Stamford Local History Society

A brief report into research carried out to establish the location of Bradcroft Hamlet, Stamford

by Richard Asher

Introduction

At the request of Professor Alan Rogers, I undertook a review of various maps and plans and instigated inquiries to establish whether any plans existed which refer to, or mark the hamlet known as Bradcroft, which is believed to have been located, in Medieval times, somewhere west of Water Furlong, Stamford and east of the village of Tinwell. It is thought the hamlet may have alternative spellings of Breadcroft or Bredcroft. For convenience I shall refer to the hamlet as Bradcroft even though some of the evidence points to other spellings (see Research Carried Out below).

This research has been purely related to maps and plans and does not seek to include reference to any other form of historical documentation that may refer to the hamlet.

This report is a summary of my findings.

Background

Bradcroft is referred to in the book “The Making of Stamford”, where it is said to have 6 lay taxpayers in 1332. It is referred to as an ‘outlying village’ (to Stamford) ‘(in Rutland on the west)’[1]. The description goes on to refer to the church of “St Mary Bynnewerk had houses in the suburban part of its parish, running into the Rutland hamlet of Bradcroft, ancient demesne of the crown, which was often treated as a suburb of Stamford, too small to boast a parish church of its own.”[2]

St Mary Bynnewerk is believed to have been located within the Stamford Town walls on the street which is now known as Petergate. There is therefore an assumption that the hamlet was just within the Rutland County boundary. The current county boundary runs in a somewhat erratic manner close to the existing course of the river Welland to the south, following what may have been the previous course of the river.  It then rises in roughly a straight line between the two fields west of the Water Furlong allotment gardens, to the south side of Tinwell Road until just before the Stamford by-pass (A1).  If therefore the county boundary has not changed, and if Bradcroft was in Rutland, then it must have been to the west of this line, towards what is currently known as South View Business Park.  However, it is possible that in medieval times the boundary of Rutland may have been much closer to the walled town of Stamford than it is today.

Extent of research carried out

My investigation has related purely to maps and plans I have been able to access.  A list of these is attached at Appendix 1.

I made enquiries regarding maps of the area to the following establishments:

i)                    British Library

ii)                   Stamford Town Hall Archives

iii)                 Rutland County Museum

iv)                 Oakham Library

v)                  Leicestershire and Rutland County Archive, Oadby

vi)                 Burghley Estate Office

As a result of these enquiries, I examined a number of maps at Stamford Town Hall, Oakham library, the British Library and my own map collection. Leicestershire and Rutland Archive and Burghley Estate Office said they had no maps or plans of sufficient age to be of assistance.

The earliest maps were those of John Speed (1612) and Joannes (Jean or John) Blaeu (1645).  The Speed map has an inset of “Stanford” at a large scale but shows nothing to the west of the town walls except “Peter’s Gate” (1) and “Austyne friers” (2). On the county map the county boundary runs in almost a straight line to the west of Stanford to join up to the unnamed river to the north (The Gwash).  Apart from the words “Weland flu” on the river, there are no markings on the map between Tynwell and Stanford either side of the county boundary. 

The Bleau map is very clear. It shows the county boundary also running almost vertical from the Welland (marked “Weeland fl.”) to the Gwash (unnamed), although slightly curved east towards the Welland. Tynwell is shown a significant distance to the west of the county boundary. There is no other settlement marked, except for “Stanford” which is delineated by a town wall, gate and spires. Thus, a substantial settlement.

The Bowen map (1778) shows the county boundary more curving round between the Welland and Gwash, with a large symbol for Stamford which shows some structures topped by a strange two-pronged aerial structure. This symbol is within the triangle formed of the river Welland, the county boundary and the Gwash where it flows into the Welland. To the west of the county boundary there is a church symbol, with the word Tynwell. Just to the right-hand side of the symbol for Tinwell is a large capital letter “R”. There is no key on the copy of the map I have seen, so the significance of the “R” is not clear. No roads are shown on any of the above maps.

