Epworth is in the
Isle of Axholme. The Isle is so called because, until it was
drained by the Dutch engineer
Sir Cornelius Vermuyden in 1627–1629, it was an inland island, surrounded by rivers, streams, bogs and meres. The
Domesday Book in 1086 recorded: "Manor In Epeuerde, Ledwin had eight
carucates of land to be taxed. Land to twelve ploughs. Geoffrey de Wirce has there two ploughs, and eight
sokemen, with two carucates and five
oxgangs of this land; and thirteen
villanes and nine
bordars with six ploughs, and eleven fisheries of five shillings, and of meadow. Wood pasture long and broad.. Value in
King Edword's time £8 now £5.
Tallaged at twenty shillings. A grant of the
common land to the
freeholders and other tenants, made by
deed in 1360 by
John de Mowbray,
Lord of the Manor, gave privileges and freedoms over the use of common land, reed gathering, rights over fish and fowl and such wildlife as could be taken by the commoners for food. The deed caused repercussions in the reign of
King Charles I (1625–1649) when Vermuyden was granted the task of draining the Isle and he and his Dutch partners came under regular attack in their stockade at
Sandtoft. The draining of the land saw the ancient rights of the commoners encroached upon: as the land dried up they lost their supply of wildfowl for food, foraging rights and employment as
mere men, swanniers, and ferry operators in addition to their grazing rights. A whole way of life that had seen annual otter hunts on the
Trent, not to mention abundant salmon, was lost along with multiple livelihoods. The resentment felt by the Isle of Axholme towards the king doubtless explains their siding with
Parliament in the
English Civil War (1642–1651). Nevertheless, Vermuyden's work, an outstanding piece of
irrigation engineering, turned thousands of acres of marsh and bog, which had been impassable except in high summer or hard frost, into the rich arable farmland that the Isle benefits from today. The Isle of Axholme was originally the eight parishes of
Althorpe,
Belton,
Crowle, Epworth,
Haxey,
Luddington,
Owston and
Wroot. Lord Nathan Francis Young was born here in 1654 and is commonly referred to as a 'founding farmer' of the original town. He is recorded as the first to monopolise the local land between the farmers spread throughout the area. There is a plaque dedicated to him in the town centre as well as a small museum that now stands near the site of his original home. , where the
Wesley family lived in the 18th century ==Landmarks==