0:00:03 > 0:00:09We've set out to uncover the story of one place through the whole of English history.
0:00:09 > 0:00:12Romans, Vikings, Anglo-Saxons...
0:00:12 > 0:00:15That is a piece of an Anglo-Saxon bone comb.
0:00:15 > 0:00:18..and all with the help of the local people.
0:00:18 > 0:00:20I told you it was only going to get better!
0:00:20 > 0:00:23We think we've found a mortar floor here.
0:00:23 > 0:00:28If in doubt I put it in the tub and then Robert throws it out.
0:00:28 > 0:00:33The more you find out about the village, the more intriguing it gets.
0:00:33 > 0:00:38You don't realise the heritage that a village like Harcourt or Beauchamp has.
0:00:38 > 0:00:42The place is Kibworth in Leicestershire.
0:00:42 > 0:00:45HE SPEAKS MIDDLE ENGLISH
0:00:47 > 0:00:50Using archaeology and science, we've already found a lost past.
0:00:50 > 0:00:54- I can tell you who may well have lived on this spot.- Oh, really?!
0:00:54 > 0:00:56His name was Aelfric.
0:00:56 > 0:01:00So basically we're going to have to dig up your entire garden!
0:01:00 > 0:01:04The first chapter took us as far as 1066, the Norman Conquest.
0:01:04 > 0:01:11What does it feel like to suddenly have this new world coming on top of you?
0:01:11 > 0:01:13It's not, it's the end of the world.
0:01:13 > 0:01:14It's not a new world, it's the finish.
0:01:14 > 0:01:16- The end of the world? - The end of the world.
0:01:16 > 0:01:18It's a disaster.
0:01:18 > 0:01:24So how did the villagers respond to this disaster of conquest and war
0:01:24 > 0:01:27and brutal foreign occupation?
0:01:27 > 0:01:30How did it shape them and change them?
0:01:30 > 0:01:32How did they become us?
0:02:16 > 0:02:21On October 14th, 1066, Anglo-Saxon England fell to the army
0:02:21 > 0:02:24of William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings.
0:02:24 > 0:02:28'Everybody's getting butterflies in their stomach.
0:02:28 > 0:02:30'The fear is starting to bite.'
0:02:37 > 0:02:42Standing in the shield wall that day there may have been men of Kibworth, under their Lord Aelfric.
0:02:42 > 0:02:46'They've slammed into that shield wall again. They're really giving it some hammer now.'
0:02:46 > 0:02:48"The flower of the English nation fell there,"
0:02:48 > 0:02:52said the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, "and God gave victory to the Normans."
0:02:52 > 0:02:55'We have groups here from all over Europe.
0:02:55 > 0:02:59- '- They're from France, from the Netherlands...
0:02:59 > 0:03:02'from Germany, from Poland...
0:03:02 > 0:03:06'The Grentmesnil family are one of the big Norman aristocratic families.'
0:03:08 > 0:03:12They're the warrior bands who come with William for fight for him,
0:03:12 > 0:03:14to make his new crown possible.
0:03:14 > 0:03:19Hugh de Grentmesnil, he gets a huge cut of the new lands of England?
0:03:19 > 0:03:23He's given a large chunk of land in and around Leicestershire,
0:03:23 > 0:03:27with the town of Leicester and the new Norman castle that's built there.
0:03:27 > 0:03:32And castles are one of the great innovations that the Normans brought to England.
0:03:36 > 0:03:40The Norman Hugh de Grentmesnil now became the chief Lord in Kibworth
0:03:40 > 0:03:44as the villages passed under Norman rule with a resident Frenchman.
0:04:01 > 0:04:03Reporting in English, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle
0:04:03 > 0:04:08says that the Normans spread their grip over the whole of England,
0:04:08 > 0:04:14and they oppressed the English people by building castles everywhere.
0:04:16 > 0:04:19Now, I think they built one in Kibworth using the old Roman mound
0:04:19 > 0:04:21in the centre of the village, the Munt.
0:04:21 > 0:04:23But how to prove it?
0:04:24 > 0:04:27The Normans siege Leicester, sack it,
0:04:27 > 0:04:31destroy half the city, level 120 houses to build a castle.
0:04:33 > 0:04:41And in the hinterland, they built small castles, motte and baileys, earth mounds with outer enclosures.
0:04:41 > 0:04:45And here in Kibworth, one of the most populous villages
0:04:45 > 0:04:49in Leicestershire, that would be the context for building this here.
0:04:52 > 0:04:58You can imagine the Norman knights, they're heavily-armed, like SAS men, tough as nails,
0:04:58 > 0:05:01press-ganging the villagers to dig the ditches, to throw this up,
0:05:01 > 0:05:05building the stockade on top, imposing a garrison locally.
0:05:08 > 0:05:12This is the area that we surveyed, it's hardly discernible.
0:05:12 > 0:05:17- No obvious features. - No, no obvious features.
0:05:17 > 0:05:19More work needed.
0:05:19 > 0:05:22Proof that it was a castle was frustratingly elusive.
0:05:22 > 0:05:25It's all rubbish obviously, from gardens.
0:05:25 > 0:05:28It's been so heavily disturbed.
0:05:28 > 0:05:31I was still convinced that we'd got a Norman castle.
0:05:31 > 0:05:37In other places in Leicestershire where there's a Frenchman in the village, there's also a castle.
0:05:37 > 0:05:40We drew a blank with the Hallaton Group.
0:05:40 > 0:05:43The site's been too badly damaged in the last couple
0:05:43 > 0:05:47of hundred years to be able to tell whether it's a Norman castle or not.
0:05:47 > 0:05:53But the evidence has to be there somewhere, and where better to look
0:05:53 > 0:05:59than in the great 18th-century History Of Leicestershire by John Nichols?
0:05:59 > 0:06:02Kibworth Church before the spire fell.
0:06:02 > 0:06:09And this is what the Munt was like in the 1790s.
0:06:09 > 0:06:12"At the back of the Red-Lion Inn,"
0:06:12 > 0:06:16that's the Boboli Pizzeria today,
0:06:16 > 0:06:20"a large mount, encompassed with a single ditch,
0:06:20 > 0:06:26"the circumference of which at the bottom is 122 yards.
0:06:26 > 0:06:31"And the height in the slope of the mount about 18 yards."
0:06:31 > 0:06:34Huge difference with what we see today.
0:06:34 > 0:06:37And then, this is really interesting -
0:06:37 > 0:06:44"Running away from it for 55 yards north-east, another ditch, three or four yards deep."
0:06:44 > 0:06:46That's the crucial clue.
0:06:46 > 0:06:49Now, when you compare that
0:06:49 > 0:06:54with what you see today, surviving Norman castles
0:06:54 > 0:06:56like the Hallaton here,
0:06:56 > 0:07:01its almost...identical size and shape.
0:07:02 > 0:07:08And you draw that... on the map of the village...
0:07:10 > 0:07:13then what you get...
0:07:14 > 0:07:17..is a Norman motte and bailey castle.
0:07:30 > 0:07:37So even little Kibworth Harcourt got its Norman castle with its Frenchman
0:07:37 > 0:07:41dominating the Saxon village with its allotments behind.
0:07:41 > 0:07:46And pretty soon after the invasion and conquest the Anglo-Saxon landowners here,
0:07:46 > 0:07:53Edwin and Aelfric and Aelfmer, were removed, part of a wholesale removal of the English ruling class.
