Editing Peterborough (section)

=== Early history ===
Peterborough and its surrounding areas around have been inhabited for thousands of years because it is where permanently drained land in [[The Fens]] is created by the [[River Nene]]. Remains of Iron Age settlement and what is thought to be religious activity can be seen at the [[Flag Fen]] archaeological site to the east of the city centre. The Romans established a fortified garrison town at [[Durobrivae (Water Newton)|Durobrivae]] on [[Ermine Street]], {{convert|5|mi|km|spell=in}} to the west in Water Newton, around the middle of the 1st century AD. Durobrivae's earliest appearance among surviving records is in the [[Antonine Itinerary]] of the late 2nd century.<ref>Parthey, Gustav and Pinder, Moritz (eds.) ''Itinerarivm Antonini Avgvsti et Hierosolymitanum: ex libris manu scriptis'' [http://www.roman-britain.org/antonine-itinerary.htm Iter Britanniarvm] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110703033434/http://roman-britain.org/antonine-itinerary.htm |date=3 July 2011}} (Iter V: Item a Londinio Luguvalio ad vallum mpm clvi ''sic'') Friederich Nicolaus, Berlin, 1848. See also Reynolds, Thomas ''Iter Britanniarum or that part of the itinerary of Antoninus which relates to Britain with a new comment'' J. Burges, Cambridge, 1799.</ref> There was also a large 1st century [[castra|Roman fort]] at [[Longthorpe, Peterborough|Longthorpe]], designed to house half a [[Roman legion|legion]], or about 3,000 soldiers;<ref>[http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/B/bigromandig/camesaw/3_495a.jsp They came, they saw] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080905072827/http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/B/bigromandig/camesaw/3_495a.jsp |date=5 September 2008 }} Top 30 Roman sites (6), ''Channel 4 Television'' (Retrieved 20 July 2008).</ref> it may have been established as early as around AD&nbsp;44–48.<ref>{{PastScape|mnumber=364099 |access-date=20 July 2008}}</ref> Peterborough was an important area of ceramic production in the Roman period, providing [[Nene Valley Colour Coated Ware|Nene Valley Ware]] that was traded as far away as Cornwall and the [[Antonine Wall]], Caledonia.<ref>{{cite book |author=Fincham, Garrick |title=Durobbrivae: A Roman Town Between Fen and Upland |publisher=Tempus |location=Stroud |year=2004 |isbn=0-7524-3337-7 |pages=102–08}}</ref>

Peterborough is shown by its original name Medeshamstede to have possibly been an [[Angles (tribe)|Anglian]] settlement before AD&nbsp;655, when [[Sexwulf]] founded a monastery on land granted to him for that purpose by [[Peada of Mercia]], who converted to [[Christianity]] and was briefly ruler of the smaller [[Middle Angles]] sub-group. His brother [[Wulfhere of Mercia|Wulfhere]] murdered his own sons, similarly converted and then finished the monastery by way of [[Atonement in Christianity|atonement]].<ref name=lewis>{{cite web |url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51211 |title=Peterborough |editor=Samuel Lewis |publisher=Institute of Historical Research |year=1848 |work=A Topographical Dictionary of England |access-date=11 May 2013 |author-link=Samuel Lewis (publisher) |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121003153840/http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=51211 |archive-date=3 October 2012 |url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Hereward the Wake]] rampaged through the town in 1069 or 1070. Outraged, Abbot Turold erected a fort or castle, which, from his name, was called Mont Turold: this mound, or hill, is on the outside of the deanery garden, now called Tout Hill, although in 1848 Tot-hill or Toot Hill.<ref name=Touthill>{{National Heritage List for England|num=1006846|desc=Touthill and site of castle bailey |access-date=11 May 2013}} [[Scheduled Ancient Monument]]</ref> The [[abbey]] church was rebuilt and greatly enlarged in the 12th century.<ref name=TTB>Tim Tatton-Brown and John Crook, ''The English Cathedral'', New Holland (2002) {{ISBN|1-84330-120-2}}</ref> The [[Peterborough Chronicle]], a version of the Anglo-Saxon one, contains unique information about the [[history of England]] after the [[Norman conquest of England|Norman conquest]], written here by monks in the 12th century.<ref>[[Bodleian Library|Bodleian]], MS. Laud 636 (E), see Ingram, James Henry (trans.) ''The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' J. M. Dent & Sons, London, 1823 ([https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/657 facsimile of the 1847 Everyman's Library ed. with additional readings from the translation of John Allen Giles] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929150833/http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/657 |date=29 September 2007 }} from [[Project Gutenberg]]. Retrieved 19 September 2007). {{OCLC|645704}}. A modern edition, comparing the Peterborough version with such others as survive, is in Garmonsway, George Norman (trans.) ''The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' J. M. Dent & Sons, London, 1972 & 1975. {{OCLC|63489126}}. For the Peterborough Chronicle's unique information, see also Clark, Cecily (ed.) ''The Peterborough Chronicle 1070–1154'' (pp. xxi–xxx) Oxford University Press, 1958.</ref> This is the only known prose history in English between the conquest and the later 14th century.<ref>[[J. A. W. Bennett|Bennett, Jack Arthur Walter]] ''Middle English Literature'' (ed. and completed by Douglas Gray), Oxford University Press, 1986.</ref> The burgesses received their first charter from "Abbot Robert" – probably Robert of Sutton (1262–1273).<ref name=chisholm>[[Hugh Chisholm|Chisholm, Hugh]] (ed.) ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]'' [[Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition|(11th ed.)]] vol.21 Cambridge University Press, 1911 (text in the public domain).</ref> The place suffered materially in the war between [[John, King of England|King John]] and the confederate barons, many of whom took refuge in the monastery here and in [[Crowland Abbey]], from which sanctuaries they were forced by the king's soldiers, who plundered the religious houses and carried off great treasures.<ref name=lewis/> The abbey church became one of [[Henry VIII]]'s retained, more secular, cathedrals in 1541,<ref name=Sweeting/> having been assessed at the Dissolution as having revenue of £1,972.7s.0¾d per annum.<ref name=lewis/>

