Note 187 — NOTES ON PARISHES ROUND HORNCASTLE. (continued 5)

The name Siward may not have been confined to one person; but the old chronicler, Ordericus Vitalis (A.D. 1142), tells the following, of the great Earl Waltheof, son of Siward, that he was beheaded (probably being too powerful a Saxon subject to suit the Conqueror), on May 31, 1076, at Winchester, and buried on the spot of his execution. The monks of Croyland, however, begged that his body might be removed to their Abbey; and this was granted and carried out a fortnight after his death. He was then buried in the Chapter House. Sixteen years afterwards, the abbot, Ingulphus, decided to remove the treasured remains from the Chapter House to the Church, and ordered the bones to be first washed with warm water. When the coffin lid was removed, the body was not only found to be as fresh as at the first burial, but the head had become re-united to the body, only a red streak showing the place of severance. The body was re-interred near the high altar with great ceremony, and it is added (and no wonder, after this one miracle) that “miracles were often performed” at the tomb. (“Fenland N. & Q.” 1892, pp. 37–8).