrewsbury, "two merciless natures not unevenly encountering," as Smyth remarks. The various pleadings, bills, and replies on either side are most voluminous, and are interesting as shewing the mode of legal procedure in those days. Lord Berkeley in his petition accuses the Countess of unjustly keeping possession of his manors of Wotton, Symondshall, Cowley, and some others; of plotting and corrupting his servants to get possession of Berkeley Castle, and finally of compassing his death by means of a hired assassin. The Countess in her reply denies some of these charges, especially that of the intended murder, but boldly avows her claim to the Castle and manors of Berkeley, justifies her attempts to gain possession of them, and prays that justice may be done her. The first petition and reply were referred by the king, (Edward IV.,) to the Lord Chancellor, to whom the subsequent pleas and counter-pleas were addressed, and in these proceedings, varied by predatory incursions upon each others' manors and frequent fights between their servants and tenants, five years passed away without any decision being pronounced.
In 1468 the Countess of Shrewsbury died leaving all her property and the disputed manors and claims to her grandson Thomas Talbot, Viscount Lisle, then twenty years of age, and recently married to Margaret the daughter of William Herbert Earl of Pembroke. Lord Lisle took up the quarrel with all the energy and impatience of youth, and found a ready instrument in Thomas Holt, lord Berkeley's keeper of Berkeley Castle and Whitcliff Park; by this traitor's help, Maurice King, the porter of the Castle, was gained over by the promise of a lucrative office in lord Lisle's service, to deliver up the Castle to lord Lisle. Smyth gives copies of the letters which passed between Holt and King and Robert Vele, lord Lisle's' chief agent, relative to this plot, but King turned round and disclosed the whole scheme to lord Berkeley, and thus saved his master. Holt fled to Wotton, to lord Lisle, and the latter was so enraged and disappointed at the failure of the plot, that he wrote the fatal letter and challenge to lord Berkeley, which led to the fight at Nibley Green and his own death. The challenge was dated and delivered on the 19 of March 1469, and the reply was sent back the same day, fixing the morrow as the time, and Nibley Green as the place of meeting, as laying midway between Berkeley and Wotton.
Lord Berkeley was at this time keeping a garrison at Berkeley Castle, as a precaution against a surprise, but there must have been much hurry and bustle and riding to and fro of messengers on that day, in order to collect the army which shewed itself at sunrise the next morning on Nibley Green, and which is stated to have been not less than one thousand strong. Lord Berkeley's brother Maurice came with a chosen band from Thornbury where he resided, and a strong party of miners from the Forest of Dean joined the Berkeley banner. It was also said that two rich Bristol merchants, Philip Mead, whose daughter Maurice Berkeley had married, and John Shipward, led a band of citizens to join in the affray, but in the enquiry which took place some time afterwards they succeeded in disproving the charge.
Lord Berkeley's army lay that night in the outskirts of Michaelwood adjoining Nibley Green, and the country people near carried them provisions. At sunrise the next morning lord Lisle's party headed by their fiery young leader was seen moving down the hill from Nibley Church, on the open green, which then extended nearly as far as where Bush-street farm-house now stands, and where it joined Michaelwood. The place of stand, Smyth says, was at Fowles-hard, from whence lord Berkeley's men discharged the first flight of arrows upon their opponents. This name is now unknown, but a field a few hundred yards to the north of Bush-street farm was formerly called Fowles Grove, now corrupted into Foley's Grove, and a rough forest road running through the midst of Michaelwood from the direction of Berkeley, extended to this place, and probably went on to Nibley Green, crossing the brook at a ford (or "hard") in the valley below. We may therefore, I think, conceive the Berkeley men issuing from Foley's Grove on the borders of Michaelwood, and rushing down towards the brook to meet their foes, discharging their arrows as soon as they got into order.
