The medieval Fenland 0715359193

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Medieval Fenland

H.C.Darby This classic study of the economic development and geography of the 1,300 square miles of Britain’s Fenland is now re-issued with a new preface by the author.

The vast horizon of the Fens appeals to the imagination of many people, and its geography and exploitation by man are deeply interesting. This thorough examination of the two phases in the exploitation of the

Fens, the pre-drainage and the post-drainage periods, each with their distinctive economy, is an indispensable authority to the serious student of the ‘Great Marsh’ of Lincolnshire,

Norfolk

and

Cambridgeshire.

_ The story starts with pre-Domesday Fenland and its condition in Roman and Anglo-

Saxon times. The fishing, agriculture and other occupations and the communications of Domesday times are examined, and the

information

given by Domesday

statistics

and by fourteenth-century statistics is compale showing the remarkable rise in prosperity the Fenland achieved. The chapter on the care of banks and channels, ‘the determining factor in the economy of the _ Fenland during the later Middle Ages’, con-

_ cludes the book.

z:H. C. Darby is Professor of Geog Biv at § the University of Cambridge. He rds many publications including An Historical Geography of England before AD 1800, The Cambridge Region, The Draining of the Fens, The University Atlas (in association), The _ New Cambridge Modern History Atlas (in _ association). He is also general editor of and a contributor to The Domesday Geogaphy of England. He lives in Cambridge.

SBN 0 7153 5919 3

£4.25 net In UK only

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‘H. C./DARBY Fellow of King’s College, and Professor of Geography in the University of Cambridge

HARLAXTON COLLEGE Li HARLAXTON MANOR GRANTHAM, LINCS.

6 [David & Charles / Newton Abbot

1(197(

0 7153 5919 3 First published in 1940 Reprinted by permission of The Cambridge University Press 1974

© H. C. Darby 1940, 1974 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of David & Charles (Holdings) Limited

Printed in Great Britain by Redwood Burn Limited, Trowbridge & Esher for David & Charles (Publishers) Limited South Devon House Newton Abbot Devon

To ~ BERNARD MANNING

CON Tee NTS Editor’s Preface Preface to Second Edition Preface List of Maps and Diagrams List of Plates

page ix xi XVil XX xxl

Chapter I. Introduction: The Pre-Domesday Fenland Note on Roman Literary Evidence

II.

III.

IV.

V.

I 20

Occupations Marsh Products Agricultural Activity Meadow, Pasture and Turbary Note on the Crowland Disputes

21 22 42 61 86

Communications Fen Waterways

93 93

Fen Causeways

106

The Changing Prosperity of the Fenland Domesday Statistics Fourteenth-Century Statistics

119 120 128

Two Hundred and Fifty Years’ Change

141

/The Social Economy

142

Consequences

of

Fen

The Care of Banks and Channels Complaints and Disputes The Commission of Sewers The Fifteenth Century

147 149 155 163

Sources and Bibliography

169

Appendix: Report of a Commission of Sewers held at Wisbech in 1438

ieley

Index

195

The Face of Places, and their Forms decay; And that is solid Earth, that once was Sea:

Seas in their turn retreating from the Shore, Make Solid Land, what Ocean was before. Ovip, Metamorphoses, liber xv.

(Dryden’s translation.)

PIPE

OTS

PREFACE

Dr DarRBy’s position as an historical geographer makes an editor’s task when introducing him in the character of an economic historian easy, almost otiose. It is only the pressure of our schemes for teaching and examination that has made these two labels necessary for any one man, or couple of men. He is a very imperfect economic historian who is not also a tolerable geographer; and I cannot picture to myself a useful historical geographer who has not a fair working knowledge of economic history. But I think it likely that geographers with Dr Darby’s technical equipment as an historian are rare. The evidence of that equipment—one which any mere historian will respect—is to be found in the text and the footnotes of this book. The same historian might also perhaps covet the geographical equipment. For many years it has been a dream of mine, and of some other people in Cambridge, that the story of the Fenland

should be rewritten here on a foundation of thorough documentary and geographical knowledge. William Cunningham knew his Fens, as an Archdeacon in these parts must, and he made contributions to their history; but he was never able to attempt a complete narrative. Others of us talked about it; but we lacked the time, or it might be some part of the equipment, or the resolution in attack. The book that was dreamed of never got written. “Such a book”, if I may adapt John Wesley’s Preface to the 1779 edition of Wesley’s hymns, “you have now before you. It is not so large as to be either cumbersome or expensive; and it is large enough to contain such a variety re) hag historical material ‘‘as will not soon be worn threadbare. It is large enough to contain all the important truths” of early Fenland history; and its companion volume, which has the same merits, will serve equally well for the later history. There is really no more that an editor need say.

