Sutreworde was a village and manor in historical record, also noted as Suðeswyrðe, located within the

Teignbridge Hundred Teignbridge Hundred was the name of one of thirty two ancient administrative units of Devon, England. The parishes in the hundred were: Ashburton, Bickington, Bovey Tracey, Hennock, Highweek, Ideford, Ilsington, Kingsteignton, Lustleigh, Manato ...

. The modern identity of this village has been the subject of academic debate, but is thought to have been within the parish of

Lustleigh Lustleigh is a small village and civil parish nestled in the Wrey Valley, inside the Dartmoor National Park in Devon, England. It is between the towns of Bovey Tracey and Moretonhampstead. The village is focused around the parish church of St ...

, but not at the location of the current village.

Suðeswyrðe

The village was recorded as Suðeswyrðe in the 899 will of King

Alfred the Great Alfred the Great (alt. Ælfred 848/849 – 26 October 899) was King of the West Saxons from 871 to 886, and King of the Anglo-Saxons from 886 until his death in 899. He was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf and his first wife Osburh, who bot ...

, being left to his youngest son

Æthelweard Æthelweard, also spelled Ethelweard, Aethelweard, Athelweard, etc., is an Anglo-Saxon male name. It may refer to: * King Æthelweard of the Hwicce (''fl''. 7/8th century) * King Æthelweard of East Anglia (''fl.'' mid-9th century) * Æthelweard (s ...

Domesday book

This was later recorded in the

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

of 1086 as Sutreworde,

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...

for 'south of the wood'. The manor was controlled by Ansgar the Staller as part of a 1,200 acre farm holding (4.9 km²) plus a large area of forest. Unusually for the Domesday Book,

beekeeping Beekeeping (or apiculture) is the maintenance of bee colonies, commonly in man-made beehives. Honey bees in the genus '' Apis'' are the most-commonly-kept species but other honey-producing bees such as ''Melipona'' stingless bees are also kept. ...

was mentioned as a key activity of the parish.

Identity

Scholars have previously identified Sutreworde as being the modern village of

, but this was disputed by others. Oswald Reichel identified Sutreworde as Lustleigh in his 1897 work on the Domesday hundreds, citing that it was the unaccounted land held in the Honour of Marshwood later identified as Levestelegh (Lustleigh). He rules out other places which might be named 'south wood', as they were in other honours. Other historians, including Michael Swanton, accepted Reichel's identification. Noted antiquarian and Lustleigh resident

Cecil Torr Cecil Torr (11 October 1857, Mitcham, London – 17 December 1928) was a British antiquarian and author. Early life Torr was the son a Solicitor, and was educated at Harrow School, Cecil Torr matriculated on 7 June 1876 at Trinity College, Cambri ...

disagreed and believed that Suðeswyrðe and Sutreworde refer to other settlements. Torr asserts that the settlement mentioned has features much larger than Lustleigh has ever been, and that the main evidence supporting the assertion is incomplete matching of records from the Marshwood estates. Historians

W. G. Hoskins William George Hoskins (22 May 1908 – 11 January 1992) was an English local historian who founded the first university department of English Local History. His great contribution to the study of history was in the field of landscape history. ...

and J.V. Somers Cocks both thought that Sutreworde was more likely to be

Widecombe-in-the-Moor Widecombe in the Moor () is a village and large civil parish in Dartmoor National Park in Devon, England. Its church is known as the Cathedral of the Moors on account of its tall tower and its size, relative to the small population it serves. It ...

. Later scholarship by historian Ian Mortimer has suggested that Sutreworde was in Lustleigh parish, but not at the current location of the village, but rather near the

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...

hill fort A hillfort is a type of earthwork used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze Age or Iron Age. Some were used in the post-Roma ...

at Hunter's Tor in Lustleigh Cleave on the edge of the parish, making Sutreworde a

deserted medieval village In the United Kingdom, a deserted medieval village (DMV) is a former settlement which was abandoned during the Middle Ages, typically leaving no trace apart from earthworks or cropmarks. If there are fewer than three inhabited houses the convent ...

. At the time of the Domesday Survey, there were around 155 people living in Sutreworde.

References

{{Reflist former villages in England Iron Age England Former populated places in Devon Villages in Devon