Page:VCH Worcestershire 1.djvu/332

 A HISTORY OF WORCESTERSHIRE close to the Worcestershire border ; and there must, one would think, have been some reason for Edward bestowing on his new abbey this vast but distant estate. The rights which were exercised over it, as above, by Pershore Abbey prepare one for the definite statement made by William of Malmesbury that much which was bestowed on Westminster had for- merly been held by Pershore.^ This has led to the supposition that king Edward robbed Pershore of the lands that he here bestowed on his own foundation. But this would have been an unheard-of step, nor does Domesday afford any support for that view. There is, however, a faint hint which may put us on another track. Dealing under Herefordshire with what I have identified as the Pull Court estate, Domesday men- tions incidentally that it used to form part of ' Langedune a manor of earl Odo.' Now Longdon was the largest of the Worcestershire manors assigned by Domesday to Westminster Abbey, being entered as 30 hides. But the great survey treats it only as appendant to the king's manor of Pershore before Westminster obtained it. We must look elsewhere for ' earl Odo.' And when at last we find him, it is in a suggestive spot. ' At Deerhurst,' writes Florence of Worcester, ' died earl ^thelwine, that is, Odda,' 31 August, 1056, 'having been made a monk before his death by Ealdred bishop of Worcester, but he lies in the monastery of Pershore where he was honourably buried.' At Per- shore, according to the abbey's annals, some two centuries later (1259), his bones were found in a leaden chest, beneath the pavement of St. Mary's chapel, with an epitaph to which I shall return. The annals proceed to state that Odda was heir to ' Delfer,' that wicked earl,^ who had despoiled Pershore of many lands, which were restored by the good ' Odda.' Now Deerhurst, with which Odda we thus learn was connected, was the head of the Gloucestershire possessions of Westminster Abbey, and is only some five miles, as the crow flies, from Longdon.^ It is, therefore of importance to observe that Odda's position at Deerhurst is proved by a remarkable inscription found there and now preserved at Oxford, which states that ' Odda dux ' caused a ' regia aula ' to be con- structed there, which was dedicated by Ealdred bishop of Worcester in April, 1056.* It states, moreover, that he did this in honour of ' ' Illud ut cetera quanto succubuerit detrimento miserabile, plus sui medietate dimi- nutum. Partem divitum occupavit ambitio, partem sepelivit oblivio, majusculam portionem reges Edwardus et Willelmus contulere Westmonasterio.' Gesta Pontificum (Rolls Series), p. 298. As Brihtheah was abbot of Pershore till he became bishop of Worcester (1038), it is possible, of course, that he was responsible, as at Worcester, for the loss of some lands. to us by Leland's extracts. (See also Monasticon, II. 415.) as Odda's days, was preserved in Longdon church for part of the present century. known church at Deerhurst, and Mr. Freeman wrote of Odda dying ' under the shadow of the minster of his own building' (So also Norm. Conq.^ V. 612). But it has been suggested, since the discovery of a ' Saxon ' chapel in the same parish, that the latter was what Odda built. {Ibid.) 258
 * ' Qui Delfero consuli nequissimo jure successerat hereditaric' These annals are known
 * It is a singular coincidence that the Deerhurst font, which is, probably, at least as old
 * Archieologia^ L. 70. It has been generally supposed that this 'aula' was the well-