Chronicle
There are very few villages in England that have a contemporary account of local events written during the Anglo-Saxon era of our national history. Fortunately, Lastingham is just such a village.
By about AD410 the Roman Legions had finally withdrawn and Britain was invaded from the east by pagan Germanic tribes. The indigenous Celtic inhabitants were driven westwards and the invaders created new Anglo-Saxon communities in succession. The lands between the Humber and Tees were settled early and became known as Deira, part of Northumbria, one of the seven Anglo-Saxon kingdoms that were formed in England during the fifth and early sixth centuries.
To this area came a family or clan, called Loestings (sons of Loest), who made it their home sometime before AD600. The place became known as Lastingaeu.
Writing in AD 731, and after conversations with monks then in a monastery here, Bede gives a very full account of the founding of the monastery, in about AD654 by Cedd, who with his brothers Cynebil, Celin and Ceadda (Chad), had all been pupils of St Aidan at Lindisfarn
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(Extract from 'The Ecclesiastical History of the English People)
During his episcopate among the West Saxons, God’s servant Cedd often visited his own province of Northumbria to preach. Ethelwald, son of King Qswald, knowing Cedd to be a wise, holy and honourable man, asked him to accept a grant of land to found a monastery. In accordance with the King’s wishes, Cedd chose a site for the monastery among some high remote hills, which seemed more suitable for the dens of robbers and haunts of wild beasts than for human habitation. His purpose in this was to fulfil the prophecy of Isaiah: ..in the haunts where once dwelt dragons, with reeds and rushes, and he wished the fruits of good works to spring up where formerly lived only wild beasts, or men who lived like beasts.
Village history, from the mid-seventh century until the end of the nineteenth century, is mainly focused on the fate of the monastery, and the story of its replacement by a church, dedicated to Saint Mary.
F H Weston MA, who was Vicar here from 1904-1916, wrote and published about 100 subscription copies of a History of Lastingham (J. Whitehead & Son, Leeds, 1914) which gives an early twentieth century account of these intervening 1200 years, drawing on the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles (for the history of St Mary's), some Bodleian Manuscripts (for changes of ownership of the local [Spaunton] estate), as well as parish records (for some historical details of the village inhabitants).
From an official document dated 1743 Weston estimated that the 157 families in the village at that time would have meant a population of 785. Many of these families had been dependent on coal mining and weaving in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century but ironstone mining and iron working became of prime importance by the middle and later years of the nineteenth century.
Individual villagers of interest recorded by Weston include the Rev. Jeremiah Carter who was curate at the church from 1739 for at least a further 30 years.
Jeremiah had 11 children and his wife kept the public house. Charged by church authorities with keeping a disorderly house, Jeremiah wrote a lengthy explanation to his Archdeacon, saying it was necessary for him to play his violin in the pub to amuse his wife's customers since it reduced 'clamour', earned him much-needed extra cash, enabled him to see customers got 'no more liquor than is necessary' and meant they spent Sundays in such congeniality that they were 'imperceptibly led along the paths of piety and morality'. His explanation was apparently accepted.
'James Simpson Salman, Vicar of Lastingham from 1890 until 1904, left his detailed journals to the church, which have been transcribed and published (2019) under the title In Cedd's Footsteps... by Mike Matson, a village resident. This book gives much information about local events and families then living in the area, as well as about contemporary national, and international events, and about notable visitors to the church'. Proceeds from this book are given to charity and copies are available from The Blacksmith’s Arms, Lastingham or from The Old Police House, Lastingham.
John Jackson RA, (1778-1831) the celebrated eighteenth century artist was born in Lastingham.
Our second national celebrity was Dr Sydney Ringer, connected to Lastingham through his marriage in 1867, to Ann Darley daughter of the owner of the estate.
Robert Charter (1819-1907) was a Lastingham resident who was not recorded by Weston – probably because of his unsavoury character and personal history.
Charged with the Cropton Lane Farm Murders, Charter's deeds are told here under a separate head, prepared from an unpublished paper, researched in the 1970s, by a current (2019) Lastingham resident (copies are available from Andie Cattle: aandiec@live.com).