The fight was very bloody, though of short duration, lord Berkeley's party being much the stronger. Lord Lisle was shot with an arrow on the left side of his face - his visor being up - by a Dean Forester, called Black Will, and finished by a dagger-stroke; his fall completed the rout of his party, and the steep lane leading from the green to Nibley Church was soon thronged with the fugitives and their pursuers. Lord Berkeley led on his victorious followers to Wotton Manor-house which they sacked and pillaged. Lady Lisle gave premature birth to a dead son sixteen days afterwards, and by this event that family became extinct; a terrible and complete retribution by which the death of lord Berkeley's mother at Gloucester Castle, at the instance of the Countess of Shrewsbury was fearfully avenged on the descendants of the latter.
The kingdom was at this period in a very disturbed state, which probably accounts for such a serious breach of the peace passing unnoticed at the time by the authorities. An insurrection had broken out in Yorkshire; the Lancastrian party was suspected of an intention to raise their banner, and the powerful Earl of Warwick, the celebrated "King maker," to whom Edward IV. owed his crown was withdrawing his support. Seven days after the battle, lord Berkeley received the king's commission to search out and apprehend disaffected persons within the county; a few months after the king himself was a fugitive, and Warwick, who for his own purposes now espoused the Lancastrian cause, had replaced Henry VI on the throne. The Battle of Barnet however, which took place the next year, once more reversed the state of things; Warwick was slain and King Edward again resumed the sceptre.
Lady Lisle now brought her appeal against lord Berkeley, his brother Maurice, and others, for the death of her husband, but the delays which the Berkeleys found means to interpose prevented the case from being heard for two years. At length, on October 6, 1473, it was decided that lord Berkeley should have all the manors in dispute, paying lady Lisle £100 a year for her life in settlement of all her personal claims. Shortly afterwards she married Henry Bodrugan, a Cornish gentleman, a circumstance which together with her having compounded the death of her first husband for an annuity, goes far to deprive her of the sympathy and interest with which her early misfortunes tended to invest her.
Lord Berkeley now took possession of the manors which had been so long the subject of contention, and for a time probably flattered himself that he was delivered from all his troubles. He soon however became embroiled with Sir Edward Grey, who had married the late lord Lisle's sister and co-heiress, and who was afterwards created lord Lisle by King Richard III. In order to stand well with the ruling powers and to ensure the king's favour and assistance, lord Berkeley in 1477 and in 1483 conveyed many manors and lands to the youthful Duke of York, the king's second son, in acknowledgement of which he was created a Viscount. King Edward IV. died soon afterwards, and should have been succeeded by his eldest son, now aged 13, as Edward V. but Richard Duke of Gloucester, uncle to the young Prince, contrived his murder, and that of his brother the young Duke of York, in the Tower, and placed the crown on his own head. By the death of the latter the conveyances lapsed and the manors once more returned to lord Berkeley.
In 1478 by the death of Anne, sole daughter and heiress to Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, then seven years old, lord Berkeley succeeded to a moiety of the vast estates of the Duke, as heir-at-law of his mother the lady Isabel, the Duke's great-aunt. No less than 68 manors, in 15 different counties thus came into his possession, besides the half of at least fifty others, and much other property in lands and houses. So great however was his anxiety for honours and distinctions that in less then ten years he had given or granted them all away, for empty titles and patronage. In 1484, within a year after Richard had become king, lord Berkeley conveyed to him 35 manors by one deed of gift, and was in return made Earl of Nottingham. The usurper's throne was soon threatened by Henry Earl of Richmond, and the next year the battle of Bosworth, in which it was said that lord Berkeley assisted the one side with men and the other with money, terminated Richard’s life and reign, and made Richmond king, as Henry VII. By this event the thirty-five manors again reverted to lord Berkeley, as though Providence were determined to thwart his attempts to impoverish himself and his family.
