COMING on now to the times of ascertainable history, we can still only feel our way. .How can we picture Tenbury at the dawn 'of the Christian Era? The following account is given in the Illustrated Guide to Tenbury Wells (]. Beaman, 1924):

'The earliest historical records show that this locality was occupied by British tribes, probably the Silures, who had migrated from South Wales, or the Dobuni. When the Romans came (circa 50 B. C.) they found a tribe called the Cornavii, whom they attacked and overthrew. It is doubtful if ever the Romans really subdued them; but gradually the invaders made friends with their noble foes, and taught them the arts of peace, the cultivation of the land, the making of roads, and the building of bridges.'

The Silures are said to have inhabited South Wales: the Ordovices, North Wales. One record says that Tenbury (=Tre-Caradoc) was the northern seat of the Silurian princes: Caerleon, their southern. Is it possible that the name 'Cornavii' is a variation of 'Cornubii', the original Cornish tribe? If so, there may be some connexion here with the great 'Cornwall' family of this neighbourhood, in later times.

The history of Tenbury itself, like that of most other places, is somewhat involved. It starts with a truly ambitious chapter of Legend, connecting Tenbury in the closest way with the introduction of Christianity into Britain. The legendary story cannot of course be regarded as ascertained history. On the other hand, to banish it all as pure myth would be unreasonable.

The story circles round the person of Caractacus, the great British chieftain, who was born just about the time of the birth of Christ. Some five or six miles away from Tenbury, on the road to Cleobury Mortimer, on an eastern spur of the Titterstone Clee Hill, there still exists a farmstead called 'Bransley'. This place is the reputed home of Bran, a British chief. The legend runs that Bran was father of Caractacus, [1] that Caractacus was the last of the British chieftains to withstand the conquering Romans under Ostorius, that Caractacus himself, about the year A. D. 52, was taken prisoner to Rome, and that there he so eloquently pleaded his cause before the Emperor Claudius that he was allowed to return free to his native land, where he died some two years later.

[1] Our modern historians are quite definite in their opinion : Caractacus was a son of Cunobelin (see Oman's England the Conquest}.

The legend then proceeds to tell, on less ascertainable lines, that this imprisonment of Caractacus at Rome coincided with that of St. Paul, that the Linus and Claudia of 2 Tim. iv. 21 were son and daughter of Caractacus, that Pudens was the husband of Qaudia, that this British family became Christian under the influence of the 'Apostle to the Gentiles', and that thereafter St. Paul himself was invited to pay a missionary visit, not only to Britain, but actually to the Tenbury neighbourhood.

The legend, according to local tradition, reaches its climax in the somewhat anachronous suggestion that 'St. Paul once preached in Tenbury Church'!



Anyhow, making all allowance for the exaggerations of tradition, it does indeed seem more than probable that Caractacus not only did belong to this neighbourhood, but that he was an inhabitant (and, if so, surely the most famous one) of Tenbury itself. Tenbury appears to have been his 'Llys', or 'Settlement'. For generations the 'Castle Tump' has been known as 'Caractacus's Tomb'. Close to it, on the roadside, is a well  - known as 'Caractacus's Tears', of traditional fame to our forefathers in the way of curative properties for the eye. And even if the statement should raise a smile, that Caractacus once lived in Cornwall House - a fine old Jacobean building in Cross Street, yet the cumulative evidence of all these old-world tales is strong at least for the fact that there must have been some close connexion between the man and the place.

It is of interest to note that the 'Castle Meadow', in which the 'Castle Tump' stands, though apparently in the Parish of Burford and therefore in the County of Salop, is to the extent of 7a. or 20p., together with a narrow plot of rather more than two acres, called the 'Byolets', bordered by the river-actually in the parish of Tenbury and County of Worcester.

In the Churchwardens' Accounts for 1817-18 appears the following item:

'The expenses of taking the boundary of the Castle Meadow and all round the Parish by the Vicar, Churchwardens, and others, .£1. 8s. od.'

