Repton and its neighbourhood

by F. C. Hipkins

In 1278 a dispute arose between the Prior of Repton and the inhabitants of the Chapelry of Measham, which had been granted to the Priory about 1271. The chancel of Measham Church was “out of repair,” and the question was, who should repair it? After considerable debate, it was settled that the inhabitants would re-build the chancel provided that the Priory should find a priest to officiate in the church, and should keep the chancel in repair for ever after, both of which they did till the dissolution of the Priory.

In the year 1364 Robert de Stretton, Bishop of Lichfield (1360-1386), was holding a visitation at Repton in the Chapter House of the Priory. For some reason or other, not known, the villagers, armed with bows and arrows, swords and cudgels, with much tumult, made an assault on the Priory gate-house. The Bishop sent for Sir Alured de Solney, and Sir Robert Francis, Lords of the Manors of Newton Solney and Foremark, who came, and quickly quelled this early “town and gown” row, without any actual breach of the peace. The monument in the crypt of Repton Church, where it was placed during the “restoration” of 1792, is supposed to be an effigy of Sir Robert Frances. “The Bishop proceeded on his journey, and, on reaching Alfreton, issued a sentence of interdict on the town and Parish Church of Repton, with a command to the clergy, in the neighbouring churches, to publish the same under pain of greater excommunication.” See Lichfield Diocesan Registers.

On October 26th, 1503, during the reign of Henry VII., an inquisition was held at Newark. A complaint was heard against the Prior of Repton for not providing a priest “to sing” the service in a chapel on Swarkeston Bridge, “nor had one been provided for the space of twenty years, although a piece of land between the bridge and Ingleby, of the annual value of six marks, had been given to the Prior for that purpose.”

THE PRIORY DISSOLVED AND DESTROYED.

The Priory of Repton was dissolved in the year 1538. By the advice of Thomas Cromwell—malleus monachorum—the hammer of the monks—Henry VIII. issued a commission of inquiry into the condition, &c., of the monasteries in England. A visitation was made in 1535, the results were laid before the House of Commons, in a report commonly known as the “Black Book.” In 1536 an Act was passed for the suppression of all monasteries possessing an income of less than £200. a year. By this Act 376 monasteries were dissolved, and their revenues, £32,000. per annum, were granted to the King, by Divine permission Head of the Church! Repton Priory was among them. In the Valor Ecclesiasticus (27 Henry VIII.) the gross annual value of the temporalities and spiritualities is given as £167. 18s. 2½d. In 1535, Dr. Thomas Leigh and Dr. Richard Layton, visited Repton and gave the amount as £180. Also they reported, as they were expected, that the Canons were not living up to their vows, &c., &c., and “Thomas Thacker was put in possession of the scite of the seid priory and all the demaynes to yᵗ apperteynying to oʳ sov’aigne lorde the Kynges use the xxvj day of October in the xxx yere of oʳ seid sov’aigne lorde Kyng henry the viijᵗʰ.” There is a very full inventory of the goods and possessions in the Public Record Office, Augmentation Office Book, 172. A transcript of this inventory is given by Bigsby in his History of Repton, also by W. H. St. John Hope, in Vol. VI. of the Derbyshire Archæological Journal. From this inventory, and Mr. St. John Hope’s articles in the journal, a very good account and description can be given of the Priory as it was at the time of its dissolution.

The dissolved Priory was granted to Thomas Thacker in 1539, he died in 1548, leaving his property to his son Gilbert. He, according to Fuller (Church History, bk. vi., p. 358), “being alarmed with the news that Queen Mary had set up abbeys again (and fearing how large a reach such a precedent might have), upon a Sunday (belike the better day, the better deed) called together the carpenters and masons of that county, and plucked down in one day (churchwork is a cripple in going up, but rides post in coming down) a most beautiful church belonging thereto, saying “he would destroy the nest, for fear the birds should build therein again”.” The destruction took place in the year 1553. How well he accomplished the work is proved by the ruins uncovered during the years 1883-4.

This Gilbert died in 1563, as set forth on the mural tablet in the south aisle of Repton Church, a copy of which I have made, so that my readers may see what sort of a person he was who “wrought such a deed of shame.” Gilbert sold the remains of the Priory to the executors of Sir John Port in 1557, he and his descendants lived at the Hall till the year 1728, when Mary Thacker, heiress of the Manor of Repton Priory, left it, and other estates, to Sir Robert Burdett, of Foremark, Bart. Since that time the Hall has been occupied by the Headmasters of Repton School.

REPTON PRIORY DESCRIBED.

The Priory followed the usual plan of monastic buildings, differing chiefly in having the cloister on the north of its church, instead of the south. This alteration was necessary owing to the river Trent being on the north. In choosing a site for monasteries the water supply was of the first consideration, as everything, domestic and sanitary, depended on that. The Conventual buildings consisted of Gate-house, Cloister, with Church on its south side, Refectory or Fratry on its north. The Chapter Rouse, Calefactorium, with Dormitory above them, on its east side. Kitchens, buttery, cellars, with Guest Hall over them, on its west side. The Infirmary, now Repton Hall, “beside the still waters” of the Trent, on the north of the Priory. The Priory precincts, (now the Cricket ground), were surrounded by the existing wall on the west, south, and east sides; on the north flowed, what is now called, “the Old Trent,” and formed a boundary in that direction.