Marrying Mistress Merlay: how Mearley became one of my ancestral homes. Part 1.

Figure 1. Mearley from the Keep at Clitheroe Castle:

 the Merlay Vaccary was located on the slopes of Pendle.

[please click on this image, or any of the others for a larger image]

Like nearly everybody else researching one's family history, I was expecting to, and had found a peasant farmer at the end of each branch of my tree.  With the exception of one other surname, all of my other branches were stalling at a point shortly before the date when King Henry VIII's new registers of christenings and deaths were established.

For several years, for my Nowell's , I thought that I had found my founding peasant farmer, in the form of one John Nowell, who had died 1525. (my 13 x great grandfather, twice over [1])

He had lived at Read near Whalley in Lancashire.

This belief persisted until I discovered the works of the Revd Dunham Whitaker. (1759-1822).

Whitaker who was Vicar of Whalley was one of those indefatigable antiquarians, who had both the time and inclination to research the history of his family, and that of the community that he lived in.

For reasons that I can hardly fathom, nobody seems to have thrown anything away. Christopher Townley in the early 1600's had found a pile of documents several feet deep on the floor of a turret at Clitheroe, and other nearby houses seem to have had muniment rooms filled to bursting, all of which Whitaker was able read at his leisure.

Whitaker himself was by happy chance related by marriage to the Nowell's [2], and as a result Whitaker's two volume book "An History of the Original Parish of Whalley and Honor of Clitheroe.... " contains a great of material about about the Nowell's and all of their many relatives through marriage. 

Reading these volumes, was for me was like falling into a Black Hole, or going into a time warping machine, because suddenly I found myself speeding and tumbling back four hundred years on more.

Suddenly, I had almost a surfeit of information.

On the 23rd of August 1138, the Scots encountered the local army of Yorkshire levies commanded by William le Gros, Count of Aumale and Earl of York, who was supported by Ralph Nowell, Bishop of Orkney.

Ralph is credited with having given a rousing speech directly following Aumale's shortly before the start of the battle.

Figure 2. A map showing the border between England and Scotland in 1138.

Much to the surprise of the Scots, under King David I, it was the English who won.  This caused the Scots to retreat northwards, and allowed the English to regroup.

In many ways it is a misnomer to call these wars Anglo-Scottish Wars.  They were really civil wars being fought out under the command of two cliques made up from Norman warlords with land in England and Normandy, as well as Scotland.  They were contesting the rights to exploit the lands previously held by a much larger number of semi-autonomous tenants and other local inhabitants.

These tenants and locals, who had seen their rights to the benefits of these estates removed in most cases were now to be called up, often probably against their wishes, to become members of their local warlord's armies.

The families who ruled in the south of Scotland and the north of England, were almost all from Normandy. However, while some of them may have been in the boats which arrived at Pevensey in 1066, far more seem to have arrived at subsequent landings that took place in Holderness and the Humber Estuary during the period from 1100 until about 1135. [4]

It appears very likely that the Nowell's, the Stuteville's and the Merlay families originally arrived in Holderness, and initially saw service under the Count of Aumale, in the early 1100's having very probably campaigned in Normandy for the count many times previously.

Aumale is a frontier town on a strategic crossing of the River Bresle, at the northernmost point in the Norman territories. It was very exposed to the French kings forces, and was constantly being fought over.  It has changed hands many times over the years.  In future blogs I will explore, this in more detail.

It is not clear where the Merlay (also spelt Meslay) family came from, however it is very likely to have been from the villages a few miles south of Chartres.

Figure 3. Geoffrey de Meslay, Vidame to the Bishop of Chartres.

A Vidame was the leader of the knights in the service of a bishop.  During the 1100's it was quite usual for Bishops to have their own armies. Geoffrey, on the left is one of only two knights shown on all of the 176 stained glass windows in the cathedral.  While it is unlikely that Stephen Merlay was closely related to Geoffrey, they were contemporaries, and it is possible that they were cousins.

Figure 4. The older Motte at Morpeth Castle

The Merlay family initially seem to have been given lands a few miles inland of Scarborough on the northern limits of the count of Aumale's Holderness domain.  Through marriage they gained Burton Agnes Hall, where a crypt from the period still survives.  Roger de Stuteville, a younger son of the Roger de Stuteville who had fought in the battle of the Standard, was probably the builder of the earliest work at the Hall, in the basement of the building to the west of the present mansion. This Roger had a son Ancelm, who died without issue, and five daughters, Alice, Agnes, Isabell, Gundreda who was a nun.

Alice became the wife of Roger de Merlay the I, son of the founder of Newminster Abbey in the County of Northumberland (1137). This Roger de Merlay was succeeded by a second Roger, and he again by a third Roger. [5]  This may be why so many of the eldest sons of the Nowell's were later to be called Roger.

Roger's Grandfather, William De Merlay had been given the tenancy of Morpeth, possibly as early as 1088, although the castle probably dates from a little later. [6]

Morpeth was a strategic crossing of the River Wansbeck, used by Scottish cattle dealers and drovers, and was the de facto frontier with Scotland for most of the 12th Century.  The De Merlay family built the castle on the south bank of the river at Morpeth from which to control and very probably tax the cattle trade as it came south over the bridge from the market that took place in a very wide street to the north of the bridge.

Figure 5. The Medieval bridge at Morpeth, on the road that the cattle took south.

The modern deck sits atop Medieval piers, and is barely

 wide enough for one mature beast at a time.

