The
SokeThe term soke , at the time of the Norman Conquest of England generally denoted "jurisdiction", but due to vague usage probably lacks a single precise definition....
of Peterborough is an historic area of
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
that is traditionally associated with the City and Diocese of Peterborough, but considered part of
NorthamptonshireNorthamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census...
. It was also described as the
LibertyA Liberty was a local government unit in England. Originating in the Middle Ages, liberties were areas of widely variable extent which were independent of the usual system of hundreds and boroughs for a number of different reasons, usually to do with peculiarities of tenure...
of Peterborough, or
Nassaburgh hundred and comprised, besides Peterborough, about 30 parishes.
Today the area forms much of the City of Peterborough unitary authority area, in the ceremonial county of
CambridgeshireCambridgeshire is a county in England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west...
. The
Church of EnglandThe Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England, the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the oldest among the communion's thirty-eight independent national and regional churches...
, however, still describe the diocese as consisting of Northamptonshire,
RutlandRutland is a county of mainland England, bounded on the west and north by Leicestershire, northeast by Lincolnshire, and southeast by Peterborough and Northamptonshire....
and the Soke of Peterborough (i.e. the part of the city north of the
River NeneThe River Nene is a river in the east of England that rises from three sources in the county of Northamptonshire. The tidal river forms the border between Cambridgeshire and Norfolk for about . It is the ninth longest river in England, and the twelfth longest in the United Kingdom. From the source...
).
History
During the
SaxonAnglo-Saxons is the term usually used to describe the invading Germanic tribes in the south and east of Great Britain from the early 5th century AD, and their creation of the English nation, to the Norman conquest of 1066...
period the lord of the hundred had the power, or liberty, of holding a court and administering justice within its boundaries, and this system was subsequently continued by the Abbots of Peterborough, who either enforced in person, as lords, the observance of the ancient
socageSocage was one of the feudal duties and hence land tenure forms in the feudal system. A farmer, for example, held the land in exchange for a clearly-defined, fixed payment to be made at specified intervals to his feudal lord, who in turn had his own feudal obligations, to the farmer and to the Crown...
laws and customs, or appointed a deputy to act for them. On the establishment of
Quarter SessionsThe Courts of Quarter Sessions or Quarter Sessions were periodic courts held in each county and county borough in England and Wales until 1972, when together with the Courts of Assize they were abolished by the Courts Act 1971 and replaced by a single permanent Crown Court of England and Wales.The...
in 1349, the separate jurisdiction of the Soke was still maintained as distinct from that of the county of
NorthamptonNorthampton is a large market town and local government district in the East Midlands region of England. It is about north-west of London and around south-east of Birmingham, and lies on the River Nene...
; and, except for parliamentary purposes and matters relating to the militia, it was entirely independent of that county. Quarter Sessions for the liberty were held at the Sessions House in Peterborough, and petty sessions at the same place.
The civil government of the liberty was vested in the
Marquess of ExeterMarquess of Exeter is a title that has been created twice, once in the Peerage of England and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. The first creation came in the Peerage of England in 1525 for Henry Courtenay, 2nd Earl of Devon...
, as Lord Paramount of Peterborough and
custos rotulorumCustos rotulorum , Latin for "keeper of the rolls", the keeper of the English county records, is by virtue of that office the highest civil officer in the county...
; around 40
magistrateA magistrate is a judicial officer; in ancient Rome, the word magistratus denoted one of the highest government officers with judicial and executive powers. Today, in common law systems, a magistrate has limited law enforcement and administration authority...
s appointed by the crown; and a high bailiff of the city appointed by the
deanA dean, in a church context, is a cleric holding certain positions of authority within a religious hierarchy. The title is used mainly in the Anglican Communion and the Catholic Church.-Anglican Communion:...
and
chapterChapter designates certain corporate ecclesiastical bodies in the Roman Catholic, Anglican and Nordic Lutheran churches.The word is said to be derived from the chapter of the rule book: it is a custom under the Rule of Saint Benedict that monks gather daily for a meeting to discuss monastery...
of
Peterborough CathedralPeterborough Cathedral, or the Cathedral Church of St Peter, St Paul and St Andrew – also known as Saint Peter's Cathedral – the seat of the Bishop of Peterborough, is dedicated to Saint Peter, Saint Paul and Saint Andrew whose statues look down from the three high gables of the famous...
. The Soke had its own magistrates, who were appointed by the Lord Paramount, acting under a commission of
oyer and terminerIn English law, Oyer and terminer was the Law French name, meaning to hear and determine, for one of the commissions by which a judge of assize sat; it was also known as audiendo et terminando...