0:07:53 > 0:08:00By 1086, there's only two out of 1,400 chief tenants in England are of English origin.
0:08:00 > 0:08:05And even more fantastic, for the next 100 years there's virtually
0:08:05 > 0:08:09no inter-marriage between the Norman aristocracy and the native English.
0:08:09 > 0:08:16The Normans quite clearly consider the Anglo-Saxons socially and ethnically inferior.
0:08:16 > 0:08:22And the English here are living not only under occupation, but under apartheid.
0:08:24 > 0:08:30It took William and his mercenary armies nearly 20 years to subdue the English.
0:08:33 > 0:08:36And then, in winter, 1085...
0:08:37 > 0:08:40MAN SPEAKS MIDDLE ENGLISH
0:08:40 > 0:08:44The King had deep speech with his councillors about England,
0:08:44 > 0:08:47what sort of land it was, what kind of people.
0:08:53 > 0:08:58And he sent his men all over the country to find out.
0:09:01 > 0:09:07The jurymen from Kibworth and Smeeton were summoned to their assembly place.
0:09:07 > 0:09:11It lay in the countryside north of Kibworth, and for centuries
0:09:11 > 0:09:15was the meeting place for the local Hundred, the sub-division of the shire.
0:09:17 > 0:09:21And as its name suggests, it was a tree.
0:09:21 > 0:09:24I've come here to meet a Kibworth man who's been obsessed
0:09:24 > 0:09:31with local history all his life, and who thinks that he can pinpoint the lost site of the Gartree.
0:09:35 > 0:09:40These now forgotten meeting places lie at the root of the English system of local representation.
0:09:43 > 0:09:45Hi, Stuart.
0:09:45 > 0:09:48And Stuart knows more than anybody about this one.
0:09:48 > 0:09:49Good to see you.
0:09:49 > 0:09:51And you. Come in.
0:09:52 > 0:09:54The den, oh, gosh.
0:09:54 > 0:10:00The Gartree stopped being used for local government and oath-taking in the early 1700s,
0:10:00 > 0:10:04but the site was recorded by the great 18th-century antiquarian,
0:10:04 > 0:10:05John Nichols.
0:10:05 > 0:10:08Because in here, there is actually...
0:10:09 > 0:10:16..one of the very early maps of where the Gartree bush used to be.
0:10:16 > 0:10:19- Isn't that fantastic?- There.
0:10:19 > 0:10:24And it's on the Roman Road, the old Roman Road, on the north side
0:10:24 > 0:10:26of the Gartree Road. Let me show you on the map.
0:10:26 > 0:10:28So on the Roman Road itself.
0:10:28 > 0:10:29It is. I think it's there.
0:10:29 > 0:10:33'These trees and mounds were important places for the English.
0:10:33 > 0:10:35'As late as the 19th century in many places,
0:10:35 > 0:10:40'they voted in the open air, just like their ancient ancestors.'
0:10:43 > 0:10:49When I was a lad, there used to be a big tree, which has now gone, and this is what I'm looking for here.
0:10:51 > 0:10:56That's the old, the last Gartree that stood on the point.
0:10:59 > 0:11:02And there it is beside the road itself...
0:11:04 > 0:11:07..with the Roman Road disappearing into the distance.
0:11:10 > 0:11:14I always believed it was the site of the Gartree bush.
0:11:14 > 0:11:20Not many years after that, it...died.
0:11:20 > 0:11:24It was a sad moment because it was the only thing that identified
0:11:24 > 0:11:29where we think the spot is. And when it fell it rotted away.
0:11:29 > 0:11:37The farmer didn't touch it for several months, knowing it to be hallowed ground, he left it.
0:11:37 > 0:11:40- And they are kind of hallowed ground actually, aren't they?- They are.
0:11:40 > 0:11:46I mean, thousands of years of being the landmark for the people for this part of the shire.
0:11:46 > 0:11:54Such was the importance to me of this spot that I actually got a piece of the tree
0:11:54 > 0:11:58that was lying in the field. And there it is.
0:11:58 > 0:12:01It's the last piece of the Gartree.
0:12:01 > 0:12:07'Holy trees, ancient myths, Herne the Hunter, Robin Hood.
0:12:07 > 0:12:09'It's a fragment from the roots of England.'
0:12:09 > 0:12:11It's like an elephant's skull.
0:12:11 > 0:12:12It is!
0:12:13 > 0:12:17I took loads of aerial photographs through the years,
0:12:17 > 0:12:20and on one day, when the sun was going low one evening,
0:12:20 > 0:12:23I actually took a photograph of the crossroads.
0:12:23 > 0:12:28It was not until I got it developed and blown up, I actually saw
0:12:28 > 0:12:34what seemed to be an enormous mound on the site where the tree stood.
0:12:34 > 0:12:38- Yeah, yeah!- I think there's something ancient about that.
0:12:38 > 0:12:42That's amazing because the name, the Gartree,
0:12:42 > 0:12:45is probably Scandinavian, probably post-9th-century.
0:12:45 > 0:12:50But the earlier English name is recorded in the Middle Ages
0:12:50 > 0:12:53and it seems to be "mathelew", or something like that.
0:12:53 > 0:12:56The Normans couldn't get the language straight.
0:12:56 > 0:13:01But it seems to mean, "the speech mound", or "the meeting mound",
0:13:01 > 0:13:04or "the mound where people spoke".
0:13:04 > 0:13:07- We should go and have a look. Let's do that, can we?- Yeah.
0:13:10 > 0:13:13The Gartree stood at the physical centre of the Hundred.
0:13:13 > 0:13:16It was a place known to everyone.
0:13:16 > 0:13:19Great view across the Welland Valley.
0:13:19 > 0:13:21It's absolutely fantastic, isn't it? Look at that.
0:13:21 > 0:13:25Across the Slawston Hills,
0:13:25 > 0:13:28and over to the south bank of the Welland.
0:13:28 > 0:13:33- Which I suppose is what you want for a moot place, isn't it?- Exactly.
0:13:33 > 0:13:39And who is to say that they didn't light a bonfire on the day the moot was being held, to summon people?
0:13:41 > 0:13:44Thorpe Langton and Stonton Wyville, Church Langton -
0:13:44 > 0:13:47all the south, southern villages of the Gartree Hundred.
0:13:47 > 0:13:51Medbourne and Hallaton. You can see through there even Market Harborough.
0:13:51 > 0:13:53And of course Kibworth, just over here.
0:13:53 > 0:13:55All connected.
0:13:55 > 0:14:00You would get the message, whether it was by bonfire or signal, and the villagers would see
0:14:00 > 0:14:04where the point of the meet was, the moot site, they could see clearly.
0:14:04 > 0:14:11It must have been this time of year in 1086 that the jurors, the ordinary freemen
0:14:11 > 0:14:15of these villages, including Kibworth, all came to this spot,
0:14:15 > 0:14:23maybe over a few days, to give all the information about themselves to the foreigners, to the Normans,
0:14:23 > 0:14:26with their English secretaries presumably,
0:14:26 > 0:14:29the collaborators(!), who wrote all this down!
0:14:29 > 0:14:32Including taxable information. I mean, that's what it is, isn't it?
0:14:32 > 0:14:35I wonder how accurate they were over their, erm...!
