[Illustration: Plate 1. Repton Church.] REPTON AND ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD: A DESCRIPTIVE GUIDE OF THE ARCHÆOLOGY, &c., OF THE DISTRICT. _Illustrated by Photogravures, &c._ BY F. C. HIPKINS, M.A., F.S.A., ASSISTANT MASTER AT REPTON SCHOOL. SECOND EDITION. A. J. LAWRENCE, PRINTER, REPTON. MDCCCXCIX. REPTON: A. J. LAWRENCE, PRINTER. PREFACE. In the year 1892, I ventured to write, for Reptonians, a short History of Repton, its quick sale emboldened me to set about obtaining materials for a second edition. The list of Authors, &c., consulted (printed at the end of this preface), will enable any one, who wishes to do so, to investigate the various events further, or to prove the truth of the facts recorded. Round the Church, Priory, and School centre all that is interesting, and, naturally, they occupy nearly all the pages of this second attempt to supply all the information possible to those who live in, or visit our old world village, whose church, &c., might well have served the poet Gray as the subject of his Elegy. “Beneath those rugged Elms, that Yew-tree’s shade, Where heaves the Turf in many a mould’ring Heap, Each in his narrow Cell for ever laid, The rude Forefathers of the Hamlet sleep.” In writing the history of Repton certain events stand out more prominently than others, _e. g._, the Conversion of Mercia by Diuma, its first bishop, and his assistant missionaries, Adda, Betti, and Cedda, the brother of St. Chad: the Founding of the Monastery during the reign of Peada or his brother Wulphere (A.D. 655-675): the coming of the Danes in 874, and the destruction of the Abbey and town by them: the first building of Repton Church, probably during the reign of Edgar the Peaceable, A.D. 957: the Founding of the Priory by Maud, Countess of Chester, about the year 1150, its dissolution in 1538, its destruction in 1553, and the Founding of the School in 1557. Interwoven with these events are others which have been recorded in the Chronicles, Histories, Registers, &c., consulted, quoted, and used to produce as interesting an account as possible of those events, which extend over a period of nearly twelve hundred and fifty years! The hand of time, and man, especially the latter, has gradually destroyed anything ancient, and “restorations” have completely changed the aspect of the village. The Church, Priory, Hall, and “Cross,” still serve as links between the centuries, but, excepting these, only one old house remains, in Well Lane, bearing initials “T.S.” and date “1686.”