, and gaol delivery, as well as under the ordinary commission, and the magistrates for the liberty retained the power of hanging a criminal in cases of murder, which in fact they exercised so late as the year 1812. The Local Jurisdictions Act 1820, though giving the liberty bench the power to commit (for murder only) to the county
AssizesAssize or Assizes may refer to:Assize or Assizes may refer to:Assize or Assizes may refer to::;in common law countries :::*assizes , an obsolete judicial inquest...
, did not abridge their full rights of gaol delivery. The Soke had also a separate
rateRates are a type of taxation system in the United Kingdom, and in places with systems deriving from the British one, used to fund local government....
, out of which all payments were made, and a separate police force, the Liberty of Peterborough Constabulary, appointed by and under the control of the magistrates of the Soke. In 1874, the City of Peterborough was granted a Charter of Incorporation and the new council was required to appoint a watch committee and constabulary. The two were eventually amalgamated in 1946 to form the Peterborough Combined Police Force.
In the provisions of the
County and Borough Police Act 1856The County and Borough Police Act 1856 was an Act of Parliament passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The Act made it compulsory for a police force to be established in any county which had not previously formed a constabulary....
, the Weights and Measures Act 1878 and the Contagious Diseases (Animals) Act 1878, the Liberty of Peterborough, like that of the
Isle of ElyThe Isle of Ely is a historic region around the city of Ely now in Cambridgeshire, England but previously a county in its own right.-Etymology:...
, was in each instance treated as a separate county.
Quarter Sessions
The liberty justices in Quarter Sessions had long held powers in excess of those of most other Quarter Sessions. They could try and decide many serious crimes, including treason and murder, which normally could only be heard and determined in a Court of Assize, and in view of the special powers of the liberty justices, a Judge of Assize had no power to act in the Soke of Peterborough. Until the time of the
Dissolution of the MonasteriesThe Dissolution of the Monasteries, sometimes referred to as the Suppression of the Monasteries, denotes the administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541 by which Henry VIII disbanded monasteries, nunneries and friaries in England, Wales and Ireland; appropriated their income, disposed...
, the abbot had been empowered to appoint Justices of the Peace for the Hundred, or Liberty, of Nassaburgh. When Peterborough Monastery was dissolved in 1539 Abbot Chambers was made the first
Bishop of PeterboroughThe Bishop of Peterborough is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Peterborough in the Province of Canterbury.The diocese covers the counties of Northamptonshire, Rutland and the Soke of Peterborough in Cambridgeshire and has its see in the City of Peterborough, where the seat is...
, and the following year
Henry VIIIHenry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was also Lord of Ireland and claimant to the Kingdom of France. Henry was the second monarch of the House of Tudor, succeeding his father, Henry VII.Henry VIII was a significant figure in the history of the English monarchy...
granted three Commissions of the Peace to the coterminous Liberty of Peterborough. They were:
- The Commission of the Peace for the appointment of Justices to sit in Petty Sessional Courts and exercise the ordinary duties of the magistracy;
- The Commission for Gaol Delivery, and
- The Commission of Oyer and Terminer, that is to hear and determine, which empowered the Justices of the Liberty to hear assize offences at Quarter Sessions.
The last commission gave to the justices of the liberty, power to enquire more fully "... by the oath of good and lawful men of the Liberty of Peterborough, by whom the truth of the matter may be better known and by other ways, means and methods by which they shall or better know, of the treasons ... insurrections ... rebellions, counterfeitings, clippings, wastings, false comings ... murders, felonies, manslaughters ... and many other grave offences mentioned therein which in other counties are only triable by a Judge of Assize, and the Justices are commanded at days appointed for this purpose to make diligent enquiries into and to hear and determine the above mentioned offences."
In 1877
Queen VictoriaVictoria was the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837, and the first Empress of India of the British Raj from 1 May 1876, until her death...
confirmed these commissions and endorsed the ancient privileges of jurisdiction of the liberty justices and at the same time excluded the
High Sheriff of NorthamptonshireThis is a list of the High Sheriffs of Northamptonshire.The High Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the High Sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuries most of the responsibilities associated with the post have been...
from exercising his authority in the Soke. The commissions of oyer and terminer and gaol delivery were not renewed by the monarchs immediately succeeding Queen Victoria and in 1920 the
Court of Criminal AppealThe Court of Criminal Appeal is the name of existing courts of Scotland and Ireland, and a historic court in England and Wales.- Ireland :See Court of Criminal Appeal ...