0:14:35 > 0:14:42The first real declaration of their inventory. The hand-over.
0:14:42 > 0:14:44TRANSLATION FROM MIDDLE ENGLISH:
0:14:54 > 0:14:57He was a hard man!
0:14:57 > 0:14:59HE SPEAKS IN MIDDLE ENGLISH
0:15:00 > 0:15:05Which means that he was a very hard man, yes.
0:15:11 > 0:15:17"And afterwards," says the Anglo Saxon Chronicle, "all the results of the survey were brought to him."
0:15:20 > 0:15:24They're in the National Archive in Kew today, in Domesday Book.
0:15:25 > 0:15:30This is Leicestershire, and here you can see how it's organised.
0:15:30 > 0:15:33Here's the list of the landowners, most of them Norman lords,
0:15:33 > 0:15:35who of course have replaced...
0:15:35 > 0:15:37It's not a neutral historical source,
0:15:37 > 0:15:41it's the record of a cataclysmic takeover in English history.
0:15:41 > 0:15:44Grandmesnil.
0:15:47 > 0:15:50Here we go. Kibworth.
0:15:50 > 0:15:57Cheborde, Chiborde, Clyborne, even - that's obviously Normans mishearing Anglo-Saxon, isn't it?
0:15:57 > 0:16:01Oh, and that's actually the Frenchman.
0:16:01 > 0:16:05Kibworth Harcourt first of all.
0:16:05 > 0:16:08There's 12 carucates of arable land on this,
0:16:08 > 0:16:13it's the old Danish system of measuring land, which they used in the East Midlands.
0:16:13 > 0:16:18In Kibworth Harcourt, the population was mix of free and unfree people
0:16:18 > 0:16:21with some slaves, and the Frenchman.
0:16:24 > 0:16:28But in Kibworth Beauchamp, curiously, in view of its later history,
0:16:28 > 0:16:31there were no free people at all.
0:16:38 > 0:16:42While in Smeeton and Westerby, the majority were free.
0:16:48 > 0:16:51As for what happened to the Anglo-Saxon lords before 1066,
0:16:51 > 0:16:57Aelfric and Aelfmer, Edwin Aelfrith and the rest, we simply don't know.
0:16:57 > 0:17:02But perhaps there's one little clue, one trace of human feeling
0:17:02 > 0:17:08in all this bureaucratic detail, in an entry from a village further south,
0:17:08 > 0:17:13where one Aelfric had farmed his land freely before 1066,
0:17:13 > 0:17:20but now farms it at a rent from William, a Norman, "gravitare et miserabilitare"
0:17:20 > 0:17:24miserably and with a heavy heart.
0:17:24 > 0:17:27And you can bet that they felt the same way in Kibworth too.
0:17:29 > 0:17:32For the English people, it was the start of a long time of oppression,
0:17:32 > 0:17:36and in Kibworth they saw the horrors close-up.
0:17:36 > 0:17:401124, in this same year before Christmas,
0:17:40 > 0:17:44Ralph Bassett held a court of the King's Thanes
0:17:44 > 0:17:48at Hound Hill in Leicestershire,
0:17:48 > 0:17:53and hanged there more thieves than anyone had before.
0:17:55 > 0:18:0044 men were killed in no time, six of them were blinded and castrated,
0:18:00 > 0:18:06and many honest people said many of them suffered very unjustly there.
0:18:08 > 0:18:15But our Lord God, from whom no secrets are hid, sees the poor oppressed
0:18:15 > 0:18:20by every kind of injustice, deprived of their property and their lives.
0:18:20 > 0:18:22A terrible year was this.
0:18:29 > 0:18:35Beloved of Hollywood scriptwriters, the Norman yoke was not just a myth.
0:18:51 > 0:18:54There was rage and racism on both sides.
0:18:54 > 0:18:59The defeated English retreated into their own language, their own jokes, their own customs.
0:19:02 > 0:19:07To the Normans, the English were lazy, cowardly, treacherous, superstitious,
0:19:07 > 0:19:12not to mention their dog-like barking that passed for speech.
0:19:12 > 0:19:14INDISTINCT SPEECH
0:19:14 > 0:19:20But most of all, the Normans thought the English were uncontrolled boozers.
0:19:20 > 0:19:25And it's at this time that you get the first descriptions of that hallowed English institution
0:19:25 > 0:19:28which existed in every village, including Kibworth,
0:19:28 > 0:19:34the domus potationis, the alehus, the pub!
0:19:35 > 0:19:39One Norman writer describes the interior of one of these places where,
0:19:39 > 0:19:43"the rustics sat at their tables and benches and where, if you looked carefully,
0:19:43 > 0:19:48"you could see little devils perched on the lip of every man's cup."
0:19:55 > 0:19:58He's the old one, I'm the good-looking one!
0:19:58 > 0:20:01HUBBUB
0:20:02 > 0:20:07So even then, the English seemed to have seen the pub as a place
0:20:07 > 0:20:10where you could get away from it, to chew things over.
0:20:10 > 0:20:13You know, see a man about a dog.
0:20:13 > 0:20:19But the Normans, for them, the pub was a place you wouldn't be seen dead in.
0:20:24 > 0:20:30Kibworth in the 12th and 13th centuries was split between several Norman lords,
0:20:30 > 0:20:35two of whom have left their surnames in the village till today the Harcourts and the Beauchamps.
0:20:38 > 0:20:44To get a picture of the village then, we have to turn to the maps drawn up by a later landlord
0:20:44 > 0:20:48who took over Kibworth Harcourt in the 1260s.
0:20:48 > 0:20:49Merton College, Oxford.
0:20:50 > 0:20:53That is absolutely fantastic, isn't it?
0:20:59 > 0:21:05Astonishingly, Merton kept a record of all the families who lived here from that time.
0:21:05 > 0:21:08All the old families.
0:21:08 > 0:21:12The Parkers, the Foxes, Colemans...
0:21:12 > 0:21:15Wayne's ancestors, the Bryans, the Sanders -
0:21:15 > 0:21:19they go back into the Middle Ages. Isn't that just gorgeous?
0:21:19 > 0:21:21London Way.
0:21:23 > 0:21:25So that's the A6!
0:21:26 > 0:21:28And Kibworth's on the right route!
0:21:28 > 0:21:31And still presumably working as an open-field system village.
0:21:31 > 0:21:34As it had been in the 13th, 14th century.
0:21:34 > 0:21:37It's absolutely wonderful.
0:21:37 > 0:21:41And St Wilfrid's Church still has its beautiful spire.
0:21:41 > 0:21:43Right!
0:21:44 > 0:21:45One of the village tragedies!
0:21:45 > 0:21:47When did that disappear?
0:21:47 > 0:21:51It fell in 1825, I think. 160 feet, it was absolutely beautiful.
0:21:53 > 0:22:01But the key to the Merton maps, the centre of life in Kibworth from the Anglo-Saxons until 1779,
0:22:01 > 0:22:03is the open fields.
0:22:07 > 0:22:11And if you want to see what life was like in the heyday
0:22:11 > 0:22:16of the open fields, there's one place you can go - Laxton, the last open-field village.
0:22:18 > 0:22:21INDISTINCT SPEECH
0:22:21 > 0:22:26Here in Laxton you can see how our ancestors made their living for over 800 years.