The rates on the lower and larger part of the Castle Meadow-viz. the part below the ridge line of the old river course are still (in 1931) paid to Tenbury Parish. The fact in itself speaks of a past history in the old times, of marsh and flood, and of undrained land now reclaimed.

The whole question of the name 'Castle Meadow' is still in doubt. Was there a castle that ever stood there? If so, at what period may it have been built ? The following note in G. M. Trevelyan's History of England (1926) p.103, may throw some light on the subject:

The Mound Castles of England are Norman (see Baldwin Brown, i, pp. 106-10). The Saxons and Danes made earthwork enclosures to protect towns and royal forts, but not high mounds like those of the Norman Barons. The English Thegn's house was usually unfortified. Hence the English outcry against the high mounds, crowned by timber forts, which the Normans erected in great numbers immediately after their arrival in England.'

Is it possible that the Normans, when they came, utilized the tomb of Caractacus in some such way, and had their timber fort, or castle, on the spot? The Mound itself is still unexplored. It bears upon it two time-worn oaks; the higher one showing a knot of many roots, gnarled and rugged through exposure to the weather and the consequent wearing down of the ground. These two oaks remain of four, said to have been planted upon the Mound by Edmund Cornwall, the giant Baron of Burford, who was Sheriff of Salop in 1580, whose body lies in Burford Church, whose portrait, with the portraits of his father and mother, was painted in the Triptych of Burford Church by Melchior Salaboss, and whose great staff is still in the possession of Mr. Vincent Wheeler at Newnham Court. The Giant is said to have been 7 feet 3 inches in height. The staff is 5 feet. in height, and 5 Ib. in weight. On it is engraved the motto: 'In my defense God me defend.'

Coming back now to our more immediate subject of Tenbury's pre-Norman history, it is probably in the Welsh records of the times that a good deal may yet be discovered. Presumably it was from some of these sources— the rare remains of such men as Taliesin, lolo Goch, Dafydd ab Gwilym, or Rhydderch ab leuan  - that Mr. Tunstall Evans (himself, one may suppose, a Welshman) derived his lively and graphic information. See The History of Tenbury, by Tunstall Evans, published in 1840, by Thomas Hurst, 65 St. Paul's Churchyard, and Tenbury, Benjamin Home. The book is written with spirit; it contains a good deal of valuable matter, including six pages of somewhat highflown poetry, under the title: 'The Warrior's Grave.' But the historical evidence, so far as evidence is produced, can scarcely be viewed as founded on the lines of modern requirements. None the less, our own and future generations owe a great debt to this busy, keen, and eloquent writer, for preserving to us so much as he has done of traditional and local interest.

On the times of Caractacus, and on the centuries immediately succeeding them, a certain amount of dim light is thrown by many of the local names; more especially those connected with the ancient defences of the neighbourhood. In the Welsh records, Tenbury is referred to under various Celtic names: (i) Dinas Tend = Fort, Castle, or City, of Teme. (a) Dinas Caradoc = Fort, Castle, Llys or Settlement, of Caractacus. (3) Tre Caradoc = Town of Caractacus. Later on, it was known as Tametdeberie or Tamedeberie; later still, as Temetbury or Temedbury. To this day, the place is still called by some old-fashioned residents Tembury. An official document of the Overseers in 1714 speaks of 'our said Parish of Teambury'.

With regard to the name 'Dinas', Mr. Henry Eliot leaves this note: 'May I suggest that "Dean Park" is a corruption of the Celtic word "Dinas" = a city, applied to the locality in the times of the ancient  Britons?' Hitherto the generally received explanation has been that Dean Park was the property of the Dean and Chapter of Worcester (originally of the Monastery) and was used as their place of rest and retirement. Following up the evidence of names, it has been noted that Tenbury is the only town on the Teme which 'bears the suffix "bury", signifying a "fort" or "stronghold" ' (Beaman, p. 17). This is the usual derivation of the name (Anglo-Saxon 'byrig' = 'fort'). Some, however, would have it to mean a 'burying-place' (Anglo-Saxon 'burian'). It seems as though we may trace a chain of these forts from Ledbury by way of Woodbury, Thornbury, Tenbury, Cleobury, Knowbury, Croft Ambry, Onibury, Clunbury, Delbury, Cbirbury, &c.