quashed a conviction recorded at Peterborough Quarter Sessions. It was held that three of the liberty magistrates adjudicating at the hearing were not in order, as the assize authority of the court then derived from commissions granted during the reign of Queen Victoria. The three justices in question had been appointed to the commission of the peace subsequent to her death and only justices appointed during her reign were in order in adjudicating at such a court. This resulted in a renewal of the commissions in continuation of the ancient assize jurisdiction, and an announcement was made at the Easter Quarter Sessions in 1921 that "whatever may have happened as a result of a recent case in the Court of Criminal Appeal by authority of this Commission now granted, this Court will continue to exercise this ancient jurisdiction in the same manner as it has done under similar commissions since the days of
Charles ICharles I, , the second son of James VI of Scotland and I of England, was King of England, Scotland and Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution. Charles famously engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England...
." In fact, the justices of the liberty did not exercise their full powers, although they were always jealous of their special and historic privileges.
In 1949, the
Marquess of ExeterWilliam Thomas Brownlow Cecil, 5th Marquess of Exeter KG CMG TD , known as Lord Burghley from 1895 to 1898, was a British peer....
moved an amendment in the
House of LordsThe House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is also commonly referred to as "the Lords". Parliament comprises the Sovereign, the House of Commons , and the Lords...
to the Justices of the Peace Bill. This was necessary to safeguard the special position of the liberty jurisdiction as the new Bill provided there should be a separate commission of the peace for every administrative county and
county boroughCounty borough is a term introduced in 1889 in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland , to refer to a borough or a city independent of county council control. The Local Government Act 1972 abolished them in England and Wales, but they are still used in the Republic of Ireland and Northern...
and not for any other area. Accordingly, an amendment was accepted by the
Lord ChancellorThe Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, or Lord Chancellor, is a senior and important functionary in the government of the United Kingdom. He is the second highest ranking of the Great Officers of State, ranking only after the Lord High Steward. The Lord Chancellor is appointed by the Sovereign...
and the following paragraph was included in the Act:—
In accepting the amendment the Lord Chancellor said that in murder cases this ancient jurisdiction had survived all these years only because it had never been exercised and he added, "if the justices ever appear to act upon the powers they possess, I shall be the first to come and remove those powers for them."
The Courts of Assize and Quarter Sessions were eventually abolished in
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and
WalesWales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom, bordered by England to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It is also an elective region of the European Union...
by the
Courts Act 1971The Courts Act 1971 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom the purpose of which was to reform and modernise the courts system of England and Wales. It received Royal assent on 12 May 1971....
and replaced by a single permanent
Crown CourtThe Crown Court of England and Wales is, together with the High Court of Justice and the Court of Appeal, one of the constituent parts of the Senior Courts of England and Wales. It is the higher court of first instance in criminal cases; however, for some purposes the Crown Court is hierarchically...
.
Administrative county
Under an amendment by
Lord ExeterWilliam Alleyne Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Exeter, PC , known as Lord Burghley from 1825 to 1867, was a British peer and Conservative politician....
to the
Local Government Act 1888The Local Government Act 1888 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which established county councils and county borough councils in England and Wales...
, the Soke became a separate
administrative countyAn administrative county was an administrative division in England and Wales and Ireland used for the purposes of local government. They are now abolished, although in Northern Ireland their former areas are used as the basis for lieutenancy....
in its own right, distinct from the remainder of Northamptonshire. An elected
county councilA county council is the elected administrative body governing an area known as a county. This term has slightly different meanings in different countries.-United Kingdom:...
, consisting of a chairman, 10 aldermen, and 30 councillors, took over the administrative functions of the Quarter Sessions and had its meetings at the Guildhall; but this formal change hid a great deal of continuity, as Justices of the Peace were often elected councillors, the Clerk of the Peace became the Clerk to the Council and so on. During its life the county council gradually acquired more powers, such as taking over the functions of school boards in 1902,
boards of guardiansBoards of Guardians were ad hoc authorities that administered Poor Law in the United Kingdom from 1835 to 1930.-England and Wales:The boards were created by the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834, replacing the parish Overseers of the Poor established under the old poor law, following the recommendations...
in 1930 and various town planning and housing responsibilities from 1949. As the
fire authorityIn the United Kingdom a fire authority or fire and rescue authority is a statutory body made up of a committee of local councillors which oversees the policy and service delivery of a fire and rescue service. A fire authority is made up of either councillors, officers or representatives from the...
, under the
Fire Services Act 1947The Fire Services Act 1947 was the primary legislation relating to firefighting operations in Great Britain from just after the war, until it was repealed and replaced in England and Wales by the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004 which came about after the Independent Review of the Fire Service...
