Editing Thaxted (section)

==History==
According to ''A Dictionary of British Place Names'', Thaxted derives from the [[Old English]] ''thoec'' or ''þæc'' combined with ''stede'', being a "place where thatching materials are got".<ref>Mills, Anthony David (2003); ''A Dictionary of British Place Names'', [[Oxford University Press]], revised edition (2011), p.455. {{ISBN|019960908X}}</ref> In the 1086 ''[[Domesday Book]],'' the settlement is referred to as 'Tachesteda' and in subsequent official records variously as "''Thacstede",''<ref name=":10">{{Cite book|last1=Thomas of Ely|first1=fl 1174|url=https://archive.org/details/libereliensisadf01thom|title=Liber Eliensis, ad fidem codicum variorum|last2=Richard of Ely|first2=d 1194? supposed author|date=1848|pages=176|publisher=Londini, Impensis Societatis }}</ref> "''Thaxstede''", "''Thackestede''" and "''Thakstede''",<ref>See for example the entries in the various [[Patent roll#Online availability|Calendars of Patent Rolls]] published by the Public Record Office.</ref> amongst other spellings.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Thaxted :: Survey of English Place-Names|url=https://epns.nottingham.ac.uk/browse/Essex/Thaxted/532858efb47fc40a98000ea8-Thaxted|access-date=2020-11-07|website=epns.nottingham.ac.uk}}</ref> As late as the nineteenth century, the spelling "''Thackstead''" was still in use.

Thaxted developed as a [[Anglo-Saxons|Saxon]] settlement on a [[Roman roads in Britannia|Roman road]].<ref name=Guardian2007>[https://www.theguardian.com/news/2007/jun/02/guardianspecial4.guardianspecial236 "Thaxted – Tilty, Essex"], ''[[The Guardian]]'', 2 June 2007. Retrieved 1 August 2018</ref> There was a Roman villa to the east of the current town<ref>{{Cite book|last=Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments and Construction of England|url=https://archive.org/details/inventoryofhist01grea|title=An inventory of the historical monuments in Essex: 74: Thaxted|publisher=H. M. Stationery Office|year=1916|location=London|pages=302}}</ref> and Roman artefacts have been discovered in the area.<ref name="OxfordArchaeology" /> The [[British Museum]] holds a Roman bronze head of [[Dionysus|Bacchus]] found at Thaxted in the nineteenth century.<ref>{{Cite web|title=statuette {{!}} British Museum|url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/H_1865-0620-7|access-date=2020-10-07|website=The British Museum|language=en}}</ref> The first documented record of Thaxted, including a church, is in the [[Liber Eliensis]], describes a gift of land in "Thacstede" by a woman named Æthelgifu at some time between 881 and 1016.<ref name=":10" />

Archeological research of the area by [[Oxford Archaeology]] in 2007 produced finds showing [[Bronze Age Britain|Bronze Age]], late [[British Iron Age|Iron Age]], [[Roman Britain|Roman]], [[Late Middle Ages|late medieval]] and [[Post-medieval archaeology|post-medieval]] occupation, including flint fragments, floor and roof tiles, pottery [[sherd]]s, ditch [[Enclosure (archaeology)|enclosures]], graves, and skeletal remains.<ref name="OxfordArchaeology">Stansbie, D.; Brady, K.; Biddulph, E.; Norton, A.; [https://library.thehumanjourney.net/2872/1/THAX07_publication_report.pdf "A Roman cemetery at Sampford Road, Thaxted, Essex"], ''Archeological Publication Report'' (January 2008), [[Oxford Archaeology]]. Retrieved 1 August 2018</ref> A further archeological excavation in the centre of the town by the Colchester Archeological Trust in 2015 found a large medieval ditch which may have been a part of the town's defences, 15th- to 16th-century artifacts, and fragments of animal bone waste, mainly from cattle.<ref name="ColArch">[https://www.thecolchesterarchaeologist.co.uk/?p=18798 "Fascinating medieval finds from historic Thaxted"], The Colchester Archeologist, 19 March 2015. Retrieved 1 August 2018</ref>

