Tealby

A ploughman employed by George Tennyson found a Roman pot containing about 5,700 silver pennies which came to be known as the Tealby Hoard. All the pennies dated from 1158-1180 and show the face of Henry II. George Tennyson sent the Hoard to Sir Joseph Banks ‘who caused them to undergo the most minute examination’. The best specimens found their way into Banks’ own collection and to the British Museum, whilst the rest (5,127) were melted down at the Tower of London. This does seem sacrilegious to us now, but at the time the nation was in the throes of the Napoleonic Wars and in economic crisis.

George Tennyson lived in the original thatched Bayons Manor until his death in 1833. Causing much family discord, Alfred’s father was passed over to inherit the family estate in favour of Charles who was the youngest son. Charles took seven years to rebuild it in a Romantic Gothic style and the costs of creating the 60 roomed house were enormous. There was a fundamental flaw in its construction. Built from local stone but with cappings of Portland Stone which was much heavier and crushed the local stone. After many years of neglect Bayons Manor was finally blown up in 1964. Charles was an MP for 34 years, he renamed himself Charles Tennyson d’Eyncourt and claimed descendancy from Norman Barons.