The following notes, penned by C.E. Mathews, were originally published in the Warminster Herald, in December 1876:
Of all the romance derived from the distant past, I think that the fact of a hermit having anciently dwelt in one’s neighbourhood gives the greatest.
The Codfordian recluse does not enjoy such fame as Cuthbert, Guthlac, or even of St. Godric of Finchale; but, perhaps, if more were known about him, he would be equally interesting.
In the tower of London, is a Royal Charter, granted by King Edward II to Sir Oliver de Ingham, lord of the manor of Codford Magna (i.e. East Codford, or Codford St. Mary), dated 1317, enabling him to ‘give and assign’ two acres of land, in a place called Crouch – or Crossland, – to their brother in Christ Henry de Mareys, chaplain and hermit, to construct anew in that place a chapel in honour of the Holy Cross, and a hermitage.
The manor of Great Codford – Coed-ford (Welsh), English, Woodford – was carried into the De Ingham family by the marriage of Albreda (one of the last heiresses of Waleran, William the Conqueror’s huntsman, who procured a grant of the manor) with Sir Oliver de Ingham, who I imagine, was the father of our hermit’s patron.
This lady who secondly married William de Boterels, or Botereus, obtained a charter (37th and 38th Henry III) for a weekly market here. A relic of this ancient market, although disused for centuries, lingers still in the name of a by-lane, known to this day as Cheapside (Cheap-market).
The vulgar supposition, however, obtains that it was so named by a facetious Londoner; just as in some parts of England there are poor districts to which is given the name of ‘Little London,’ – in such cases, no doubt, given in derision, as was once explained in Notes and Queries. Heytesbury might have been added to the list of places, containing a ‘Little London.’
For most of the historical facts here brought forward, I am indebted to Dr. James Ingram’s Memorials of the Parish Church of Codford St. Mary, 8 vo, Oxford, 1844, a very scarce and valuable little topographical work. I have been tempted to turn the story of the hermit into rhyme, which I now venture to submit to the indulgence of readers.