View source for Repton

{{Short description|Village in Derbyshire, England}}
{{Other uses|Repton (disambiguation)}}
{{Use British English|date=May 2016}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2023}}
 
{{infobox UK place
|country = England
|static_image_name=
|static_image_caption= [[St Wystan's Church, Repton|St Wystan's parish church]]
|coordinates = {{coord|52.838|-1.549|display=inline,title}}
|os_grid_reference= SK3026
|official_name= Repton
|map_type= Derbyshire
|population= 2707
|population_ref= ([[2001 United Kingdom census|2001 census]])<ref>{{cite web |url=http://neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/viewFullDataset.do?instanceSelection=03070&productId=779&$ph=60_61&datasetInstanceId=3070&startColumn=1&numberOfColumns=4&containerAreaId=790358 |title=Area selected: South Derbyshire (Non-Metropolitan District) |work=Neighbourhood Statistics: Full Dataset View |publisher=[[Office for National Statistics]] |access-date=29 September 2011 |archive-date=29 August 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120829061144/http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/viewFullDataset.do?instanceSelection=03070 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
|shire_district= [[South Derbyshire]]
|shire_county= [[Derbyshire]]
|region= East Midlands
|constituency_westminster= [[South Derbyshire (UK Parliament constituency)|South Derbyshire]]
|post_town= [[Derby]]
|postcode_district= DE65
|postcode_area= DE
|dial_code= 01283
|website= [http://www.reptonvillage.org.uk/ Repton Village Website]
}}

'''Repton''' is a village and [[Civil parishes in England|civil parish]] in the [[South Derbyshire]] district of [[Derbyshire]], England, located on the edge of the [[River Trent]] floodplain, about {{convert|5|mi|0}} north of [[Swadlincote]]. The population taken at the 2001 census was 2,707, increasing to 2,867 at the 2011 census.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadKeyFigures.do?a=7&b=11127891&c=Repton&d=16&e=62&g=6414965&i=1001x1003x1032x1004&m=0&r=1&s=1459335179597&enc=1|title=Civil parish population 2011|access-date=30 March 2016|publisher=Office for National Statistics|work=Neighbourhood Statistics}}</ref> Repton is close to the county boundary with neighbouring [[Staffordshire]] and about {{convert|5|mi|0}} northeast of [[Burton upon Trent]].

The village is noted for [[St Wystan's Church, Repton|St Wystan's Church]], for [[Repton School]], for the Anglo-Saxon [[Repton Abbey]] and for the medieval [[Repton Priory]].

==History==
[[File:Anglo-Saxon Chronicle - hreopandune (British Library Cotton MS Tiberius A VI, folio 12v).jpg|thumb|left|The ''[[Anglo-Saxon Chronicle]]'' points to ''Hreopandune'' as king [[Æthelbald of Mercia|Æthelbald]]'s resting place]]
Christianity was reintroduced to the Midlands at Repton, where some of the [[Mercia]]n royal family under [[Peada of Mercia|Peada]] were baptised in AD&nbsp;653.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Christianity in Repton |url=http://reptonchurch.uk/ChristinR.htm |access-date=2025-03-12 |website=reptonchurch.uk}}</ref> Soon a double [[Repton Abbey|abbey]] under an [[abbess]] was built.

In 669 [[Chad of Mercia|St Chad]], the [[Bishop of Mercia]], translated his [[Episcopal see|see]] from Repton to [[Lichfield]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=THE SEE OF MERCIA {{!}} Orthodox Britain {{!}} Holy Metropolis of Mercia |url=https://www.orthodoxbritain.co.uk/the-see-of-mercia |access-date=2025-03-12 |website=Metropolis of Mercia |language=en}}</ref> [[Offa]], King of Mercia, seemed to resent his own bishops paying allegiance to the [[Archbishop of Canterbury]] in Kent who, while under Offa's control, was not of his own kingdom of Mercia.{{citation needed|date=September 2011}} Offa therefore created his own [[Diocese of Lichfield|Archdiocese of Lichfield]], which presided over all the bishops from the [[River Humber|Humber]] to the [[River Thames|Thames]]. Repton was thus the forebear of the archdiocese of Lichfield, a third archdiocese of the English church: Lichfield, the other two being Canterbury and York. This lasted for only 16 years, however, before Mercia returned to being under the Archbishopric of Canterbury.

