The return of the Bayeux Tapestry to England for the first time in nearly 1,000 years allows us the opportunity to come face to face again with Wadard of Bayeux, lord of the manor of Rampisham in Dorset.
In vol.17 of SDNQ (1922-23) the Dorset Editor of SDNQ Richard Grosvenor Bartelot (1868-1947) identified Wadard as not only Lord of the Manor of Rampisham but also as the possible builder of Godard’s Castle at Thurnham in Kent:
SDNQ Vol.17, Part 132, March 1922, pp.105:
Wadard of Bayeux was one of Bishop Odo’s trustiest retainers, and as such he figures in the Bayeux Tapestry which the Conqueror’s half-brother caused to be made to celebrate the victory of Hastings. The illustration shows Wadard armed in chain mail, bearing shield and spear, and mounted on the small-headed Norman horse so characteristic of the art of that period. To the multitudes assembled in Odo’s Cathedral on those Festivals when this pictorial panorama of the Conquest of England was unrolled to public view, the warrior Wadard must have been a popular figure, and for their benefit “HIC EST WADARD” is inscribed above his head. But he was also a Dorset landlord, so we have reproduced this section of the famous tapestry, because it gives a portrait of the Domesday lord of Rampisham Manor in Dorset. Witness the following:
“The Bishop of Bayeaux holds RAMESHAM, and WADARD holds it of him. Lewin held it in the time of King Edward. It was taxed for six hides… Wadard hitherto held with this manor three virgates of land which the five thanes held in King Edward’s time and they were free to turn themselves over to the service of whom they would.”
SDNQ Vol.17, part 139, December 1923, pp.279-80:
One of the manors granted by William the Conqueror to his brother Bishop Odo of Bayeux was that of Thurnham about four miles east of Maidstone. There still remains at Thurnham the ruins of a Norman castle built within a British camp, and called by the name of ‘Godard’s Castle.’ Hitherto antiquarians have been puzzled as to the origin of this name, for it never belonged to a family called Godard. Now we have evidence from Domesday that the same Bishop Odo held Rampisham, Dorset, where a Wadard was his sub-tenant. Also the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says that when the Conqueror returned to Normandy in 1067 “Bishop Odo and William the Earl remained behind, and they built castles wide throughout the nation and distressed poor people.”
The Bayeux tapestry, by its prominent portrait designated “HIC EST WADARD,” shews what an important official Wadard was at that date. Hence, may not the designation ‘Godards Castle’ be in reality another form of ‘Wadards Castle’ of which our Rampisham landlord was the builder on behalf of his master Bishop Odo?