Two places at least in this neighbourhood are supposed to be connected by name with the great Roman general Ostorius, who led the conquest of this part of Britain,
(1) Horse Hill, or Haws Hill, between Tenbury and Bockleton, is said to be a corruption of 'Ost Hill'.
(2) So also Horse Ditch, just below the Titterstone Clee, is said to be a corruption of 'Ost's Ditch', i. e. the dyke of Ostorius.


Here is said to have taken place the final struggle between the Britons and the conquering legions of Rome. Titterstone Camp must indeed have made a fitting last wall of defence for our British forbears of these parts. Though now a mere bank of loose stones, the Camp shows the lines of the old rampart, probably in its original condition a well-built wall of dry masonry.
Then there are the various fords on the Teme, all important of course from the military point of view - Ludford, Ashford, Little Hereford,Burford, Rochford (originally Rockford), Stamford, &c.—

Regarding Burford 'Weir' or 'Ford' see: 'The Weir at Burford':
 http://evans-experientialism.freewebspace.com/evacuee03.htm


The names to this day indicate successive parishes down the course of the river. The Rochford Camp, now a mound only, is half washed away by the Teme. The following extract, taken from Beauties of England (vol. vi, p. 401, British Museum) may throw some light on this part of our history:

'On the arrival of Ostorius, the Roman army appears to have occupied the chain of forts which Aulus Plautius, his predecessor, had constructed in the vicinity of the Severn and the Avon; and, previous to this period, the country of the Silures and Ordovices had suffered no diminution from the Roman arms. The frontier of the one, now the County of Hereford, met the frontier of the other, Shropshire, on the border of the present County of Worcester' (viz. at Tenbury or Burford); 'and these presented the nearest, if not the only, point of attack from which Ostorius could make an impression on both nations, or take advantage of circumstances to act against either.'

What form exactly the Fort or Castle of Teme ( = Dinas Tend) took, we shall now probably never know. Was its site in the 'Castle Meadow', or did it stand at the other end of the town? The 'Court', now the residence of Mr. G. E. Godson, is still the chief house in Tenbury. It was rebuilt, or rather new-built, in the middle of the last century, taking the place of a former 'moated house', a stone's throw to the south. Undoubtedly this was a fortified spot, the Kyre Brook on one side, a fosse on the other, and the whole of the ground backed by the steep Kyrewood Bank behind. On the top of this Bank may still be traced the lines of a fortified position, known as 'Arthur's Camp'. Spring water is still to be found there, as on the 'Horse Hill',  previously mentioned. So far as it goes, this is significant evidence: a water supply being recognized, alike in ancient as in modern times, as a first requisite for a fortified place. 'Caer', now 'Kyre', is the Celtic for 'Camp'. Thus we have still Kyre, Kyre Brook, Kyrewood, and, in the Church Stretton Hills, Caer Caradoc, i.e. the Camp or Hill of Caractacus.

Mr. Henry Eliot, in his notes mentioned above, appears to be doubtful as to the extent of Roman conquest in the immediate vicinity of Tenbury. He writes as followsa few of his sentences would appear to be somewhat contradictory:

'Families of ancient Britons inhabited the fertile valleys, which they were gradually clearing here and there, making oan encampment upon some adjacent eminence, where danger could be foreseen and resistedan important point, as marauding excursions and internecine warfare were the general rule. This accounts for so many British Camps to be found on commanding hills throughout the country, and for the Celtic race so easily falling before the more organized invader. The Roman arrival at Dinas Tend, according to tradition, brought about their defeat on the Burford plain. This is likely to be true, as we find few traces of them in the neighbourhood, and the Celtic Barrow (i. e. the "Castle Meadow Tump") possibly contains their slain.'