J. H. CLAPHAM

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PREFACE

TO SECOND

EDITION

When this book first appeared in 1940, one reviewer said that ‘perhaps the most striking single new generalization to emerge from this is the tremendous change in the prosperity of the Fenland between Domesday and the early fourteenth century. In a short two hundred and fifty years the silt Fenland is shown to change from country far inferior to the upland to land a good deal more prosperous than the upland’.! The generalization was based upon a comparison of the statistics of the Domesday Book with those of the Lay Subsidies of the early fourteenth century. Since this comparison was made, a great deal of work has been done on both these sources. Domesday geography has been more fully explored,” and the Lay Subsidy of 1334 has been mapped by Dr R. E. Glasscock.* The results of this new work, in so far

as it relates to the Fenland and neighbouring districts, can be seen in Figs A and B, for 1086 and 1334 respectively; the information on both maps has been calculated in terms of the same unit areas. The contrast between them is indicated by Fig C which, so to speak, summarises the changes of two and a half centuries, and shows the great improvement in the siltlands. In the meantime, Prof.'H.E. Hallam has shown how these

changes came about, particularly in his outstanding study of the Lincolnshire Fenland entitled Settlement and Society: A Study of the Early Agrarian History of South Lincolnshire (Cambridge, 1965). The wealth of detail he has assembled indicates how numerous were the enclosures on both the seaward and the fenward side of the silt belt during the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries, and also along the upland margins of the Fenland. These changes he discusses 1 H. Godwin in The New Phytologist, 39 (1940), 237-8. 2 H.C. Darby, The Domesday Geography of Eastern England (Cambridge, ; grd edn., 1971). 8 R. E. Glasscock, “England circa 1334”, being chapter 4 of H. C. Darby (ed), A New Historical Geography of England (Cambridge,

1973)-

Xli

PREFACE

TO

SECOND

EDITION

against their social and demographic background. There is, as yet, no corresponding study for the Norfolk siltlands. Another study that must be mentioned is Dr Joan Thirsk’s Fenland Economy in the Sixteenth Century (University College of Leicester, 1953). This gives a picture of the Lincolnshire fens at the end of the Middle Ages, and shows the parts played by salt-marsh, arable, pasture and meadow in the economy of the region.

I am much indebted to Mr G. R. Versey for drawing the three new maps.

H.C.D. New Year’s Day, 1973

DOMESDAY POPULATION Per square

2m Ma

15 and over :

Pls i

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wees a

1Oeseqs 2

== {|@)

fps

1)

Under 2:5

J

Sea

imiule

——

Edge of Fenland

---

Landward

limit of silt

THE 1334 LAY SUBSIDY | ASSESSED WEALTH Pounds(é's)

per

square

mile

30 and over

rs,Oe. 19> 20 a |, Under 5 —— ---

Edge of Fenland Landward limit of silt

20 miles

Fig . B

a

5 aN

20

rs) ‘= =

ae W O 6

Huse

72> 73 0, 74, 96, 99, 103, 107 n., III, 115 n., 144 Loveden wapentake, 138 Lynn. See King’s Lynn Mablethorpe,

137 n.

Malaria, 9 March, 1, 99

Marshland

(Norfolk),

28,

Ice Age, 1 Ingoldmells, 137 n. Ingulph, 43 n., and passim Tarcromsnoning, 16, OF. t-, 0 t20. Cattle,

Common

Rights,

141, 157, 162, 167

Peterborough Menework,

160

Mercia, 9, 12 Methwold, 28

Mixtil, 53 n. settlements,

9, 10, 12, 13,

21, 23

Jurassic rocks, 1, 107

Monklode, 53 n., 68 n., 86 n. Morborne, 73

Kesteven,

Moulton, 29 n., 45, 90, 137 0.

Morton’s Leam, 168

26, 46, 59, 89, 137, 140,

148, 156, 159, 165 delph,

39,

Meadow, 44, 45, 48, 49, 52, 53, 61 ff,

Monastic

Islington, 121

King’s

38,

48 n., 57, 58, 67 ff, 131, 132, 136, 66, 79, 81 n., 120, 121, 142 n. Medeshamstede, 7 n., 11, 12. Also see

75, 98, 150 n.

