Highworth

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Highworth is a market town in the unitary authority of Swindon in Wiltshire, England, located about 6 miles (9.7 km) north-east of Swindon town centre. At the 2001 census it had a population of 7,996^[1]. It is often described as the "gateway to the Cotswolds" but only on the recently erected signs, and is notable for its Queen Anne Style architecture and Georgian buildings dating from its pre-eminence in the 18th century.

Overview

Highworth is mentioned in the Domesday Book as 'Wrde'. During the English Civil War, when Charles I fought against Parliament, Highworth was a royalist stronghold. From 1894 to 1974 there was a Highworth Rural District. In 2006 the town celebrated the 800th anniversary of the granting of the charter for its market, which is still held every Saturday. Highworth, with a population of over 12,000, was formerly larger than neighbouring Swindon. The origins and layout of Highworth are medieval. The centre of the old town has been designated as a conservation area."

Post town

Highworth was first recorded as a post town in 1673. From 1835–39 there was a Penny Post between Highworth and Cold Harbour, a village on the Swindon to Cirencester road near Broad Blunsdon.^[2] Mrs. Mabel Stranks, who was postmistress here during World War II, was a key reference point for members of the Auxiliary Units, a resistance organisation.^[3] A memorial plaque on the wall of the former post office records her contribution.

Geography

The ancient hill-top town of Highworth occupies a pre-eminent position above the Upper Thames valley and at 133m 436ft above sea level it is the highest town in Wiltshire.

Ancient history

It has almost continuous occupation for 4000 years. Archaeological evidence of Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze Age, Roman, Romano British, and Saxon remains have been found on and around its hill top. In the 6th century the area was settled by the Saxons, and by the late Saxon period the sub divisions of the shires, the hundreds, including the hundred of Worth, had been established. Their main purpose was to maintain local law and order through the hundred courts which were held every three to four weeks. Many hundreds were known from their meeting places, often on royal estates, many of which show signs of some antiquity, such as fords, crossroads, barrows, famous trees, or prominent hills.

The name 'High Worth', applied to the hundred was in use before 1300 but more often it was simply called the hundred of Worth. 'Worth' was in fact the name used for the area containing not only Highworth but also Sevenhampton, Eastrop, Westrop, Hampton and South Marston. Highworth itself refers strictly to the hilltop area on which stand the church and market town, bounded by Brewery Street, Swindon Street, the upper part of Lechlade Road and Cherry Orchard Lane. Its name derives from the Old English 'worth', a common term for a settlement, probably an 'enclosed settlement' or a relatively small enclosure. This may refer to the ancient meeting place of the hundred.

11th to 13th century

Between the 11th century and 1194 the separate hundred of Scipe, known only from the Geld Rolls, was merged with Worth. The hundred then came to include an area in the north east corner of Wiltshire, largely bounded by the rivers Thames, Cole and Ray comprising thirty tithings. The hundred was attached to the large manor of Sevenhampton in the 13th century at some point before 1255.

Such evidence that does exist of the early history of the hundred reveal that it belonged to the manor of Sevenhampton and that the association was of ancient origin. A manor to which a hundred belonged was likely to have already been the royal manor of a large estate at the time of Domesday. Sevenhampton's history cannot be traced continuously back to Domesday but there are indications that the Crown had the manor in 1086. Sevenhampton, the rest of Highworth, Eastrop, Westrop, South Marston and Inglesham are not mentioned in Domesday although all the rest of the hundred is accounted for. It therefore appears that these places formed part of the royal estate mentioned in the Geld Rolls of 1084.

The Anglo Saxon Chronicles record that King Edward the Confessor, 1042 -1066, set up minster churches for 'Establishing a priest of good life and reputation'. They were almost invariably established on Saxon royal estates and would have served the surrounding area. By the eleventh century just such a church had been established in Highworth. It was built in the typical cruciform plan of that period and had two chapelries, or daughter churches at South Marston and Blunsdon.

Mention of the priest is made in the Domesday survey of 1086, 'Ralph the priest holds the church of Wrde and to it belong 3 hides which did not pay geld in the time of King Edward. Land for 2 ploughs. These the priest has, with 6 bordars; meadow, 10 acres. Value 100s.' This is the estate represented in the hundred by the 'tithing of the parson of Worth'. The 1091 charter of St Osmund, Bishop of Old Sarum, shows that the chapter already held the church of Highworth and that the tithes belonged to the canons.

Following the Anarchy when Henry II came to the throne it appears that this royal estate, possibly the lost estate of 'Beaumys', was broken up. The new king did not neglect his own followers and found ways of insinuating his own men into the tenurial network. By 1156 the Pipe Rolls reveal that he granted the Hundred of Worth, together with its manor of Sevenhampton, to his chamberlain of the treasury, Warin fitzGerold the elder. At the same time Hampton and Westrop, Eastrop, and South Marston were also parcelled out. Hampton and Westrop were granted to Robert de Turville, Eastrop to Ernulf de Mandeville whilst lands in South Marston were granted to the Cluniac monks of the priory of St Mary Magdalene at Farleigh.