In the 1086 ''[[Domesday Book]]'', the settlement, in the [[Hundred (county subdivision)|Hundred]] of [[Great Dunmow|Dunmow]], consisted of 108 households with a population of 54 [[Serfdom#Villeins|villagers]], 34 [[Smallholding#Smallholdings in Britain|smallholders]], 16 slaves, and 4 [[Serfdom#Freemen|freemen]]. The land supported 28.5 plough teams—being seven lord's teams and 21.5 men's teams—and contained two mills, meadow of {{convert|154|acre|km2}}, and woodland with 850 pigs. In 1066 there were four [[Cob (horse)|cobs]], 36 cattle, an additional 128 pigs, 200 sheep, and 10 beehives. The sheep had increased to 320, and the beehives to 16, by 1086. In 1066 the lord was [[Wihtgar Ælfricsson|Wihtgar]], son of [[Ælfric Modercope|Aelfric]], who was lord or overlord of 27 other manors, chiefly in west Essex. After 1086 the lordship of Thaxted was given in part to Warner, and to [[Richard fitz Gilbert]]—son to [[Gilbert, Count of Brionne]]—who was also [[Tenant-in-chief]] to [[William the Conqueror|the king]].<ref>{{OpenDomesday|OS=TL6131|name=thaxted|display=Thaxted|accessdate=1 August 2018}}</ref>
[[File:Thaxted-1-w1140h500.jpg|thumb|282x282px|The town crest, depicting two crossed swords, derives from the crest of the [[Worshipful Company of Cutlers|cutlers' guild]], a reference to the once thriving cutlery industry in the town.]]
During the Middle Ages, Thaxted prospered as a centre for the production of cutlery. This association is recalled by the town's well-known [[Thaxted Guildhall|guildhall]], by the [[c:File:Thaxted-1-w1140h500.jpg|town badge]] which consists of [[Worshipful Company of Cutlers|two crossed swords]], and in the name of the nearby hamlet of [[Cutlers Green]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Cutlers Green :: Survey of English Place-Names|url=https://epns.nottingham.ac.uk/browse/Essex/Thaxted/532858bab47fc40a980009ba-Cutlers+Green|access-date=2020-11-08|website=epns.nottingham.ac.uk}}</ref> Why a town like Thaxted, lacking in the natural resources required for the large-scale manufacturing metal products, should have developed this industry is unclear.<ref name=":5">{{Cite book|last=Newton|first=Kenneth Charles|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j06AAAAAIAAJ|title=Thaxted in the Fourteenth Century: An Account of the Manor and Borough, with Translated Texts|date=1960|publisher=Essex County Council|pages=21|language=en}}</ref> Although it had been assumed that Thaxted's cutlers were finishing blades made elsewhere, excavations undertaken in 2015 in Orange Street found evidence to support the work of [[bladesmith]]s alongside cutlers/hafters.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Pooley|first=Laura|title=Archaeological evaluation and excavation on land to the north of Orange Street, Thaxted, Essex, CM6 2LH: January and April-May 2015|url=http://cat.essex.ac.uk/reports/CAT-report-0810.pdf|access-date=2020-10-31|website=cat.essex.ac.uk|publisher=Colchester Archaeological Trust|page=35}}</ref><ref>In the Middle Ages, the term "cutlery" did not refer to tableware, as it does today, but to the manufacture of blades, knives and swords. The manufacturing process involved the work of a blademith (who forged the metal blade), a hafter (who made the handle from wood or bone) and a cutler (who finished the sharpened and polished blade with its handle).</ref>

The cutlers seem to have been already well-established by the beginning of the fourteenth century: in 1310, a cutler named Adam de Thakstede had prospered enough to purchase the [[freedom of the City of London]] and set up business in [[Cheapside]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Welch|first=Charles|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofcutlers01welcuoft|title=History of the Cutlers' Company of London and of the minor cutlery crafts, with biographical notices of early London cutlers; Volume 1|year=1916|location=London|pages=71}}</ref> A manuscript in the [[Bodleian Library]] indicates that Thaxted was already widely identified with its cutlery by the 1320s.<ref>"Cotels de Thaxsted" in MS. Douce 98, ff.195-6, Bodleian Library</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Bonnier|first=C.|date=1901|title=List of English Towns in the Fourteenth Century|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/549210|journal=The English Historical Review|volume=16|issue=63|pages=501–503|doi=10.1093/ehr/XVI.LXIII.501|jstor=549210|issn=0013-8266}}</ref> The 1381 Poll Tax returns indicate 79 cutlers established in Thaxted, alongside other related trades such as smiths and sheathers.<ref name=":5" />