Also see Pasture

26, 27, 32, 37, 42, 55, 57n., 61,

64 ff., 72, 75, 85, 102, 124, 126 ff, 131, 136 ff., 140 ,141, 154, 156. Also see Holland Little Ouse, 94, 96

(Lincs.), 11, 26, 38,

39, 42, 46, 550., 59, 72, "76, 78,

87,80,

Leicester, 11, 98 n. Lesch, 32, 34 Leverington, 77, 130 n., 151! Leverton, 137 n. Lincoln, 2, 3, 87, 94, 101 n., 105, 126, 127, 137 Lincolnshire, 1, 4n., 10, 11, 18, 19,

Kingsdelf,

78 n., 81, 149

King’s Lynn, 2, 69, 94, 96, 98, 99,

ror ff., 131 ff., 157, 158 Kirkstead Abbey, 67, 151

Mumby, 137 n.

14, 77 n., Nar, R., 96, 157 * Needingworth, 150, 162 Nene, R., 11, 54n., 86 n., 93, 94, 96,

98, 99, 137, 156 ff., 168 n.

198

INDEX

New drains, 149, 153, 166 Newton, 59, 77, 15! Nomansland, 53 n., 68 n., 86 n. Norfolk, 1, 11, 18, 28, 29, 33, 34n.,

40, 57, 58, 61, 67, 69, 99, 124, 131,

Radfield hundred, 130 Ramsey,

12,

14,

29,

30ff.,

34n.,

36 n., 48, 51, 53> 54s 599 72, 75 De» 77, 78, 80, 81, 101, 102, 104, 105,

110, 113, 144, 145 N., 149, 150, 162

133 ff., 141. Also see Marshland North Walsham, 132 North Witham, 37 Northampton, 11, 98 n., 104

Raveley, 68, 78, 150 n. Rebellions, 119, 143 ff. Reclamation, 4, 43-52,

Northee, 81 Northumbria, 12 Norwich, 131, 133 ff., 150, 162

fens, Enclosure Reeds, 8, 22, 32 ff., 42, 92

Oats, 53 n., 55 Occupations, chap. 2 passim Offoldfal, 51 Old Wellenhee, 98 n., 99 Oolitic rocks, 107

Roddons, 6, 94 ff. Roman period, 3 ff., 20, 95 n. “Roman” Bank. See Sea-bank Romney Marsh Custom, 164, 165

79 ff., 141, 142. Rhine, R., 1 Roach, 28

Ouse, R. See Great Ouse, R., and Little Ouse, R. Outwell, 70, 96, 99, 158 n., 168. Also see Well

Over, 50 Parish boundaries, 17 ff., 68, 69 Pasture, 22, 24, 48, 52, 55, 61, 66 ff., 120,

121,

142n.,

Cattle, Common commoning Peacocks, 36 n.

150.

rights,

Also

see

Inter-

Peat-lands, 2, 5, 7, 15, 16, 18, 52, 141 Perch, 28 Peterborough, 2, 3, 7n., 8n., 10,

11 ff., 16, 21, 24, 31, 36, 50, 54, 57n., 87, 88, 92, 94, 99, 104n.,

105 n., 113, 118 n., 158, 168. Also see Medeshamstede Phisshestlver, 31 Pickerels, 28 Pidley, 78 Pike, 30 Pinchbeck, 76, 77, 89, 131, 137, 148, 152, 154 Place-names, 8, 10, II, 29, 94 Nn. Plough-teams, 122 ff. Podike, 79 n., 160, 167 Population, 122 ff. Purprestures. See Enclosure, Reclamation

Quadring, 39, 131, 137 n., 148, 151 Quaternary deposits, 1, 2, 4.n. Quaveney, 103 Quy, 3

61, 66, 67,

Also see Division of

Rout-penny, 103 n. Rushes, 22, 32 ff. Rutland, 11, 98 n.

St Albans, 13 St Ives, 29 n., 51, 94 St Neots, 36 n., 70 Salter’s Lode, 158n., Well Creek

167.

Also see

Salt-pans, 21, 37 ff., 51, 121

Sawtry,

14, 49, 56n., 75m.,

104 n., 150 n. Scandinavians, 10 ff.

100,

Scrane, 11 Scrivelsby soke, 75, 76 Sea-bank, 3, 4n., 41, 100, 152, 160

Sedge, 32 ff. Sedgeford, 132 Sefare, seesiluer, sesilver, 103 Segsilver, seggesiluer, 33 Sheep, 68, 121, 131 Shippea, 103

Ships. See Boats Sibsey, 115 Silt-lands, 2, 4n., 5, 15, 16, 18, 28,

39, 55, 128, 130, 131, 137, 140, 141 Skidbrook, 137 n. Skirbeck, 11, 116

Skirbeck wapentake, 11, 38, 124, 137, 138, 140, 151 Smeeth, 67 Smithdon hundred, 132, 136 Snettisham, 131 Soham, 23, 107, 108, 109, 111, 130 n., 144 Somersham, 62, 78, 80 ff., 101, 102, 148 n., 150

INDEX

South Kyme, 28

South Raynham, 47 n. Southery, 30

Spalding, 26, 28, 36n., 38, 39, 45, 50, 51, 58n., 72, 80, 82, 86-91, 94, 100, 105, 116 ff., 137, 151, 152, 154

Standon, 68 Stanford, 94, 126, 127, 137 Stanground, 81, 82, 168 Staploe hundred, 130

Stenning, 39 Stickney, 73, 115 Stourbridge, 94 Stretham, 74 n.