The new king was not backward in acknowledging the assistance he had received from lord Berkeley, who was created Earl Marshal a few days before the king's coronation, and was very soon afterwards made Great Maresehal of England. By a deed of the same date he conveyed two castles and twenty-eight manors to Sir William Stanley. the Lord Chamberlain, in return for court favour. At this time lord Berkeley was childless, a son and daughter by his second wife having died young; his brother Maurice was therefore his heir, and he with his son remonstrated against these repeated alienations of the family inheritance, but their complaints seemed not only to confirm him in his proceedings but greatly embittered him against them. By several successive conveyances he parted with many more manors to Sir William Stanley and other influential personages, and finally by his will he entailed Berkeley Castle and the whole of the remaining ancient family possessions upon the king, reserving only a life interest in them to himself and his third wife, whom he had recently married! In return he was, in January, 1490, created Marquis of Berkeley.
To confirm these grants, and, as was supposed, to render them more effectual, an Act of Parliament was passed in 1492. Thus did William lord Berkeley become successively Baron, Viscount, and Marquis of Berkeley, Earl of Nottingham, and Great Mareschal of England, and after inheriting more manors and lands than any of his ancestors had ever possessed, he coolly gives them away in return for empty honours and titles, leaving his brother and heir not sufficient land to set his foot upon! To crown his stupendous folly, he now, at the age of sixty-six contracts with various persons for the erection of a fine house at Great Chesterford, in Essex, but died before it could be completed, in 1492. He was buried in the church of the Friars Augustines (Austin Fryers) in London, to which he had been a great benefactor, and where also his second wife, the lady Jane, had been interred.
The Marquess having thus disinherited his own family, the Crown took possession of Berkeley Castle and all the immense estates left by him, except such as were included in the jointure of lady Berkeley, who did not however survive many years. The king (Henry VII.,) came to Berkeley at Christmas, 1495, and remained there ten days. Among other preparations for the royal visit, the hall of Wotton Manor-house was pulled down, and the timber and lead used in new roofing the great kitchen at Berkeley Castle.
THE BERKELEY HUNDRED, VIRGINIA
New-Found-Land, the first British Colony in America, was founded in 1583. Two years later Sir Walter Raleigh sought to establish a settlement in Virginia- so named in honour of Queen Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen. The attempt failed, and it was not until the opening years of the next century that interest was again aroused and the Virginia Company of London came into being.
John Smyth of Nibley and Agent of the Berkeleys soon appreciated the possibilities of great financial gain in the enterprise. This resulted in a Berkeley Company being formed. The backers of the venture were Richard Berkeley (Stoke Bishop), George Thorpe (Wanswell Court, Berkeley), John Smyth (Nibley) and Sir William Throckmorton. These negotiated with Sir George Yeardley Governor of Virginia, for a grant of land. The party sailed from Bristol in " The Margaret" on 16th September 1619, and landed at the Berkeley grant, designated the Berkeley Hundred, on 4th December, They, following instructions issued before they had left England, at once held a Thanksgiving Service.
In spite of a heavy death roll in the first winter and the difficulties in becoming self-supporting the Berkeley Plantation slowly developed until Good Friday (March 22nd, 1622). On that day the Indians staged their biggest massacre of settlers in American history. In this surprise attack 349 out of a total of nearly 1200, men, women and children, in the whole colony were killed. Of the 90 who had "ventured"' to the Berkeley Plantation 14 only returned later to begin life afresh amidst the charred remains of their former homes.
Berkeley, today the most historic plantation on the James River, is still a working plantation, and its mansion house, built in 1726 and the home for generations of the Harrison family-William Henry and Benjamin became Presidents of the United States in 1841 and 1888 respectively, is open daily to the public.
CHURCHWARDENS
Berkeley was at one time among of the largest parishes in the Gloucester Diocese. It was as late as 19(…) that the new parish of Sharpness and Purton was formed from the northern end of the Berkeley parish; although it had effectively been run as a separate parish with a Priest-in-Charge for some time.