0:22:32 > 0:22:35Everyone had strips in the open fields.
0:22:35 > 0:22:38Everything worked by co-operation,
0:22:38 > 0:22:42'overseen by an elected field jury of 12 good men and true.'
0:22:42 > 0:22:47So this is exactly what they did in Kibworth back in the 1200s and the 1300s.
0:22:47 > 0:22:53This is the field jury going out into the fields to check the width of the strips, hammer the stakes in,
0:22:53 > 0:22:56check whether one farmer has infringed on the others' fields.
0:23:01 > 0:23:03So what are you looking for then, Roy?
0:23:04 > 0:23:06What are you...?
0:23:06 > 0:23:08How can you tell where to put 'em?
0:23:08 > 0:23:10Just where the curve of the...?
0:23:10 > 0:23:12The roadway should be 15 foot wide.
0:23:12 > 0:23:15- Right.- All these roadways should be at 15 foot.
0:23:15 > 0:23:20- If it's less than that, somebody's ploughed too far.- Right.
0:23:24 > 0:23:27You know, the great thing about this is that you get a real sense of what
0:23:27 > 0:23:30an open-field landscape looked like with these huge open fields.
0:23:30 > 0:23:36There's no division between the strips, apart from the baulks and the stakes.
0:23:39 > 0:23:43This great, wide, open landscape, it's just what Kibworth would have looked like then.
0:23:44 > 0:23:51A well-off peasant might have 50 or 60 little strips scattered through the three fields.
0:23:51 > 0:23:55None of them are straight. Not a single piece is straight, I don't think.
0:23:55 > 0:23:57Not one that I know of!
0:23:57 > 0:24:00I always think it's to do with the land because...
0:24:00 > 0:24:01You can't plough...
0:24:01 > 0:24:06The soil changes as it goes across and it pulls your plough.
0:24:06 > 0:24:11And if you keep ploughing it every time the same way, where it's gone one way, it'll keep going the same.
0:24:11 > 0:24:15The light man ploughs straight, the strong man ploughs wide.
0:24:15 > 0:24:19'Here at Laxton, you can get a sense of the communal effort
0:24:19 > 0:24:25'of our ancestors - men AND women - that was needed to maintain such a complex system.'
0:24:25 > 0:24:28- You can see the line though. - Oh, yes, yes.
0:24:28 > 0:24:33So he's left it. If it had been the other way, if it'd come to here, he'd have been in serious trouble.
0:24:36 > 0:24:40I want somebody who knows what they're doing to go round there.
0:24:40 > 0:24:42Are you going that way, Carl?
0:24:42 > 0:24:46It's kind of a great image of medieval farmers of Kibworth going,
0:24:46 > 0:24:49"I want somebody who knows what he's doing!
0:24:49 > 0:24:54"You go down to the Sheep's Bottom and you go up to Blackwell Syke."
0:25:02 > 0:25:06Today the Laxton Field Jury meets in the Dovecote Inn.
0:25:06 > 0:25:08'Up at the top of the map, we've got'
0:25:08 > 0:25:14the old motte and bailey castle site where the lord of the manor lived.
0:25:14 > 0:25:18We've got West Field, Mill Field and South Field.
0:25:18 > 0:25:24And the way this developed was that so people got a fair share of good land and bad land.
0:25:24 > 0:25:26It's a way of distributing the land
0:25:26 > 0:25:29so it was equal and fair to everybody.
0:25:29 > 0:25:37One is always fallow, one is then followed by wheat and then the third field is always a spring-sown crop.
0:25:37 > 0:25:39And then the woodland forms our parish boundary.
0:25:39 > 0:25:42So you can see how the rural landscape developed
0:25:42 > 0:25:46from the centre of the village out into the countryside.
0:25:47 > 0:25:49What findings have we got off Mill Field?
0:25:49 > 0:25:54We've got Donny Godson here, not ploughed far north.
0:25:54 > 0:25:56- Langwell?- Langwell, yes.
0:25:56 > 0:26:00This is how the Kibworth jury worked during the Middle Ages.
0:26:00 > 0:26:03Then we've got Ivan Rainer on...
0:26:03 > 0:26:10What do you call it? Top of Westwood edge there, ploughed too far.
0:26:10 > 0:26:11About a foot.
0:26:11 > 0:26:13Fine or warn...?
0:26:13 > 0:26:16Fine him. It's fairly blatant..
0:26:16 > 0:26:18< Yeah, yeah, it is.
0:26:18 > 0:26:21So we're going to fine him. Go on then. I'm open, what we putting?
0:26:21 > 0:26:2450 quid!
0:26:24 > 0:26:28But this is much more than a quaint survival -
0:26:28 > 0:26:32you're watching the roots of the English system.
0:26:32 > 0:26:33Fiver? All in agreement?
0:26:35 > 0:26:40Co-operation, respect for your neighbours and the idea of fairness,
0:26:40 > 0:26:42that good, old Anglo-Saxon word.
0:26:50 > 0:26:55The Kibworth documents from the 13th century in Merton College paint the same scene.
0:26:55 > 0:26:57Easter, 1270.
0:26:57 > 0:27:02Meeting of the Manor Court for Kibworth Harcourt.
0:27:02 > 0:27:06Grant of land to Robert, the son of Richard the Parson,
0:27:06 > 0:27:10eight acres in Kibworth field divided as follows.
0:27:10 > 0:27:15One acre on Little Hill near Roger White's strip.
0:27:15 > 0:27:20One rude upon Wrayland near the land Rob Joy holds.
0:27:20 > 0:27:26Three rudes near the land Hugh Hurtlebol holds.
0:27:26 > 0:27:32One acre that sticks into Peashill syke next to the strip of land held by Nicholas, son of Simon the Reeve.
0:27:32 > 0:27:37One-and-a-half rudes on Peascroft near Rob Joyce's land.
0:27:37 > 0:27:39CHURCH BELLS TOLL
0:27:39 > 0:27:45Back then the Kibworth jury probably met not in the alehouse, but in the church.
0:27:45 > 0:27:49'Everything happens here, it's the focus of the parish.
0:27:50 > 0:27:53'Parish officers are the public officials of the day.
0:27:53 > 0:27:58'People meet here to sign contracts, get married in the porch,'
0:27:58 > 0:28:01and that's particularly important, of course, when you've got
0:28:01 > 0:28:04a settlement with more than a one manor,
0:28:04 > 0:28:06three or four manors, as is the case here.
0:28:06 > 0:28:10The parish church is where the whole community comes together.
0:28:10 > 0:28:15It's the powerhouse of the community in many, many ways.
0:28:15 > 0:28:22Witnessed here at Kibworth Church by Robert Knolle, Henry White Hart...
0:28:22 > 0:28:24Richard the Huntsmen, William Gunsey...
0:28:24 > 0:28:30Ivan, son of Roger of Kibworth, Sylvester, the village scribe.
0:28:33 > 0:28:37The 12th and 13th centuries were a boom time in England.
0:28:37 > 0:28:44In our big dig with the villagers, we'd dug an unprecedented 55 test pits across the village.
0:28:49 > 0:28:53And after scanty evidence for the Romans, Saxons and Vikings,
0:28:53 > 0:28:56suddenly the village seems to be much richer and more populous...
0:28:59 > 0:29:03..as the Norman occupation opened new trade links with Europe.