During the 1138 campaign, Morpeth was particularly badly damaged by the Scots, and the Merlay's new Abbey at Newminster, was sacked just a year after it been founded.

Figure 6. Map from M.A. Atkin, "Land Use and Management

 in the Upland Demesne of the De Lacy Estate of Blackburnshire c. 1300,

 showing the location of the 29 Vaccaries.

I believe that it was during the reorganisation, immediately following the Scottish invasion of 1138, that it was decided to send Stephen Merlay to Pendle.

It is not known how he fits into the wider Merlay family tree, however as he is one of my 23 x great grandfather's I would dearly love to hear from you if you know!

The lands upon which Mearley was founded, belonged ultimately to the De Lacy family, who owned Pontefract Castle together with many others.

In order to make the most of what was very poor and wet land in the Pendle Forest compared to their other lands in Yorkshire and Normandy, the De Lacy family decided to develop a series of deer parks and cattle ranches, called Vaccaries.

In 1189, Matilda de Percy had written about Sawley Abbey, just a short ride to the north of Mearley, when she said that it stood

"in a cloudy and rainy climate so that crops, already white in the harvest, usually rot in the stalk; and the convent, for forty years or more, has been oppressed by want and lack of all necessities through the intemperate weather." [7]

Although it is not certain how, if at all the Vaccarie at Mearley was connected or related to the De Lacy owned and operated Vaccary, it is clear that Mearley operated in a very similar way to those run by the De Lacy workforce, that M.A. Atkin believes were organised directly.

Perhaps De Lacy had originally planned to have 30 cattle farms, but found that he had a willing tenant for the one at Mearley. Perhaps the Merlay family were able to demand better terms than the other local farmers.

Figure 7. Map from M.A. Atkin, marked to show Mearley

 in relation to the other vaccarie.

These vaccarie were clearly substantial operations, with the De Lacy records showing that between £500 and £800 a year was being sent to the De Lacy coffers in Pontefract by 1300.

It is hard to estimate the stocking rate, but a report written in 1869 stated that land in the Pendle Forest was able to carry one cow per three to four acres.

Figure 8. The parish boundary of Mearley superimposed on a Google Earth image.

The red markers are Great Mearley, and the blue ones, Little Mearley

The 1910, 6" to the mile Ordnance Survey map states that Mearley encompasses 1509 acres.  If Atkin is correct, at 4 acres per cow, that would be  377 beasts, and at 3 acres per cow, 503.  It seems unlikely that such large numbers of animals were carried at any one time, not least because there appears to have been an element of arable farming going on, at the property judging from the ridge and furrow visible on the flatter land towards Clitheroe.

I expect that it might have been nearer 200 in Winter.  I would welcome an informed opinion from a local farmer.

Figure 9. Pendle and Mearley in winter, courtesy of Steve Wignall.

Atkins records that other De Lacy vaccarie holding between 80 and 230 animals over winter.

What is certain, is that the cattle must have lived on the upper slopes and on top of Pendle. It appears that they probably met very few people, and were probably almost wild.  This is brought out by the very large cattle crush, or funnel built of dry stone walls that lead down into the Great Mearley settlement.

Figure 10. Little Mearley is situated in the trees below the deeply incised Clough,

 and Great Mearley below the sinuous track to the right 

Notice how the walls come down the slope from Pendle in a funnel shape, directly above the sinuous track into Great Mearley.

The sheer size of the cattle crush, for that's what I believe it is, and the substantial nature of the walls, suggest that some fairly large numbers of cattle were being brought down.

How did Adam Nowell secure his heiress?

How did he secure the land, and lay the foundations of his family's fortunes?

Both of these questions will probably always remain impossible to answer.

However writers including Christopher Norton [8] have studied the activities of Ralph Nowell, Bishop of Orkney, who we last met cheering on the Yorkshire levies as they fought off the Scots in the fields outside Northallerton in 1138.

In early Medieval times many clergy were married, and indeed Pope Benedict IX dispensed himself from celibacy and resigned in order to marry.

During 1074, Pope Gregory VII said that anyone who was to be ordained must first pledge celibacy, and that priests must first escape from the clutches of their wives, before they could be ordained.

By 1095, Pope Urban II was having priests wives sold into slavery, children were abandoned.

It is clear however that into the Twelfth Century, clergy were still getting married, or at least cohabiting, and having families.  In 1123-Pope Calistus II at the First Lateran Council decreed that clerical marriages were invalid, but in 1139, Pope Innocent II still felt it necessary for the Second Lateran Council to be asked to confirm the previous councils decree.

Yorkshire was a very long way from Rome, and it appears that Ralph Nowell must have been married [9] as Norton shows Ralph Nowell (still alive in 1154), having five sons, Gilbert canon of Ripon, Peter Priest of Wakefield, Adam the priest, Thomas and Paulinus of Leeds, who died circa 1202.

Intriguingly Alexander Nowell who became Dean of St Paul's immediately following the accession of Queen Elizabeth I, was married, and probably ruined his chances of promotion thereby. The Queen would accept married priests, but preferred her Bishops celebate.

There is no mention of Ralph having had any daughters, but this may quite possibly be because they had no property of their own, and therefore don't appear in records.

Norton believes that Paulinus married a daughter of Lefwin de Marisco, and to have a daughter called Ralph Nowell who was alive in 1227.  Several other Nowell's are mentioned including John Nowell chaplain de Marisco.