Berkeley Church has four Churchwardens. Traditionally they represented the three tythings of Alkingtion, Ham and Hinton along with the Borough of Berkeley. Now that Hinton has been ‘lost’ to Sharpness and Purton the fourth churchwarden represents the civil parish of Hamfallow.
There are old Churchwarden accounts sheets but the three account books that we have start: Ham 1714, Hinton 1750 and Alkington 1757; they finish between 1853 and 1868. Most costs for the church were paid by the three Tythings. The payments from the Borough are recorded in the Poor Books; they are mainly payments for the organist, which were divided four ways.
CIVIL WAR
The Church bears the mark of the Civil War when in 1645 the Parliamentary troops under Colonel Rainsborough stormed the Church and Castle. The Church always formed part of the outer defenses of the Castle, and the West Doors were loop-holed for muskets by the defenders. These loopholes and also bullet holes may be seen from the outside. As soon as the Church was captured and the Roundheads started to get their ordnance on to the Church roof the governor of the Castle, Sir Charles Lucas, sounded a parley, and an honourable surrender was arranged.
See North Door, West Door & Priest’s Room; there are also traces of damage around the south-west corner.
CURFEW
The old custom of ringing the curfew bell at eight o'clock every night from October 10th to March 25th was being practiced in 1842.
In 1889 the curfew was still rung at 8 o’clock from Old Michaelmas Day to the 25th March.
Mr. A.E. Knott, verger 1930-67, says that he last performed this rite in 1934 when it was abandoned.
CYCLAMEN
Flowers with a history. The story of the introduction of the cyclamen that bloom under the trees in The Chantry garden (now the Jenner Museum), as recorded by the Rev John H.W. Fisher, a Vicar of Berkeley.
The central figure is Mrs. Stackhouse, wife of Canon Stackhouse, a former vicar of Berkeley. Towards the end of the 19-century Canon and Mrs. Stackhouse went on holiday to Italy and one of the places they visited was the Vatican.
In the Vatican Garden the cyclamen (Cyclamen Neapolitanum) were in bloom. Mrs. Stackhouse loved to bring back a souvenir from any garden she visited, and the habit of a lifetime pressed upon her. Swiftly, she dropped her umbrella, and under the very eyes of the Papal Guard, managed to conceal a cyclamen corm inside it as she retrieved it. Some years later an old gentleman called and asked if he could look inside The Chantry again, as he had been a regular visitor there when Canon Stackhouse was vicar. Rev. Fisher asked him if the story of the cyclamen was true.
Indeed it is, the gentleman replied. I called to welcome them home and Mrs. Stackhouse was still unpacking. She came downstairs into the drawing room with her sponge bag. What have you got there, I asked. Triumphantly holding it up she answered "The Papal Cyclamen!"
This corm was planted under the plane tree, which Dr. Jenner had planted 100 years before. It has grown and flourished, and can still be seen today.
EDWARD II (1284-1327) [Plantagenet King of England (1307-1327), whose incompetence and distaste for government finally led to his deposition and murder].
Edward was born on April 25, 1284, at Caernarvon, Wales, the fourth son of King Edward I and his first wife, Eleanor of Castile. The deaths of his elder brothers made the infant prince heir to the throne; in 1301 he was proclaimed Prince of Wales, the first heir apparent in English history to bear that title. But he was idle and frivolous, with no liking for military campaigning or affairs of state.
Believing that the prince's close friend Piers Gaveston, a Gascon knight, was a bad influence, Edward I banished Gaveston. On his father's death, however, Edward II reinstated his favourite. Gaveston incurred the opposition of the powerful English barony. The nobles were particularly angered in 1308, when Edward made Gaveston regent for the period of the king's absence in France, where he went to marry Isabella, daughter of King Philip IV.
In 1311 the barons, led by Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, forced the king to appoint from among them a committee of 21 nobles and prelates, called the lords ordainers. They proclaimed a series of ordinances that transferred the ruling power to themselves and excluded the commons and lower clergy from Parliament. After they had twice forced the king to banish Gaveston, and the king had each time recalled him, the barons finally had the king's favourite kidnapped and executed.