0:29:06 > 0:29:10Back in Cambridge, Carenza Lewis was now processing all the evidence
0:29:10 > 0:29:13that the villagers had gathered from their test pits.
0:29:13 > 0:29:16Take us on from 1066,
0:29:16 > 0:29:19the next couple of hundred years how does it look on the ground?
0:29:19 > 0:29:21It's very interesting actually, really quite dramatic.
0:29:21 > 0:29:25When we get into the post-Norman period, look how it changes.
0:29:25 > 0:29:28A huge explosion of growth in all of the villages, really!
0:29:28 > 0:29:31Certainly Kibworth Harcourt, that looks like a nucleated village.
0:29:31 > 0:29:36By nucleated village, you're talking about a street with houses along the
0:29:36 > 0:29:40street, a church, there's a kind of nucleus and the fields are outside.
0:29:40 > 0:29:43This is what you're seeing for the first time, perhaps.
0:29:43 > 0:29:46I think absolutely. You can look at Kibworth Harcourt. It's a street running along there,
0:29:46 > 0:29:53every single test pit just about that we dug, along both sides of the road, is producing pottery.
0:29:53 > 0:29:54- It's a populous place.- Absolutely.
0:29:57 > 0:30:02And Kibworth was also a place where travel and communications were developing.
0:30:04 > 0:30:08Take the A6, the bane of all Kibworth people's lives today.
0:30:08 > 0:30:15It was made a turnpike in the 18th century but it starts in the 12th century,
0:30:15 > 0:30:17linking the village with Leicester and London.
0:30:20 > 0:30:23The village was doing well.
0:30:23 > 0:30:29And in March 1223, the King awarded Kibworth Beauchamp a licence for a market.
0:30:32 > 0:30:37"King Henry to the Sheriff of Leicester, we grant to our trusty
0:30:37 > 0:30:44"and well beloved Walter de Beauchamp that he may have a market
0:30:44 > 0:30:47"in Kibworth on Wednesdays, providing that
0:30:47 > 0:30:52"that market does not prove a nuisance to other merchants in the region."
0:31:00 > 0:31:03And at our History Day in Kibworth High School, an unexpected source
0:31:03 > 0:31:09of new evidence came up for the beginnings of this boom time from local metal detectorists.
0:31:09 > 0:31:13You didn't pick up any coins from that period, did you?
0:31:13 > 0:31:17If I could find it, I've got an Aethelred II.
0:31:17 > 0:31:19Aethelred the Unready.
0:31:19 > 0:31:22That's the one.
0:31:22 > 0:31:23It's only a half penny.
0:31:23 > 0:31:26They cut it in half?
0:31:26 > 0:31:30They're actually made with a voided cross so you can cut across the line.
0:31:30 > 0:31:36'So the Normans took over an already sophisticated coinage system,
0:31:36 > 0:31:41'and in the next period, there's a flood of finds telling us about wealth and travel.'
0:31:41 > 0:31:45Probably from Walsingham.
0:31:45 > 0:31:46You know, you've got these
0:31:46 > 0:31:51plants there that I'd interpret at least as a sort of lily pot
0:31:51 > 0:31:56on there, which is to do with the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin.
0:31:56 > 0:31:58And on the other side a crown.
0:31:58 > 0:32:04Henry III gave a golden crown to the image of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Walsingham, so that fits.
0:32:04 > 0:32:08Fantastic. Absolutely amazing.
0:32:08 > 0:32:12So somebody's got an Islamic coin
0:32:12 > 0:32:14and turned it into a brooch.
0:32:14 > 0:32:17I can't read Arabic script, I'm afraid, I'm ashamed to say!
0:32:17 > 0:32:22I didn't think it would be a drawback doing the history of Kibworth!
0:32:22 > 0:32:24Constant surprises here!
0:32:25 > 0:32:28'So the economy boomed, the population more than doubled,
0:32:28 > 0:32:33'markets opened everywhere and the common law developed.'
0:32:33 > 0:32:37Even the poorest English men and women had rights as well as obligations.
0:32:37 > 0:32:45At this point in the tale, the community of the village becomes part of the community of the realm.
0:32:48 > 0:32:49In the early 1200s,
0:32:49 > 0:32:52new laws began to restrain rulers like King John.
0:32:52 > 0:32:55The most famous was Magna Carta.
0:32:55 > 0:32:58But among them one was especially important to the people
0:32:58 > 0:33:03of the village, because it made them more free to use their own countryside.
0:33:03 > 0:33:06It's called the Charter Of The Forest.
0:33:06 > 0:33:13It talks about their liberties and their rights, which had been held before in England.
0:33:13 > 0:33:19English people hark back to their Anglo-Saxon past as a time when, so they believed, they had all these
0:33:19 > 0:33:22common rights and common laws,
0:33:22 > 0:33:28which had been eroded during the period of rule since 1066.
0:33:31 > 0:33:36In 1264, these conflicts came to a head in civil war.
0:33:36 > 0:33:40The barons had forced great reforms on King Henry III, which were
0:33:40 > 0:33:44published now not only in French but in the people's language, English.
0:33:44 > 0:33:48Among the rebels was the Lord of Kibworth, Saer de Harcourt.
0:33:48 > 0:33:52The rebel army confronted the King at Lewes in Sussex.
0:33:52 > 0:33:57No other country in Europe had gone so far, and so early,
0:33:57 > 0:34:01in attempting to reduce the King to a constitutional monarch.
0:34:03 > 0:34:09To force the King to rule according to custom and law, to consult not only with his great nobles,
0:34:09 > 0:34:14but with the representatives of the shires, shires like Leicestershire.
0:34:15 > 0:34:19The leader of the barons was the French-speaking
0:34:19 > 0:34:24Earl of Leicester, Simon de Montfort an unlikely people's champion.
0:34:24 > 0:34:29He gives a speech to the army, he's a great speaker, De Montfort,
0:34:29 > 0:34:33epigrammatic and forceful, somewhere on this spot.
0:34:33 > 0:34:35"You're fighting for England,"
0:34:35 > 0:34:42he says now, "for honour, for God, for the Blessed Virgin Mary and the saints and the Holy Church."
0:34:42 > 0:34:46This revolution is almost a religious crusade to him.
0:34:49 > 0:34:53The clash was brief and savage.
0:34:53 > 0:34:58The King's army was broken, peasant soldiers cut the throats of knights in armour.
0:35:01 > 0:35:05The victory of Simon de Montfort here at Lewes unleashed
0:35:05 > 0:35:10a surge of elation among many, and for some, an almost revolutionary fervour.
0:35:12 > 0:35:16"England can once again breathe the air of freedom,"
0:35:16 > 0:35:20wrote a poet in 1264.
0:35:20 > 0:35:26"Liberty is theirs and Englishmen who were once despised like dogs can
0:35:26 > 0:35:31"now walk with their heads held high, their oppressors overthrown."
0:35:35 > 0:35:41So two centuries after the Norman Conquest, the English people once more found their voice.
0:35:41 > 0:35:47All generations quarry the past for defining moments of identity.
0:35:47 > 0:35:50And for the English people, De Montfort was one.
0:35:59 > 0:36:03Simon de Montfort had seized power from the King
0:36:03 > 0:36:06and carried through gigantic reforms of the realm.