All of these Christian names were frequently used in every generation of the Nowell family until well into the 18th Century, and often beyond that date.

Adam is very probably connected with one of these families. But how to find the connection is likely to be a challenge, although I have access to resources, and in ways that the Revd Thomas Dunham Whitaker could only have ever dreamed of.

In part 2, I will go on to discuss aspects of the landscape at Mearley that raise really intriguing questions, and also to look at how the estate evolved over time.

I will also discuss a hypothesis that is developing in my mind, about the type of cattle that were present on Pendle all of those years ago.

If you have anything to add to the above, or would like to ask a question, please contact me at balmer.nicholas@gmail.com

[1] John Nowell had two wives. The first in 1486 was Douse [3], daughter of Robert Hesketh of Rufford. From this marriage, many generations later, Dorothy Nowell, married James Barton at the Collegiate Church in Manchester on the 7th of January 1787 to become one of my 4 x great grandmother's. By his second marriage, before 1505 John Nowell married Elizabeth Kay, daughter of Robert Kay of Rochdale, gent. From this second marriage were descended Alexander Nowell, Dean of St Paul's, Laurence Nowell, Dean of Lichfield, Robert, of Gray's Inn, Christopher & Nicholas.  There were also several girls, including Isabella, who married John Wolton of Whalley (my 12 x gt grandparents.)  From John and Isabella Wolton, was born James & John Wolton, together with several other offspring. This John Wolton became Warden of Manchester College in 1575, and then went on to become Bishop of Exeter in 1579. His daughter Mary, married my 10 x great grandfather John Baber, D. D., Rector of Tormarton and Vicar of Chew Magna.  During the 1880's, my Great Grandfather Harry Baber, married Clara Barton at Ramsbury in Wiltshire, almost certainly completely unaware that they were both descended from John Nowell who had died 350 years earlier. See "Dunham Whitaker: "An History of the Original Parish of Whalley and Honor of Clitheroe" volume 2.
[2] One of the other daughters of John Nowell and Elizabeth Kay was called Elizabeth who became wife to Thomas Whitaker of Holme, ancestor to the Revd Dunham Whitaker.  See "The Spending of the Money of Robert Nowell of Reade Hall, Lancashire, edited by the Rev Alexander Grosart, Vicar of St. George's, Blackburn, printed 1877.

[3] Also Dowse.

[4] See Paul Dalton, Conquest, Anarchy and Lordship, Yorkshire, 1066-1154. See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_I_of_Scotland

[5] https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Boynton_family_and_the_family_seat_of_Burton_Agnes/The_Early_Owners_of_Burton_Agnes.  See also Early Yorkshire Charters: Volume 9, The Stuteville Fee, edited by William Farrer, Charles Travis Clay. The Merlay's also appear in many of the other volumes of this work, as well as in Hodgkinson's Northumberland.

[6] https://actswilliam2henry1.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/h1-ranulf-de-merlay-2016-1.pdf

[7] M.A. Atkin, "Land Use and Management in the Upland Demesne of the De Lacy Estate of Blackburnshire c. 1300.

[8] Christopher Norton, St William of York, published 2006.

[9] Norton, pages 229 to 237. See Genealogical Table 4.  The family tree of Ralph Nowell and Paulinus of Leeds.

The Invasion of Normandy August 1417, Landing at Torques

Figure 1. Trouville Beach, the site of the landings on the 1st August 1417. The north shore of the Bay of the Seine can be seen in the distance.

“King Henry of England, accompanied by his brothers the dukes of Clarence and Gloucester, a number of other nobles, and a numerous army, landed at the port of Touques in Normandy, with the intent to conquer the whole of that duchy.  The royal castles at Touques was speedily invested on all sides, which caused the governor, Sir John d’Engennes [1]to surrender it within four days on condition that he and the garrison should depart with their effects.  Within a short time afterwards, the following towns and castles surrendered to king Henry without making any resistance:  Harcourt, Beaumont-le-Roger, Evreux, and several others, in which he placed numerous garrisons.”[2]

Amongst those who landed were two members of the Nowell family, the first was Robert Nowell, a household servant of Richard Beauchamp of Bergavenny, (1397-1421/22) [3] Earl of Worcester, and later Lord Bergavenny.

The second member of the Nowell family to land was John Nowell, who was an archer in the contingent of William Swinburne. [4] Sir William Swinburne, who came from Essex, had previously been appointed as the Captain of Marck, a castle forming part of the outer defences of the Pale of Calais, located in marshland very close to what is now the main motorway into the modern port of Calais, in 1408, and who had become an M.P. during 1414. Swinburne’s indenture in 1417 required him to provide four men at arms and fourteen archers.[5]

Sir William Swinburne was the son of Sir Robert Swinburne, by his second wife. He had an elder half brother called Sir Thomas Swinburne (1357-1412), who was the offspring of Sir Robert Swinburne's first wife, and who had served in Calais in 1395.

Amongst Sir Thomas's archers in 1395 was Richard Nowell of Read in Lancashire, so that it is entirely possible that John Nowell was following in the footsteps of earlier generations of his family by taking service with the Swinburne family. [6]

Most of us are aware of the Battle of Agincourt fought in 1415 by King Henry V and his army of archers. Few people today however are aware of the later campaigns fought in Normandy in the aftermath of the victory at Agincourt.