, the county council also retained
Peterborough Volunteer Fire BrigadeIn the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, the use of retained firefighters rather than volunteers is standard. The Peterborough Volunteer Fire Brigade, formed in 1884, is the only one of its kind remaining...
, one of few of its kind.
The Soke county council was granted a
coat of armsA coat of arms, more properly called an armorial achievement, armorial bearings or often just arms for short, in European tradition, is a design belonging to a particular person and used by them in a wide variety of ways. Historically, they were used by knights to identify them apart from enemy...
by the
College of ArmsThe College of Arms, or Heralds' College, is an office regulating heraldry and granting new armorial bearings for England, Wales and Northern Ireland...
in 1950. The design placed the crossed keys of
Saint PeterSimon Peter , Pétros “Rock”, Kephas in Hellenized Aramaic) was a leader of the early Christian Church, who features prominently in the New Testament Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. Peter was the son of John, and was from the village of Bethsaida in the province of Galilee...
from the arms of the Diocese of Peterborough on the silver and blue barry field of the arms of the Cecil family, Marquesses of Exeter, who held the chairmanship of the council for most of its existence. The crest was an ermine lion from the Cecil arms rising from a
mural crownIn Hellenistic culture, a mural crown identified the goddess Tyche, the embodiment of the fortune of a city, familiar to Romans as Fortuna. The high cylindrical polos of Cybele too could be rendered as a mural crown in Hellenistic times, specifically designating the Mother Goddess as patron of a...
emblematic of local government. The lion held two wheatears, symbolising agriculture. The
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe...
mottoA motto is a phrase meant to formally describe the general motivation or intention of a social group or organization. A motto may be in any language, but Latin is the most used...
adopted by the council was
Cor Unum, part of the Cecil motto
Cor Unum, Via Una or
One Heart, One Way.
The
Local Government Act 1894The Local Government Act 1894 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales outside the County of London. The Act followed the reforms carried out at county level under the Local Government Act 1888...
divided the Soke into three
districtsThe districts of England are a level of subnational division of England used for the purposes of local government. As the structure of local government in England is not uniform, there are currently four principle types of district level subdivision. They are London boroughs, metropolitan...
; the existent
cityCity status in the United Kingdom is granted by the British monarch to a select group of communities. The holding of city status gives a settlement no special rights other than that of calling itself a "city". Nonetheless, this appellation carries its own prestige and, consequently, competitions...
(1541) and
municipal boroughMunicipal boroughs were a type of local government which existed in England and Wales between 1835 and 1974, in Northern Ireland from 1840 to 1973 and in the Republic of Ireland from 1840 to 2002...
(1874) of Peterborough, and the two rural districts of
PeterboroughPeterborough was a rural district adjoining the city and municipal borough of Peterborough from 1894 to 1974. The council offices were at 51 Priestgate, in the city of Peterborough....
and
BarnackBarnack was a rural district in the Soke of Peterborough and later Huntingdon and Peterborough from 1894 to 1974.It was created in 1894 under the Local Government Act 1894, from that part of the Stamford rural sanitary district which was in the Soke Barnack was a rural district in the Soke of...
. The administrative county had an area of approximately 83 ½ square miles (216.37 km²) with only one, minor, boundary change in its lifetime. The county's population, as recorded at the ten-yearly censuses, was as follows:
| Year |
Population |
| 1901 |
41,122 |
| 1911 |
44,718 |
| 1921 |
46,959 |
| 1931 |
51,839 |
| 1939 |
58,303 (estimate) |
| 1951 |
63,791 |
| 1961 |
74,758 |
Because of the Second World War, there was no census taken in 1941. However, following the passage into law (on 05 September) of the
National Registration Act 1939The National Registration Act 1939 was an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom. It became law on 5 September 1939 as an emergency measure at the start of World War II...
, a population count was carried out on 29 September, which was, in effect, a census.
The Soke had a very small population for a county and so, in 1965, the administration was merged with that of the neighbouring small county of
HuntingdonshireHuntingdonshire is a local government district of Cambridgeshire, covering the area around Huntingdon. Historically it was a county in its own right...
, to form the slightly more viable administrative county of
Huntingdon and PeterboroughHuntingdon and Peterborough was a short-lived administrative county in East Anglia in the United Kingdom. It existed from 1965 to 1974, when it became part of Cambridgeshire.-Formation:...
. Under the Local Government Act 1974, Huntingdon and Peterborough became part of the non-metropolitan county of Cambridgeshire, as had first been proposed in 1947 and an area broadly corresponding to the Soke, called the
City of Peterborough, became one of its six
districtsThe districts of England are a level of subnational division of England used for the purposes of local government. As the structure of local government in England is not uniform, there are currently four principle types of district level subdivision. They are London boroughs, metropolitan...