The John Carey map (1801) shows considerably more detail than any of the previous maps. It includes the main roads and shows Stamford in a more detailed layout, with St Martins specifically labelled and the outline of Burghley Park shown and named. The map clearly shows the rather bulbous extent of the county boundary immediately north of the Welland, the old Roman road (although this is not named) and a small number of buildings (including a church) at Tinwell. There is some sort of ‘blob’ on the south side of the road to Tinwell from Stamford, just west of the Roman road and east of the county boundary.  This does not look like the other symbols for a settlement, but it could be a small enclosure or simply where the colourist has spilled some ink!

The Smith map (1804) is of very similar style and content to the Carey map (see above). The map of Stamford is more stylised and is truncated to the south. The “Welland River” is also only drawn half way between the county boundary and Stamford. As well as Tinwell being marked, Tinwell Toll Bar is shown, along with the letters “n” just inside the Rutland county boundary and “a” just outside it, both to the south of the road (Tinwell Road). There is no index to the map, so I assume that the explanation was in the commentary that accompanied the atlas.

The untitled map dated 1814 from the British Library, is believed to be the initial survey by the Ordnance Survey. This is a detailed plan showing the field boundaries and details of each block of buildings within Stamford. Several other locations within Stamford are also marked (including St. Martins, St. Leonards, The Nuns and Hudd’s Mill). All roads are shown, but not named. There are buildings shown on either side of Tinwell Road to the east of the junction with Roman Bank and Water Furlong; a windmill on the corner of Roman Bank and Tinwell Road (on the west side). There are also two buildings or enclosures shown on the site of South View Farm. There is a large L-shaped field shown on the south west side of Tinwell Road, adjoining Water Furlong and stretching from Tinwell Road to the north channel of the river Welland, which has the county boundary running along the western edge. The north eastern corner (close to the junction of Water Furlong and Tinwell Road) appears to have some form of enclosure or copse.

The Knipe map (1834) is a detailed survey of Stamford which extends to just beyond the Rutland county boundary on the west side of the map. This map shows the same field between the river (Welland), Tinwell Road (Uppingham Road on the map) and Water Furlong (unnamed on the map), as in the 1814 map. The larger scale of the Knipe map allows for more detail to be displayed. Again, there are buildings shown on both sides of the Uppingham Road east of the junction with Roman Bank and Water Furlong, but it also shows buildings on Water Furlong, along with what appear to be allotments on the east side of Water Furlong. There is also a notation on the map north of Uppingham Road, “Pewterer’s Hedges”. The field to the west of Water Furlong and east of the county boundary is shown with a number of different hatchings for different parts of the field. It is not clear what these different hatchings represent, although they may represent the direction of the furrows in an open field system. Part of the field is obscured by a panel listing the parishes in Stamford, but immediately above this panel are the words “Bread Croft”. This implies that this is the field name. 

The Stamford Enclosure Award map of 1874, a copy of which is held at Stamford Town Hall, shows the detail of the field. This includes a building being shown in the north-east corner of the field, adjacent to Tinwell Road and Water Furlong (no road names are marked on the map).  The map also shows a public footpath across the field which remains to this day. The field exists, as shown on the previous map, but has a footpath running across the centre of the field from the east to west. The plan appears to consist of two distinct plans merged together, which excludes the lower part of the area and does not link to the area to the south. Also, the lower edge of the map is missing.  However, the name “Breadcroft” appears on the land to the south of this field; south of the mill stream of the river Welland and north of the main channel of the river. This area is apparently demarcated as meadows, together with a small oval enclosure to the south of the mill stream.

Research at Oakham Library also produced a book entitled “Maps of Rutland” compiled by M Goldmark and A R Traylen, published by Rutland History Society. This book contains a comprehensive list of maps produced of Rutland over the centuries, and reproduces black and white extracts from many of them. I have not had an opportunity to peruse all of these maps (see further research below).

