Rowley - A Rural Society - 1200 onward

By the 1100s Yorkshire had to be remade after the Williams’ depredations, if only to ensure the King’s taxes recovered to Edward’s level. The action men proved to be the Archbishops of York, who also needed money and were sharper than William’s knights and sheriffs in rebuilding their interests. Henry from 1100 saw law and order as his priority. That the Archbishop and the King succeeded is shown by the tax value of Yorkshire trebling relative to Edward’s time by 1180, with land returning to use and churches, minsters, monasteries, and towns growing and thriving.
How was it for Rowley parish and its folks, and what changes by then and into the 13th century?

Lacking information specific to Rowley we must see it as a typical rural Wolds parish similar to others where information exists. We have five ‘manors’ all dating from Anglo-Saxon times. Manors were held of the King, a baron or a thegn by a lord of the manor, in a form of community with his bondsmen, ‘freemen’ or ‘villeins’, and ‘serfs’ including ‘cottars’ (cottagers) and ‘bordars’ (serfs working the edges of agricultural lands). The lord of the manor was responsible for the villagers who, apart from freemen ‘holding’ land of the lord, were tied to the manor for life. Non-approved movement from the manor was punishable by largefines. The lord was responsible for housing, welfare of villagers, provision of mills and settlement of local civil disputes, etc. Ecclesiastical matters went to the priest or Archbishop. In return for allowing the serfs to work the land dues were paid to the lord in labour, goods or money, and by him to the king or thegn, and the church took a ‘tithe’ of a tenth of all products of the land. The lord also had to contribute men to fight for the king on demand–at a rate of one man for every five ‘hides’ of land. When William claimed all the land in 1066, he changed the ancient Anglo-Saxon system to a French idea of ‘feudum’ given to his barons, knights and thegns in return for service to him. Its effect at village level was not noticeable.

Within most Wolds manors their isolation meant almost total self-sustainability and the system was that each family had to meet its own needs, plus a tithe to the church, and a due to the lord. The nature of these dues had been in the form of corn, meat, ale, and maybe fish as goods, or money, or labour on the lords land. The community structure had developed into a ridge-and-furrow agricultural system, worked with a communal plough and oxen team, with open fields, and uncultivated land around for grazing. Putting this method into the context of our five manors we can see that Hunsley and Riplingham must have had a hard time compared to Risby and Bentley. With their exposure to weather, unreliable water supplies little firewood and the thin soils times were hard there. Bentley and Risby, with deeper soils, water springs, as well as woodland for pigs, game and firewood, were rich indeed. Even as late as the 1600s the Wolds were described variously as ‘nothing but a heap of mountains’, ‘very hilly and barren’, ‘fair champain (open) corn ground’ (between Walkington and North Cave), whereas Beverley to Cottingham ‘was well wooded and good corn ground’. Perhaps an idea of the exposed nature of the Wolds is gained from the first recorded windmill in Britain being at Weedley, just outside the parish, in 1185.

Despite these hardships the changes compared to pre-Conquest were racing ahead by the 13th century. It is recorded that in 1328 in Little Weighton labour services had been converted into money payments ‘from ancient times’. Barter or labour in lieu no doubt still existed but was receding as towns such as Beverley and Hull and as vigorous ecclesiastical trade paid in cash for wool and hides from the 3000 acres of our parish sheepwalks. In this way trade, especially with Beverley, renowned for its wool and leather, grew. With it came increasing awareness of the world outside the villages and bring opportunities for movement. This manorial system developed until about 1750–it warrants more elucidation–next time.


Big Thank You to Barrie Heaton for his historical articles.

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