At the centre of the village is the [[Church of England parish church]] dedicated to [[Wigstan|Wystan (or Wigstan)]] of Mercia.<ref name="Pevsner303">Pevsner & Williamson, 1978, page 303</ref>

The ''[[Anglo-Saxon Chronicle]]'' also reports that 873–874 the [[Great Heathen Army]] overwintered at Repton. The first indications of Viking presence at Repton were discovered by accident in the late 17th century by Thomas Walker who found a pit of bones in the vicarage garden. A hogback tombstone was discovered sometime during 1801–1802 in the western part of the churchyard.  An extensive programme of archaeological excavations, led by Martin Biddle and his wife, Birthe, that took place between 1974 and 1988 led the Biddles to identify the Viking camp with a D-shaped earthwork that they identified on a bluff, overlooking an arm of the River Trent. In more recent times the view that the entire Viking army spent the winter in this small (0.4 ha.) D-shaped enclosure has been challenged.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Hadley |first1=D. |last2=Richards |first2=J. |title=The Viking Great Army and the Making of England |publisher=Thames & Hudson |location=London |date=2021 |pages=82–85}}</ref> 

A new set of excavations led by Cat Jarman and Mark Horton began in 2015 with a geophysical survey of the vicarage conducted which revealed new structures.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Jarman |first=Catrine |date=2018 |title=Resolving Repton: Has Archaeology Found the Great Viking Camp |journal=British Archaeology |pages=28–35}}</ref> During the 2016–2017 excavations, ground-penetrating radar surveys revealed more possible structures that were subsequently excavated and proved to be grave deposits. These contained a number of pits and stone features such as broken quern stones and a fragment of a carved sandstone cross shaft.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Jarman |first=Catrine |date=2018 |title=The 'Great Army' at Repton and The New Archaeology Of Viking Campaigns |journal=The SAA Archaeological Record |pages=19–22}}</ref>

The Biddles also re-opened a mound containing a mass grave containing the remains of at least 264 individuals which they also believed to be associated with the Viking army. The bones were disarticulated and mostly jumbled together. Forensic study revealed that the individuals ranged in age from their late teens to about forty, 80% were male where sex could be determined. Five associated [[Penny (English coin)|pennies]] fit well with the overwintering date of 873–874 and this date was later confirmed by a reassessment of the radiocarbon dates.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hall |first=Richard |title=Viking Age Archaeology |series=Shire archaeology |year=2010 |publisher=Shire Publications |location=Princes Risborough |isbn=978-0-7478-0063-7 |pages=14ff}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Jarman|first1=Catrine L.|last2=Biddle|first2=Martin|last3=Higham|first3=Tom|last4=Ramsey|first4=Christopher Bronk|date=February 2018|title=The Viking Great Army in England: new dates from the Repton charnel|journal=Antiquity|language=en|volume=92|issue=361|pages=183–199|doi=10.15184/aqy.2017.196|s2cid=29165821 |issn=0003-598X|doi-access=free}}</ref>

An early 18th century account describes how, in the last quarter of the 17th century, Thomas Walker, a workman looking for stone, opened the mound and found the skeleton of a "nine foot tall" man in a stone coffin in the remains of a building. According to the account, human bones had been neatly stacked around the coffin.<ref>[[Martin Biddle|Biddle, M.]] and [[Birthe Kjølbye-Biddle|Kjølbye-Biddle, B.]], 1992, 'Repton and the Vikings.', ''Antiquity'', 66, (1992), 36–51.</ref>

==Parish church==
{{main|St Wystan's Church, Repton}}
[[File:ReptonCrossAndChurch.jpg|thumb|St Wystan's church and the cross in 1890]]
The church is notable for its [[Anglo-Saxon architecture|Anglo-Saxon]] [[crypt]], which was built in the 8th century AD<ref>Pevsner & Williamson, 1978, pages 304–305</ref> as a [[mausoleum]] for the Mercian royal family. Wystan, or Wigstan, was a prince of Mercia who was murdered by his guardian in 849,<ref name=Pevsner303/> in the reign of [[Wiglaf of Mercia|Wiglaf]]. His remains were buried in the crypt at Repton and miracles were ascribed to them. Repton proceeded to become a place of [[pilgrimage]]; Wigstan was later canonised and became the [[patron saint]] of the church.