Thanks to the work of Professor Anne Curry of Southampton University and her Medieval Soldier Project [7], which has developed a database containing the names of several thousand individuals who took part in those events, and which are recorded in the indentures and musters that survive in the National Archives at Kew, and in Paris and Normandy to this day, I am finding that I can track the activities of many of these men from 1370 until 1444.

The records become particularly revealing after 1417, and this has led to my visiting many of the locations that they campaigned over during this summer, the 600th anniversary of the original landings.

In the projects database are at least 164 entries that refer to the Nowell family including about ten individuals from Read in Lancashire.  Some of whom I am descended from, or closely related to.

There are approximately 25 separate individuals listed, however because several appear in more than one entry, and a "John Nowell", for instance may be from one or more families or generations, it is not possible to be absolutely sure who is who, or how many John's there were.

At present, I am unable except in a few cases clearly linked to Read to determine exactly which ones are my direct ancestors, and who are the more distant ones.

However it is possible to show that Gilbert Nowell, a Man-at-Arms, who served at the Siege of Harfleur in the contingent of Sir John, Lord Harrington, (1384-1418) was a younger brother of John Nowell of Read from who I am descended. ( -d 1433)

It is clear from the database that Lancashire provided a substantial number of the archers and men-at-arms who served in Normandy. In some cases like the Banastre family, these are closely related by marriage, while others must have known each other from attendance at Manor Courts, or the cattle fairs or markets in Clitheroe or Burnley.

There is a clear pattern that emerges across many of the families associated with these campaigns of that it is the younger sons going off to war, and not the heirs to the family estates.

In most cases the eldest son stayed in Lancashire to run the family farms and estates. The younger sons who would not stand to inherit the estates from their father's were expected to make their own way in life.

This often meant going into the church, which many members of the Nowell family did, or into the in the case of the ones listed, into the army.  In some cases the families appear to have invested in giving these younger sons a head start in their new profession.

It appears that Gilbert Nowell was set up as a man-at-arms by the family at some considerable expense, as the equipment for a man at arms must have cost the family a considerable amount of money to provide.

Other less well heeled individuals like Robert and John Nowell landing on Touville beach had less fortunate, and had had to take less exalted roles in the army as archers or servants.

When King Henry V's army had landed at the mouth of the Seine on the late afternoon of the 13th August 1415, after its two day passage from Southampton, they had landed at Chef-de-Caux.  The English soldiers, like many of their descendants in more recent wars struggled with the local pronunciation, calling it Kidecaws.[8]

Figure 2. Chef-de-Caux foreshore, site of the 1415 landing. [9]

On that occasion between 900 and 1000 ships had made the crossing. The very largest was the Trinity Royal, of some 540 tonnes. Most were much smaller, often 30 tonnes or less.  Approximately 12,000 men, plus horses and supplies had had to be landed.  This took three anxious days to achieve, with the King very conscious for all time that at any moment the French forces might arrive atop the adjacent hills.

Having landed the King had then marched his army to Harfleur, which he had hoped to capture quickly, giving him a defended port from which to mount operations deep into France.

However, the siege of Harfleur had turned into a protracted event lasting until early October, by which time many of his men had become invalids from illnesses caught in the trenches and from the insanity conditions in the camps surrounding Harfleur. Many had to cut away the seats of their hose, such was their condition.

For the 1417 operation King Henry V decided not to repeat his landings on the north shore of the River Seine, but to land to the south shore at the mouth of the River Touques.

Figure 3. Oblique image of the landing site at Trouville and the Bay of the Seine; courtesy of Google Earth

This made considerable tactical sense, as the main French forces in the area were stationed in the Harfleur area and upstream towards Rouen.

Planning for the landing had been underway for at least a year, and possibly longer.  When King Henry had returned to London from Calais following the battle at Agincourt, he had left a beleaguered garrison of 900 men-at-arms and 5,000 archers under the Earl of Dorset at Harfleur that controlled only a very limited area around Harfleur.

By early in 1416 the town was besieged  by the Armagnac forces under the command of Bernard of Armagnac, the newly appointed Constable of France. The only way to procure rations locally was to mount raids into the local countryside bypassing the local French garrisons at Montivillers only four miles from Harfleur, as well as in nearby villages and monasteries.

Soon:

"A wretched cow’s head was sold for 6s 8d sterling, and the tongue for 40s and [there] died of English soldiers more than 500, in default of sustenance." [10]

France was however a deeply divided country, with the Burgundian and Armagnac's at each others throats fighting a savage civil war, and each represented a far more serious threat to each other, than did the forces of King Henry V.  The war with the English, was only a sideshow, or a distraction from a far greater threat.

This meant that the Armagnac's could only afford to divert a small proportion of their forces to defeating the English.  The other contingents had to be deployed to the Paris Basin to fight against the forces of John the Fearless.

The Armagnac's realised that the best way to force the English out of Harfleur was to cut off their supplies by land and sea.  To cut off the 150 mile sea route to Southampton, the French hired 20 galleys from Genoa as well as others from Castile with which to mount a blockade during the summer of 1416.  Individual English ships attempted to run the gauntlet to Harfleur.  Most were captured, however one succeeded by flying the French flag in bluffing its way into the town.

Raids were mounted on Portland, the Isle of Wight, and into Southampton Water by the French and their allies in an effort to prevent English shipping operating across the Channel to Harfleur.

Figure 4: The Mayor of Southampton's Seal showing a single masted English ship. The Geneose ships were believed to have included some two masted Carracks. [11]

The King's brother John Duke of Bedford was ordered to assemble a fleet for the relief of Harfleur, and on the 15th of August 1416, a six or seven hour battle in the mouth of the bay resulted in a significant victory for the English, who were able to capture or sink several of the Genoese vessels, which were much larger than the English vessels.