[[File:Peterborough Cathedral March 2010.jpg|thumb|left|[[Peterborough Cathedral]] (1118–1375), the [[English Gothic architecture|Early English Gothic]] [[Cathedral architecture of Western Europe#West front|west front]]]]
When [[English Civil War|civil war]] broke out, Peterborough was divided between supporters of [[Charles I of England|King Charles I]] and the [[Long Parliament]]. The city lay on the border of the [[Eastern Association]] of counties which sided with Parliament, and the war reached Peterborough in 1643 when soldiers arrived in the city to attack Royalist strongholds at [[Stamford, Lincolnshire|Stamford]] and [[Crowland]]. The Royalist forces were defeated within a few weeks and retreated to [[Burghley House]], where they were captured and sent to [[Cambridge]].<ref>Davies, Elizabeth et al. [http://www.peterborough.gov.uk/community_information/about_peterborough/historical_peterborough/civil_war_and_return_of_peace.aspx ''Peterborough: A Story of City and Country, People and Places''] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120408222642/http://www.peterborough.gov.uk/community_information/about_peterborough/historical_peterborough/civil_war_and_return_of_peace.aspx |date=8 April 2012 }} (pp.18–19) Peterborough City Council and Pitkin Unichrome, 2001.</ref> While the Parliamentary soldiers were in Peterborough, however, they ransacked the cathedral, destroying the [[Lady chapel|Lady Chapel]], [[chapter house]], [[cloister]], high altar and choir stalls, as well as mediaeval decoration and records.<ref>[[Richard John King|King, Richard J.]] [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/Europe/Great_Britain/England/_Topics/churches/_Texts/KINCAT* /Peterborough/1.html ''Handbook to the Cathedrals of England''] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210527223936/https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/Europe/Great_Britain/England/_Topics/churches/_Texts/KINCAT%2A/Peterborough/1.html |date=27 May 2021 }} (p.77) John Murray, London, 1862. {{OCLC|27305221}}.</ref>

Among the privileges claimed by the abbot as early as the 13th century was that of having a prison for felons taken in the [[Soke of Peterborough]], a [[Liberty (division)|liberty]] within [[Northamptonshire]]. This afforded it administrative and judicial independence from the rest of the county, with it having a [[quarter sessions]] separate from the rest of Northamptonshire from 1349.<ref name="brandon-peterborough-past">{{cite book |last1=Brandon |first1=David |last2=Knight |first2=John |title=Peterborough Past |date=2001 |publisher=Phillimore |isbn=9781860771842}}</ref> In 1576 Bishop [[Edmund Scambler]] sold the [[Lord paramount|lordship]] of the hundred of ''Nassaburgh'', which was coextensive with the Soke, to Queen [[Elizabeth I]], who gave it to [[Lord Burghley]], and from that time until the 19th century he and his descendants, the Earls and [[Marquess of Exeter|Marquesses of Exeter]], had a separate gaol for prisoners arrested in the Soke.<ref name=chisholm/> The abbot formerly held four fairs, of which two, St. Peter's Fair, granted in 1189 and later held on the second Tuesday and Wednesday in July, and the Brigge Fair, granted in 1439 and later held on the first Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in October, were purchased by the [[municipal corporation|corporation]] from the [[Ecclesiastical Commissioners]] in 1876. The Bridge Fair, as it is now known, granted to the abbey by [[Henry VI of England|King Henry VI]], survives.<ref>"At the bridge of Peterborough by the River Nene, as well in the county of Huntingdon as in the county of Northampton, on all sides of the bridge."</ref> Prayers for the opening of the fair were once said at the morning service in the cathedral, followed by a civic proclamation and a sausage lunch at the [[Peterborough Town Hall|town hall]] which still takes place. The mayor traditionally leads a procession from the town hall to the fair where the proclamation is read, asking all persons to "behave soberly and civilly, and to pay their just dues and demands according to the laws of the realm and the rights of the City of Peterborough".<ref>Tebbs (p.125).</ref>