. When the new Cambridgeshire county council was granted arms in 1976 it included references to those of the Soke; two keys around the neck of the dexter supporter and the motto,
Corde Uno Sapientes Simus, or
With One Heart Let Us Be Men of Understanding.
In 1998 the City of Peterborough became a
unitary authorityA unitary authority is a type of local authority that has a single tier and is responsible for all local government functions within its area or performs additional functions which elsewhere in the relevant country are usually performed by national government or a higher level of sub-national...
, but it continues to form part of Cambridgeshire for
ceremonialThe ceremonial counties are areas of England that are appointed a Lord Lieutenant, and are defined by the government as the Counties for the purposes of the Lieutenancies Act 1997 with reference to the metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties of England and Lieutenancies Act 1997...
purposes. Because of intervening development and a
new townA new town, planned community or planned city is a city, town, or community that was carefully planned from its inception and is typically constructed in a previously undeveloped area. This contrasts with settlements that evolve in a more ad hoc fashion.Navi Mumbai, a planned city near Indian city...
project in Peterborough, the present district has a much larger population than the Soke had.
Politics
For
parliamentaryThe Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom and British overseas territories. It alone has parliamentary sovereignty, conferring upon it ultimate power over all other political bodies in the UK and its territories...
purposes, the city formed a
parliamentary boroughParliamentary boroughs are a type of administrative division, usually covering urban areas, that are entitled to representation in a Parliament. The term came into use in the 19th century in the United Kingdom, when certain boroughs were disenfranchised, becoming merely municipal boroughs. The two...
returning two
membersA Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a parliament. In many countries the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a unique title, such as senate, and thus also have unique titles for its members, such as senators. Members of...
from 1541, with the rest of the Soke being part of
NorthamptonshireNorthamptonshire is a landlocked county in the English East Midlands, with a population of 629,676 as at the 2001 census...
parliamentary county. The Great Reform Act did not affect the borough, while the rural portion of the Soke was included in the northern division of Northamptonshire. The borough's representation was reduced to one member under the
Redistribution of Seats Act 1885The Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was a piece of electoral reform legislation that redistributed the seats in the House of Commons, introducing the concept of equally-populated constituencies, in an attempt to equalize representation across...
. In 1918 a new borough constituency was formed including the whole of the Soke and neighbouring parts of the administrative county of Northamptonshire. In 1948 the boundaries of the
constituencyPeterborough is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, formally styled The Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament assembled. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post...
were adjusted to correspond to those of the Soke and they remained much the same until 1970.
In the unreformed
House of CommonsThe House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 646 members, who are known as "Members...
in order to be either a candidate or an elector for a county seat, a man had to own (not rent) freehold property valued for the land tax at two pounds a year (women could neither vote nor stand for election). This was known as the 40 shilling freehold. The franchise for borough seats varied enormously. Peterborough was one of 37 boroughs in which
suffrageSuffrage is the civil right to vote, or the exercise of that right. It is also called political franchise or simply the franchise. Suffrage may apply to elections, but also extends to initiatives and referendums...
was restricted to those paying
scot and lotScot and lot is a phrase common in the records of English medieval boroughs, applied to householders who were assessed for a tax paid to the borough for local or national purposes.They were usually members of a merchant guild.Before the Reform Act 1832, those who paid scot and bore...
, a form of municipal taxation. In 1800 there were 2,000 registered voters in Northamptonshire and 400 in Peterborough. By 1835 this had risen to 576, or about one per cent of the population. The Fourth Reform Act widened suffrage by abolishing practically all property qualifications for men and by enfranchising women over 30 who met minimum property qualifications. This system, known as
universal manhood suffrageUniversal manhood suffrage is a form of voting rights in which all adult males within a nation are allowed to vote, regardless of income, property, religion, race, or any other qualification."One Man, One Vote"...
, was first used in the
1918 general electionThe United Kingdom general election of 1918 was the first to be held after the Representation of the People Act 1918, which meant it was the first United Kingdom general election in which all adult men and some women could vote. Polling was held on 14 December 1918, although the count did not begin...
.
See also
- Anglican Diocese of Peterborough
- Peterborough (UK Parliament constituency)
Peterborough is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, formally styled The Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament assembled. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post...
- Local government in Peterborough
- History of Northamptonshire
At some time in the 7th century the district which is now Northamptonshire suffered a simultaneous invasion by the West Saxons from the south and the Anglian tribes from the north, and relics discovered in the county testify to a mingling of races, at the same time showing that West Saxon influence...
External links