So Mr. Tunstall Evans, in his heroic lines, makes the Castle Tump the burial-place, not in the first instance of Caractacus, but of Virannius, the young and gallant leader of the Roman horse

The twain then gathered with fraternal care
Virannius' honoured ashes, and consigned
The sacred relics to the silent tomb.
That tomb still lingers in the 'Castle Mead'-
A verdant hillock, crowned with mighty oaks,
On lone spot, where the youthful hero fell.

Mr. Eliot goes on to say:

'When the Britons were subjugated, Newnham Camp was strengthened. Yet the Romans certainly did not erect a fortress, nor make any roadways through the inhospitable forest in this district. This was left to be done at a later date by the indomitable Saxons, who made extensive clearings and established places and place-names all around, e.g. Pensax, Shelsley, Eardiston (= Cerdic's Town), &c. . . . Although the Roman general, Ostorius, is said to have died subsequently at Worcester, of his wounds received in the above fight, or, as some say, of vexation, yet he is accredited with having repaired and strengthened the British Encampment at Newnham Bridge.'

In 1883 a Roman horseshoe is said to have been found beneath a buttress of the old bridge across the Rea, when in process of reconstruction. Of this spot, the following is a description given by Mr. Tunstall Evans (pp. 33, 34):

'. . . a British post which defended the lower ford of Rea, where this stream is at present crossed by Newnham Bridge, distant but half a mile from its junction withTeme. The fortification crowned an abrupt elevation on the S. W. side of the road, and was one of those formed by Ostorius, in his wars with Caradoc. Vestiges of this Roman Encampment may still be traced upon the summit of the ridge, where it looks down upon the millstream, about 200 yards below; and also along the border of the opposite declivity, which is less steep, and slopes towards the lawns of Newnham Court. ... Its shape was oval, or rather quadrangular inclining to oblong; one of its portals pointed to the mouth of the Rea, and the other opened at the N. E. end, through the rampart, commanding the pass that led down to the Ford.'

Rochford too, half-way between Newnham and Tenbury, still shows evidences of its former Camp, whether its origin be Norman or otherwise. It is a mound, only some thirty yards in diameter, close to the church and facing the river, with its ford over the old red sandstone rock. The position, as it is now to be seen, has been thus described:

'One half is washed away by the fickle river; or the declivity was thought sufficient to protect the garrison from assault on the water side, whilst watching for those who fain would cross in some troublous times.] [1]

[1] See 'Rural Rambles round Tenbury,'  - B. Home, 1846, No. iv, p. 3 5.

It was farther up the Teme, at Coxwell Knoll, near Leintwardine, that the last battle was fought by the immortal Caradoc against the Roman invader. In the centuries that followed the death of Ostorius and the submission of Caractacus, peace is said to have reigned in 'Siluria'. Here, no doubt, as else-where, the strong hand of Rome made its power felt, in the way of law and order, road-making, bridge-building, agriculture, &c. When, after four centuries of occupation, the Romans were called to defend their own country, Britain was left to fend for itself. So far as our own Tenbury neighbourhood is concerned, we may now therefore pass on to the coming of the Saxons. In A. D. 495 Cerdic and his son Cymric invaded Hampshire. Later on, he was reinforced in the south of England by other of his kinsfolk. It was not, however, till his great victory over the Britons at Cerdicesford (- Charford), in Hants in A. D. 519, that he pushed his way on to the Severn, assumed the royal title, and set up the kingdom of Wessex, or West Saxons.

Thereafter history is much obscured by Arthurian legends, telling of the heroic deeds of that brave British Prince, far-famed from his day to our own by bard and poet and legend writer. Local tradition states that the Saxons were defeated by the Britons at Newnham Bridge, on an eminence overlooking the Rea, near its junction with the Teme. This was, of course, the same British Encampment mentioned above, which had been strengthened by Ostorius during the Roman occupation. The main Saxon army, under Cerdic, is said to have been encamped at Woodbury Hill, whilst Cymric, with a strong force, lay on the rocky height at Pensax.

