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22-483: Kyneburga, Kyneswide and Tibba were female members of the royal family of Mercia in 7th-century England . They are venerated as saints. Kyneburga (d. c. 680) (also called Cyneburh in Old English); the name being also rendered as Kinborough and in occasional use as a Christian name) and Kyneswide (Cyneswitha) were sisters, the daughters of King Penda of Mercia (who remained true to Anglo-Saxon paganism ). She

44-633: A Mercian who could trace his pedigree back to Icel. Several place names in England have been suggested as derived from the name of Icel or the Iclingas, including Icklingham , Ickleford , Ickleton and Ixworth . Norman Scarfe noted that the Icknield Way had early spellings Icenhylte weg and Icenhilde weg and suggested a connection between Icklingham and the Iceni , although Warner (1988) has cast doubt on

66-406: A field near Castor), Kimberwell spring, Bedfordshire , the villages of Kimberley, Norfolk and West Yorkshire . There was another lady by the name of Kyneburg, the wife of Oswald of Northumbria . She was the first abbess at Gloucester. The only church in the world to be consecrated to St Kyneburgha can be found in the village of Castor & Ailsworth. Consecrated in 1124, its 900th anniversary

88-577: A landed gentry family of Halstead Place, Kent; his widow lived there until 1967, when the Eatons sold it to a Cambridgeshire farmer who sold it to Michael Racher in 1972 who, in 1977, sold the near derelict hall and a few acres of land to the Stamford Shakespeare Company . The hall and its gardens are now noted as an outdoor Shakespearian theatre. The hall itself stands on the middle of three terraces cut in sloping ground. Its raked auditorium

110-531: A psalter). She died on 15 September AD 680 and was buried at Castor where she soon became revered as a saint . In 963 her body was moved to Peterborough , with those of her sister, Cuneswitha, and their kins woman, Tibba. Her remains were translated to Thorney Abbey some time later. Her feast day is celebrated on 6 March. She is remembered in a chapel at Peterborough Cathedral, the 12th-century St Kyneburga's parish church in Castor, Lady Conyburrow's Way (a ridge in

132-483: A schoolmaster and parish priest. The estate was purchased in 1864 by Charles Ormston Eaton , of a Stamford banking family, who carried out a major reconstruction of the hall and formal gardens. He added a large wing on the east in the Jacobean style, and another smaller one on the west. The date 1867 appears on brackets of the rainwater heads. From the 1920s onwards, Tolethorpe Hall was rented by John Burnaby-Atkins, head of

154-528: Is believed to have lived at Ryhall , Rutland, in the 7th century. She was buried there, but in the 11th century her relics were translated to Peterborough Abbey, by Abbot Ælfsige (1006–1042). According to legend, St Tibba was a niece of King Penda . The remains of a small hermitage associated with the saint can be seen on the west side of the north aisle of the Church of St John the Evangelist, Ryhall . There

176-661: Is the leader of the Angles who migrated to Britain. Icel is then separated from the establishment of Mercia by three generations: Icel's son was Cnebba , whose son was Cynewald , whose son was Creoda, first king of Mercia . Matthew Paris s.a. 527 reports, "pagans came from Germania and occupied East Anglia... some of whom invaded Mercia and fought many battles with the British[.]" This date, however, should perhaps be amended to 515. The Vita Sancti Guthlaci ("Life of Saint Guthlac") reports Guthlac of Crowland to have been son of Penwalh,

198-614: The Synod of Whitby in 664), and later founded an abbey for both monks and nuns in Castor , in the Soke of Peterborough . She became the first abbess and was later joined by Kyneswide and Tibba. Kyneswide succeeded Kyneburga as abbess and she was later succeeded by Tibba . She was buried in her church, but the remains of Kyneburga and Kyneswide were translated , before 972, to Peterborough Abbey, now Peterborough Cathedral . Kyneburga had been one of

220-469: The 10th century by Peterborough Abbey under the direction of Abbot Aelfsige of Peterborough, as part of a policy of relic acquisition by the abbey. Their relics at the abbey were lost or destroyed in the Reformation . Iclingas The Iclingas reached the height of their power under Offa of Mercia (r. 757–796), who achieved hegemony over the other Anglo-Saxon states, and proclaimed himself "King of

242-568: The English", but the dynasty lost control of Mercia soon after his death. Penda , who became king of Mercia in about 626 and is the first king named in the regnal lists of the Anglian collection , and at the same time the last pagan king of Mercia, gave rise to a dynasty that supplied at least eleven kings to the throne of Mercia. Four additional monarchs were given an Icling pedigree in later genealogical sources but are now believed to have descended from

