KEMPSFORD
1859: The Thames, Mr & Mrs Hall
Kempsford in The Stripling Thames by Fred Thacker
1910: Thames Valley Villages by Charles G Harper
Below Kempsford there was a tree right across the river
leaving only four feet for boats.
I think there must be some annual maintenance on this stretch. It used to be inspected annually by rowing boat launched at Cricklade. There is however no commitment to ensuring that the river is navigable. I always carry a small saw in my punt.
Site of Blackford Weir
1869: Blackford Weir removed by the
Thames Conservancy, the sill being left as a
foundation for stepping stones.
1889: Krausse refers to remains of an old mill here.
1908: Fred Thacker crossed here: almost dry shod.
1910: Fred Thacker: I could find no foundation stones for the weir beam.
1920: Fred Thacker: Blackford Weir Pool is about two or three large meadows below [Kempsford].
Kempsford Church
Right bank
Kempsford Church.
Kempsford Church we
have been listening to striking the quarters at least twice before we see
it. [Punting at 2.5 mph]. It has four weather vanes. An idyllic setting.
There is an ancient ford here (notorious for
needing local knowledge to avoid deep water.)
As a punter I understand that.
There are very shallow and then very deep sections all over this reach.
This, hard though it is to believe it nowadays, was a military place.
That meadow by the church was an exercise ground
used for training archers.
Notice that Kempsford Bridge is over the canal not the river.
800: The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle -
This year was the moon eclipsed, at eight in
the evening, on the seventeenth day before the calends of February; and soon
after died King Bertric and Alderman Worr.
Egbert succeeded to the West-Saxon kingdom; and
the same day Ethelmund, alderman of the Wiccians, rode over the Thames at
Kempsford; where he was met by Alderman Woxtan, with the men of Wiltshire, and
a terrible conflict ensued, in which both the commanders were slain, but the
men of Wiltshire obtained the victory.
1791, Samuel Ireland -
APPROACHING Kempsford, a large village
in Gloucestershire, the river quits Wiltshire, and again enters its native county,
dividing it from Berkshire at Inglesham,
where the scenery is greatly improved, by the
combination of an ancient Gothic church,
with its usual appendage, a comfortable vicarage-house : these are pleasantly situated
on a verdant slope, rising from the margin
of the Thames, which, though shallow, is
yet beautifully transparent, and, as it ripples
in its course, displays a sheltered and gravelly
bed, where the neighbouring cattle luxuriantly
bask themselves in the noon-tide sun.
Within this pleasant retreat the Vicarage, we
found, not the vicar, but his locum tenens,
an humble Welch[sic] curate, with a wife and
two children, existing on twenty-five pounds
a year, and honestly confessing he had, on
this side the grave, no wish beyond the addition
of ten pounds to his salary; and could
he have obtained this, he might have said
with Swift -
These things in my possessing
Are better than the bishop's blessing.
Surely if the wish of this honest curate be
sincere, and his morals equal to his simplicity, he cannot fall very short
of the character of a primitive christian.
ADJOINING to the church, which is a
venerable old structure, there lately stood a
very extensive mansion-house, once occupied
by John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. He
resided here some time, but taking a dislike
to the place, on account of the unfortunate
death of his only son (which happened here)
he granted the manor of Kenemeres, Kenemeresford, or Kempsford, with other lands,
to the collegiate church of St. Mary the Less in the castle of Leicester, for the maintenance
of an hospital called Newark, or New
Work, of which he was the founder, 28 of Ed. III.
WITHIN the tower of the church, on the
capitals of the pillars, are the arms of this
duke, of the earl of Gloucester, and of king
Alfred ; and on the outside of the church
door is nailed a large horse-shoe, said to have
belonged to Henry IV. This ancient mansion has, by order of its possessor, lord Coleraine, been levelled to the ground, within
the last six years, when the materials were
purchased by Loveden, Esq; of Burcott Park, with which he has erected an
elegant modern house.
THE out-offices and grand entrance to
this extensive building are yet standing, and
are occupied as farm-houses.
Kempsford Church, 1791 Samuel Ireland.
[ The Nave looks as if it had no roof in 1791. ]
1859: The Thames, Mr & Mrs Hall
Again the river flows onward — again waters flat, but fertile fields —
again affords a rich supply of water-plants, but undergoes no change of
character; yielding no food for thought until re-entering Gloucestershire,
the county of its birth, it passes under the beautiful church, and
washes the foundations of Kempsford — a palace of the Plantagenets
long ago. Of this there are some interesting remains, but of the dwelling
of their Saxon predecessors there exists only a vague tradition,
confirmed, however, now and then, by evidence gathered from adjacent
earth-mounds.
The manor of Kempsford was the property of the great Harold; the
Conqueror gave it to one of his Norman soldiers; it passed from him to
the family of Chaworth; and from them, by marriage, to Henry Duke
of Lancaster, who, in the year 1355, presented it to "the Church"; at
the Dissolution, the crown granted it to the Thynnes, ancestors of the
marquises of Bath; by whom it was sold to Lord Coleraine,*
* Better known as Colonel Hanger, and an Intimate associate of George IV. when Prince of
Wales. The marble tomb in which he is placed was brought from Rome, and his coffin is placed
above ground within it.
whose tomb is in the church; by him the ancient mansion, erected by Sir
Thomas Thynne in the reign of James I. (a quadrangular structure of
large dimensions, of which two engravings exist), was dismantled and
sold for the value of the materials, the trees were cut down, and a host
of "fair memories" destroyed by the recklessness of one bad man. The
place is, notwithstanding, full of rare associations; the foundations of
the castle may yet be traced, the battlements being in some places
unbroken.
