Plate 1.
Repton Church.
REPTON
AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD:
A DESCRIPTIVE GUIDE OF
THE ARCHÆOLOGY, &c., OF THE DISTRICT.
Illustrated by Photogravures, &c.
BY
F. C. HIPKINS, M.A., F.S.A.,
ASSISTANT MASTER AT REPTON SCHOOL.
SECOND EDITION.
A. J. LAWRENCE, PRINTER, REPTON.
MDCCCXCIX.
REPTON:
A. J. LAWRENCE, PRINTER.
In the year 1892, I ventured to write, forReptonians, a short History of Repton, itsquick sale emboldened me to set about obtainingmaterials for a second edition. The list of Authors,&c., consulted (printed at the end of this preface), willenable any one, who wishes to do so, to investigate thevarious events further, or to prove the truth of thefacts recorded. Round the Church, Priory, and Schoolcentre all that is interesting, and, naturally, they occupynearly all the pages of this second attempt to supply allthe information possible to those who live in, or visit ourold world village, whose church, &c., might well haveserved the poet Gray as the subject of his Elegy.
In writing the history of Repton certain events standout more prominently than others, e. g., the Conversionof Mercia by Diuma, its first bishop, and his assistantmissionaries, Adda, Betti, and Cedda, the brother of St.Chad: the Founding of the Monastery during the reign[iv]of Peada or his brother Wulphere (A.D. 655-675): thecoming of the Danes in 874, and the destruction of theAbbey and town by them: the first building of ReptonChurch, probably during the reign of Edgar the Peaceable,A.D. 957: the Founding of the Priory by Maud,Countess of Chester, about the year 1150, its dissolutionin 1538, its destruction in 1553, and the Founding of theSchool in 1557. Interwoven with these events are otherswhich have been recorded in the Chronicles, Histories,Registers, &c., consulted, quoted, and used to produceas interesting an account as possible of those events,which extend over a period of nearly twelve hundred andfifty years!
The hand of time, and man, especially the latter,has gradually destroyed anything ancient, and “restorations”have completely changed the aspect of the village.The Church, Priory, Hall, and “Cross,” still serve aslinks between the centuries, but, excepting these, onlyone