This artisanal development had an effect on the economic and social dynamics of the town, shifting from a [[Feudalism in England|feudal agricultural model]], in which most people were dependent on and laboured for the [[lord of the manor]], to an urban industrial model where many people were employed and more autonomous.<ref name=":6">{{Cite book|last=Newton|first=Kenneth Charles|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j06AAAAAIAAJ|title=Thaxted in the Fourteenth Century: An Account of the Manor and Borough, with Translated Texts|publisher=Essex County Council|year=1960|pages=22|language=en}}</ref> The right to hold a market was granted in 1205.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Heritage Gateway – Essex Historic Environment Record No. 1397|url=https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=MEX4992&resourceID=1001|access-date=2020-11-03|website=heritagegateway.org.uk}}</ref> Sometime during the first half of the fourteenth century, certain town inhabitants acquired the status of burgesses (''burgenses)'' living within an area of the town known as the [[Ancient borough|borough]] (''burgus''), achieving some degree of freedom from obligations toward the manor.<ref name=":6" /><ref>The farm, and the bridge over the Chelmer, at the bottom of Bolford Street still carry the name "The Borough" to this day.</ref>
[[File:Thaxted Guildhall - geograph.org.uk - 845293.jpg|thumb|282x282px|Thaxted Guildhall, with Stoney Lane leading up to the Parish Church]]
However, this independence "did not extend to any real measure of self-government".<ref name=":6" /> The exact date that Thaxted first acquired formal [[Ancient borough|borough status]] is unknown but the 1556 charter states that Thaxted "is an ancient borough and had from time immemorial a mayor and other officers and ministers and was endowed with diverse liberties".<ref name=":4">{{Cite web|last=Public Record Office|title=Calendar of the patent rolls, preserved in the Public Record Office; Volume 3 (1555-1557)|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=msu.31293027026446&view=1up&seq=166&q1=thaxted|access-date=2020-10-25|website=HathiTrust|page=154|language=en}}</ref> Royal documents from the end of the fifteenth century refer to the "manor and borough of Thaxted".<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|last=Benham|first=W. Gurney|url=http://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.b2794001|title=Essex Borough arms and the traditional arms of Essex and the arms of Chelmsford diocese|publisher=Benham & Co|year=1916|location=Colchester|pages=48–51|hdl=2027/uc1.b2794001}}</ref> It seems clear however that Thaxted did not achieve self-government as a fully-fledged borough until the granting of the 1556 charter.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Newton|first=Kenneth Charles|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j06AAAAAIAAJ|title=Thaxted in the Fourteenth Century: An Account of the Manor and Borough, with Translated Texts|publisher=Essex County Council|year=1960|pages=23|language=en}}</ref>

A [[guild]] of cutlers was established during the reign of [[Edward III of England|Edward III]] (1327–77), led by a warden.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Symmonds|first=George E.|title=Thaxted and its Cutlers Guild|url=http://esah1852.org.uk/images/pdf/new-series/T2030000.pdf|journal=Proceedings of the Essex Archeological Society|volume=III (New Series)|pages=255–61}}</ref> In November 1481, [[Edward IV of England|Edward IV]], at the behest of his mother, [[Cecily Neville, Duchess of York|Cecily]], who held the manor, issued letters patent to license some residents of Thaxted "to found a fraternity or perpetual gild", empowered to regulate itself and own land.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Public Record Office|title=Calendar of the Patent Rolls (1476-1485)|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=msu.31293104198936&view=1up&seq=239&q1=cecily|access-date=2020-10-31|website=HathiTrust|page=227|language=en}}</ref> A deed of foundation of the "fraternity or perpetual guild of St. John the Baptist at Thaxted" dates from 1507.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Essex County Council|title=Deed of foundation of the franternity or perpetual guild of St. John the Baptist at Thaxted, by John Hasilwode of Thacted, only survivor of those granted licence (letters Patent) by Edward IV, at the instance of his mother Cecily, duchess of York, 4 Dec. 1480. Essex Archives Online – Catalogue: D/DSh/Q1|url=https://www.essexarchivesonline.co.uk/Result_Details.aspx?DocID=190521|access-date=2020-10-31|website=essexarchivesonline.co.uk}}</ref> The famous Guildhall is supposed to have been built by the cutlers' guild. However, it seems there was, at one time, more than one guild in existence in the town – and more than one guild hall: there is some evidence for a guild or fraternity dedicated to the Holy Rood,<ref name=":8" /> and the Ordnance Survey map of 1876 shows the site of a guild hall in Vicarage Mead, off Newbiggen Street.<ref name="NLSmap">{{cite web |title=OS Six-inch England and Wales, 1842-1952 |url=https://maps.nls.uk/view/102341834#zoom=8&lat=6342&lon=13677&layers=BT |website=National Library of Scotland |access-date=18 August 2023}}</ref> An historical account of the town in 1831 states that the "mote hall" [the extant guildhall] was being used as a school and the "guild hall" was the town workhouse.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Wright|first1=Thomas|url=https://archive.org/details/historytopograph02wrig|title=The history and topography of the county of Essex, comprising its ancient and modern history. A general view of its physical character, productions, agricultural condition, statistics &c. &c|last2=Bartlett|first2=W.|publisher=Geo. Virtue|year=1831|location=London|pages=242}}</ref>

In 1556, the town took advantage of the fact that the lord of the manor was a minor to request incorporation of the borough, which was granted by [[Philip and Mary]], allowing a town government consisting of a mayor, two bailiffs, twenty-four burgesses, a court, a recorder and two serjeants at law, amongst other officers. The Charter describes the borough as having fallen into "great ruin and decay by reason of great poverty and necessity"; the charter may have signalled an effort to revitalise the fortunes of the town and was reconfirmed by [[Elizabeth I]] and [[James VI and I|James I]].<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|last=Steer|first=Francis|title=Thaxted in Essex: A short guide to the buildings of historical and architectural interest|publisher=Thaxted Festival of Britain Committee|year=1951|pages=2–3}}</ref> However, despite efforts to encourage the development of the wool trade in the town with the creation of a guild of clothiers in 1583, Thaxted's fortunes did not return. The charter was extinguished in 1686 after the town was unable to challenge a [[quo warranto]] writ by [[James II of England|James II]].<ref name=":3" />