Warin FitzGerold the younger, hereditary chamberlain to both King Richard and King John, and whose name appears on the Magna Carta, was granted the right to hold a weekly Wednesday market and an annual fair at Highworth on the feast of St Michael (29 September) by King John on the 20 April 1206. A later grant to hold an annual fair on the feast of St Peter ad Vincula (1 August) was made to his great grandson, Baldwin de Redvers, 8th Earl of Devon, by King Henry II on 12 June 1257. By the 17th century the market had become 'the greatest market for fat cattle in Wiltshire.'

Considerable profits were to be made from successful markets and annual fairs, from the granting of permanent property rights in a town and from the jurisdiction of a town court. Many lay lords, including FitzGerold, sought to create towns on their properties. Highworth was established as a planted town, possibly grafted onto an already existing small community. It formed a local market centre serving the surrounding hinterland.

It is not known exactly when Highworth became a borough. It is possible that its charter may have been granted at the same time as the one to hold markets and fairs. Certainly by 1262 Highworth is recorded as a borough with fifty tenants holding burgages or part burgages. Remnants of the linear pattern of the medieval burgage plots, long narrow strips of land, which these tenants would have held, can still be seen between the High Street and Brewery Street, and Sheep Street to Cherry Orchard. The houses on the north side of the High Street and in the centre of the market place appear to be later encroachments and infills.

14th - 16th centuries

By the late 13th century Highworth had corporate status becoming a parliamentary borough having the right to elect members of parliament. Medieval representation in 1298 and 1311 can be found in the parliamentary papers of that time. The town lost its privilege of sending members to parliament through disuse, and the corporation has ceased to exist.

Highworth's hundred court met 14 to 16 times a year, probably in its early history in the church and later elsewhere. It dealt with routine matters such as the fining of brewers against the assize, nuisances such as the flooding or obstruction of a road or the diversion of a water course, quarrels leading to bloodshed, thefts and housebreaking. The lord of Highworth hundred possessed the special liberty of the right of infangtheof, the summary hanging of a thief taken with stolen goods on him, and usually applied to experienced thieves taken at fairs and markets. The Borough and Hundred Court was held regularly up to June 1847, chiefly in latter years as a court for recovering small debts, but was eventually abolished when County Courts were formed, not withstanding a petition by local inhabitants to retain it.

The manor together with the borough and hundred passed into the de Redvers family on the death of Warin FitzGerold the younger in 1216. His only child, Margaret or Margery had married Baldwin de Redvers, Earl of Devon, in about 1215. They stayed in the family until Isabel de Forz passed them to Adam de Stratton in November 1276. On his disgrace in 1289 his lands and goods were forfeited to the Crown. From this time it is unlikely that few of its lords came near it. During that period it was administered by keepers for Margaret, the second wife of Edward; Isabel, the widow of Edward II; Phillippa, widow of Edward III; John de Montfort, duke of Brittany; Edmund, duke of York; his second son Edward; Cicely, duchess of York, who was mother of Edward IV; Elizabeth, queen to Henry VI; Catherine of Aragon; Jane Seymour; Anne of Cleeves; and Catherine Howard. In 1544 they were granted to Catherine Parr for life as part of her dower on her marriage to Henry VIII. The reversion was granted in 1547 to Sir Thomas Seymour, now baron Seymour of Sudeley, who had married the widowed Queen. The manor passed to John Warneford whose family had been building up estates in the area. It was about this time that its association with the borough and hundred appears to have ended.

The borough and hundred was retained by Sir Thomas Seymour, but when he was attainted in 1549 they reverted to the crown. In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, Sir Richard Grobham of Great Wishford owned the Borough and Hundred of Highworth. Sir Richard had made a very large fortune as steward to the George family of Longford Castle, and he and Sir Thomas George had shared in the Treasure ship of the Spanish Armada.

Sir Richard died childless in 1628, and left his estate to his sister's son, afterwards Sir John Howe Bt, and it remained in the family until 1804 and the death of John Howe, 4th and last Lord Chedworth, from whose trustees they were purchased in 1806 by Mr Wm Crowdy, a solicitor of Highworth, who had built and occupied Westrop House.His descendant Mr Robert Edward Laurence Crowdy sold the estate to John Kenney in 1969. By this time there were no pecuniary rights other than the ownership of several houses in the Borough including the three interesting old stone built houses at the East end of the High Street now remodelled into 1 - 5 the High Street.

In the first half of the 17th century outbreaks of plague had occurred in Highworth and the surrounding area. The Civil War of 1642-1649 caused great distress and disruption to the town both in its economic and social life.

By 1643 traders coming to Highworth's cattle markets were experiencing difficulties caused by the Royalists quartered in the area and in the September of that year the townspeople were under pressure to accommodate the sick and wounded from the siege of Cirencester.

