PETERBOROUGH SOKE 



PASTON 



John Goodwin hy ivill of 26 August, 175;, 

 bequeathed ;^loo, now represented by ^98 10/. 5<^., 

 consols with the official trustees, the interest of 

 which is distributed among poor widows of Wer- 

 rington. 



The income of £105 consols (held by the official 

 trustees) is distributed among the poor of Werrington, 



given by M. A. Scotney, whose will was proved in 

 1876, augmented by Martha Allison. 



Frederick St. Lawrence Pratt, by will proved 

 23 September, 1 893, bequeathed ;^200, dividends 

 to be applied amongst aged widows, represented by 

 j^i99 19/., India 3 per cents., held by the official 

 trustees. 



PEA KIRK 



Peychirche (xi cent.), Peykirk (xiii to rviii cent.). 



The small parish of Peakirk, from which Glinton 

 was cut off in 1865, covers an area of 615 acres. It 

 lies on flat ground surrounded on the north and east 

 by the Fenland, above which it is very slightly 

 elevated. The soil is a good fertile loam, with a 

 subsoil principally of Oxford clay. There are 264. acres 

 of arable land, 115^ of pasture, and 77 of woodland. 

 Cereals and pulse are produced. Most 

 of the inhabitants (numbering 239 in 

 1 901) are engaged in agriculture, and 

 gravel is worked to a small extent. 



The village is small and compact, 

 built of stone, except for a few houses 

 of brick near the station. The church 

 in the north-west corner, on account 

 of the absence of any spire or tower 

 and the thickness of the surrounding 

 trees, is not at first sight a prominent 

 feature. North-east of the church is 

 the ancient hermitage, the traditional 

 site of St. Pega's cell, but called in 

 the only place in the records in which 

 a title is attached 'the Hermitage of 

 St. Bartholomew.' ' The hermitage 

 chapel is a small late 13th-century 

 building of nave and chancel only, the 

 internal measurements being, chancel 

 I oft. Sin. wide, by 1 6 ft. 4 in., and 

 nave 14 ft. 7 in. wide, by 19 ft. 2 in. 

 After having been in a ruinous state for 

 many years, it has of late been repaired, 

 and is now used as a reading-room. The nave is 

 almost entirely modern, but the chancel retains some 

 of its ancient features. The east window is of three 

 trefoiled lights under an arched head, and in the south 

 wall is a window of two trefoiled lights, the stonework 

 nearly all new, a single trefoiled window which is 

 ancient, and a small south doorway. There are no 

 windows on the north side of the chapel, and the 

 nave contains nothing worthy of note, except a stone 

 cross on its west gable with trefoiled circles in the 

 spaces between the arms. This is a pretty design of 

 the 14th century, known locally as St. Pega's cross, 

 and has served as the model for the head of a cross 

 lately set up in the village, the shaft and base of which 

 are copied from the ancient cross at Helpston. 



In the chapel is kept part of a pre-Conquest cross- 

 shaft, with tapering sides, and interlaced patterns on 

 each face.' 



The owner of the hermitage is bound to repair the 

 vestry of the church and the two seats at the west 



end of it. This obligation is mentioned in the 

 registers in 1 61 7 and in 1783 ; at the latter date 

 William Sutton was the owner. 



Beyond the hermitage, on the east side of the road 

 to Northborough, there is a small osier bed, and a 

 large dike or canal, known as Folly River, connected 

 with the fen-draining operations, runs through the 

 eastern part of the parish. 



Thb Hermitage, Peakirk 



The station opened in 1840 on the Great Northern 

 loop line is at the extreme end of the village. 



The enclosure award, dated 1820, is in the custody 

 of the rector. 



Peakirk is principally interesting from its connexion 

 with St. Pega, from whom its name is derived. St. 

 Pega was sister of St. Guthlac, the founder of the 

 monastery of Crowland, and she carried out his 

 commands for his burial.' A year aftenvards she 

 retired to a hermitage four leagues west of Crowland, 

 traditionally identified with Peakirk, living there until 

 her journey to Rome, where she died in 716. She 

 was buried in a church built in her honour, the only 

 other church except that in this village known to exist 

 under her invocation.' 



There is a tradition that there was a monaster)- on 

 the site of St. Pega's cell, but this is supported only 

 bv the mention by Ordericus of the ' Pegelandae 

 Coenobium' over which the Abbot Wulfeatus presided, 

 and which he, with the consent of King Edward,' 



' Swapham, fol. 21 Si. St. Bartholomew 

 was traditionally closely connected with 

 St. Guthlac, sister of Pega, and founder 

 of Crowland Abbey. Life of Si. Guthlae. 



* See p. 189 of this volume. 

 » yita St. Guthlaci (ed. W. de G. Birch), 

 .58. 



* Ordtrini J'-.ialis, bk. iv, 22 ; Fulman, 

 Scriptoretf p. 5. 



* The Confessor, 1042-66. 