At the north edge of the village is St Wystan's Church, an Anglo-Saxon church dedicated to the Anglo-Saxon Saint [[Wigstan|Wystan (or Wigstan)]] and designated by [[English Heritage]] as a Grade&nbsp;I [[listed building]].<ref>{{National Heritage List for England |num= 1334560|desc= Church of St Wystan, Repton|access-date=16 August 2012 }}</ref> The 8th-century crypt beneath the church was the original burial place of [[Wigstan|Saint Wigstan]], as well as his grandfather, [[Wiglaf of Mercia|King Wiglaf of Mercia]]. Also buried there is [[Æthelbald of Mercia|King Æthelbald of Mercia]], under whose reign the building was first constructed, and for whom it was first converted to a [[mausoleum]]. Upon the burial of St Wigstan, the crypt became a shrine and place of pilgrimage.<ref name="Repton Church website">{{cite web |url= http://www.reptonchurch.org.uk/Crypt.htm |title=The Crypt |publisher=St Wystan's Church, Repton |access-date=22 March 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120126044311/http://www.reptonchurch.org.uk/Crypt.htm |archive-date=26 January 2012  }}</ref>

It has been suggested that the crypt at Repton later influenced the design of both the spiral-columned shrine of [[Edward the Confessor]] and the [[Cosmati]] Coronation Pavement in [[Westminster Abbey]], both commissioned by [[Henry III of England|Henry III]], based on close correspondence of their dimensions and design.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Austin |first=Sue |title=Revealed: Links between Shropshire country hall and the King's Coronation |date=21 April 2023 |url= https://www.shropshirestar.com/entertainment/attractions/2023/04/21/revealed-links-between-shropshire-country-hall-and-the-kings-coronation/ |access-date=24 April 2023 |work= Shropshire Star |location= Telford }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Wenn |first=James |title=Revealed: Secrets in the Stones: Decoding Anglo-Saxon Art. Part 4: The Garnet Code |url= https://www.thegns.org/blog/the-garnet-code |access-date=24 April 2023 |website=www.thegns.org }}</ref>

The cruciform Anglo-Saxon church itself has had several additions and restorations throughout its history. These include [[English Gothic architecture|Medieval Gothic]] north and south [[Aisle#Architecture|aisles]] in the nave that were rebuilt in the 13th century and widened early in the 14th century, and the addition in 1340 of the west tower and recessed [[spire]].<ref name=Pevsner305>Pevsner & Williamson, 1978, page 305</ref> The church was also [[Victorian restoration|restored]] between 1885 and 1886 by [[Arthur Blomfield]].<ref>''Derby Mercury''. 28 July 1886.</ref>