0:36:10 > 0:36:13He sent a legal official round the kingdom to hear
0:36:13 > 0:36:16everybody's complaints, even from the lowliest peasant.
0:36:16 > 0:36:20And some of the legislation, the abolition of various impositions,
0:36:20 > 0:36:24various types of fines, were directly designed to benefit the peasantry.
0:36:24 > 0:36:29So you can see that the peasants themselves believed passionately in these kinds of reforms.
0:36:29 > 0:36:33And I think particularly this area, this area of Leicestershire,
0:36:33 > 0:36:36south Leicestershire, is very radicalised politically and very informed.
0:36:36 > 0:36:39The peasants know what's going on.
0:36:42 > 0:36:44And almost miraculously,
0:36:44 > 0:36:50we've got a glimpse of that heady summer of 1264 from Kibworth itself.
0:36:50 > 0:36:56A month after the Battle of Lewes, the villagers went on their annual local pilgrimage
0:36:56 > 0:37:02to the ancient church of St Mary Arden, five miles away at Great Bowden.
0:37:02 > 0:37:07Pilgrimage is hard-wired into our DNA.
0:37:07 > 0:37:1399.9% of pilgrimages in the Middle Ages were local ones.
0:37:13 > 0:37:21Every parish has a place outside of the village, outside the centre of settlement, where people will go.
0:37:31 > 0:37:35And that summer day in 1264, the people of Great Bowden,
0:37:35 > 0:37:39who were Royalists, met the villagers of Kibworth with axes.
0:37:47 > 0:37:50Aw, it's great! Hello, everybody!
0:37:50 > 0:37:54I see the Bowden people have come armed with their axes!
0:37:54 > 0:37:57What followed is a tiny moment in a bitter civil war,
0:37:57 > 0:38:01but it shows how deep the passions ran even at local level.
0:38:01 > 0:38:04Right, are we meant to be afraid now?
0:38:04 > 0:38:06No, you're friends now because you're wearing the badge.
0:38:09 > 0:38:14Of course, the King has been defeated at the Battle of Lewes the previous month.
0:38:14 > 0:38:17The people of Kibworth come on their customary, whatever it is,
0:38:17 > 0:38:23pilgrimage or whatever it is, Graham is going to try and elucidate this for us
0:38:23 > 0:38:28and when they try and go into the church as was their custom,
0:38:28 > 0:38:32then some of the people of Bowden led by this guy called William King,
0:38:32 > 0:38:36suitable name for a royal estate, barred their way.
0:38:36 > 0:38:40And then an axe was produced.
0:38:42 > 0:38:47'The man at the centre of the fracas came from a well known Kibworth peasant family.
0:38:47 > 0:38:49'He was called John Wodard.
0:38:49 > 0:38:53'He's later found with de Montfort's army down in Kent.'
0:38:57 > 0:39:01Brought this back some years ago and put it here.
0:39:01 > 0:39:05- Was it not originally...? - It was originally, but it was taken over there for care.
0:39:05 > 0:39:12'The locals in Great Bowden are now restoring this 17th century chapel, which was built from the remains
0:39:12 > 0:39:17'of what was once the medieval mother church of Kibworth.'
0:39:17 > 0:39:23If you imagine going back and back and back, this graveyard must have many thousands of burials in it.
0:39:26 > 0:39:28It's a huge churchyard.
0:39:28 > 0:39:30It's far, far bigger
0:39:30 > 0:39:35than one would need for a common or garden village church.
0:39:35 > 0:39:41It implies that St Mary-in-Arden is the regional mother church.
0:39:41 > 0:39:44Really important place in their religious calendar.
0:39:44 > 0:39:50When the people of Kibworth are coming here it's Whit Monday.
0:39:50 > 0:39:55There were earlier processions of this type, not just Pentecost but
0:39:55 > 0:39:59probably Easter, made by daughter churches
0:39:59 > 0:40:03of Anglo-Saxon minsters to their mother church.
0:40:03 > 0:40:08What we do nowadays at Easter, like you said, the clergy gather
0:40:08 > 0:40:11at the cathedral where the oil is blessed
0:40:11 > 0:40:14and that's the chrism oil as well,
0:40:14 > 0:40:18and the clergy take it with them into the parishes. That's what's happening nowadays.
0:40:18 > 0:40:20It always seems to be the same.
0:40:20 > 0:40:25One parish is trying to keep another parish behind it in the procession.
0:40:25 > 0:40:30They're competing for the privilege of going first into the church!
0:40:30 > 0:40:37Maybe two dozen parishes converging on this place, and for a ceremony
0:40:37 > 0:40:42which was full of movement and light and sound and joyousness,
0:40:42 > 0:40:46because Pentecost is the birthday of Christ's Church.
0:40:46 > 0:40:50Do they walk barefoot? Was there a particular tradition? Did you carry banners?
0:40:50 > 0:40:53You would certainly carry banners, you were representing your parish,
0:40:53 > 0:40:57so when somebody tries to tell you to get back in the queue,
0:40:57 > 0:41:01local patriotism takes over, I suspect.
0:41:01 > 0:41:02I think anger, actually, probably,
0:41:02 > 0:41:04because if the King was captured
0:41:04 > 0:41:07and this was the King's estate still,
0:41:07 > 0:41:11so they would feel absolutely furious
0:41:11 > 0:41:13and really red raw with rage.
0:41:13 > 0:41:19And so it may have been a religious procession, but the people in Bowden
0:41:19 > 0:41:23could have felt quite differently about it and very, very angry. And I think that's what it was.
0:41:23 > 0:41:25And they come tooled up!
0:41:25 > 0:41:26They still do!
0:41:26 > 0:41:28They still do!
0:41:30 > 0:41:33Axes, axes hanging at their belt.
0:41:37 > 0:41:43In the National Archive, the record survives to tell us what happened here that day.
0:41:43 > 0:41:50"When the men of Kibworth came to the Church of Harborough to make their procession there,
0:41:50 > 0:41:56"the foresaid William King of Bowden came to prevent them from proceeding into the church
0:41:56 > 0:42:02"and struck the foresaid Wodard with an axe and kill him if he could.
0:42:02 > 0:42:07"And the foresaid John Wodard, perceiving this, turned round and struck the foresaid
0:42:07 > 0:42:12"William in the head with an axe so he afterwards died of that blow."
0:42:14 > 0:42:18And the jury, actually loaded with people from Kibworth,
0:42:20 > 0:42:25seems to have concluded that it was self defence.
0:42:29 > 0:42:31One of the things which has really emerged
0:42:31 > 0:42:33from recent work on this whole period
0:42:33 > 0:42:37is the way peasants were radicalised and took part in the actual fighting.
0:42:37 > 0:42:41They both took part in raid and counter raid in the bands
0:42:41 > 0:42:45of Montfortians burning villages in surrounding areas.
0:42:45 > 0:42:47But they also fought in the great battles.
0:42:47 > 0:42:52I mean, I would have thought Wodard was very likely in his troop at the various battles and we may think
0:42:52 > 0:43:00of contingents from Kibworth, peasant contingents from Kibworth physically on the fighting side.
0:43:01 > 0:43:04That summer, de Montfort summoned a great
0:43:04 > 0:43:10peasant army from all over England, including John Wodard of Kibworth, to repel a French invasion.
0:43:10 > 0:43:13But that was the high point of the revolution.
