Notes on the history of Tarvin
Introduction
These notes are based, mainly, on the book Tarvin- The history of a Cheshire Village which was produced by The Local History Group and edited by Frank A Latham in 1985. Some information is taken from History of the County Palatine and City of Chester by George Ormerod. However, some of the later material, especially the 19th century, is from my own research at the County and Diocesan Record Office in Chester and elsewhere.

Origins.
There is some evidence of people in the general area from before 6000 BC but not specifically in Tarvin and there is not a lot of detail. In fact the first real evidence of occupation in Tarvin is after the arrival of the Romans around 76A.D.

The Romans Around 76 A.D. the Romans started to build a fortress in Chester to house the Twentieth Legion and, for a time, the Second Legion. They built a road from Deva (Chester) to Condate (Northwich) which passed Tarvin about a kilometre to the north. The Romans must have used Tarvin in one way or another as a Roman coin of Constantius 1 (AD 293-305) was found in Hockenhull Lane in 1966 and a lead spindle-whorl was found in Hockenhull Avenue in 1952. Other finds in other nearby villages reinforce the evidence of the Romans presence in the area.

The Dark Ages
The Romans left control of local affairs to the native British around AD 410 as the Emperor Honorius was more concerned with troubles at home. From that time there is no archealogical evidence of any changes in Tarvin although the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, the writings of monastic scholars and the Domesday Book allow some history to be pieced together. There was no sudden falling apart of society but living standards must have dropped since the major market for local produce provided by the legion in Chester had disappeared. Retired Roman soldiers and administrators would have lived in the area and there is evidence for this from a late Romano-British villa excavated at Eaton-by-Tarporley.

QuotingTarvin- The history of a Cheshire Village- "Throughout the Roman interlude the Celtic tribes had retained something of their identity and it was to the leaders of those tribes that the responsibilty for administration passed. In the area around Tarvin it was to the Cornovii with their capital at Virconium Cornoviorum (Wroxeter), near modern Shrewsbury, that this task fell"

The Romano-British tribes were frequently at war with each other and later with the Picts and the Irish to the extent that, with King Vortigern, they enlisted the help of mercenaries from Northern Europe. Later the mercenaries became the first wave of "a process of immigration that brought in the Angles, Saxons and Jutes, commonly referred to as Anglo-Saxons, and who, in time, became the English." There is evidence of Anglo-Saxon settlement, not necessarily by conquest, in some of the place names of villages within the old parish boundary. Duddon means 'Dudda's hill' whilst Hockenhull comes from 'Hocca's hill'. However, the name Tarvin derives from a Welsh word 'terfyn' meaning 'a boundary' but which boundary is not clear.

The Tarvin British were probably Christians, receiving their faith from the Romans, but when the king of Mercia, Wulfere, was converted to Christianity by Ceadda (later S. Chad) the whole of Mercia became Christian which would formalise the faith of the Tarvin British. In 669 Chad was made Bishop of Mercia and built his Cathedral at Lichfield. There is still a prebendary stall in Lichfield Cathedral with "Terve" over it.

In the ninth and tenth centuries there were Scandinavian influences where Tarvin was caught between the Norsemen raiding from Ireland and the Danes who had conquered all of Mercia east of Watling Street by 877. In the late ninth century the Danes occupied the the fort of Chester and the attacking Mercian army laid waste the surrounding countryside, including no doubt, Tarvin.

Tarvin itself would have been completely different from the later village having a population of say 120-150 engaged in agriculture. Tarvin was a valuable holding being worth £8 ; the highest value in the hundred.

The Normans and Domesday


a detail from the Bayeaux tapestry

In 1066 the Normans defeated King Harold at the battle of Hastings and William the Conqueror became king. He ordered a valuation of his kingdom to be made; it was produced in 1086 and is known as the Domesday Book.

This is a black and white facsimile of the entry for Terve "Tarvin" :-

The translation is:-
The same Bishop held and holds TERVE.
There are vi. hides rateable to the gelt. The land is xxii. carucates. In the demesne there are iii. carucates, and [there are] vi. neatherds and iii. radmans and vii. villeins and vii. bordars with vi. carucates. There is a wood a league long, and half a league broad.
Of the land of this manor WILLIAM holds of the Bishop ii. hides, and has there half a carucate, and [there are] iv. villeins and iii. bordars with iii. and a half carucates. In King EDWARD'S time the whole was worth viii. pounds; now it is worth iv. pounds and x. shillings. It was wasted.

The value was reduced from its pre conquest figure of £8 to £4.10s. ( £4.50) probably when the Norman army passed through during the winter of 1069-70 part of the "Harrying of the North".


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