[N.B. Here, on Woodbury Hill, some nine centuries later, [?] A. D. 1415, Owen Glendower was defeated by Henry IV. On that, and perhaps on many similar occasions, it has been conjectured that the Welsh would probably escape up the Teme Valley. There can be but little doubt that the strong towers of our local churches were used for generations as defences against the Welsh raiders.]

From Pensax the Saxons must have marched along the hill, through Lindridge, until they met, and were defeated by the Britons at the foot of Newnham Encampment. Cerdic himself is supposed to have been defeated and slain at Shelsley, not far distant, in A. D. 534. Another account (unfortunately Mr.Eliot gives no references) brings King Arthur himself into this chapter of uncertain history. The account says: '

Arthur, nephew of the preceding King of the Silurian district.. . returning at the critical moment, when Cerdic was in motion to invade the golden plains of Lugg and Wye, through the vale of Tenbury, was with great joy saluted King of Britain. He then hasted with a small army to Caer Caradoc, and thence descending he crossed the Teme at Tenbury, and gained possession of Newnham Camp, at the distance of a league down the river, where Cerdic was defeated.'

Cerdic was succeeded by his son Cymric, who ruled till his death in 560, and considerably extended his kingdom. After Cymric came his son Ceawlin, who took from the Britons the great Roman cities of the west-Gloucester, Cirencester, and Bath (577), and extended his conquests up the valley of the Severn, as well as to the north of the Thames. Mr. Eliot's notes then continue as follows:

'The Tenbury District, formerly in Siluria, probably fell before the victorious Ceawlin about 580, and up to Offa's Dyke became included in the Kingdom of Mercia. This was formerly the stronghold of Paganism, under Penda, but became Christian when he succumbed to Oswy of Northumbria. Mercia again rose to supremacy under the Christian Kings Ethelbald, Offa, and Cynewulf, who ruled from 716 to 819 A. D.'

During the latter part of the Saxon days, the Welsh ravaged the borders almost incessantly; whilst the Saxon kings were continually at strife one with another. Finally Alfred the Great, after a glorious reign of thirty years, died in 901, leaving behind him the true legacy of the English Monarchy. After Alfred's death, his daughter Aethelflaeda, 'Lady of the Mercians',, rebuilt Chester, which had lain desolate some 300 years, since its destruction by the Saxons. She also raised some Castles along the Welsh borders, to keep out the marauders. There-from dates the long history of the Welsh 'Marches', and all the struggles fought out on them. From Chester to Chepstow can still be seen the remains of all the 'Border Castles'.

The Celts worshipped the sun and the Druids were their priests who, it is said, practiced "loathsome rituals of human sacrifice."

One of the earliest must have been Wigmore, in our own neighbourhood, rebuilt by Edward, Alfred's son and Aethelflaeda's brother. Another, and perhaps the greatest of all  the Border Castles, was Ludlow, 'Lord of the Marches', nine miles up the Teme from Tenbury. Meanwhile, from the year A. D. 732 onwards, the Danes had been systematically ravaging the eastern half of England, and had ultimately pushed their way into Wessex. King Alfred made terms with them, allowing them a kind of independent state, with power to retain their own laws and institutions. The general boundary of 'Danelagh', i. e. the Danes' Law or Community, was north and east of the old 'Watling Street' Roman road, running across Eng-land from London to Chester. It will thus be seen that our own Tenbury neighbourhood must have been comparatively free in those days from Danish irruptions or Danish influence. In A. D. 1016, at the meeting between Edmund Ironsides and Canute, it was agreed that Mercia should become Canute's. And, although we read of the Danes having been present in Worcester, Bridgnorth, Ludlow, &c., there is no evidence of their having had any permanent footing in the Tenbury district. In 876 a Danish army was starved outside Bridgnorth, after losing the fleet that brought them. The Danes did, however, make some incursions into this part of England. In 894 they were defeated at Buttingtorr, in the upper waters of the Severn, above Shrewsbury.

