Transactions

Notes for the Guidance of Contributors

Index to volumes 21–74 (1940–2000)

Compiled by Auriol Griffith-Jones

Editor John Thomas

Front cover, prelims

Jo Barker and Tom Brindle

Early Prehistoric to Post-Medieval Settlement and Agricultural Land-Use to the East of Hinckley Island Hotel, Watling Street, Burbage, Leicestershire : A Summary Report on Excavations 2018 to 2019

Cotswold Archaeology undertook excavations between July 2018 and January 2019 on land east of Hinckley Island Hotel, Watling Street, Burbage, Leicestershire. The excavation revealed evidence of past occupation spanning the Early Neolithic, Iron Age, Roman and post- Roman periods. The earliest firm evidence of occupation comprised two pits and a tree- throw hole containing Early Neolithic pottery. Iron Age activity included the remains of a roundhouse and two pit alignments. This was followed by features associated with a Roman period farmstead, including rectilinear enclosures and a post- built aisled building. Post- Roman activity was indicated by handmade fifth to ninth century pottery identified in two possible sunken- featured buildings, pits and a ditch. Artefacts included a moderately large pottery assemblage and a late third- century coin hoard, while charred botanical remains provide insights into the site’s economy and local environment, particularly during the Roman period.

Vanessa McLoughlin

Raising Cash to Defend Christendom : The Knights Hospitalier in Fourteenth Century Leicestershire

The Knights Templar and Hospitaller were military orders of monks who fought in the Crusades in the medieval period. They drew their income from gifts and properties given to them by those who supported their cause. In Leicestershire they held some large properties and received many gifts of money from around the county and beyond. The commandery for the Templars in the thirteenth century at Rothley was granted to them by King Henry III along with Rothley Soke. After the suppression of the Templars in 1312, the Hospitallers were granted these Templar holdings. The Hospitallers held their preceptory at Old Dalby (Dalby on the Wolds), and in 1352 they received an additional grant of land in Dalby through exchange. In the fourteenth century the Hospitallers managed their resources to enable their continued activities in the middle east and the Mediterranean. Their accounts demonstrate the changes in management as they negotiated the difficulties presented by the Black Death in 1348–9.

James Lloyd

A Re-Discovered Fragment of the Cartulary of Owston Abbey

The only known cartulary of Owston Abbey was apparently dismantled and recycled at the Dissolution, much of it being lost for ever. A significant portion of it, having passed through an unknown number of private hands, was eventually donated to Cambridge University Library but three folios have recently been identified bound into a herald’s scrapbook kept at the College of Arms. The folios, which were probably extracted from the cartulary during a heraldic visitation of Leicestershire and Northamptonshire in 1619, preserve transcripts of several of the abbey’s charters, including some of its earliest, and a partial account of a dispute before the Court of Arches between the abbey and the parishioners of Othorpe.

Dave Fogg Postles

Some Medieval Cossington Documents

These documents exist in the Middleton Manuscripts (Mi) (of the Willoughby family) now in the custody of the Manuscripts and Special Collections department at the University of Nottingham (King’s Meadow Campus). The documents’ provenance is through the marriage of Alice, daughter of Roger de Somervill to Edmund Willoughby, by which manors in Cossington and Wymeswold descended in the Willoughby line. They were retained in the unbroken custody of the Willoughby family at Woollaton Hall. The documents reveal how the Somerville family expanded their holdings in Cossington into a small manor.

Rachel Small

Diet During Times of Illness and Recovery - A Study of the Bradgate Household Account Book 1678-1681

This paper explores the diet of the Grey family at Bradgate House, Leicestershire, focusing on periods of suspected illness and recovery likely associated with Elizabeth Grey, Lady of the house, through the lens of contemporary medical advice based upon humoral theory. The key source used is the Bradgate Household Account Book dating from 1678–1681. The periods studied include a surgeon’s bill specifically for Elizabeth Grey, and apothecary bills likely for her. Whilst the exact nature of the condition/s treated are uncertain, it appears that contemporary dietary advice detailed in regimens for those who were sickly, weak or in recovery influenced consumption behaviour. This is evidenced by the greater occurrence of foods recommended for these individuals in the household’s weekly diet during the suspected periods of illness and recovery, when compared to the following year. Most compelling is the purchase of ‘special’ foods in small quantities by the steward likely specifically for Elizabeth Grey.

Len Holden

A Comparative Study of the Impact in Developments in Transport on the Market Towns of Market Harborough, Melton Mowbray, Hinckley, Ashby-de-la-Zouch and Lutterworth

The study focuses on five towns of Leicestershire. It compares these towns and their varying fortunes over two periods: from 1500 to 1800 and from 1800 to the beginning of the twentieth century. The study will examine each town’s growth in a comparative context and how transport and transport networks affected them, in particular roads, canals, carriers and railways. All were small towns when their markets were endowed in the early medieval period and reliant mainly on road transport. From the 18th century the influence of turnpike roads, canals and railways began to affect the growth of these towns both positively and negatively.

Mike Malley

The Anstey Paper Mill Company Limited

The Anstey Paper Mill Company operated in Anstey, Leicestershire, it was incorporated as a limited company in 1876. It was however operating in a totally inappropriate location, with out of date equipment, as a result it stood little chance of making profits and was bankrupt in less than two years from incorporation, yet astonishingly the new company had no problem in finding willing investors. The answer to this conundrum lies a hundred miles to the north in industrial Lancashire and this article will identify the factors for its failure, explore the dubious motives of its founders and examine the conflicting motives of industrialists and would-be entrepreneurs in the manufacturing heartland of Lancashire.

Gavin Speed Ed.

Archaeology in Leicestershire and Rutland 2023

Editor John Thomas

Reviews

Review of: 'Patrick Daniel, The Margin Walkers: Prehistoric and Romano- British Remains at the East Midlands Gateway Logistics Park, 2023', and 'Stephen Morris, Archaeological Mitigation at Magna Park, Lutterworth, Leicestershire, 2024'

Editor John Thomas

Annual Reports and Officers, 2022-2025

Editor John Thomas

Obituaries

Editor John Thomas

Index

Transactions Volume 97 2023 is also available