Conclusions

There are in my view four possible locations for the medieval hamlet of Bradcroft:

a)      Somewhere on what is now called Tinwell Road, to the east of Water Furlong, and west of Petergate, probably west of Rutland Terrace.

b)     Further to the west of a) above, between Tinwell Road and the river, in the vicinity of South View Farm Business Park, within the existing Rutland county boundary.

c)     To the south of the mill stream, in the meadows to the north of the main channel of the river Welland, west of Water Furlong.

d)     To the south and west of the junction of the road now known as Tinwell Road and Water Furlong, probably either side of the existing public footpath from Water Furlong to the South View Farm Business Park.

I shall examine each of these possibilities in turn. 

a)       This possible location is closest to the known walled medieval town of Stamford, and, in proximity to the Austin Friary, known to be just without the walls. This could then be regarded as part of the suburbs or extra mural area of the town, which would perhaps be suggested by the supposed link with St Mary’s Bynnewerk parish, and later All Saints. This area is approximately a mile from current the Rutland county boundary, but it is possible that the county boundary was much closer to the walled town in medieval times. The oldest map examined (1612) does not evidence this. Whilst the 19th Century maps indicate sporadic buildings in this area, there is nothing to suggest they are anything but the usual ribbon development, for quarrymen’s cottages and the like, typical of that period. None of the maps examined support any evidence for this location.

b)      South View Farm is located inside the present Rutland county boundary. However, there is no evidence that this is a location in occupation much earlier than the beginning of 19th Century[3]. There is no evidence in the maps examined that this was the location for the hamlet.

c)       South of the Mill Stream is the location of the word “Breadcroft” on the 1874 Enclosure map prepared by the Commissioners of Enclosure for the parishes of All Saints and St George, Stamford. Although this is within the then county boundary of Lincolnshire and is shown on the map to be part of the parish of All Saints, it is a primary candidate for the location. However, none of the earlier maps have identified any settlement in this location. In my view this is a field name and not necessarily indicative of the location of the settlement of Breadcroft, as the land is likely to have been too prone to flood and generally too marshy for permanent settlement.

d)      The area to the north of the mill stream, on the field and allotment gardens to the west of Water Furlong is in my view the most likely location for the medieval hamlet. This is in the area identified as “Bread Croft” on the Knipe map. Although this is the only map that identifies this location, and much of the field is obscured on Knipe’s map by the cartouche providing a list of parishes to Stamford, so that it is possible the name had to be moved up to accommodate the panel, nevertheless Knipe has proved to be a quite accurate map in other respects, and may be taken to be more accurate than the Enclosure map, which after all was primarily concerned with the open fields to the north of Stamford. Also, the existence of a public footpath across the centre of this field to this day may support this view, although it has to be said that there are also public footpaths crossing site c) above. The evidence on the maps examined is not wholly supported by the documentary evidence quoted above (see Background). However, it is possible, as suggested at a) above, that the county boundary may have been further east in medieval times, placing this site in Rutland too.

Further studies

Further research is required to establish further evidence for the proposed location, including a review of all documents available relating to the Hamlet of Breadcroft (as the only two maps refer to it as that, admittedly one as “Bread Croft” and the other as “Breadcroft”). Most of these documents are likely to be of a medieval nature and require an expert in medieval documents to review them.

In addition, I am not aware of the results of investigation of the Lincolnshire County Archives, or the Rutland and Lincolnshire Victorian County Histories, both of which may provide further information.

The surface finds from a field-walk I carried out along the public footpath running across site d) need to be examined by a qualified archaeologist to ascertain if they provide any further evidence.

A review should also be carried out of any further archaeological evidence which has been reported within the locations suggested, including the reports of the excavation of a “Roman Villa” in the vicinity of South View Farm in 19th Century.

Obtain a copy of the Large English Atlas (Bowen) and seek an explanation of the letter “R”. Likewise, obtain a copy of New Atlas (Smith) and seek an explanation for the letters “n” and “a”.

A review of the book “Maps of Rutland” compiled by M Goldmark and A R Traylen, and if possible, seek to inspect original maps, which have not been included in this research, listed in the book.

Richard Asher

March 2019

APPENDIX 1

Table of Maps included in review

[1]The Making of Stamford Leicester University Press page 49.

[2] Ibid page 50.

[3] Although it is believed that remains of Roman structures were found near here in the 19th Century.

A print version can be downloaded HERE