In the meantime, Robert Bruce had almost completed his reconquest of Scotland, which he had begun shortly after 1305. In 1314 Edward II and his barons raised an army of some 100,000 men with which to crush Bruce, but in the attempt to lift the siege of Stirling they were decisively defeated (see Bannockburn, Battle of). For the following eight years the Earl of Lancaster virtually ruled the kingdom.
In 1322, however, with the advice and help of two new royal favourites, the baron Hugh le Despenser, and his son, also called Hugh le Despenser, Edward defeated Lancaster in battle and had him executed. The Despensers thereupon became de facto rulers of England. They summoned a Parliament in which the Commons were included and which repealed the ordinances of 1311, on the grounds that they had been passed by the barons only. The repeal was a great step forward in English constitutional development, for it meant that thenceforth no law passed by Parliament was valid unless the House of Commons approved it.
Edward again futilely invaded Scotland in 1322, and in 1323 signed a 13-year truce with Bruce. In 1325 Queen Isabella accompanied the Prince of Wales to France, where, in accordance with feudal custom, he did homage to King Charles IV for the fief of Aquitaine. Isabella, who desired to depose the Despensers, allied herself with some barons who had been exiled by Edward. In 1326, with their leader, Roger de Mortimer, Isabella raised an army and invaded England. Edward and his favourites fled, but his wife's army pursued and executed the Despensers and imprisoned Edward. In January 1327, Parliament forced Edward to abdicate and proclaimed the Prince of Wales King as Edward III. On September 21 of that year Edward II was murdered by his captors at Berkeley Castle, Gloucestershire.
HEATING
Some Hot Air in Berkeley by Peter Yardley
In 1994 I was given a crisp box full of old letters, second copies of plans etc. This story was based on some of the letters. It was written for ‘A Sense of Place’. The documents are now deposited at GRO.
When Mr. Thomas Pearce Bailey of Walgaston died his widow agreed to pay for a central heating system in the Parish Church. After much discussion the tender of July 2nd 1917 was accepted from Mr. Woodyatt of Stroud. It included the construction of a “boiler house of sufficient depth and the installation of 'one Robin Hood boiler ' to give a temperature of 58°F to 60°F when 32°F outside". This was to cost £260 0 0d but within three weeks the churchwardens wanted four more radiators at an extra cost of £13 5 0d, Mrs. Bailey agreed to this new estimate from Mr. Woodyatt “on condition of carrying out the work to her satisfaction”
The vicar, Rev H.C. Armour, was stationed at the Remount Depot, Swaythling, near Southampton, during the Great War and agreed to return for a “Vestry Meeting on Thursday July 19th …. to consider the advisability of applying for a Faculty…. I think Mr. Woodyatt ought to be asked to attend.” Mr. Clark, one of the four churchwardens, wrote to Mr. Woodyatt and received the reply “I will attend at the Church and endeavour to explain any points which may be raised. I do not wish to be detained longer than necessary as I wish to return to Stroud the same night. I shall cycle.”
Mr. Woodyatt later wrote to Mrs. Bailey “I shall hope to commence on Monday Aug. 13th” By late September they were expecting the boiler to be delivered but while digging downwards for the foundations of the boiler house they had hit water. Mr. Woodyatt wrote to Mrs. Bailey “Water continues to run into the heating chamber.… I did not expect to find a running stream there. .… I had the brickwork built in cement also exceptional thickness of concrete in the bottom and 1 put a drain tap …. there is evidently only one thing to be done which is to put a drain in from the boiler house to a lower level. The cost of this would be £24.0.0d …. I have not received the colour decided upon for radiators."
