Langtoft in the Wolds

 

Chalk buildings in Langtoft,  a village in the Yorkshire Wolds. 10 July, 2023.

 

The earth is traced with lines of character

That mark its elements in time and place;

Its doings in the ages past and gone;

The æon of to-day and yesterday. 

And so unconsciously is man's face formed,

Traced, stamped, and moulded by his character, 

The life, the doings of his ancestors, 

Being mirrored truly in those subtle lines;

Alike they make the man and scar the man,

Alike they score the earth and tell its worth.

Lines by "a Yorkshire poet" that I'm introducing to an internet public. They were in a pamphlet that I paid £2 for in St Peter's Church, Langtoft. Langtoft: Historical Associations was written by the Rev A. N. Cooper and "Sold for the Benefit of Langtoft Church Funds". There was a little rust around the staples. It was printed back in 1913, which must be some sort of record for slow sales. 

It's primarily about "Sir Tatton Sykes' Last Work". This was the 5th Baronet (1826 - 1913) at nearby Sledmere House, deeply eccentric and reputedly not very nice to be around, but he left an incredible legacy in the form of wonderfully restored churches throughout the Wolds. Among his eccentricities were a loathing for all flowers (untidy) and an exclusive diet of rice pudding. (I wonder if these early Sykes baronets had anything to do with another remarkable feature of the Wolds, their notorious lack of public footpaths.)

Anyway, later I went to take a look at Sir Tatton's Last Work, which is a wayside cross down on the village green.

The cross is decorated with carved scenes referring to Langtoft's history.

On the shaft, Langtoft's most famous son, the chronicler Peter of Langtoft (fl. 1300), who was an Augustinian Canon at Bridlington Priory.

Peter's Chronicle (c. 1307) was written in Anglo-Norman verse. The later part, dealing with Edward I's reign, is thought to be original material (the earlier parts re-tell Wace etc). 

You can consult this later part of the Anglo-Norman text here, with translation into modern English (though interleaved with all the glosses it isn't easy to find your way around): https://archive.org/stream/chronicleofpierr02pete/chronicleofpierr02pete_djvu.txt .

Here's a flavour, taken from Robert Mannyng's (Robert of Brunne's) translation of Peter's chronicle into Middle English (c. 1337). (I found it took me a while to acclimatise to Robert's language.) This passage begins by prefacing forthcoming material, then dives into the story of a Bristol merchant's chance encounter with Llewelyn's intended bride, Eleanor de Montfort, while on her way to Wales. [In reality there was no chance about it, Edward had hired pirates to abduct her.]

We salle leue þat pas vnto we com ageyn

& telle ȝow oþer tales of Edward curteisie,

& of Leulyn of Wales, & his beryng hie, [Llywelyn ap Gruffydd]

Of Dauid his broþere & of his felonie, [Dafydd ap Gruffydd]

Resaunraduk an oþere how he did folie. [Rhys ap Maredudd]

How þe contek was laid of Scotlond þat first gan.

How eft þei mad a braid, & on Inglond ran.

Of Madok þe Morgan, of þer nyce ribaudie,

Of Jon Baliol no man, & of his treccherie,

& of his duze pers togider þei gan alie,

I schrowe alle þer maners, þat lufes þer partie. [

Langtoft's Chronicle

is very fierce against the Scots]

A þousand & ii^o. hundred sexti & fiftene, [1275]

þe date of Criste so pundred whan Leulyn gan þis tene.

THE next ȝere folowand of Edward coronment,

Leulyn of Walsland in to France he sent,

þe Mountfort douhter to wedde, hir frendes alle consent, [Eleanor]

Almerik hir ledde, to schip now er þei went. [Amaury, her brother]

Now þei saile & rowe to Wales to Leulyns,

A burgeis of Bristowe charged was with wynes,

He ouertoke þer schip, & asked wheþen þei ware?

He said, with kyng Philip to Wales wild þei fare.

What did þis burgeis? desturbled his wendyng,

þe may & hir herneis did led vnto þe kyng.

þe mayden Edward toke, als he was fulle curteys,

In saufte did hir loke, & þanked þe burgeis.

Whan Leulyn herd say, to werre sone he bigan,

For tene he wende to deie, þat taken was his lemman.

Edward wex fulle grim, whan he wist he was risen.

Sone he hasted him, to mak þam alle ogrisen.