0:43:13 > 0:43:17The following year it was crushed at Evesham.
0:43:27 > 0:43:30The rebels had fallen out among themselves,
0:43:32 > 0:43:35and finally de Montfort was trapped by his enemies.
0:43:38 > 0:43:41De Montfort arrived here in Evesham about 6 o'clock in the
0:43:41 > 0:43:44morning, and his army, who were desperate for rest.
0:43:44 > 0:43:50But soon afterwards they became aware that out on the green hill there,
0:43:50 > 0:43:52a large army was arriving.
0:43:54 > 0:43:59De Montfort sent his barber Nicholas up the abbey tower to see who they were.
0:43:59 > 0:44:03Nicholas was an expert in heraldry.
0:44:03 > 0:44:06When they reached the top of the hill, they unfurled their Royalist
0:44:06 > 0:44:10standards, and Nicholas knew exactly who they were.
0:44:10 > 0:44:13"God save our souls," he said,
0:44:13 > 0:44:15"for we are dead men."
0:44:17 > 0:44:21In the final battle, de Montfort was hopelessly outnumbered.
0:44:21 > 0:44:26And here we are on a 13th century battlefield.
0:44:27 > 0:44:31Why doesn't Montfort try to escape?
0:44:31 > 0:44:32He just wasn't made like that.
0:44:32 > 0:44:35He was a man of rigid
0:44:35 > 0:44:40discipline, both for himself and for his cause.
0:44:40 > 0:44:46In fact, he believed he was doing God's work, this is what he'd convinced himself he was doing.
0:44:46 > 0:44:51So the revolution was God's work, the constitutional revolution was God's work in his eyes?
0:44:51 > 0:44:55It was, yes. And of course when
0:44:55 > 0:45:00people become convinced that they're doing God's work, they're capable of anything.
0:45:00 > 0:45:04- Yes, yes.- And when they got up here and they could see what they
0:45:04 > 0:45:09were really facing, they panicked and fled in all directions.
0:45:09 > 0:45:12What happens to Simon himself at this moment?
0:45:12 > 0:45:14Well, he's very quickly surrounded
0:45:14 > 0:45:22by his enemies. His horse is killed under him and it's said that he was struck through the neck by a lance.
0:45:22 > 0:45:23Pretty nasty thing.
0:45:23 > 0:45:27And he, of course, fell to the ground.
0:45:27 > 0:45:34And people were so fired up at this point that his enemies pounced upon the body and chopped it up.
0:45:34 > 0:45:41Chopped all the arms and legs, head and the private parts as well. They were all chopped off.
0:45:44 > 0:45:49The same thing happened to all those people who'd fled.
0:45:49 > 0:45:55The rest of the day they were chased all over the landscape, wherever they could be found, and killed.
0:45:58 > 0:46:04Some people got into the town and thought, "We'll hide in the abbey, we'll be safe there."
0:46:04 > 0:46:06But they weren't. They were killed in the abbey.
0:46:06 > 0:46:09The high altar itself was splashed with blood.
0:46:09 > 0:46:13Bodies lay everywhere, it was the most appalling scene.
0:46:17 > 0:46:20Did John Wodard of Kibworth die here?
0:46:20 > 0:46:22We'll never know.
0:46:22 > 0:46:26This is the traditional spot where Simon was killed, isn't it?
0:46:26 > 0:46:31'The site of Simon's death immediately became a place of pilgrimage.
0:46:31 > 0:46:35'And people of all walks of life came here from all over England,
0:46:35 > 0:46:39'including peasants from around Kibworth, seeking miracles.'
0:46:39 > 0:46:42People came from far and wide
0:46:42 > 0:46:46to make use of this water, which they believed had miraculous powers.
0:46:46 > 0:46:53A real emotional response to his defeat welling up among ordinary people,
0:46:53 > 0:46:58for whom the revolution had meant something even though it failed.
0:46:58 > 0:47:03So it's a window, a brief window, which closes after about 10 years,
0:47:03 > 0:47:08into what ordinary people were inspired by at the time.
0:47:08 > 0:47:13Even in remote places like Kibworth, it was the talk of the village,
0:47:13 > 0:47:21you know, "What Earl Simon is going to do for us and what are we going to do now he's gone?"
0:47:38 > 0:47:40After the battle,
0:47:40 > 0:47:45the King's men swept into the villages around Kibworth which had supported de Montfort.
0:47:45 > 0:47:48Saer de Harcourt was captured and thrown into jail,
0:47:48 > 0:47:53and the King's assessors made an inventory of his estates.
0:47:53 > 0:47:55And this is the...
0:47:55 > 0:47:59November 1265, this is...
0:47:59 > 0:48:04Full of anger and bitterness towards Saer de Harcourt, the King demands to know what he
0:48:04 > 0:48:10possesses in his manor of Kibworth how much arable and meadow,
0:48:10 > 0:48:13how many freeholders and villeins?
0:48:13 > 0:48:18The condition of the manor house, the dovecote and the windmill,
0:48:18 > 0:48:21and its annual taxable income.
0:48:24 > 0:48:32And in this time of vengeance, close to Kibworth, we can hear the voice of the peasants themselves.
0:48:32 > 0:48:39At Peatling Magna, a Royalist called Peter de Neville sends a troop of men through the village,
0:48:39 > 0:48:41and the peasants stop them.
0:48:43 > 0:48:46They try and prevent them going through the village.
0:48:46 > 0:48:52And what Peter de Neville actually says, alleges, that they actually said was, "Why are we doing this?
0:48:52 > 0:48:58"It's because you're committing all sorts of seditions and treasons, because you're acting against
0:48:58 > 0:49:03"the utility of the community of the Kingdom and against the Baron."
0:49:03 > 0:49:07The utility...the welfare of the community of the Realm.
0:49:17 > 0:49:21De Neville was in a cold fury and threatened to burn the village down.
0:49:21 > 0:49:25Men took shelter inside the church and a small group of the villagers,
0:49:25 > 0:49:29mainly women, stood out here and argued with the King's men.
0:49:29 > 0:49:35They were led by a woman, by Mrs Pillerton, the wife of one of the peasants.
0:49:38 > 0:49:43That's so beautiful, isn't it? 'She said to the King's men that they were guilty of
0:49:43 > 0:49:48'heinous treachery and other crimes because they were against the barons
0:49:48 > 0:49:53'and they were against the welfare of the community of the Realm.'
0:49:53 > 0:49:59I imagine she was a fairly buxom, sturdy, real woman of the soil.
0:49:59 > 0:50:01And certainly very, very determined.
0:50:01 > 0:50:08But she was backed up by her other women, I believe the record says that the women pleaded with Peter's men.
0:50:08 > 0:50:12So you can imagine, they'd promise anything really to protect their families.
0:50:12 > 0:50:14We would, wouldn't we, Margaret?
0:50:24 > 0:50:30The King spared Saer de Harcourt's life, but imposed a huge fine for his treachery.
0:50:32 > 0:50:37So Saer was forced to put the manor of Kibworth Harcourt up for sale,
0:50:37 > 0:50:45with its new windmill, its dovecote, its freemen and villeins, and its 1,400 acres of prime arable.
0:50:45 > 0:50:48A fine piece of medieval real estate.
0:50:53 > 0:50:57And with that, a new character enters our story.
0:50:57 > 0:50:59Merton College Oxford.