By this time Mrs. Bailey was becoming concerned and wrote to Mr. Clark “What is to be done …. Possibly the stream of water he speaks of has been the cause of some of the dampness in the church. I would willingly pay the £24 had it not been that already I have sanctioned the additional £13.5.0d." The letter was written on paper with a thick black border.
It would seem that work stopped and when Mr. Clark wrote to Mr. Woodyatt about the delay he was sent the following reply on October 9th, which addressed a number of points:
Colour of Paint
“Please note had I known colour decided upon the same would have been ordered”
Boiler not installed
"But I would respectfully point out the boiler cannot be fixed until the water difficulty is got over "
Draining away the running stream
"Altho I have offered to meet your friend …. to discuss the matter. The only remedy is to drain it as I have pointed out to you …. and for which I have submitted an estimate "….from Mr. Woodyatt
Another letter to Mr. Clark followed on Oct 13th "I have received no reply to my communication. I shall be in Berkeley on Wednesday next …. I want the job completed.”
Inside the north door of the church is a plaque:
To the Glory of God
In loving memory of her husband
Thomas Pearce Bailey
the heating apparatus in this church
has been installed by his widow
Xmas 1917
Over the years the boiler has been variously rebuilt, modified and replaced; the fuel used has been changed from coke to oil and then gas; but the pipes and radiators remained as they were installed for nearly eighty years.
RICHARD II
AN EVENT LEADING TO THE DEPOSITION OF KING RICHARD II
The coalition between Henry of Lancaster and Edmund Duke of York against Richard II was ratified in the Church.
Holinshed records that on 27 July 1399 in Berkeley Church, the Duke of York, accompanied by the Bishop of Norwich, Lord Berkeley, Lord Seimore and others, "communed with the Duke of Lancaster", Thomas Arundell (banished Archbishop of Canterbury), the Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland and others. It is clear, from subsequent events, that they discussed the deposition of King Richard II.Error! Bookmark not defined.
Richard II resigned his crown on September 30th 1399. The next day Bolingbroke was confirmed as King Henry IV.
Richard II (1367-1400) [King of England (1377-1399), whose reign was marked by national disunity and civil strife].
A younger son of Edward, Prince of Wales (the Black Prince), and Joan, called the Fair Maid of Kent, Richard was born on January 6, 1367, in Bordeaux, France. He was created Prince of Wales in 1376, the year of his father's death, and was placed in the care of his uncle John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. In 1377, on the death of his grandfather, King Edward III, Richard became ruler of England, then a country devastated by plague and oppressed by heavy taxes, the result of a war with France. Parliament, which had obtained greater power in the last years of Edward III's reign, now sought to secure control of the government, but was opposed by John of Gaunt and his followers.
The speedy suppression of the Peasants' Revolt in 1381 was largely the result of Richard's courage and daring. A year later, at the age of 15, Richard married Anne of Bohemia, daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV, and began to seek the downfall of the great nobles who controlled Parliament and prevented him from acting independently. Led by Richard's uncle Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, in 1388 a coterie of noblemen known in history as the lords appellant “appealed” or accused Richard's adherents of treason, banishing some and having others executed. The following year Richard, with the help of John of Gaunt, succeeded in asserting his authority.
Trying to re-establish English authority in Ireland, Richard led an expedition to the country in 1394; in the same year his queen died. In 1396 a marriage treaty was concluded between Richard and a French princess, Isabella. In 1397 Richard had Gloucester arrested and imprisoned at Calais, where he died, perhaps murdered. He also exiled John of Gaunt's son, Henry Bolingbroke, Duke of Hereford, who later became Richard's successor as Henry IV, and executed or banished others of the lords appellant. On his return from a second military expedition to Ireland in 1399 Richard found that Bolingbroke had returned from exile and placed himself at the head of a formidable army.
Richard was captured by Bolingbroke in Wales and brought captive to London, where on September 30, 1399, he formally resigned the crown. On the following day his abdication was ratified by Parliament, which then confirmed Bolingbroke as King Henry IV. Richard was secretly confined in Pontefract Castle, where he either died of starvation or was murdered in February 1400.
