The prefix “ripa” seems to favour a Roman origin, but no proofs of a Roman occupation can be found. If there are any, they lie hid beneath that oblong enclosure in a field to the north of Repton, near the banks of the river Trent, which Stebbing Shaw, in the Topographer (Vol. II., p. 250), says “was an ancient colony of the Romans called ‘Repandunum.’” As the name does not appear in any of the “Itineraries,” nor in any of the minor settlements or camps in Derbyshire, this statement is extremely doubtful. Most probably the camp was constructed by the Danes when they wintered there in the year 874. The name Repandunum appears in Spruner and Menke’s “Atlas Antiquus” as a town among the Cornavii (? Coritani), at the junction of the Trent and Dove!
So far as to its name. Now we will put together the various historical references to it.
“This place,” writes Stebbing Shaw, (O.R.), in the Topographer, Vol. II., p. 250, “was an ancient colony of the Romans called Repandunum, and was afterwards called Repandun, (Hreopandum,) by the Saxons, being the head of the Mercian kingdom, several of their kings having palaces here.”
“Here was, before A.D. 600, a noble monastery of religious men and women, under the government of an Abbess, after the Saxon Way, wherein several of the royal line were buried.”
As no records of the monastery have been discovered we cannot tell where it was founded or by whom. Penda, the Pagan King of Mercia, was slain by Oswiu, king of Northumbria, at the battle of Winwadfield, in the year 656, and was succeeded by his son Peada who had been converted to Christianity, by Alfred brother of Oswiu, and was baptized, with all his attendants, by Finan, bishop of Lindisfarne, at Walton, in the year 632. (Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj.) After Penda’s death, Peada brought from the north, to convert Mercia, four priests, Adda, Betti, Cedda brother of St. Chad, and Diuma, who was consecrated first bishop of the Middle Angles and Mercians by Finan, but only ruled the see for two years, when he died and was buried “among the Middle Angles at Feppingum,” which is supposed to be Repton. In the year 657 Peada was slain “in a very nefarious manner, during the festival of Easter, betrayed, as some say, by his wife,” and was succeeded by his brother Wulphere.
Tanner, Notitia, f. 78; Leland, Collect., Vol. II., p. 157; Dugdale, Monasticon, Vol. II., pp. 280-2, all agree that the monastery was founded before 660, so Peada, or his brother Wulphere could have been its founder.
The names of several of the Abbesses have been recorded. Eadburh, daughter of Ealdwulf, King of East Anglia. Ælfthryth (Ælfritha) who received Guthlac, (see p. 12). Wærburh (St. Werburgh) daughter of King Wulphere. Cynewaru (Kenewara) who in 835 granted the manor and lead mines of Wirksworth, on lease, to one Humbert.
Among those whom we know to have been buried within the monastery are Merewald, brother of Wulphere. Cyneheard, brother of the King of the West Saxons. Æthelbald, King of the Mercians, “slain at Seccandun (Seckington, near Tamworth), and his body lies at Hreopandun” (Anglo-Saxon Chron.) under date 755. Wiglaf or Withlaf, another King of Mercia, and his grandson Wistan (St. Wystan), murdered by his cousin Berfurt at Wistanstowe in 850 (see p. 15). After existing for over 200 years the monastery was destroyed by the Danes in the year 874. “In this year the army of the Danes went from Lindsey (Lincolnshire) to Hreopedun, and there took winter quarters,” (Anglo-Saxon Chron.), and as Ingulph relates “utterly destroyed that most celebrated monastery, the most sacred mausoleum of all the Kings of Mercia.”
For over two hundred years it lay in ruins, till, probably, the days of Edgar the Peaceable (958-75) when a church was built on the ruins, and dedicated to St. Wystan.