Losses were heavy on both sides, with the English losing around 20 ships. Three of the large Genoese Carracks were captured, and another destroyed, as well as a French coq being secured.  The English believed that they had killed about 1,500 French and captured about 400 more. They themselves lost about 700 men-at-arms and 2,000 archers, however they claimed victory because they were able to break the blockade and to take much needed supplies into Harfleur.

It must have been clear however to King Henry and his advisers, that another relief effort would become necessary before too long if the garrison at Harfleur was not ultimately to fall, but that this further operation would have to take place in the following year, 1417, as the winter gales would rule out any substantial effort before then.

By February 1417 messages were being sent out to the County Sheriff of Kent as well as many others, instructing them to begin assembling their forces.

Rex Vicecomiti Kantiae, Salutem.

Cùm, in propria Persona nostra, simus, cum Dei adjutorio, versus partes Franciae, pro Recuperatione &; Adeptione Jurium &; Haereditatis Coronae nostrae, ut cunctis satis liquet, à diu per Adversarium nostrum Franciae injuriosè detentorum &; occupatorum, in proximo profecturi, Nos, considerantes qualiter, inter Gratiarum Donationes, Nobis à Deo, nuper, dum in partibus illis ex hac causa eramus, variè collatas, idem Deus Nobis, non nostris Meritis, set suâ ineffabili Bonitate, inter caeteros, per Sagittarios nostros, suis Sagittis, Gratiam atque Victoriam Inimicorum nostrorum multipliciter infudit, Ac proinde de sufficienti Stuffura hujusmodi Sagittarum, cum ea celeritate, qua commodè fieri poterit, &; pro meliori expeditione praesentis Viagii nostri, provideri volentes,

Tibi Praecipimus, firmiter Injungentes, quòd statim, visis praesentibus, per Ballivos tuos ac alios, quos ad hoc nomine tuo duxeris ordinandos & deputandos, in singulis Villis &; aliis Locis Comitatûs tui, de quacumque Auca (praeter Aucas Brodoges vulgariter nuncupatas) Sex Pennas Alarum suarum, pro Sagittis ad opus nostrum de novo faciendis magis congruas &; competentes, pro Denariis nostris, de Exitibus Comitatûs tui praedicti provenientibus, in hac parte rationabiliter solvendis, cum omni festinatione possibili capi &; provideri, ac Pennas illas usque Londoniam, citra Qartumdecimum Diem Martii proximò futurum, duci &; cariari facias,

Et Nos tibi inde, in Compoto tuo, ad Scaccarium nostrum, debitam Allocationem habere faciemus.

Teste Rege apud Westmonasterium decimo die Februarii.

Per ipsum Regem.

Consimilia Brevia diriguntur Vicecomitibus subscriptis, sub eadem Datâ; videlicet,

Vicecomiti Wilts.

Vicecomiti Sur. Sussex.

Vicecomiti Midd.

Vicecom. Lincoln.

Vicecom. Cantebr. Hunt.

Vic. Essex. Hertford.

Vic. Sutht.

Vic. Bedf. Buck.

Vic. Oxon. Berk.

Vic. Norff.  Suff.

Vic. Somers. Dors.

Vic. Northampton.

Vic. Rotel.[12]

By March 1st, William Collyng and Richard Skall had received orders for 1,000 sides of bacon.

Presumably many hundreds of similar orders for victuals and supplies were being carried across England.

By July 1417 approximately 1500 ships had been assembled at Southampton, including many from countries including the Low Countries, Venice and Genoa. Genoa had agreed to provide six transports for £1667, despite their long standing agreements with France to whom they generally hired their warships.

There remained one serious impediment to the success of the operation.  Nine Genoese galleys, as well as a number of French vessels were known to be operating out of Honfleur, and these had the ability to seriously disrupt an invasion fleet made up very largely of very small fishing and merchant ships, with only a limited escort of warships to cover them.

John, Earl of Huntingdon, a 22 year old, veteran of Agincourt, was dispatched with a force which was successful in defeating and destroying nine Genoese galleys, off the Cap-de-la-Heve, which was the most north westerly point of the Bay of the Seine on the 29th of June 1417. This left the way clear for Henry's invasion fleet so that it was able to set sail for France on the 30th of July 1417.

The King appears to have originally planned to go to Harfleur, but then to have changed his mind, which intentionally, or otherwise helped to keep the French forces north of the river Seine.

Figure 5: An extract from an early 18th Century Map of the Trouville area, showing the location of Bonneville  Castle. Notice how the river channel of the Touques was much wider than it is today. Carte de l'élection du Pont-L'Evêque, généralité de Rouen, placée en la vicomté d'Auge.. [Please click on for larger version] [13]

The beach at Trouville offered a good location for the landing, as the range of wooded hills to the east screened the location from the nearest substantial French forces at Honfleur. The English could easily march to cut off and destroy the French shipping based at Honfleur, or push on towards Harfleur further up the estuary and just across the river from Honfleur. With both banks of the Seine secured, pushing supplies into the beleaguered garrison at Harfleur would be much easier.

