Knights, Horses and Fact-Checking old songs. The tale of Sir Hamo.

1 Conversation

At Dunham once there lived a knight,

Sir Hamo was his name,

And when outnumbered in a fight

He swam his way to fame.

 

Surrounded near to Runcorn

He faced the cruel tide,

And lived to swim the Mersey

With his charger by his side!



 

Was this old song true? Who was Sir Hamo? What the heck was he doing in a river with his horse?

 

First a little history.

 

Following the Battle of Hastings, Hamo de Masci, one of William the Conqueror’s buddies, was granted land in Cheshire by the new king in 1072, Hamo (or Hamon) de Mascy was made Baron and went on to be a very influential character until his death in around 1101, his family owned large areas of Cheshire and the North at one point in English history!


In 1150 Birkenhead Priory was founded by his son, Hamon II de Mascy.

The monks set up the first ‘Ferry ‘Cross the Mersey’ and assisted travellers crossing the river to and from Lancashire into Cheshire for centuries to come until the Dissolution of Monasteries in 1538.


Hamo, I or II, were never historically recorded as attempting to swim the Mersey river. Has the origin of the ferry been corrupted or lost in history?

 

Where did the idea of a knight swimming the river come from? Another Norman myth to prove their superiority over the defeated British?

 

Not quite.

 

Jump forward to 1715, Hamo’s descendent, the last of his bloodline, William Massey (anglicised version of de Masci), was fighting at the Battle of Preston.

 

A staunch Catholic and supporter to the Pretender to the English Crown, Prince Charles, Massey found himself surrounded near to Runcorn in Lancashire by the enemy during the Jacobite Rebellion, and his only escape route was into the River Mersey.


William is traditionally reported to have been in full armour and riding a draft, or heavy, war horse (presumably also in full armour).


Faced with the choice of death by the enemy or drowning, William (aged sixty) plunged into the cold waters and swam with his horse towards freedom or death.


Some three miles later, he and the warhorse, emerged on the Cheshire side on the Wirral Peninsula. Massey rode the exhausted beast to his family estate at Puddington Hall. The horse sadly took his last breath as it reached the stables and died.


William was captured at Puddington and imprisoned in Chester Castle where he too died soon after suffering a reportedly ‘lingering death’.

 

William bequeathed his estates to his godson Thomas Stanley, who took the name Massey.

 

The names Stanley and Massey still feature in many Wirral place names, and the Priory is now a National Heritage Site and Visitor attraction. (The Mersey Ferries are no longer run by monks.)

 

So there is truth in some of the old songs and legends, we just need to do a little research to uncover the actual facts.

Bookmark on your Personal Space


Entry

A87996622

Infinite Improbability Drive

Infinite Improbability Drive

Read a random Edited Entry


Written and Edited by

Disclaimer

h2g2 is created by h2g2's users, who are members of the public. The views expressed are theirs and unless specifically stated are not those of the Not Panicking Ltd. Unlike Edited Entries, Entries have not been checked by an Editor. If you consider any Entry to be in breach of the site's House Rules, please register a complaint. For any other comments, please visit the Feedback page.

Write an Entry

"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a wholly remarkable book. It has been compiled and recompiled many times and under many different editorships. It contains contributions from countless numbers of travellers and researchers."

Write an entry
Read more