WOODBRIDGE, ITS HISTORY AND ANTIQUITY. BY VINCENT BURROUGH REDSTONE. The picturesque valley of the Deben has no more charming point of view than the spot where the quiet town of Woodbridge stands upon its right bank. This delightful neighbourhood must have been as attractive to the earliest settlers in Britain, as it is to the modern English householder. The district afforded the early Britons, by the presence of the tidal stream, extensive marshes, heaths, woods and rising ground, abundance of food, and strong protection. In the numerous Haughs-Sutton-haugh, Kingston-haugh, and Bishops-haugh-rising on either side of the river, there remain traces of the first encampments, burial grounds, and homesteads of our ancestors. Doubtless the very name Deben was the word uttered by the savage Gauls who admired the silvery waters of the river winding through its pristine glades, over the bones of antediluvian monsters, and beds of fossil remains. The flint axe of the neolithic age, lying a few feet below the surface, has been discovered in the working of coprolite beds. Other names for the Woodbridge river were the Deave and the Thredling. Its tributaries the Fynn, and the Naverne, bear Celtic names; the latter now passes through glazed pipes for several yards, the former enters the Deben at Martlesham creek. * When the Romans banished the Britons from their marshes, they fixed over the waters a durable causeway of timber that gave the name Udebryge to the Saxon settlement established on the site adjacent to the old Roman Camp of Combretonium.† A Roman brick-kiln in complete working order was discovered at Byng Hall, about * Dr. Raven's "History of Suffolk," p. 4. + Woodward "Archæologia," vol. 23, p. 367. Morant, and Dr. Raven. two miles from Woodbridge, in 1846.* Other towns and hamlets of the name Woodbridge, lie in Wiltshire, Surrey, Somerset, Cambridgeshire, New Jersey, U.S. A., and Canada. They are all situated near streams. The first mention of Woodbridge as a town occurs in the "History of the Abbey of Ely."+ Notice is therein taken of a grant of land lying in Udebryge, Brihtwell, and Melton, by King Edgar to the monastery. Bishop Athelwold further increased the wealth of this religious house by the purchase of more lands. Oswy and Leofleda, natives of Woodbridge, endowed the Abbey, (within the precincts of which their son, afterwards Bishop Ailwin, was educated), with all their worldly possessions. It was at Kingston-haugh that Ailwin for a time concealed the relics of King Edmund the Martyr, when the Danes ravaged East Anglia in the days of Ethelred the Unready. From the survey of lands recorded in the Domesday Book we learn that the domains of S. Etheldreda were greatly diminished, and the territory formerly held by King Harold was divided among the Norman Knights, Geoffrey de Magnaville, Roger de Rheims, Earl Alan, Roger de Poictou, Roger Bigot, and Robert Malet. The proud Bigots, who were endowed with the lands of the outlaw Malet, appear to have been held in great awe by the simple country folk; from them was begotten the headless horseman of the night who rode, and even now rides, unceasingly within the dark shadows of "Erlebygottes Lane." The church which existed in the town at the time of the Norman conquest was given to Robert Malet, but was afterwards the manorial property of the Bigods and Uffords. The priory, founded by Ernaldus Rufus in 1190-1195, was attached to the West end of the church. The date of the foundation of Woodbridge Priory is obtained from a charter § still extant, signed by Geoffrey, * Ipswich Journal. Davy MSS. + Bentham's "History of Ely Cathedral," p. 73, Gales' Rerum Ang. Script., vol. iii, p. 486. + Court Rolls of Manor of Seckford Hall, and of Bredfield Manor. § Brit. Mus. Add. Ch., 4947. Archdeacon of Suffolk, who died in 1195; William, prior of Butley, 1190—1213; and Roger Capel, who died 1199, with others. The next fact in connection with Woodbridge history which requires establishing is the date of the grant of Woodbridge market. The historian of Stowmarket,* and the editor of Bacon's Annals of Ipswich, misled by a conception that the Priory was not founded till the end of the 13th century, believed the market was not established before late in the reign of Henry III. Ipswich received its first charter in 1200,† and the burgesses were eager to maintain their newly created rights, when they heard that the monks of Woodbridge sought to establish a market in the town "to be held upon Wednesday in every week." An agreement was signed by which one moiety of the said market with all the customs, tolls, and appurtenances belonging to the said moiety, was granted to the Borough of Ipswich. The signatories on behalf of the Woodbridge monks were, Egidius Rufus, and his son Ernaldus, who was the founder of Woodbridge Priory. Upon the death of Ernaldus in 1227, the manor and market were granted to his son Hugh Rufus. The market having been established during the life-time of Ernaldus, we may take the date 19 Nov. 8 Henry II., § to be 8 Henry III., i.e., the year 1224. The rapid development of the market is seen in the increasing value of the moiety farmed out by the Ipswich Burgesses. It is not known whether the town of Ipswich has in these days any claim over this share of Woodbridge market, or whether the right was lost when Mr. Bailiff Sparrow and the Town Clerk hurriedly despatched John Ward to London "to maintain the liberties of the town," without the necessary documentary evidence, 14th March, 1541. In 1286 Roger Bigod was prescribed to have a fair upon Michaelmas Day, and a market three times a week. The Wednesday market continued as such until 1854, it was * Hollingsworth's "Stowmarket,” p. 69. + Mrs. Green's "Town Life in the 15th Century," vol. i., p. 223. |
