Timworth is a village and
civil parish
In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...
north east of
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
and east of
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
in the
West Suffolk district
West Suffolk District is a local government district in Suffolk, England, which was established on 1 April 2019, following the merger of the existing Forest Heath district with the borough of St Edmundsbury. The two councils had already had a ...
of
Suffolk
Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...
in eastern England. Located around two miles north of
Bury St Edmunds
Bury St Edmunds (), commonly referred to locally as Bury, is a historic market town, market, cathedral town and civil parish in Suffolk, England.OS Explorer map 211: Bury St.Edmunds and Stowmarket Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – ...
, its 2005 population was 50.
[ At the 2011 Census the appropriate Postal Code (IP31 1HS) showed the population as being included in ]Ampton
Ampton is a village and civil parish in the West Suffolk District of Suffolk, England, about five miles north of Bury St Edmunds.
According to Eilert Ekwall the meaning of the village name is 'Amma's homestead'.
According to the 2001 census ...
.
History
The village name is Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
for 'Tima's Enclosure' and was mentioned in the Doomesday 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 ...
as ''Timeworda'' located in the hundred of Thedwastre.
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 ...
records the population of Timworth in 1086 as 38 households along with 6 acres of meadows. The land was held by Bury St Edmunds Abbey
The Abbey of Bury St Edmunds was once among the richest Benedictine monasteries in England, until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539. It is in the town that grew up around it, Bury St Edmunds in the county of Suffolk, England. It was ...
and Richard fitz Gilbert
Richard fitz Gilbert (before 1035–), 1st feudal baron of Clare in Suffolk, was a Norman lord who participated in the Norman conquest of England in 1066, and was styled "de Bienfaite", "de Clare", and of "Tonbridge" from his holdings.G. E. ...
, before the Norman conquest of England
The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Normans, Norman, Duchy of Brittany, Breton, County of Flanders, Flemish, and Kingdom of France, French troops, ...
the lands were held by the Abbey and Wihtgar son of Aelfric.
Around the year 1200 a windmill
A windmill is a structure that converts wind power into rotational energy using vanes called windmill sail, sails or blades, specifically to mill (grinding), mill grain (gristmills), but the term is also extended to windpumps, wind turbines, and ...
situated in the village was given to the Abbey of Bury St Edmunds by the previous owner Reginald of Groton and his wife Amicia.
John of Timworth served as Abbot
Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The fem ...
of Bury St Edmunds
Bury St Edmunds (), commonly referred to locally as Bury, is a historic market town, market, cathedral town and civil parish in Suffolk, England.OS Explorer map 211: Bury St.Edmunds and Stowmarket Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – ...
between 1379 and 1389. His election to the abbacy was documented in ''Electio Johannis Tyworth'' by the Abbey almoner
An almoner (} ' (alms), via the popular Latin '.
History
Christians have historically been encouraged to donate one-tenth of their income as a tithe to their church and additional offerings as needed for the poor. The first deacons, mentioned ...
John Gosnold. This also covered the Peasants' Revolt
The Peasants' Revolt, also named Wat Tyler's Rebellion or the Great Rising, was a major uprising across large parts of England in 1381. The revolt had various causes, including the socio-economic and political tensions generated by the Black ...
which was exacerbated in the town by the election as his opponent, Edmund Bromfield, the papal nominee was supported by the townsfolk where as John was the Abbey's candidate.
There are two listed buildings
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
in the parish; the grade II listed Green Farmhouse and the grade II* listed Church of St Andrew.
Prosecutions for gleaning
Over the harvests of 1785–1787, conflict escalated between land owners and gleaners in the village. The first case was brought against Timworth shoemaker Benjamin Manning, by farmer John Worlledge in 1786, who gleaned in neighbouring Ingham. The court held that the defendant was not an inhabitant of the parish in which he gleaned, and was not entitled to the gleaning support. The court therefore decided that a stranger had no right to glean. Worlledge was awarded £26 in damages. The main advocate for the gleaners was Capel Lofft
Capel Lofft (sometimes spelled Capell; 14 November 1751 – 26 May 1824) was a British lawyer, writer and amateur astronomer.
Life
Born in London, he was educated at Eton College, Peterhouse, Cambridge. He trained as a lawyer at Lincoln's Inn, w ...
, Justice of the Peace, who had recently inherited the nearby halls at Stanton and Troston.
The second and more widely impacting case came in 1788 when Mary Houghton, the wife of James a shoemaker and one of Timworth's last remaining freeholders, gleaned on the farm of James Steel, who subsequently sued for trespass. The court found in favour of Steel awarding him £35 5s, and ruled that no person has a right at common law to glean the harvest of a private field. The judgement was taken to be a more general precedent for private land matters. The case was widely reported and became known as '' The Great Gleaning Case.'' The subsequent debts and hardship that the case brought to the Houghtons forced them to twice mortgage then in 1796 auction their smallholding
A smallholding or smallholder is a small farm operating under a small-scale agriculture model. Definitions vary widely for what constitutes a smallholder or small-scale farm, including factors such as size, food production technique or technology ...
, which was one of the few remaining parts of the Culford
Culford is a village and civil parish about north of Bury St Edmunds and north east of London in the West Suffolk district of Suffolk, England.
According to the 2011 Census the parish had a population of 578, a decrease from 620 recorded at ...
estate parishes not yet under the control of the 1st Marquess Cornwallis. Its purchase almost certainly enabled him to complete the enclosure
Enclosure or Inclosure is a term, used in English landownership, that refers to the appropriation of "waste" or " common land" enclosing it and by doing so depriving commoners of their rights of access and privilege. Agreements to enclose land ...
process and to bring to fruition his family's long-term plans to make it a closed parish and classic estate village.
Historical writings
In 1870–72, John Marius Wilson
John Marius Wilson (c. 1805–1885) was a British writer and an editor, most notable for his gazetteers. The ''Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales'' (published 1870–72), was a substantial topographical dictionary in six volumes. It was a c ...
's Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales
The ''Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales'' is a substantial topographical dictionary first published between 1870 and 1872, edited by the Reverend John Marius Wilson. It contains a detailed description of England and Wales. Its six volumes h ...
described the village as
In 1887, John Bartholomew
John Bartholomew (25 December 1831 – 29 March 1893) was a Scottish cartographer.
Life
Bartholomew was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. His father, John Bartholomew Sr., started a cartographical establishment in Edinburgh, and he was educated ...
also wrote an entry on Timworth in the Gazetteer of the British Isles with a much shorter description:
Notable residents
* Edward Ward, clergyman and cricketer
References
External links
STEEL against HOUGHTON ET UXOR. 1788
*
{{Authority control
Villages in Suffolk
Civil parishes in Suffolk
Borough of St Edmundsbury
Thedwastre Hundred