Figure 6: The river Touques at low tide, approximately one kilometre inland of the current beach. [14]

Henry appears to have learned a number of lessons from his first landings, because this time he planned for, and was able to disembark his force in a day. The landing took place on the 1st of August 1417, on the long shallow beach shown in Figure 1.  The area along the shore is heavily built up today with the seaside towns of Deauville and Trouville.  This has dramatically changed the sea shore.

When Trouville was first developed in the 1880's as a seaside resort, considerable filling and reclamation took place along the water meadows and river flats in the river valley.

It is very probable that the estuary was much wider in 1417 than it is today, and because the ships used in those days would have been much smaller than today's vessels, and in most cases little different in draught to the yachts and small fishing vessels that use the port today, they were probably able to enter the river over the coastal bar, and then to pass up it for more than a mile at high tides.

The first serious obstacle to the King's further advance was the castle at Bonneville-sur-Touques.

In 1417, this castle which stands on a steep hill, just inland of the modern town of Trouville, may have dominated the landing area, at the head of the tidal zone. It was probably located at the first practical crossing of the river, which is much silted up today.

Figure 7: Bonneville-sur-Touques Castle.

On about the fourth of August the English forces commenced moving inland, and their first objective was to attack Bonneville-sur-Touques castle.  The castle is reported to have held a garrison of 500 men, however this figure seems very high for what is an otherwise fairly small castle.

Bonneville has a distinguished history going back to the days of William the Conqueror, who is believed to have supervised preparations for his invasion of England from it.

Figure 8: A Google Earth image showing the massive ring ditch surrounding the castle, as well as the surviving structures within it.

The Chroniclers give no indication of which of King Henry's troops it was that assaulted the castle, so we have no way of knowing what if any part  Robert and John Nowell played in these events.

The castle is situated on the side of a steep bluff, so that the top of the ditch nearest the church is considerably higher than the side to the south that faces the river. As such, the ditch can have held little if any water.

Figure 9: Showing the location of the castle in relation to the Touques River.

A very good article on the castles history, containing many old photos from the early 1900's can be found at http://www.normandythenandnow.com/the-very-private-castle-of-william-the-conqueror-at-touques/

The castle suffered extensive damage in the course of the 1939-45 War when it has used by the German Todt organisation as a local headquarters. Today it is in private hands, and is only open on a few occasions every year.

On the day, I visited there was no opportunity to visit the interior, and lacking an army to lay siege to it, I was reduced to scouting it out. However, I did discover that a footpath led down from close to the modern entrance to the castle into the moat.

Figure 10. The upper section of the moat.

As you go down the path, it soon disappears into dense stinging nettles and other vegetation, but I was rewarded as the original stone revetting inside the bank becomes visible in many places.

Figure 11. Deep nettles proving a highly effective defences to today's intruders.

Figure 12.  The steep wall to the castle embankment.

Figure 13. Reaching the lower part of the moat.

At this point the ground under foot becomes much damper, and there appear to be springs feeding from the adjacent fields into the moat, and flowing down towards the bottom.

Figure 14. The village laundry.

At the bottom the springs combine into a small stream, that feeds the old village laundry site.

Did the garrison us the site for their washing I wonder?

There is a fine church on top of the hill, that in its current form is believed to post date the siege, and to incorporate stone recovered from the castle, when it subsequently fell out of use.  The church yard offers commanding views back over the river estuary, and must have featured as the jumping off point for any assault on the castle.  Old photos show that the main gate of the castle faced down towards the estuary, providing the castles principle means of defence.

Figure 15. The Church at Bonneville sur Touques.

Unfortunately during August this year the trees have been especially verdant, and these effectively block the view towards the castle from the churchyard.

Figure 16. The castle from the north west, and from the site of the church.

Was John Nowell one of those trying to beat the defenders from the ramparts, firing his arrows up over the walls?

From Bonneville, the King split the army into three contingents, and then proceeded to march to the south and west. This move was unexpected by the French, and very probably also by most of his own soldiers, but would lead to a series of stunning successes that led to the capture of almost all of Normandy within two years, and was to take him and many of his men on to Paris.

In subsequent posts, I will explore some of the other locations in Normandy with which I can associate my Nowell ancestors, who were to fully exploit many of the opportunities presented by the King's new colony in Normandy.

For most, the welcome sun, and richness of the countryside, must have made a great change from the cold and wet associated with herding cattle from Pendle and Whalley over the Pennines and down to Wakefield and beyond, which was the lot of their brothers and cousins back home in Read, Little Mearlay and the nearby villages in Lancashire.

If you are aware of any additional information that you feel might aid my research, I would be most pleased to hear from you at balmer.nicholas@gmail.com.  Although my written and spoken French is not particularly good, I can read French and would be very pleased to hear from local historians in these communities in France.

---

[1] Sir John d’Engennes, then made his way to the castle at Cherbourg, where he was made governor. The Duke of Gloucester then laid siege to the city of Cherbourg, which fell to the English after ten weeks. Sir John d’Engennes had agreed with Gloucester to give up the place in return for receiving a sum of money. He was given a passport to go wherever he pleased by the English, and went to Rouen which had recently fallen to the English. He stayed beyond the expiry date of his passport and was seized by the English, who on orders of King Henry had him beheaded. Monstrelet, The Chronicles of Enguerrand de Monstrelet, Volume II, page 380.
Jean de Bonenfant and Michel le Comte, subordinate commanders under Sir John d'Engennes, secured their release from the English, where unfortunately their fellow Frenchmen took a poor view of their having surrendered the castle. They were arrested and then decapitated in Paris. Nouveaux essais historique sur la ville de Caen et son arrondissement by Gervase de la Rue, page 264, published in 1842.
[2]  Monstrelet, The Chronicles of Enguerrand de Monstrelet, Volume II, page 370.