It would probably be about this time that the Danes came up not the Severn only, but the Teme also. Anyhow we find traces of them at Ludford and Ludlow, as well as farther south. See Gratton's Chronicles, 1569: 'About the year 900,' (probably somewhat later) 'King Edward builded and re-edyfyed Wigmore, and destroyed the Castell the Danes had made at Ludsford.' A Danish Fort is said to have existed on Dinham Hill. And though Ludlow Castle, on its  grander scale, was built by the Normans (it was begun by Roger de Montgomery, 1085), it is said to have been built on the Danish site. Mr. Eliot continues:

'The Tenbury District illustrates most forcibly its Saxon origin, in its place-names, and in the type of race predominating in it; though of course the intermixture of blood brought about by lapse of time and change of circumstance, has gone far to remove all trace of a special Nationality. In the early days, Tenbury lay away from any direct route to military or commercial centres. The formidable Severn formed a barrier to free intercourse with the more Eastern parts of the County; and, when the Severn was crossed, the wooded valleys of the Teme and Wye conducted but to the foot of the Welsh mountains, inhabited by a fierce and cruel race. Thus when the Viking, Northman, or Norman deposed the Saxon, the vanquished race was enabled to maintain its independence in the more remote districts on the Welsh Marches. Possibly also the Saxon would be considered a more desirable neighbour than the primitive Celt of the Welsh mountains:

The Saxon lives still in the West,
Twixt Celt and Norman he was prest:
Yes, both of them he's long withstood,
And still he boasts his Saxon blood.

The Saxon set his mark on places bearing names ending in the following suffixes,
(1) BURY = Beorh, Burh, Stronghold. Cf. Tenbury, Thornbury, Cleobury, Woodbury, Shrewsbury, &c.
(2) HAM = Home, Homestead. Cf. Eastham, Newnham, Doddenham, &c.
(3) TON = Palisaded Village, or Farm. Cf. Aston, Boraston, Bockleton, Clifton, Eardiston, Orleton, Knighton, &c.
(4) LEIGH = a Meadow. Cf. Abberley, Bickley, Coreley, Hanley, Martley, Shelsley, &c.
(5) FORD = a River Cross-ing. Cf. Burford, Rochford, Puddleford, Stamford, &c.

All these Saxon names indicate the presence and persistence of the Saxon race; and I believe until recently  Saxon blood remained purest down in these Welsh Marches, where Saxon names are still so prevalent. The Saxon Laws too are not yet extinct in the land; and many a proud Norman Castle raised its keep on a Saxon stronghold. It is possible that when the Saxon forced back the big, burly, black-eyed Celt on to the Welsh hills, and seized and christened Tenbury, he made the "Burh", or earthwork encampment, in the Burford "Castle Meadow", and that the Mound there may be the sole remnant of this encampment. The name "Castle Meadow" may have been applied afterwards by the inhabitants, through their becoming used to see the Normans erect their Castles on Saxon sites. Shires, Parishes, Hundreds, Townships, &c., have remained in vogue since Saxon times; and many Churches of a later date are built, no doubt, on the foundation of Saxon edifices.'


In this connexion it may be noted that, according to one authority (Reade's House of Cornwall) the ancient name of Burford House, barely a mile from the 'Tump', was 'Castle Mead'. The late Mr. John Starie de Hem said that his Uncle, when owner of the 'Hem Farm', some four miles from Tenbury, as Waywarden dug away a 'tump' on his land there to get gravel to mend a road. On the top of the mound was a tree which was cut down. Its roots had grown down to a pottery urn. The urn contained bones. It 'hung about' the Farm for some long time, and at last got thrown away, Sic transit gloria muridi.