The Big Picture
What’s in a name Binegar and Gurney Slade – meanings and crest
Of Prebends and Prebendaries – things you will need to know
Binegar: a short history – Binegar Women’s Institute, 1974
The Barrington Papers – Delia Barrington’s research papers for A Short History
The Barrington photographs – the collection of pictures
Guest Essays
Charles Uphill and the search for the stained glass window
Jeff Parsons on an Australian’s donation to Holy Trinity’s East window, 1912
Binegar and the Blücher
Harry Crowley on prisoners of war and the German Navy’s armoured battle cruiser
A Country Fair – reminiscences of High Drowsy (Binegar) Annual Fair
Charles Hippesley Meade, 1866-1939, childhood memories (courtesy Mrs J Hill)
Dig deeper for tales of our parish – of murder, mayhem, highway robbery, sanctuary from justice and more. You will meet great men – lawyers, playrights, judges and brilliant churchmen. Judge Bracton’s words are carved in stone on Harvard University Law School Library. Richard Courtenay lies in Westminster Abbey in the same grave as King Henry V. John Claymonde was a close friend of those Renaissance Men Saint Thomas More and Erasmus. And there are thieves and vagabonds too. We have an entertaining and interesting history!
Digging Deeper
From ancient times to the Norman invasion of 1066
From 12,000BC via ancient Celtic Britons, Romans and Saxons to Edward the Confessor
Secondary neolithic and Roman site at Binegar, Somerset by E K Tratman
Roman road from Whitnell Corner to Midsomer Norton by E K Tratman
From the Norman Conquest to the Black Death 1066-1348
1066 – Normans, our parish, Domesday and the sad fate of the Saxon nobles
1080 – So, who on earth was living here on the Mendips 900 years ago?
1140 – The Whitchurch Prebend and its (scandalous) first Prebendaries
1250 – Henry de Bracton – the greatest of all our Prebendaries
1257 – William and Cicely de Wynchalse seek Sanctuary in Holy Trinity Church
1342 – Richard de Thormerton – an unlucky and absent Prebendary
1348 – The Black Death and how that Divine Wrath could be cured and prevented
From the Black Death to the English Reformation, 1348-1530
1349 – The Wells Holy Cross Fair moves to Binegar and stays 600 years
1370 – Thomas Waryn – our lost Rector found again
1374 – Richard de Courtenay – our fairest Prebendary and King Henry’s mate
1381 – Dangerous times in Somerset as the peasants revolt (and the “gentry”)
1401 – A Welsh Rector and murmurings of discontent about the state of the Church
1410 – More bad feeling about the Church with absentee rectors and prebendaries
1425 – A tough vocation for a dedicated man- a priest’s life in the 1400s
1450 – With so many absentee clerics, who did care for the souls of parishioners?
1463 – Thomas Chaundler – our clear-sighted playright Prebendary
1509 – John Claymonde – the life and fateful times of a Renaissance Man and Prebendary
1527 – William Knight and John FitzJames – divorce negotiator and Reformation legislator
From the Reformation to the English Civil War, 1530-1650
1534 – Reformation begins brutally and led by Thomas Cromwell, Dean of Wells
1535 – Rector John Dun is sued by the Dean of Wells
1543 – Highway robbery of Thomas Foxe on his way home from Binegar Fair
1548 – Bad Bishop Bill Barlow and his bounteous bequest
1599 – Bishop Still grabs Binegar Fair’s profits and writes a comedy about a needle
From the English Civil War to Victoria, 1650-1832 – the yet to be tackled
From Victoria to today, 1832 onwards
1888 – Thomas Hardy’s Binegar Fair