STORM DAMAGE
The following information comes from Mr. Robert J. Haines:
There was a great storm in November 1703. The then vicar of Berkeley, the Rev. Henry Head (Grandfather of Dr. Edward Jenner) wrote a letter in which he said “… There is one thing more remarkable in this parish, and it is this: twenty six sheets of lead hanging all together, were blown off from the middle aisle of our church and were carried over the north aisle, which is a very large one, without touching it; and into the churchyard ten yards distance from the church; and they were all took up joined together as they were on the roof; the plumber told me that the sheets weighed each three hundred and a half, one with another. ……”
This is not all together surprising. While there was scaffolding around the upper walls of the nave during the work to stabilize the walls and replace the roofing there was a storm over the weekend of Easter 199(). A section of the scaffolding planks along the south-west end of the nave wall were blown out of their fixings. One plank was found near Thomas Peirce’s tomb, it appeared to have gone up over the nave roof, cleared the north aisle roof and landed without having done any damage. (During the same storm scaffolding around one of the caissons in the construction yard of the Second Severn Crossing was also blown down.)
There were strong winds that brought down trees by the Gravel Walk and Longbridge and also broke off the flagpole on the tower, Christmas 199().
One problem with the north aisle roof is that winds blow around the north-west corner of the nave and have a lifting effect on the roof.
THOMPSON - THE MOUSEMAN
ROBERT THOMPSON OF YORK The following is a letter written to Canon J.H.W. Fisher in 1949. Reproduced by permission of Miss. J.W. Fisher.
10-2-49
Priest’s Stall Berkeley I beg to thank you most sincerely for your lovely kind words of appreciation. I value this far more than money.
Also I am pleased to hear that my work occupies such a beautiful setting. Somehow, I don't enjoy doing work for modern churches.
The origin of the mouse as my mark was almost in the way of being an accident. I and another carver were carving a huge cornice for a screen and he happened to say something about being as poor as a church mouse. I said I'll carve a mouse here and did so, then it struck me, what a lovely trade mark, This is about 30 years ago.
Our vicar asked me what was it's meaning, I said "It means industry in a quiet place." He said "Nay, man destruction."
Again, thank you for your kind words,
yours very truly,
R. Thompson
TOAD
The Legend of the BERKELEY Toad
The steward to the Berkeley family, John Smyth, wrote a history of the family and their manors. He was writing in the early 1600s and, even today, we find his historical facts accurate. He also recorded local sayings and stories. In the Morning Room of the Castle there is a carving of a toad similar to the one in the Church. Smyth tells us about the toad in Berkeley Castle dungeon.
"Out of which dungeon in the likenes of a deepe broad well goinge steepely down in the midst of the Dungeon Chamber in the said Keepe, was (as tradition tells,) drawne forth a Toad, in the time of Kinge Henry the seventh, of an inciedible bignes, which, in the deepe dry dust in the bottom thereof, had doubtlesse lived there divers hundreds of yeares; whose portraiture in just demension, as it was then to me affirmed by divers aged persons, I sawe, about 48 years agone, drawne in colours upon the doore of the Great Hall and of the utter side of the stone porch leadinge into that hall; since, by pargettors or pointers of that wall washed out or outworne with time; which in bredth was more then a foot, neere 16 inches, and in length more. Of which monstrous and outgrowne beast the inhabitants of this towne, and in the neighbour villages round about, fable many strange and incredible wonders; makinge the greatnes of this toad more than would fill a peck, yea, I have heard some, who looked to have beleife, say from the report of their Fathers and Grandfathers that it would have filled a bushell or strike, and to have beene many yeares fed with flesh and garbage from the butchers; but this is all the trueth I knowe or dare believe."
Of these and some similar stories Smyth remarks; “Every man’s beleife is left to himselfe and I knowe what myselfe thinketh thereof, and of the like; bee it a lye or a trueth it was generally beleived.”
WITCH
The following is taken from the handbook by James Cooke.
Berkeley, as may have been expected is especially rich in tales of legendary lore, many of which have been preserved by Smyth in the invaluable series of Manuscript histories compiled by him a.d. 1600 to 1639, to which we are so deeply indebted. The most remarkable of these stories is that of the Witch of Berkeley, which Southey has made the subject of a ballad poem. The following is the version given by Smyth, taken from Trevisa’s translation of Higden's Polychronicon.
“About that time a woman in Berkeley accustomed to evil arts, when as upon a certaine day shee kept a feast, a Chough which shee used delicately to feede cackled more loud and distinctly than shee was wont to doe, which when shee heard, the knife fell out of her hand, her countenance waxed pale, and havinge fetched a deepe groane, with a sigh said, "now this day is the plowe come to my last furrowe," which beinge said, a messenger coming in, declared to her the death of her sonne, and of all her family exposed to present ruine, the woman presently laye downe and called to her such of her other children as were monkes and a Nunne, who cominge shee thus spake unto them“I a wicked follower of an evil art and worse life vainly thought to have beene defended by your praiers, now I desire to be eased by you of my torments, because judgment is given against my soul, but peradventure you may keepe my body if it bee fast sewed in a stags skin, make yee for mee a chest of stone, fast bound and cemented with iron and lead, settinge the same upright, and also bound about with three iron chaines, use singers of Psalms forty nights and pay for soe many masses by dayes; and if I shall soe lie for three nights, on the fourth day bury my body in the ground” But all was in vaine, for in the two first nights which the psalmes were in soundinge, the Divells havinge easily broken the doores, as lightly brake the two utmost iron chaines; and on the third night about cock-crowinge, the place shakinge, one with a terrible countenance and of a mighty tall stature, havinge broken open the cover of the chest commanded the dead body to arise, who answeringe that shee could not by reason of the bonds, ‘bee thou loosed’ quoth hee, ‘but to thy woe,’ and presently all the barres being broken, hee draweth her out of the Church, and setteth her upon a blacke horse, neighinge before the doore, and soe went away with loud soundinge cries heard four miles off.”
The same story is told by William of Malmesbury, and also in an old Manuscript entitled "Chronicon de Abington," formerly belonging to Sir Robert Cotton, now in the British Museum.
Tales like this were often invented by the monks in mediaeval times, by way of revenge upon deceased persons, and as a warning to survivors, and the incidents were sometimes even acted by persons in disguise.A similar story is related of the body of Charles Martel, King of France.
The first part of the story as given by Canon J.E. Gethyn-JonesError! Bookmark not defined. is perhaps easier to follow.
No account of Berkeley is complete without mention of the Berkeley Witch whose woeful end is recorded with graphic detail which chills the spine.
The witch, having received a message that the devil desired full payment for his help, called a son and daughter, a monk and nun respectively, and gave instructions whereby, after her death that night, the devil might be cheated of his reward.
The children were to wrap mum's dead body in a stag's hide and encase it within a type of sarcophagus, which in its turn would be secured by three stout chains Finally the whole would be taken to Berkeley Church where prayers and psalms would be said and sung around it for 40 days and nights.
Let the grim conclusion of this story be recorded in the words of Reinuiph of Chester:
"But all was in vaine, for in the two first nights which the psalms were in soundinge, the Divells havmge easily broken the doores, as lightly brake the two utmost iron chames, and on the third night about cock-crowinge, the place shakinge, one with a terrible countenance and of a mightly tall stature havinge broken open the cover of the chest commanded the dead body to arise, who answennge that shee could not by reason of the bonds 'bee thou loosed' quoth hee, 'but to thy woe', and presently all the barres being broken hee draweth her out of the church, and setteth her upon a blacke horse, neighinge before the doore and so went away with loud soundinge cries, heard four miles of."