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264-551: The Icelingas were, before Penda's rise in prominence, no more and no less royal than any of the other ruling houses of the small Midlands peoples as recorded in the Tribal Hidage and assessed as having between 300 and 600 hides of land. Icel's ancestry in genealogical tradition is as follows: Icel son of Eomer son of Angeltheow son of Offa son of Wermund son of Wihtlæg son, grandson or great-grandson of Woden. In this tradition, Icel

286-477: The family by way of Penda's sister. Icel himself is of debatable historicity; according to Nicholas Brooks , if historical he would have lived sometime between 450 and 525 and was probably considered the founder of the dynasty because he was the first of his line in Britain . Despite the Icelingas' claims of ties with the rulers and mythic heroes of continental Angeln and with the war-god Woden, Brooks suggests that

308-410: The identification. The name Iclinga survives as "Hickling" and several similar spellings. The following are Iclinga kings of Mercia whose historicity is certain. Creoda of Mercia is of uncertain historicity (if historical, he would date to the end of the 6th century). Cearl of Mercia who ruled during the early 7th century was probably not an Icling. Tolethorpe Hall Tolethope Hall in

330-584: The parish of Little Casterton , Rutland , England, PE9 4BH is a country house near Stamford, Lincolnshire at grid reference TF023104 . It is now the location of the Rutland Theatre of the Stamford Shakespeare Company . The hall is a Grade II* Listed Building , From the A1 Great North Road , southbound, Tolethorpe Hall may be approached from the Old Great North Road ( B1081 ) through

352-407: The signatories, together with her brother Wulfhere , of the founding charter of Burh Abbey, dated 664, per William Dugdale 's Monasticon . (Burh Abbey was later dedicated to St Peter, becoming "Peterborough"). She was much esteemed as a saint by the monks of Peterborough, and features as one of the saints remembered annually on 6 March in several ancient Peterborough-produced Kalendars, (a section of

374-590: The village of Little Casterton. It is about two miles (3 km) from the A1. The grounds of Tolethorpe occupy about seven acres . For 800 years from around 1088 until 1839 it was the home of three distinguished families, the de Tolethorpes (1088–1316), the Burtons (1316–1503) and the Brownes (1503–1839). Sir Thomas Burton (c.1369–1438) was MP for Rutland three times and High Sheriff of Rutland three times. Francis Browne

396-634: Was MP for Stamford and High Sheriff for 1524. His grandson Robert Browne (c. 1550-1633), born at Tolethorpe, became the leader of the Brownists , early advocates of a congregational form of organisation for the Church of England . Having in 1580 attempted to set up a separate church in Norwich , he moved to Middelburg in the Netherlands in 1581. He returned to England and to the Church of England, being employed as

418-472: Was at Ryhall a shrine and a holy well dedicated to Saint Tibba. Robert Charles Hope placed the location on the brow of Tibbal's Hill (Tibb's-well-hill), "upon the hill going from Tolethorpe to Belmsford Bridge". Eabba, a cousin of Tibba, lived with her. Hope suggests the holy well dedicated to her was just north of Tibba's, on the other side of a ford of the River Gwash and the name "St. Eabba's-well-ford

440-553: Was commemorated in 2024 with a specially commissioned operetta. Commissioned by incumbent Rector David Ridgeway, the libretto was written by Ian Winfrey and score by Jon Graham. The premiere of the operetta was staged in the church in October 2024. Originally staged by Director Monique Bointon-Smith and conducted by Kate Wishart, the sisters’ roles were originated by Liz Williams (Kyneburgha), Susannah Sutton (Kyneswide) and Emily Roberts (Tibba) Tibba, patron saint of falconers ,

462-644: Was corrupted to Stableford when a bridge was later built there. St. Eabba's well came to be called by local shepherds 'Jacob's well'". Barrie Cox in The Place-Names of Rutland suggests 'St Eabba's well ford' is popular etymology . (For the relationship between St Tibba and St Ebba ("Domne Eafe"), see e.g. Rollason, D.W., The Mildrith Legend A Study in Early Medieval Hagiography in England , Leicester University Press, 1982, p. 77) Originally buried at Castor and Ryhall, their relics were bought in

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484-497: Was eldest daughter of Penda. Although her father was an opponent of Christianity, she and all her siblings converted. Bede wrote that Penda tolerated the preaching of Christianity in Mercia itself, despite his own beliefs: This was begun two years before the death of King Penda. Their mother was Queen Cyneswise. Tibba is believed to have been a relative . Kyneburga married Alhfrith of Deira , co-regent of Northumbria (who attended

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