Stuntney, 23, 107 ff., 113 Subsidies, 128 ff.

Suffolk, 28, 33

Surfleet, 39, 76, 77, 152 Sussex, Sutterton, 116, 137 n.

Sutton (Cambs.), 34, 59 Sutton (Lincs.), 51, 62n., 131, 137n. Swaffham, 23, 131

Swans, 36 n., 37 Swineshead, 39, 57 n., 131, 148

199

Upware, 74 n. Upwell, 158 n. Also see Well Upwood,

69,

78,

1o2n.,

148n.,

149 N., 150 n. Village sites, 16, 18

Vine, vineyard, 49 n., 53 n., 54 Wainfleet, 37, 41, 85, 115, 148, 151 ff. Walpole,

18 n., 58, 68, 69, 83, 131,

136 n. Walsham hundred, 136 n. Walsoken, 58, 59, 68, 69, 83, 99, 100, 131, 136 n., 160 Warboys, 2n., 33, 73n., 78, 81n.,

150 n. Warwick, 98 n. Wash, the, 1, 16, 29, 137 Water-crows, 36 Water-snakes, 28 Waterways, 93 ff. Wayes, 40 Weald, 8 Well, Welles, Wells,

16, 29, 30, 31,

50; 77, 79, 80, 98, 102 n., 151, 159, 161, 16

Well Tattershall, 2

Tattershall Thorpe, 26 Taverham hundred, 136 n. Teals, 36 Terrington, 18 n., 40, 58, 68, 69, 83, 131, 136 n. Thames, R., 1, 6n.

Theddlethorpe, 137 n. Thetford, 132

Thorney, 10, 12n., 13, 16, 24, 31, 36 n., 48, 50, 53, 54, 75 2-5 77, 78, 81, 113, 114, 149, 153 Tilney,

18n., 58, 67, 69, 83, 131,

136 n.

Creek, 98 ff., 158. Also see Salter’s Lode Welland, R., 11, 38, 44, 46n., 56, 86 n., 91 n., 93, 94, 100, 117, 118, 131, 159

Welney, 98 n., 9g n. Wentworth,

108

West Deeping, 68 n. West Fen, 85, 140, 151 West Flegg hundred, 136

West Walton, 39, 58, 59, 68, 69, 83, 120 N., 121, 131, 136 n., 160

Weston, 45; 90, 154 Whaplode,

29n.,

115, 137 n.

40, 55N.,

59, 92,

Toft, 137 Torksey, 126, 127 Triscot, 162, 163

Whittlesey Mere, 7n., 14, 24, 25, 26,

Trockenholt, 81 n. Tribal Hidage, 7

30, 50, 75 1., 100, 150 n. Whittlesford hundred, 7

Whittlesey, 24, 48, 77 n., 78, 81, 100,

120 n.

Tunstead hundred, 136

Wicken, 130 n.

Turf, turbaries, 21, 22, 40, 61, 82 ff,

Wiggenhall, 18 n., 30, 47, 58, 69, 100, 131, 136 n. Wigtoft, 11

87, 89, 120, 154

Turkill, 16, 75 n. Tydd, 40, 50, 59, 74.0-, 77, 137) 151

Ugg Mere, 101 Undersetiles, 73 n.

Wilburton, 25, 32 n., 53, 101 Wildmore Fen, 67, 75, 76, 140 Willingham, 102, 111 Willows, 162

200

INDEX

Wilton, 28 Wisbech, 23, 57, 77, 81 n., 82 n., 94, 96, 98, 99, 101,

105,

I15m.,

151,

156 ff., 165, 166, 168 Wisbech hundred, 7, 130, 141, 162

Wissey, R., 94 n., 96 Wistow, 32, 62, 68n., 78 Witchford hundreds, 110, 130, 141 Witham, R., 2n., 11, 38, 46n., 93,

94, IOI, 104, 153, 159, 165

Wolds, 140 Wopenny, 162, 163 Wood Walton, 49, 56n., 104 D., 150 n. Wooton, 39 Wraggoe wapentake, 138 Wrangle, 41, 151 Yarmouth, 131, 133 ff. Yaxley, 73 n., 82, 98

IOI n.,

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demesne

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