Little is recorded of the early days of settlement in Spondon. At the time of the Domesday Survey in 1068 we know that there was a church, a priest and a mill. Spondon was one of the many manors given to Henry de Ferrars by William I. As part of his Spondon Manor he also held about 120 acres of land in Mapperley. Evidence of Saxon occupation can be found in the grounds of the old vicarage, where Saxon burials have been identified.
In 1200 King John confirmed that in about 1170 William de Ferrars had granted Spondon Church with chapels to Burton Lazars, a group of Hospitaller Knights, dedicated to the care of lepers. They built a preceptory at Locko, which was still in existence in 1535 under the care of the bailiff of Locko and Melton Mowbray, although leprosy had died out many years before.
In 1340 Spondon Church was destroyed in a fire which devoured all but four houses in the town. The King gave relief from taxes for a while so that Spondon could be rebuilt. Burton Lazars rebuilt the church, no doubt using much of the stonework. At this time Chaddesden people complained to the Bishop that bodies often lay unburied, due to the flooding of the brook between Chaddesden and Spondon, so a graveyard and chapel were then prepared in Chaddesden.
Syd Lusted
April 2010