Epworth - A brief history
Population 2001 Census - 3734 (1871 pop - 2295)
The first record for the existence of Epworth is in the Domesday Book of 1086. Epworth is listed under its Anglo-Saxon name of 'Heapeurde', stemming from Heape - a raised ground or little hill and 'Urde' meaning a farm. At the time of the Britons and Romans, Epworth was contained in the 'Country of the Coritani' a warlike Celtic tribe sandwiched between the Brigantes to the north and the Catuvellauni and Iceni to the south. Their resentment of Roman occupation; their transport routes along the Trent and along Ermine Street and their garrison at Danum (Doncaster) led to many severe conflicts. Finally, the Romans did what they always did to those who refused to submit to their rule - they marched into the area and laid waste to it, leaving only a few trees 'as monuments of their fury'.
During Saxon times Epworth was situated on the northern limit of the large Kingdom of Mercia. The chiefs of Mercia, to the south, and Northumbria, to the north, fought over this border land constantly and the area round Epworth became a common theatre of contention and bloodshed. In the year 797 a great Danish fleet came into the Humber, plundered the whole country from there to the River Trent, and 'having obtained a very large booty returned home with great joy'. The area suffered these attacks until 886 when King Alfred and the Danish leader Guthrum agreed a treaty that effectively set up the Danelaw.
A semblance of order returned to the locality and the occupation of England after the invasion of 1066 saw order for a considerable period of time. King William allocated the Manor of Epworth to Geoffrey de Wirce, a poor knight prior to the Conquest but a man of great substance after. Upon his death the Manor was taken over by Nigel d'Albini, a celebrated warrior who was bow-bearer to William Rufus (King William II). He married Maude de Mowbray and later their son, Roger, took the name of Mowbray. Roger died in 1266 but the Mowbray dynasty had been established and this was to rule over the locality until 1475 when Anne de Mowbray died before her marriage to Richard Duke of York - second son of Edward the Fourth.
The Mowbray Lion - North Porch St Andrew's Church
The Mowbray's had a significant role at the centre of the English court for many years and several were involved in the Crusades. William de Mowbray, a most resolute man 'yet a man of such small stature as to resemble a dwarf', was among the 25 barons who compelled King John to sign the Magna Carta in 1215. Like other great lords the Mowbray's held a domestic court for redressing misdemeanors and nuisances and settling disputes. Their Manor Court established order, and evidence for their manor house can be found on the area known as Vinegarth, immediately south of St Andrew's Church.
Vinegarth south of St Andrew's Church - site of the Mowbray Manor House.
All the rolls and documents were destroyed in the English Civil War and the Court House was rebuilt in 1806. Much of the character of Epworth, with its strip farming in open fields, is a legacy of its association with the Mowbray family. Of particular importance was the grant of the Commons to the freeholders and other tenants of Epworth made by deed of 1360 by John de Mowbray, Lord of the Manor. This Deed gave the locals the right to dig in the moors and marshes for turf, trees and roots; to dig peat for fuel and to turf the walls of their houses; to grow hemp for rope and flax for cloth; to keep dogs and allowed locals to hunt the Chase on one day each year. The Deed was to cause repercussions in the reign of Charles I when Cornelius Vermuyden the Dutch engineer was given the task of draining the Isle.
In 1380 John's son Thomas procured for the town the privilege of a weekly market (held each Thursday) and two annual fairs (on the first Thursday after September 29 and 1 May). The Middle Ages was a period of prosperity. The three field system created an equitable share of land through the allocation of strips of land. The locals went about their occupations of farming, fishing and fowling mindful of their independence.For more in depth information on the Mowbrays a good read is 'The Mowbray Legacy' by Marylin Roberts or by visiting www.queens-haven.co.uk
Things were to change dramatically in 1626 when Charles I commissioned Cornelius Vermuyden to drain Hatfield Chase in the Isle of Axholme. For this he received one third of the land. To finance the draining he sold shares in this land to French and Walloon Protestant refugees who undertook most of the work. A commission was established to compensate those who had the right of pasturage and one third of the land was used for this. The king kept the remaining third for himself. The operation was seen by locals, particularly those who were not compensated, the fowlers and fishermen, as an attack on their livelihood, and the fact that Dutch workers were used led to hostility. In 1630 the locals took out lawsuits citing the Deed of Mowbray but when this failed the locals resorted to extreme violence. They assaulted Dutch workmen, threw them into the River Torn and kept them under with long poles; they filled in their ditches and drains, burnt tools and even resorted to murder. They believed the killings would placate 'Tiddy Mun', a bog spirit generally helpful and kind towards humans and worshipped in Lincolnshire, which supposedly had the ability to control flooding. They thought he was angered by the draining and had caused a pestilence as a result. When the wetlands flooded and the rivers burst their banks, local people would gather by the waterside and call upon 'Tiddy Mun' to help.