[3] Richard Beauchamp of Bergavenny, (born c. 1397-d. 1422) earl of Worcester, TNA, E101/51/2, m5.
He had married Lady Isabel la Despenser on the 27^th July 1411. He would die at the siege of Meaux in 1422.

[4] Muster Roll TNA, E101/51/2, m25, also http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1386-1421/member/swinburne-william-1422

[5] La Normandie et l'Angleterre au moyen âge: Colloque de Cerisy-la-Salle, 4-7 ... By Véronique Gazeau, page 304.
[6] http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1386-1421/member/swinburne-sir-thomas-1357-1412
[7] http://www.medievalsoldier.org/ E101/44/30, no1, no1_m13
[8] Chef-de-Caux is now built over by the modern town of Sainte-Adresse. Kidecaws, Gesta Henrici Quinti, page 13.
[9] From Gallica http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b53010783t
[10] William Worcester’s Boke of Noblesse, given in http://www.chivalryandwar.co.uk/Resource/THE%20BATTLE%20OF%20THE%20SEINE.pdf
[11]From the British Library Blog.  See http://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/blog/battle-seine-henry-vs-unknown-naval-triumph/ for a very good description of these events. Catalogue Reference: E 329/430
[12] http://www.british-history.ac.uk/rymer-foedera/vol9/pp433-437
[13] http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b55005096t/f1.item
[14] Photos by the author.

Lyddington Fishponds

Figure 1: Lyddington Fishponds.

Having known the Fishponds since I was three, which was where my parents would take me to run about up and down the bumps in an effort to work off my surplus energy, and having now grown to the point where we have taken our children, and shortly intend to take my grandchildren for the same purpose, the area has always fascinated me.

At the start of my career I was involved in a lot of river engineering, and also in building a fish farm at Horn Lane near Empingham. This experience left me puzzled as to how the Fishponds actually worked hydraulically. There is no obvious route through the ponds that make it up for water flows. Fish soon suffer, if present in any numbers in static water conditions from lack of water.

There may have course have been more than one flow path. Where are the outlet sluices, for instance, and why does one large pond have no obvious impounding gate?

I used to spend a great deal of my boyhood in and around the Lydd Brook.  We had several favourite spots for Den's.  At the time these had large blocks of carefully hewn sandstone in them that made alternatively comfortable chairs, and at other times provided support for the dams we made in the stream, which grew steadily bigger  and bigger and more effective, until on one occasion we managed to flood the road, and got such a telling off from the farmer, that I had to suspend my continuing professional development as a dam engineer for several years.

More recently this experience has led  me to wonder if I had not been playing in what had been Medieval hydraulic features. Sadly some of the features are no longer in context due to my building activities.

As the following image will attempt to explain, the landscape surrounding the Fishponds has been substantially cleaned up and gentrified in the last forty years.  The Fishpond Field itself is largely unaltered, however it is the fields surrounding it, and those running for half a mile to a mile upstream that have been changed, and which I believe hold the key to how the fishponds actually worked.

First I will explain the current situation, and then we will attempt to strip away the more modern clutter to reveal the underlying structures.

Figure 2: The Fish ponds area today with annotations.

As can be seen a lot of woods were planted to the east of the site approximately twenty years ago on the lower slopes of Priestley Hill.  These have now matured to the point that they conceal what were a number of old trackways, field banks, and ploughing strips.

There are also Slickenslides under these woods. Slickenslides are landslips that have occurred since the last Ice Age about 14,000 or earlier, which were caused over steeping of the hill slopes during periods when the ground was frozen. As the ground thawed in a sequence of freezing and thawing the upper layers began to slump and slide, and this process has continued sporadically over many thousands of years down to the recent present leaving oddly shaped slides that can be mistaken for lynchets.

It is particularly sad that the field with the post modern pond in it was substantially re-earthworked in the 1980's. The field had had two substantial gullies in it, one from a spring, and also a considerable number of possible house, or barn platforms in it, a holloway, as well as ridge and furrow.

During the Second World War the field to the north west of the fishponds was turned into allotments and was deeply ploughed, in the 1960's and 70's, which has destroyed features that almost certainly occurred in it.

Figure 3: Lyddington street approaching Church Lane from the south.

During the course of the 1970's the water main that ran up the hill street had to be repaired on several times. The breaks always occurred at or near the break in slope at the top of this short ramp that climbs up to the gazebo, where the pipe had settled. Being a keen trainee site engineer at the time, and as well as an increasingly keen amateur archaeologist, I could not forebear to peep into the holes and trenches dug for their repair.  It was clear that there had been a deep ditch and some sort of foundations across the line of the street.

A few years later in about 1982 later a dig occurred just behind the garden wall and the gazebo which I joined in with as a volunteer, and was able to get the archaeologist to explore the base of the wall. It appeared that it had been built on a bank propbably with a continuation of the ditch. The dig report is somewhere mouldering in a pile of "Grey Literature" which I wish I knew how to track it down.

This insight lead me to suspect that the Bishops Estate was actually much larger than the part owned and run by English Heritage.  Over the years, it became apparent that its boundaries ran along the approximate line in Red on Figure 2.

More recently Rosemary Canadine and her team have arrived completely independently arrived at a very similar conclusion, as can be seen on page 21 of her book. [1]

Figure 4: A Lidar Map of the Fishponds.