THE CHURCH AT KEMPSFORD AND THE GUNNER'S ROOM
The church is a noble structure, remarkable for the grand windows which light the junction of nave and chancel, and above which rises the tower. It was chiefly erected in the fourteenth century, at the expense of Henry Duke of Lancaster, whose arms, and those of other noble famihes, are conspicuously displayed amid the spandrels within. There are many fragments of fine painted glass in the windows, one of the most perfect delineating St. Anne teaching the Virgin to read. There is also a characteristic altar-tomb of a priest in the chancel, upon which is sculptured the Rood, and the Virgin in glory; but they have been grievously injured by the hands of iconoclasts. The floor is remarkable for its early English tiles, and the roof for its timber-work. The porch is Early English, forming a framework for the earlier Norman door within it.
KEMPSFORD BUTTS
The vicar's garden, adjoining, was originally known as the Provost's
Garden (probably the garden of the provost-marshal), and, until the
year 1800, the road went to the ford across it. The level field on the
opposite side is still known as "the Butts", *
* Butts, or "dead-marks", as they were sometimes called, were embankments of earth having
marks, or "bull's eyes", upon the flat face, for practising soldiers in archery. They were in constant
use in the middle ages, and erected near great towns, or where soldiers were stationed —
hence the constant occurrence of the term " Butts", appended to names of streets and places near old cities.
One of the most ancient pictures of the exercise is copied on a reduced scale in our
woodcut. The original is a drawing in the famous psalter executed for Sir Geoffrey
Louterell, who died in 1345. It exhibits an archer aiming at the butts, his arrow
drawn to the head; several others are stuck in his girdle. His companion points triumphantly to an
arrow fixed in the bull's-eye, and awaits the prowess of his companion previous to trying again, for
which purpose he already holds his bow and arrow.
and marks the site of the ground appropriated to the military exercises of the soldiery who once
garrisoned the castle. "The Butts" were mounds of earth, marked
with a ring like a target, and were used in practising archery. A strong
arrow with a broad feather was necessary to be used; such bows and
arrows as gave "immortal fame" to the archers of the English army at
Crecy and at Poictiers[sic].
Of the castle itself but a few fragmentary walls remain, and a portion of a tower, which is traditionally known as " the Gunner's Room." The windows command the river, and the embrasures defend the castle at an exposed angle, which seems to have received an additional amount of attention from the architect. The walls are very massive, and now afford abundant room for wild plants and bushes, overshadowed by patrician trees. We may almost imagine we are in the gloomy room of him who guarded the approaches in days long past, when security depended more upon stone walls than on "even-handed justice." A horse-shoe nailed to the church door continues to sustain the legend that when Henry Duke of Lancaster was quitting it for ever, his steed cast a shoe, which the villagers retained as a memorial, and placed where it is found to-day. However much we may lament over scenes of grandeur passed away, it is a rare consolation to see the church, the rectory, the grounds, and the whole neighbourhood kindly thought of, and well cared for, by the incumbent, wbo preserves what time has left, and restores where restoration is desirable.
1880: Kempsford Church, Henry Taunt -
Kempsford Church, Henry Taunt, 1880
© Oxfordshire County Council Photographic Archive; HT1172
1911: Kempsford Church, W Parker -
Kempsford Church, W Parker, 1911
© Oxfordshire County Council Photographic Archive; D230400a
The George Inn at Kempsford, Right bank
1896: 'A Tale of the Thames' by Joseph Ashby-Sterry - [coming downstream by canoe]
A sharp bend to the right takes them past the gardens and plantations belonging to the village,
and they presently land at Manor Farm, haul their canoe out on the grass,
cover it up, and leave it in charge of a native, who seems to think it
the funniest thing that had ever happened.
Perhaps they do not have much fun in Kempsford, especially on a wet day,
and doubtless the arrival of the canoe and its owners was an event in this good man's life,
for when [they] looked round they saw the Kempsford Humorist ... walking round and round their craft
and patting it as it it required soothing and he was afraid of it running away,
then looking at it with great affection and admiration
and exploding into a violent guffaw as he slapped his legs with excitement.
Kempsford is little else than a long street of about half a mile,
extending from the church and across the canal bridge to the schools.
It is of the quietest and most old-fashioned description,
and still rejoices in stocks for the coercion of refractory inhabitants,
which probably have not been used since Lord Coleraine - better known to most of us as Colonel Hanger -
dismantled his fine old fourteenth century mansion,
sold the materials for what they would fetch,
and cut down all the timber and converted it into cash.
In the centre of the village the travellers discover a comfortable hostelry - the George -
and a landlady who seemed to be fully alive to the necessity of immediately providing a luncheon.
She at once had a fire lighted in a snug, low-ceilinged, dark-panelled room, and the crackle of logs
presently harmonised with the hissing of frying-pan in the kitchen,
and the pungent odour of burnt wood mingled without discord with the savour of boiled ham,
and by the time our friends had dried themselves before the fire they were able to do ample justice
to a particularly enticing dish of eggs and ham, followed by a capital North Wiltshire cheese
and the most delightful of crusty loaves, accompanied by excellent ale out of big mugs.
Luncheon finished, they took a hurried inspection of the church and remains of the castle ...
I was once sitting on my punt opposite Kempsford eating my lunch when I became aware of a disturbance under water. A wave appeared to travel down one side of the punt, swerved round the end and surged back up the other side! I am told it was probably a pike attacking something sheltering under the punt. All along here, standing silently on the punt, I can see large fish at times it is almost like floating on an aquarium. They seem quite unalarmed by the punt and I think they can't see me because of the bright sunlight - until the pole suddenly frightens them!