This period of disruption increased further when the Civil War broke out in 1642. Although some order returned with the restoration of the monarchy and some land was reinstated in 1663 the local unrest continued until the end of the Seventeenth Century.
Perhaps it was as a legacy of these disputed lands and the locals' fierce opposition to outside interference that helped shape the character of the man who was to make Epworth nationally and internationally famous. John Wesley was born at the Rectory in Epworth in 1703 into a large family, to a father who was not popular with the Isleonians and who was imprisoned for debt in Lincoln gaol. He was the fifteenth child of Samuel Wesley and his wife Susanna Anneseley. His father was a graduate of Oxford and Church of England rector. In 1689 Samuel had married Susanna Annesley, twenty-fifth child of Dr. Samuel Annesley. Wesley's parents had both become members of the Established Church (Anglican Church) early in adulthood. In all Susanna bore Samuel Wesley nineteen children, ten of whom survived into adulthood.
At the age of five, John was rescued from the burning rectory. This escape made a deep impression on his mind, and he regarded himself as providentially set apart, as a "brand plucked from the burning". As was typical of many families, the Wesley parents gave their children their early education. Each child, including the girls, was taught to read as soon as one could walk and talk. In 1714 at age 11, John was sent to the Charterhouse School, London, where he lived the studious, methodical and, for a while, the religious life in which he had been trained at home. During his early years he was picked on by children of his own age; they took his underpants, tore them from his rear end, and made him eat them.
Charles Wesley (18 December 1707 – 29 March 1788) was the younger brother of John Wesley. Despite their closeness, Charles and John did not always agree on questions relating to their beliefs. Charles Wesley is chiefly remembered for the many hymns he wrote. In the course of his career he published the words of over five and a half thousand hymns.
There are many publications where further insight into the lives of John and Charles Wesley can be found.
The first record of a school in Epworth is 1711 and in 1856 a Free School was set up with endowments. Secondary school education came to Epworth with the building of South Axholme Secondary School, opened in 1961. The year 1780 saw 4 factories in Epworth producing sacking from the hemp and flax grown locally.
Between 1774 and 1861 20 000 acres (2/5 of the Isle) fell victim to the Enclosure Acts of this period. The area around Epworth, Belton and Haxey, however, was left unenclosed resulting in the open fields we still see today.
In 1833 plans were first laid for a railway service to the Isle. Finally, on 23 September 1898 the first sod of the Axholme Joint Railway was cut. On 22 July 1899 the 'entire population' of Epworth, along with visitors from far and wide, gathered to wish 'Success to the Railway'. The town was decorated with archways across the street from the High Street crossrodas to the station yard. The line opened for goods transport in July 1900. A mere thirty-three years later passenger services closed, the line's goods traffic ceased in 1965 under the Beeching Acts. Much of the evidence for the existence of a railway had gone by 1972. The line is now a footpath and an area for nature conservation, parts of it being amalgamated into the 50 mile Peatland Way footpath.
1837 saw the opening of the Mechanic's Institute in the Market Place. Initially this opened as a library but two years later began to host music recitals and lectures. It remains one of two Mechanics' Institutes in England still functioning as its original purpose.
A police station for Epworth was opened in 1848 along Hollingsworth Lane. Epworth got its own newspaper with the official publication of The Epworth Bells, the brainchild of Mr Foster Barnes, on 10 May 1873. The name came from the custom of ringing the church bells to assemble residents when important announcements had to be made. 'The Bells' was soon to be amalgamated with the Isle of Axholme Messenger. In the 1980's the paper amalgamated further with the Crowle Advertiser.
Unlike many towns and villages the residents of Epworth decided on a war memorial that would be of benefit to the community. This provided the village with a playing field (The Thurlow); the gates of which commorate those who gave their lives in two world wars. The Roll of Honour is kept in St. Andrew's Church, though a new memorial was added in 2008 at the Group Dwellings on Albion Hill by the British Legion. During the Second World War Epworth was one of the few rural areas in Britain to be hit by a V1 Rocket, the device landing close to Thompson's Mill on Rectory Street.