þe Walssh wer alle day slayn, now rewes þam þer res,

& Leulyn is fulle fayn, to pray Edward for pes,

Gyues Edward for his trespas fifti þousand mark,

& þer tille bonden was with scrite & oth fulle stark,

To com tuys in þe ȝere vnto his parlement.

þe may on þis manere with Leulyn home scho went,

& held his heritage in pes as he did ore,

Mad was þe mariage at Snowdon biside Bangore.

(Source: https://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/cme/ABA2096.0001.001/1:3?rgn=div1;view=fulltext .)

Seven years later, in 1282, Eleanor died in childbirth. Six months later Llewelyn would be dead too. But the child, a daughter named Gwenllian, survived. [The couple's only child, apparently.  The "Princess Catherine" mentioned e.g. in Wikipedia seems to have only a spectral existence.] Like other survivors with any claim to being Welsh royalty, Gwenllian lived her whole life in strict confinement, in her case in the Gilbertine Priory at Sempringham (Lincs). (Edward purloined the title "Prince of Wales" for the English heir, as has remained the case ever since.) 

Peter is widely credited as the source for Gwenllian's story, but perhaps this is a mistake. Judging from the texts linked above, the information about "Wencilian" seems to be an addition in Robert Mannyng's translation, and is not in Peter's original text (as you might expect, since it records the much-lamented death of the "curteys" lady in 1337, and Peter is thought to have died c. 1307). 

Here are the scenes around the octagonal base of the cross, in the sequence described in the pamphlet:

A Brigante hunting, with ox and pig (though I can't make out the pig). The description is from Cooper, who doubtless had it from Sir Tatton himself. The Brigantes were a confederation of British tribes that occupied much of northern England at the time of Julius Caesar. However, the East Riding may be an exception, as witnessed by its distinctive burial sites. The local tribe around here may have been the Parisi, mentioned by Ptolemy. 

Agriculture comes to the Wolds. A harvester with scythe in a field of ripe corn.

A Woldsman lying dead, with the crows ready to pick out his eyes. Depicting the "harrowing of the north", when the Domesday Book described this area as "vasta" (waste).

Architects at work. The building of Langtoft's church in the twelfth century.

The young Peter of Langtoft is taken by his father to Bridlington Priory to be educated by the monks.

Langtoft is in a dry basin in the midst of the Wolds. Every couple of centuries there is a cloudburst and it floods; this panel commemorates the 1657 flood. A man wearing a Commonwealth-era hat rows through the village, talking to people out of their upstairs windows. 

(The next flood came in 1892. There was no loss of human life, as the whole population were at a church service...  the church being sensibly uphill from the village.)

Changing horses at the village inn. Langtoft was once on the main route from Hull to Scarborough, and a regular post for stagecoaches. 

There's still a pub in Langtoft today, and there's still twice-daily traffic streaming past it (e.g. going between Driffield and Bridlington), but I'm not sure if many people stop.

A hunting scene, the passion of Woldsmen (especially Sir Tatton and his forebears).

*

But the most impressive sculpture in Langtoft is elsewhere. In 1950 Langtoft Church took over the Norman font from the derelict (mainly nineteenth-century) church at nearby Cottam, once an Anglo-Scandinavian medieval village, then deserted for centuries. I hadn't taken any notice of this font on my first visit to the church, so I went back. It was well worth it! 

Adam and Eve, the serpent, apple, and figleaf modesties. 

On the left, St Margaret and the Dragon. Margaret appears twice, both being eaten by the dragon and issuing triumphantly from its burst stomach.

Likewise, on the right, St Lawrence appears both as a deacon of Rome and as a martyr on the gridiron. (If I'm interpreting it right.)

The crucifixion of St Andrew. "The earliest known example of a carving like this in England", according to the church guide.

Oats. View from Accommodation Road, Langtoft, 10 July 2023.

Looking down to the Langtoft basin from Accommodation Road, 10 July 2023.

Sheep. Accommodation Road, Langtoft, 10 July 2023.

Barley. Langtoft, 11 July 2023.

Ash tree. Langtoft, 11 July 2023.

The Gypsey Race. Rudston, 12 July 2023.

There's hardly any surface water on the Wolds, but here at Rudston it can be seen even in July. The most northerly chalk stream in the British Isles, the Gypsey Race is a winterbourne in the Great Wolds Valley. Upstream from here it's mostly subterranean.