Page 51 - Phonebox Magazine January 2007

Bear in mind the age of Charlemagne was not yet come. Two points of interest arise out of this state of affairs. For one thing they had clearly become Christians accepting, without any hesitation, the authority of Rome. Second to note is the use here of the term ‘Bailiwick’. Most of us have long ascribed that term to the thinking of Norman times as viz the Channel Islands.
The quality of available writings becomes poor and less than informative for the period 720 to 840 but one or two snippets from that time may be helpful to future scholars. Some sort of census was undertaken around 792 which found two hundred and thirty five households amounting to eight hundred and sixteen persons over the age of twelve which would appear to have then been the age of majority. Also from this period comes the perception of Brixworth rather than such as Ely or Peterborough as the most important centre of learning and church affairs. That census essentially advises us that we are fortunate to be told anything of happenings on a small local scale from that point in time. Such a modest population in the eighth century might well have included no literate person whatsoever, and furthermore a written record calls for more than literacy alone, there must also be some motive for producing a record to stand as future evidence. If only two or three people hereabouts could read and write then that was probably more than par in those
days; in this also it becomes evident that Brixworth was the centre of learning and it was to that place that the brighter youths were directed.
The next period of meaningful material (the next tableau) occurs during the late ninth century. In context it should not be forgotten that other places were showing enhanced intellectual life at the time, especially Alfred of Wessex in this island and his friend Charlemagne beyond the channel. The classically minded Englishman sees Alfred as one of the great father figures of our nation, the inventor of the Royal Navy and victor over the Danes. The people of The Great Bailiwick were not quite so sure about Alfred as we are. Truly the Danes were driven to sue for peace and indeed the level of conflict was so reduced as permitted the economy to advance across the land, but a number of local interests were damaged or overlooked. The truce line agreed by Alfred and the Danes was drawn along the river Great Ouse, thus Emberton might have been in Wessex and Lavendon would have lain within the Dangeld.
The Bailiwick Moot held a meeting which was attended by representatives of both ‘super- powers’. It was quite some argument, the local population were clearly ready to behave in an ungovernable fashion and the ‘big boys’ were in no mood to be defied. Building stocks, ducking ponds and lock-up sheds
became a major activity and we might well have been assigned to the dust bin of history but for a young fellow called Heddon. Heddon, a local youth, was a novice in Brixworth at that time. On no initiative except his own he appealed to Rome for confirmation of Pope Leonard’s writ of 643. The appeal was more than a little successful; the response commanded the Abbot to travel to the Bailiwick of Olney for a public reading of The Bull. The reading was commanded to take place annually in or close to the principal trading place, agora or market square. That was the first recorded use of the Olney name and that was the first record of any BULL in Olney.
Now Brixworth lay within the Dangeld and the Danes attempted to impede the Abbot’s movement South. As pious pagans they would never have conceded miraculous powers to any Christian prelate, but when four of their officers died of food poisoning in one night they were at the very least superstitious enough to let the Abbot pass through their lines. With Alfred of course things stood in a very different light and he joined the Abbot in persuading the Danes that The Bailiwick was a self-governing body and must be permitted its neutral independence. The agreement thus forged was extremely beneficial to the Olnyites who maintained open trade borders
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Phonebox Magazine 51