Everson, P. and Stocker, D. (2020). Abbot Martin’s Legacy: the ‘new town’ at Peterborough and the origins of St John’s Church. Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society 109. Vol 109, Cambridge: Cambridge Antiquarian Society. pp. 75-94.
 Title The title of the publication or report |
Abbot Martin’s Legacy: the ‘new town’ at Peterborough and the origins of St John’s Church | ||
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Issue The name of the volume or issue |
Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society 109 | ||
Series The series the publication or report is included in |
Proceedings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society | ||
Volume Volume number and part |
109 | ||
Page Start/End The start and end page numbers. |
75 - 94 | ||
Downloads Any files associated with the publication or report that can be downloaded from the ADS |
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Licence Type ADS, CC-BY 4.0 or CC-BY 4.0 NC. |
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Publication Type The type of publication - report, monograph, journal article or chapter from a book |
Journal | ||
Abstract The abstract describing the content of the publication or report |
This paper proposes a revised understanding of the origins of the town of Peterborough from that hitherto current among archaeologists and historians, and which originated, effectively, in the 17th century. In those narratives, an old town – marked by the settlement of Bondgate and the church of old St John’s – lay to the north-east of the abbey precinct, and Abbot Martin of Bec (1133-1155) created a new town against the west side of the precinct, thereby shifting the settlement’s focal core and its future history. In contrast to this, we argue that the area west of the abbey was long-established as an ancient place of congregation of a typical early medieval type; that old St John’s was a former component of the early monastery at Peterborough, ‘reformed’ to become a parish church in the 12th century; and that Bondgate was itself a new settlement created for the abbey’s servile population, as the name declares, by Abbot Martin. The several actions attributed to Martin are identified topographically and their overall coherence and important impact on the town’s topography are clarified. We explore the circumstances behind the removal of parochial responsibility from old St John’s to new St John’s on the market square and suggest a role for the chapel of St Thomas Becket, situated adjacent to the abbey gate, in that context. We note the relationship of this revised understanding of the town’s development to our separate forthcoming paper about the early history of the abbey, the church of St Margaret at Fletton and the so-called Radulfus cross at Fletton. | ||
Year of Publication The year the book, article or report was published |
2020 | ||
Source Where the record has come from or which dataset it was orginally included in. |
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Created Date The date the record of the pubication was first entered |
28 Jan 2022 |
