Bottisham Second Millennium
Page 7 of 69
lanes and the droveways used for the passage of cattle and
sheep. The rural population was made aware of the wider world
by the passing of travellers and traders on the Load (sic)
travelling to Street Way and the Icknield Way which, in its
passage from the Downs of Wiltshire to East Anglia, skirted
the sheep grazing of Bottisham heath. There was an export
trade of local produce, such as fish, fowl and sheep. Men and
women working the sheep on the heath could, on a clear day,
view the Ely area and so must have had some sense of the
dramatic happening taking place from time to time. What tales
the travellers must have brought in exchange for trade and
hospitality; a custom carried on in the local beer houses for
most of the millennium!
THE
NORMANS Even before William was crowned
king of the English, at Westminster on Christmas Day 1066,
dramatic events were taking place in the Bottisham area which
were to mould the way of life, the ownership of property and
the social upheavals for centuries to come. Influence from
across the Channel was to be seen in England before 1066;
Norman masons influenced religious architecture and trade
with the Normans made some impact, even before 1066.. The
potential wealth of the fen-edge hamlets must have been
recognised early in the Norman invasion, for it seems that
Walter Giffard (senior) wasted no time in seizing, by violence,
the lands once under the control of Ramsey Abbey. Walter,
being a stout follower of William, and having a great-great-
grandmother in common with the Conqueror, was made Earl of
Buckingham in 1070. Before Walter died in 1104 he had been
rewarded for his bravery with the gift of many manors. His
heirs, who inherited the manor of Bottisham, had a
considerable influence on the development of the Priory at
Anglesey (then Angerhale?). Giffard’s co-heir, Richard de