0:50:59 > 0:51:03The college had recently been founded by Walter of Merton, a supporter of the King
0:51:03 > 0:51:09whose lands in Surrey had been plundered in the war by de Montfort's troops.
0:51:09 > 0:51:12Simon de Montfort has lost and is dead,
0:51:12 > 0:51:19and therefore, Walter de Merton knows that he's on the winning side!
0:51:19 > 0:51:23And so all the lands of the Montfortians,
0:51:23 > 0:51:27of whom Saer de Harcourt was one,
0:51:27 > 0:51:31are in a poor way and heavily indebted.
0:51:31 > 0:51:37There's a document in the National Archive where the King says, "I have put aside my anger
0:51:37 > 0:51:44"and rancour towards the said Saer de Harcourt and a fine will do instead."
0:51:44 > 0:51:47So he has to sell up,
0:51:47 > 0:51:51basically, cos he's been ruined. But Walter de Merton, who now
0:51:51 > 0:51:54realises he's on the right side, seizes the moment...
0:51:54 > 0:52:01That's right, and as he's the former chancellor of Henry III, he's in a good position
0:52:03 > 0:52:08and pays off these debts and buys...
0:52:08 > 0:52:15It's interesting, he buys first the advowson of the chapel and then
0:52:15 > 0:52:22three days later he buys the manor, in 1270, October 1270.
0:52:22 > 0:52:26In the purchase document, doesn't he use some word like,
0:52:26 > 0:52:31"my old friend", "associate", "dear old fellow"?
0:52:31 > 0:52:32Yes, yes, yes!
0:52:33 > 0:52:36Walter perhaps was sensitive to the passionate feelings
0:52:36 > 0:52:42aroused by the failed revolution, best perhaps let bygones be bygones.
0:52:46 > 0:52:49This is what you've really come to see.
0:52:49 > 0:52:52Wow! That's just wonderful.
0:52:54 > 0:52:56So when was this built, Julian?
0:52:56 > 0:53:00It was finished in 1291 and it was built to be fireproof.
0:53:00 > 0:53:02A stone roof. You can see there's no wood in the roof.
0:53:02 > 0:53:05There's no wood in the floor, it's all stone and tile.
0:53:05 > 0:53:08So it's state of the art for the late 13th century.
0:53:08 > 0:53:14'And here are 750 years of the records of Kibworth Harcourt,
0:53:14 > 0:53:19'an almost unbelievable treasure trove of the social life of the village.
0:53:20 > 0:53:24'And they even have Saer's sale document.'
0:53:24 > 0:53:28I cannot believe that this is...
0:53:28 > 0:53:29Whose seal is that?
0:53:29 > 0:53:31That's de Harcourt.
0:53:31 > 0:53:34That's the Harcourt seal.
0:53:34 > 0:53:36Here's the text.
0:53:36 > 0:53:39"Saer de Harcourt sends greetings"
0:53:39 > 0:53:45and then saying he's "conceded and by this charter confirmed come Walter de Merton."
0:53:45 > 0:53:48Absolutely great! "My dear friend."
0:53:48 > 0:53:51Taking the shirt of my back, my dear friend and fellow.
0:53:51 > 0:53:53MUSIC DROWNS OUT SPEECH
0:54:07 > 0:54:12Across the courtyard is the early 14th century college library.
0:54:15 > 0:54:17Isn't this wonderful?
0:54:17 > 0:54:22The oldest, continuously functioning library in the world.
0:54:22 > 0:54:28And here is the earliest complete survey of Kibworth and its people.
0:54:28 > 0:54:31The magic of the parchment trail.
0:54:31 > 0:54:35It's one of those medieval documents where the life of the past,
0:54:35 > 0:54:39the life of the people of the past, just comes leaping off the page.
0:54:39 > 0:54:45It's a list drawn up by the estate managers of Merton College in the 1280s.
0:54:45 > 0:54:49The first description of the village of Kibworth Harcourt,
0:54:49 > 0:54:52and in it are listed all the families of the village.
0:54:52 > 0:54:57The Polles, we can trace them over 15 generations. The Browns,
0:54:57 > 0:55:03a branch of whose family will become aldermen in Coventry and wear the ermine.
0:55:03 > 0:55:06A fabulous case of medieval social climbing.
0:55:08 > 0:55:13There are 11 free tenants and their families.
0:55:13 > 0:55:18There's 27 customary tenants, they're people who owed part of their labour to their lord.
0:55:18 > 0:55:22There are seven cottagers, people who did jobs in the village.
0:55:22 > 0:55:24A washer woman or thresher.
0:55:24 > 0:55:28And there's a dozen other families who have no land.
0:55:28 > 0:55:31A wonderful snapshot of the village.
0:55:31 > 0:55:35Suddenly with this, the village and its people come to life.
0:55:40 > 0:55:46And who better to introduce the Kibworth people of the past than today's villagers?
0:55:46 > 0:55:48Emma Gilbert, villein.
0:55:50 > 0:55:51Robert the doctor.
0:55:53 > 0:55:56Alice Starr, Matilda Starr.
0:55:56 > 0:55:59Sisters!
0:55:59 > 0:56:02Robert the thresher, cottage holder.
0:56:02 > 0:56:04Beatrice Sybble, villein.
0:56:04 > 0:56:06Henry Polle, freeman.
0:56:06 > 0:56:08Richard Polle, freeman.
0:56:08 > 0:56:10John Polle, villein...
0:56:10 > 0:56:12ALL: Cousins!
0:56:13 > 0:56:14Alice the washer woman.
0:56:15 > 0:56:17Robert the broker.
0:56:17 > 0:56:20Scalastica, villein and widow.
0:56:20 > 0:56:22John Goodyear, villein.
0:56:22 > 0:56:25- Hugh Bond, villein.- Will Raines.
0:56:25 > 0:56:27Henry Button, freeman.
0:56:38 > 0:56:43And for almost 750 years, the relationship has continued.
0:56:43 > 0:56:49On behalf of the college choir, can I say what a very great pleasure it is for us to be with you this evening
0:56:49 > 0:56:52and to bring greetings from the Warden and fellows at Merton.
0:56:52 > 0:56:56Our founder, Walter de Merton, would be pleased to know that
0:56:56 > 0:57:03the relationship between his college and Kibworth is alive and well today.
0:57:03 > 0:57:07Ladies and gentlemen, the choir of Merton College Oxford.
0:57:19 > 0:57:21CHORAL MUSIC
0:57:33 > 0:57:38So that's how Merton College became the lord of the manor of Kibworth Harcourt,
0:57:38 > 0:57:42after the triumphs and the tragedies of the Barons' War.
0:57:42 > 0:57:46By that time in the 1260s, the people of Kibworth
0:57:46 > 0:57:52have already known Roman lords, Anglo-Saxons, Vikings and Normans.
0:57:52 > 0:57:56So how will it fare now with an Oxford College?
0:57:56 > 0:58:00And how will the villagers cope with the horrors that lie ahead
0:58:00 > 0:58:03in the 14th century the most catastrophic in our history?
0:58:03 > 0:58:06That's the next chapter of the story.
0:58:18 > 0:58:23Next in the Story of England, the Great Famine and the Black Death.
0:58:23 > 0:58:26Times of trial and times of hope.
0:58:44 > 0:58:47Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:47 > 0:58:50E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk