The Saxon Inheritance
During the six hundred years of Scandinavian settlement in Yorkshire after the final Roman Emperor was deposed in
476, little was recorded, either locally or elsewhere in Britain. That Bramham continued as a thriving community in Saxon
times is clear however from the one lasting Saxon memorial which remains to us - the large, oval-shaped churchyard, whose high
walls below the level of the graves mark it quite clearly as of Saxon origin.
The discovery, in the 1930's, of a Saxon bone pin
, and, more recently, Saxon stones, serve as further confirmation. Whether the stones were part of an earlier church, or whether
this Saxon predecessor was wooden, remain a mystery.
The importance of the manor of Bramham in Saxon times is shown also by the high value at which it was rated in the Domesday Survey
(1086). A mill, to which all local tenants were bound to bring their corn for grinding; a church with a priest; and much woodland
and pasture were recorded.
The manor included pieces of land in Monechet (probably in the Bramham Park area), Toulston, Oglethorpe
and North Kyme, all likely to have been single farmsteads.
As Bramham's connections with the Monks of Nostell Priory grew, it supplemented
Clifford as the seat of the local Saxon lord, the last of whom, Ligulf, was dispossessed after 1066 by William the Conqueror.
Norman Conquests
The actions of William the Bastard, Duke of Normandy, were typical of all successful military conquerors.
Having won the crown in 1066, he followed a strategy throughout his twenty year reign based on early movement to
suppress possible opponents, cementing loyalty by rewarding his own supporters, and strict imposition of his personal
rule.
His 'harrying of the North' during 1069-71 largely depopulated Yorkshire and Durham, thus wiping out most of the
likely Scandinavian opposition based in these parts, though Bramham seems to have come through largely unscathed.
The carving up of the country found Bramham given to one of William's closest allies, his half-brother, Robert,
Count of Mortain in Avranches (just east of Mount St Michel in western Normandy).
Robert's representation on William's
immediate left in the Bayeux Tapestry marks not only his success in battle at Hastings, but also his significance in
the post-war social order.
The emergence of England as a national entity - and its opportunity for development
centuries before other countries - owes much to William's success in ruthlessly defining its boundaries and what
lay within them. In this, his survey of every corner of his realm, produced as the Domesday Book (1086), gave an
exact account to the King, and an invaluable record down the ages.
Thereafter the ownership of land and property,
unrecorded under Saxon rule, was largely written down, so that we can trace what happened to Bramham fairly clearly
for the first time.
Unsurprisingly, it continued to be handed round the great families, or seized from them, like any
other valuable commodity, for several hundred years. |
