Report and Transactions Volume 34 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1902 Excerpt: ...by Alfred in his will to his son and successor, Edward the Elder, the first English king to bear the name of our present monarch.1 It has been suggested that these lands, extending from Stratton on one side to Cheddar on the other, "seem to follow roughly the shadowy outlines of the great Arthurian kingdom, stretching as a riverine power from Tintagel to Glastonbury,"2 but there is really little or no evidence in support of such a distinguished descent. However, the fact that the battle of Gafulford (Camelford), in 823, was fought between the Welsh and the Devons provides some reason for assuming that Hartland had been part of the Wessex royal property from the time of King Egbert. Of its history during the following century we know nothing, but it seems likely that it remained in the possession of the successive kings until the reign of Canute 1 My reasons for identifying Heortigtun with Hartland, rather than one of the Hardingtons in Somerset, are given fully in the Hartland Chronicle, October, 1901. 2 Kev. W. Greswkll, Fortnightly Review, 1899, p. 466. the Dane, and that he granted it to the great Earl Godwine, from whom it passed, probably by way of dower, to his wife Gytha. At any rate, the Domesday Survey informs us that the manor of Hertitone was held by Gytha in the time of King Edward the Confessor, and tradition says that she also built the first church at Stoke as a thank-offering for the deliverance of her husband from shipwreck in a violent tempest, presumably off our wreck-strewn coast. It is probable that at the same time she founded the college of twelve secular canons or priests which existed at Stoke before the Conquest, and endowed it with lands which were taken from her large manor of Hertitone and subsequently formed the manor...