The royalists fortified Highworth in April 1644 and the church was selected as a strong point. St Michael's tower provides an excellent lookout over the Thames valley and a lofty firing platform. The fortifications were not started until December of 1644 and appear to consist of an earth work bank and ditch about six feet wide, which included an arrow shaped projection called a bastion from which flanking fire could be given. This is thought to run under the present Methodist Church Hall to the north of the church running in an east - west direction. The town was then given a permanent garrison of around 200 men, under Major Henry Henne who was appointed, by the King, as governor of Highworth on the 10th January 1645. They were not be there for very long.

Five months later, on 27 June 1645, the garrison fell to the parliamentarian forces under Sir Thomas Fairfax. They were to remain in command until an order was passed in the House of Commons on 14 August 1646, 'that the garrisons of Malmesbury and Highworth were to be slighted and dismantled and the forces be disbanded or disposed for the service of Ireland'. The garrison was dismantled some two months later in October.

The town was affected by the high mortality rate at this time caused not only by the inevitable loss of life which war brings but also by the epidemics carried by the troops and by general malnourishment. Highworth's burial registers record a high level of deaths in 1646 when the town was hit by a severe outbreak of plague. As a garrison town Highworth would have been burdened with free quarter, the practice of having soldiers billeted with a householder who was obliged to provide them with board and lodging and fodder for their horses. This often meant food being taken from the mouths of the townspeople. As the war progressed and armies ran out of money the households would have to provide this free of charge hoping that they would be reimbursed at a later date. In practice this very seldom happened. Business too was seriously affected. The presence of troops in the town greatly discouraged the dealers and graziers from attending the market and trade moved to more peaceful places such as Swindon.

Recovery was slow after the hostilities but there was a resurgence in both the market and the economy which appears to have strengthened by the end of the seventeenth century. Many of the buildings in the centre of the town were either rebuilt or remodelled in the early eighteenth century and this is reflected in their Queen Anne and Georgian appearance. Recent archaeological work carried out on the site of the new Barrett homes before building started has revealed the existence of 18th century brick kilns which would have supplied materials for the houses in Highworth and the surrounding area.

18th & 19th centuries

In the early 18th century the last of Highworth's waste land was taken into cultivation, and in 1778 the common fields were enclosed by Act of Parliament. This ended the last rights of poorer country folk to graze their livestock on what had formerly been 'Common Land'.

20th century and beyond

A slight upturn in the economy took place with the opening of the Oriental Fibre Mat and Matting Company in the early 1870s and the arrival of the branch railway in 1883. However, the population continued to fall, and by the 1920s stood at around 2000. Expansion with council housing began in the 1920s. Planned housing expansion on the north and east side of Highworth from the 1960s. Town has grew tenfold and its population doubled from 1960 to 8,347.

During the development of the Biddel Springs housing estate the town lost its healing well famous for its curative properties for eyes and sprains. The wall which once contained the well is thought to have been of Roman origin. Now the only remaining evidence is a manhole cover and street sign reading Biddel Springs 1 - 11.

The area around Highworth was of great importance in training members of the British resistance movement during the second World War. Known as the Auxiliary Units some thousands of male civilians, more than a hundred army officers and six hundred other ranks were to train at nearby Coleshill House. Hannington Hall became the first Headquarters of the female Auxiliary Units' Special Duties Section - the 'Secret Sweeties'. They all reported to the Highworth Post Office, then located at No. 23 High Street where they were met by Mrs Stranks, the postmistress, who telephoned through for a car to collect them. It must have been one of the best kept secrets of the war as no one in Highworth or the surrounding area, at the time, knew of the use to which Coleshill House and Hannington Hall were being put.

Highworth centre retains its great historical attraction. The houses are mostly built of stone from local quarries with a sprinkling of elegant Georgian brick properties all centred around the church. John Betjeman, the one time poet laureate wrote that 'Highworth is extraordinary because it has more beautiful buildings than ugly ones', and 'I have never seen Highworth given due praise in guide books for what it is one of the most charming and unassuming country towns in the west of England', a description which we cannot better today.

Notable residents

William Joscelyn Arkell, geologist and palaeontologist.

Narcissus Marsh, Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh.

Alfred Williams, 1877 - 1930, 'The Hammerman Poet' of South Marston

Railway

Highworth was the terminus of a GWR branchline from Swindon, the Highworth branch line.

Schooling

Highworth Warneford School is a secondary school situated on Shrivenham Rd.

References

External links

• ¹ Highworth Online Community Portal
• ¹ Highworth Link
• ² Highworth Town F.C.
• ³ Highworth Choral Society
• Historic Highworth photos at *BBC Wiltshire

• ⁴ Highworth Bowls Club
• ⁵ A local man's contemporary photo gallery
• http://www.highworthpartnership.org.uk/
• http://www.highworthbusinessgroup.co.uk/
• Highworth Amateur Dramatics Society (HADS)

Coordinates: 51°37′N 1°42′W / 51.617°N 1.7°W / 51.617; -1.7