Castor
| Castor | |
| Northamptonshire | |
|---|---|
 St Kyneburgha's Church, Castor | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | TL124985 |
| Location: | 52°34’23"N, 0°20’35"W |
| Data | |
| Population: | 817 (2001) |
| Post town: | Peterborough |
| Postcode: | PE5 |
| Dialling code: | 01733 |
| Local Government | |
| Council: | Peterborough |
| Parliamentary constituency: |
North West Cambridgeshire |
| Website: | Castor Home Page |
Castor is a village in the Soke of Peterborough in Northamptonshire, about four miles west of Peterborough city centre, and just north of the River Nene, which marks the border with Huntingdonshire.
Name
Castor's name is derived from the Old English "ceaster", possibly referring to the Roman fort across the River Nene known as Durobrivae (later known as 'Dornford', by modern Water Newton), or more probably referring to the massive Praetorium on the hilltop at Castor.[1][2]
Parish church
The Church of England parish church of St Kyneburgha is notable for its Romanesque architecture and includes notable mediæval wall paintings. It is a Grade I listed building.[3]
The church is unique in its dedication, there being no other 'Church of St Kyneburgha' anywhere in the world.[4] It is named after the foundress of the Abbey of Medehamstead (Peterborough).
History
Roman
In the Roman period, there was a huge palatial structure at Castor. This was extensively excavated in the 1820s by Edmund Artis, the agent for the Fitzwilliam estate, who published a volume of illustrations about his work, which he suggested was a Praetorium. Recent small-scale work has confirmed that it extended over a considerable area: Roman buildings covered an area of 9.3 acres and had at least 11 rooms with tessellated floors and mosaics, at least two bathhouses and several hypocausts. The masonry which survives points to a monumental architecture indicating two major phases of building. [5]
A recent survey by Stephen Upex suggested that the earlier smaller building dates to the 2nd century, but that the major palatial building dates to 240 – 260 AD. The structure is linked to a similar structure at Stonea 35 km to the south. It is suggested that in the Roman period, the Fens were a vast imperial estate and that at first Stonea was the seat of the procurator where the taxes were collected, and that after 250 this function was transferred to Castor.
This Praetorium must be seen in conjunction with the town of Durobrivae on the other side of the river Nene. The whole area was the centre of the Nene valley pottery industry which was one of the three major pottery producing areas in late Roman Britain, producing pottery on an industrial scale.
The Praetorium appears to have been abandoned in the fifth century and there is a hiatus till the late 7th and 8th centuries, when finds from the area suggest considerable high-status activity. It is suggested that during the 7th century the former Roman site became the focus of the nunnery of St Kyneburgha, founded before 664.[6]
Anglo-Saxon period
Kyneburgha (d. c. 680) and Kyneswide were sisters, the daughters of King Penda of Mercia, the sisters of Peada of Mercia; their mother was Kynewise. Kyneburgha married Alhfrith of Deira, co-regent of Northumbria (who attended the Synod of Whitby in 664),[7] but later founded an abbey for both monks and nuns in Castor.[8] She became the first abbess. She was buried in her church, but her remains were translated, before 972,[9] to Peterborough Abbey, now Peterborough Cathedral. She had been one of the signatories, together with her brother Wulfhere, of the founding charter of Peterborough Abbey, dated 664.[10] While there is substantial doubt about the authenticity of the charters conveniently discovered by the monks in a later age as evidence of the abbeys extensive legal privileges, the easly foundation is accepted.
The Danes laid waste to the area in around AD 870.
Later Middle Ages
The Robin Hood and Little John Standing Stones were erected here between the 12th and 14th centuries in an agreement with the abbot of Peterborough Abbey that tolls would not be levied on the passage of stone from the abbey's quarries at Barnack.[11]
Modern
The common lands of Castor and the neighbouring parish of Ailsworth were not enclosed until 1898.[12]
The route of the London and North Western Railway branch line between the county's two great towns, Northampton and Peterborough, passes through the parish. It was opened in 1845, including Castor railway station built to serve the village. British Railways closed the station in 1957 and the line in 1966, and Castor station has been demolished. The Nene Valley Railway reopened the section of line through Castor in 1977, but has not reopened a station at Castor.
The £9 million dual-carriageway Ailsworth and Castor Bypass, which is part of the A47 road, was opened in September 1991.
On television
An episode of Series 18 of Time Team was filmed here and broadcast in 2011.
See also
Outside links
 |
("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Castor) |
- Church architecture
- Mediæval wall paintings (of St Catherine on her wheel)
- The archives of the parish churches of Castor, Ailsworth, Milton, Upton and Sutton
References
- ↑ Ekwall, Eilert, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 4th edition, 1960. p. 89, 92 ISBN 0198691033
- ↑ Kelly, S.E. (ed.), Charters of Peterborough Abbey, Anglo-Saxon Charters 14, Oxford University Press, 2009, p. 5.
- ↑ Castor Church
- ↑ Peterborough Hidden Heritage
- ↑ Stephen Upex in Britannia vol 42, 2011 pages 23 – 112
- ↑ Dugdale's Monasticon prints the foundation charter of Burh/Medehampstead, dated 664, which establishes beyond doubt that Kyneburg had left her husband to found and preside over her monastery at Castor: "Formerly a queen, who had resigned her sway to preside over a monastery of maidens".
- ↑ Bede(d. 735), Ecclesiastical History of the English People.
- ↑ Dugdale's Monasticon prints the foundation charter of Burh/Medehampstead, dated 664, which establishes beyond doubt that Kyneburg had left her husband to found and preside over her monastery at Castor: "Formerly a queen, who had resigned her sway to preside over a monastery of maidens".
- ↑ The account of the translation is from the Anglo Saxon Chronicle, dated 972: "Abbot Aelfsi took up St Kyneburgh (with her sister and a female kinswoman) who lay at Castor and brought them to Burh and offered them all to St Peter in one day".
- ↑ Dugdale's Monasticon: Peterborough, vol 1, p.377, no.2, prints the charter of 664.
- ↑ Robin Hood and Little John Standing Stones. Peterborough Hidden Heritage. Retrieved 31 August 2010. For the abbey's quarries at Barnack, see e.g. Kelly, S.E., op. cit., p. 292.
- ↑ Taylor, Christopher (1982) [1975]. Fields in the English Landscape. Archaeology in the Field Series. London: J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd. p. 153. ISBN 0-460-02232-6.