I recently obtained a wonderful publication with the above title. Printed by the Blackheath Press in 1908 it is described as a full and complete copy of all the inscriptions in the old parish church and churchyard, together with notes on the history of the manor and of the families connected with the place.

Although I have not yet had a chance to look through it completely, I’ve already found some great stuff. Incidentally it is dedicated to The Lord of the Manor of Charlton, Sir Spencer Pocklington Maryon-Wilson who actually resided in Eastbourne as a Baronet.

As can be guessed, the parish church covered by the book is St. Luke’s in Charlton Village.

So … on to a few extracts:

– The name Charlton, Cherleton, or Coerl-ton, the settlement of the Coerls, or husbandmen, is not unnaturally a very common one for our English villages. It occurs no less than four times in the County of Kent alone.

– The earliest reference to this Manor as a separate entity is found in the Doomsday Book and states: “‘William, son of Olger, holds, of the Bishop, Cerletone. There is the arable land of five teams. In demesne there is one team and thirteen villans have three teams. Two slaves there. And eight acres of meadow. Wood of five hogs. In the time of King Edward, and afterwards, and now, it is worth seven pounds.”

– In 1241, a writ was issued against the Prior of Bermondsey to show cause why he had erected a gallows at Charlton.

– Edward III confirmed the charter for the Weekly Market and the Fair on the feast of St. Luke.

There is a lot more to be found in this book and I hope to do a future post with updates.

The Charlton Champion launched on October 18 – St Luke’s Day, and once the date of Charlton’s infamous Horn Fair. Greenwich Guide author Alan Palmer describes a local tradition that led to a Victorian moral panic…

Many residents of Charlton will recognise the name from Hornfair Road or Hornfair Park. Some will have gone along to one of the revivals held this century in the grounds of Charlton House. The modern fair is a pale shadow of the original, which was a much more riotous occasion, and one of London’s most popular fairs, according to contemporary accounts.

The fair was described by Daniel Defoe, the author of Robinson Crusoe, in A tour thro’ the Whole Island of Great Britain (1724-1727) as:

Charleton, a village famous, or rather infamous for the yearly collected rabble of mad-people, at Horn-Fair; the rudeness of which I cannot but think, is such as ought to be suppressed, and indeed in a civiliz’d well govern’d nation, it may well be said to be unsufferable. The mob indeed at that time take all kinds of liberties, and the women are especially impudent for that day; as if it was a day that justify’d the giving themselves a loose to all manner of indecency and immodesty, without any reproach, or without suffering the censure which such behaviour would deserve at another time.

It was suppressed because of the drunken behaviour of fair-goers in 1874.

We know that in 1268 King Henry III granted a three-day fair to the Abbey of Bermondsey to be held around Trinity Sunday, which is the eighth Sunday after Easter, that is, around May or June. Bermondsey Abbey owned the manor of Charlton at the time.

Around the 17th century the date of the fair was moved to 18 October, which is the feast day of St Luke. Charlton’s parish church is, of course, dedicated to St Luke. In medieval pictures Luke is invariably seen in writing or painting posture, with a horned ox or cow prominently displayed. It is likely that the carrying of a large pair of horns on a pole indicated the opening of St Luke’s Fair, and may be the origin of the horn motif of the fair.

The fair would begin with a parade from Bermondsey to Charlton, with the revellers wearing horns, and blowing on the musical versions of them. Many would wear fancy dress, including cross-dressing. The tradition of the parade was revived in 2009 – the IanVisits blog describes the start.

An even more notorious fair used to be held in Donnybrook, which is nowadays a peaceable suburb of Dublin, probably not unlike Charlton. It was licensed by King John in 1204 and was suppressed in 1855 for the same reasons as Charlton’s Horn Fair. The word “donnybrook” entered the language as a slang term for a brawl. Just think: if things had been slightly different we might have been calling a punch-up a “charlton” instead!