==Notable people==
{{for|a list of notable staff and pupils of Repton School|Repton School}}
[[File:Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes.jpeg|thumb|140px|[[Basil Rathbone]] as Sherlock Holmes in the 1930's]]
*[[Æthelbald of Mercia|King Æthelbald of Mercia]] (??-757) the [[King of Mercia]]<ref name=Kirby_134_2>{{cite book |last=Kirby |first=D.P. |title=The Earliest English Kings |page=134 |year=1992 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=0-415-09086-5}}</ref><ref>{{cite DNB|wstitle= Ethelbald (d.757) |volume= 18 |last= Hunt |first= William |author-link= William Hunt (priest) |pages= 14-16 |year= |short=1}}</ref>
*[[Beornred of Mercia]] (died 757) briefly, [[King of Mercia]] was buried here<ref>Swanton, 1996, pages 755, 757</ref>
* [[Wiglaf of Mercia|King Wiglaf of Mercia]] ((died 839), [[King of Mercia]] from 827 to 829 and from 830 to 839, was buried here.<ref>{{cite DNB|wstitle= Wiglaf |volume= 61 |last= Cooke |first= Alice Margaret |author-link= Alice Margaret Cooke |page= 197 |year= |short=1}}</ref>
* [[Wigstan|Saint Wigstan of Mercia]] (??–840) buried here, but his remains were later removed to [[Evesham Abbey]].<ref name=Swanton_48>Swanton, 1996, pages 48–49</ref>
* [[Samuel Shaw (minister)|Samuel Shaw]] (1635–1696), an English nonconformist minister.<ref>{{cite DNB|wstitle= Shaw, Samuel |volume= 51 |last= Gordon |first= Alexander |author-link= Alexander Gordon (Unitarian) |pages= 444-445 |year= |short=1}}</ref>
* [[Walter Somers]]  (1839–1917), engineer, industrialist and businessman, established a [[forge]] company
* [[Basil Rathbone]] (1892–1967), actor, lived here in his childhood 
* [[John Auden]] (1894–1959), solicitor, deputy coroner for [[Staffordshire]], a soldier in [[World War I|WWI]] (and [[Military Cross|MC]]) and a collector of natural history.
* [[Elsie Steele]] (1899–2010), the oldest documented person in Britain at the time of her death, lived at the Dales Residential Home during the final few years of her life<ref>{{cite news |title=Girl who delivered Mail is now UK's oldest person |last=Smyth |first=Rob |url=http://www.burtonmail.co.uk/News/Girl-who-delivered-Mail-is-now-UKs-oldest-person.htm |newspaper=[[Burton Mail]] |date=10 September 2010 |archive-date=13 January 2012 |access-date=19 September 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120113062147/http://www.burtonmail.co.uk/News/Girl-who-delivered-Mail-is-now-UKs-oldest-person.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>
* [[Bob Roseveare]] (1923–2004), a codebreaker at [[Bletchley Park]] during World War II and a schoolteacher.

=== Sport ===
* [[Frederick Peach]] (1882–1965), cricketer who played 12 [[first-class cricket]] games for [[Derbyshire County Cricket Club|Derbyshire]] 
* [[Neville Ford]] (1906–2000), cricketer who played in 75 [[First-class cricket]] matches
* [[Russell Osman]] (born 1959), footballer who played 595 games including 294 for [[Ipswich Town F.C.|Ipswich Town]] & 11 for [[England national football team|England]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.englandstats.com/playerreport.php?pid=718 |title=Russell Osman |access-date=8 October 2016 |work=EnglandStats.com }}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Listed buildings in Repton]]

==Gallery==
<gallery mode=packed>
File:ReptonThatch2.JPG|[[Thatching]] in progress, May 2007
File:Saxon crypt at Repton - geograph.org.uk - 1089547.jpg|Crypt at [[St. Wystan's Church, Repton|St Wystan's Church]]
File:Repton Mount Pleasant.JPG|Mount Pleasant
File:Bulls Head Repton.JPG|Bull's Head

</gallery>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite book |editor-last=Page |editor-first=W.H. |editor-link=William Henry Page |series=[[Victoria County History]] |title=A History of the County of Derby, Volume 2 |chapter=Houses of Austin canons: The priory of Repton, with the cell of Calke |year=1907 |pages=58–63 |url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=40125}}
*{{cite book |last1=Pevsner |first1=Nikolaus |author1-link=Nikolaus Pevsner |last2=Williamson |first2=Elizabeth |series=[[Pevsner Architectural Guides#Buildings of England|The Buildings of England]] |title=Derbyshire |orig-year=1953 |year=1978 |publisher=[[Penguin Books]] |location=Harmondsworth |isbn=0-14-071008-6 |pages=303–308}}
*{{cite book |last=Swanton |first=Michael |title=The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle |year= 1996 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=0-415-92129-5}}

==External links==
{{Commons category|Repton}}
*{{OpenDomesday|SK3027|repton}}
*{{Genuki|county=DBY|Repton}}
*{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Repton|short=x}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Villages in Derbyshire]]
[[Category:Mercian settlements]]
[[Category:Civil parishes in Derbyshire]]
[[Category:South Derbyshire District]]