Thrale history

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Much water was to flow along Isaac Walton’s beloved gentle Lea from the time of the building of the dykes to the first recorded references to parish land. Robert de Gorham, eighteenth abbot of St.Albans (1151-1166), being of a generous nature, assisted Laurence, abbot of the impoverished abbey Westminster, and gave many gifts to him. The latter showed his ingratitude by stirring up strife over territory on the borders of the two abbey estates "between the river at Marford and the land of Sandrugge, and over other lands and possessions, thus raking up petty quarrels which had been laid to rest."⁴ The quarrels between the two overlords of the adjacent parishes of Sandridge and of Wheathampstead, which was to last for a great number of years, had thus begun.

The greatest strife over boundaries was to come two and a half centuries later. Lying between Sandridge and Wheathampstead, a mile north of Sandridge church, is an uncultivated area, known as Nomansland. Such lands were usually dedicated to the devil, and it was considered dangerous to break them up by means of cultivation.⁵ This common lay between the domain of the Abbey of St Albans, namely Sandridge on the south, and that of Westminster Abbey on the north. Both abbots claimed it, although its name implies that it was extra-parochial, and it was a source of frequent disputes between them. The right to erect gallows was one eagerly sought for, and firmly held, not because people particularly wanted to hang one another, but because the erection of the gallows established in time rightful ownership. About the year 1417 Richard Wyth, bailiff of the Abbot of Westminster, erected a gallows on Nomansland to the injury of the manor of Sandridge and the Abbey of St Albans. The gallows stood there unmolested for ten years as an indication of the ownership of Westminster. The year following the gallows were hewn down by swords and axes, no one knowing by whom, or so, at least, the chronicler says. Immediately John Wyth, the bailiff of Westminster, re-erected them, and the abbot of St Albans, having taken legal advice, had them pulled down once more. In this his servants and tenants were assisted by some Wheathampstead folk who happened to be passing. But the parishioners of Wheathampstead apparently had misgivings as to their imprudence in supporting St Albans against their own overlord. When Rogation-tide, the recognised time of beating parish boundaries, was upon them, they at about seven o’clock in the morning “In fear of their skins”, stealthily made perambulation of the disputed territory, leaving as a sign of their activities a small piece of wood fashioned as a cross lying on the ground. The next day the abbot of St Albans, considering this a piece of sharp practice by the Wheathampstead folk, sent out his own servants to reconnoitre; they returned reporting that they had seen no one except a few fellows lurking behind hedges, and had met with no opposition. Whereupon Sandridge led by the vicar, beat the bounds properly, according to their claims. They sang hymns as they went, and chanted the Gospel of the day and returned unmolested.

In July 1428 a shepherd of Wheathampstedbury died suddenly on Nomansland while lending his sheep. The vicar of Sandridge claimed the body for burial on the grounds that the soil belonged to the abbot of St Albans. But the people of Wheathampstead seized the body, bore it to their church and buried it in that churchyard even while litigation was pending between the two abbots, the body having had no inquest held over it by the coroner. The next year an understanding was reached John Fray, Baron of the Royal Exchequer, with the clerk of the cellarer, made a tour of the boundaries; on the following day at about three hours before supper there was an assembly of the steward of St Albans Abbey, a lawyer of St Albans living at Sopwell and general adviser to the Abbey, the abbey cook, the bailiff of the abbot of Westminster and also the steward, and several tenants of both parties. A description of the bounds was read according to the evidences of Westminster, and John Adam, “an exceedingly old man far advanced in years” bore witness that the said heath was common land of both parties and not of one only.

If the land in question was in fact common to both abbeys, one would assume that neither would claim the right to erect gallows upon it, but sooner or later the abbot of Westminster had the audacity to erect another gallows upon Nomansland. These were promptly cut down by Robert Belamy, a Sandridge farmer, and Matthew Bepsette, a domestic servant of the abbot of St Albans. The two men also carted away the materials. This took place on 14th November 1434, and the dispute arising therefrom lasted nearly six years. An attempt to settle it by arbitration proved fruitless, because neither abbot would yield his claims. The abbot of St Albans put the blame, if any, for the destruction

Footnotes

4. Gesta Abbatum Monasterii Sancti Albani 793 - 1411. 1. 134. Compiled by Thomas Walshingham. Three volumes.↩︎
5. G.L.Gomme, The Village Community, p.115.↩︎