From the Lidar Image is is possible to identify a number of buried features that are not as apparent even when you walk across the site.

Figure 5:  An annotated Lidar Map of the Fishpond Outfall

Where the Lydd Brook crosses Chapel Lane (Point 1 in Red above) to the north of the Fishponds, the water level is only just below the level of the probable top of bank inside the ponds set into the Fishponds. However, by the time it reaches the side of the ponds (Point 2) the channel has become very much deeper. Due to the thickness of the hedge along the stream it is very hard to measure the difference in level, however it is substantially below the level of the invert of the ponds by the time it reaches the downstream end of the fish ponds. (Point 3)

The brook then comes out into the field before making two sharp turns, (at Point 4) before returning to its course which runs down the hedge towards Point 5. Church Lane which is deeply sunken can easily be mistaken for the brook here. There is a very old stone culvert under the lane at this point and then a ford.

Notice how to the left of the brook there is a very straight channel that crosses the field more or less on the contour, which I believe is a former mill leat.  At the point where the leat joins the stream concealed in the very dense blackthorn hedge (at Point 5.) there are (or at least were) a number of substantial sandstone masonry blocks in the stream and on the bank

Rosemary Canadine has identified a lease in the Burleigh House Archive made out to George Sheffield in which he leased one watermill in Lyddington called Fuldimill, a second watermill in Thorpe By Water on the Welland, and a Windmill 'upon the hill' and finally a horse mill.  I believe that point 5 is probably the site of this Fuldimill.

Is a Fuldimill a mill for Fulling?

An earlier village survey in 1564 had recorded a corn water mill, a windmill and a horse mill.  The township also rented a malt mill and a malt kiln, which due to the presence of a "Malt Field" at the bottom of Chapel Lane (somewhere close to Point 1) Canadine believes to have been there.

None of these mills would have to be particularly large structures, and they very probably were much smaller than the later water mills that we are familiar with.  Indeed the larger mills would have been useless along the Lydd, as the brook would have never yielded enough water to run them with.

During the 1980's I visited Chitral and some other locations in Pakistan and witnessed small mills working that utilised much less water than that being used by a conventional 18th or 19th Century English water mill.  While relatively under powdered compared to later mills, they must have represented a huge step forward especially for the women in Lyddington who would have otherwise had to grind the corn for their daily bread by hand.

Figure 6: Here's one such mill from 19th Century Afghanistan.  It has two side shot wheels.

The following mill is in Northern Pakistan, and it can be seen just how little water it will run on, and also how small it is.  The capital required to build such a mill would have been less than that required for a house. The main expense was for the grinding stone which might have had to come from the Rhineland. There is a direct vertical shaft drive to the impeller, which does away with the need for gears.  Yes, today, we know that this was not very efficient, but for our predecessors this was still a very useful tool.

Figure 7: A village mill in Northern Pakistan.

Notice how narrow the approach roads are to these mills. Most villages have three or four such mills to provide the flour for 200 to 300 people.

Figure 8: The interior of one of these mills.  No need for cogs or complex carpentry.

If one wanted to fill the fishponds to the top of bank it would have been necessary to draw the water from the Lydd Brook some considerable distance upstream of the fishponds in order to gain the required head. An typical English small river catchment has a fall of about 1 in 300, so it can be readily seen that to even raise the water by one foot, you need to extraction conduit that starts at least 300 feet upstream of the point of discharge. In this case, I think that they went just over half  mile upstream, and that this facility then set out the alignment of future road network in Lyddington that we use to this day.

Figure 9: Upstream of the fish ponds showing possible leat routes.

Unfortunately the Environment Agencies otherwise excellent Lidar coverage does not go quite go far enough uphill to the north, so we need to change back to Google at this point.

By the way, what is "the borrow pit" feature?  It seems like an after thought, and has no obvious impounding feature at its down stream end.  Was it a borrow pit?  Where did the monk engineers get their clay for the banks from?  The bottom of the troughs are only a very little below the level of the surrounding fields.

Figure 10: The line of the Lydd Brook upstream of the fishponds

On a stream which otherwise is full of twists and turns, like those of all of its naturally conceived cousins, why is the channel of the Lydd Brook so straight along this stretch?

Is this not an artifical Medieval mill leat?

It is nearly 45 years since I last walked along its banks, but in places you get the distinct impression that there is lower ground to the west of the stream as you look towards the village.  Some of the house owners have also evidently dug ponds to avail themselves of this facility.

Notice how the stream veers left almost immediately after it leaves the culvert as it comes out from under the Uppingham Road.

A more direct route for the river is evidently from the following map image is available across those meadows to the head of the fishponds, even if it had had meanders along it.

Figure 11. Notice how there is a footpath that heads along the bank of the stream.

Was this perhaps originally the route used by the Bishop's water bailiff on his way to regulate his weir and valves?

An other intriguing thing is that the footpath crosses over the Uppingham Road, at the point where before 1804 and the Enclosure of the village the original route to Uppingham had followed the footpath directly up the slope,along the line of the footpath marked on Figure 11, before eventually coming out at Beast Hill directly below the Market Place for cattle in Uppingham.

On Figure 10, I have drawn a point which I believe was at more or less the outer limit for Medieval houses on what was then a nucleated village, rather than the "Long Lanky Lousy Liddington"[2] that it subsequently became.

Why not walk from that point directly across the fields to the point where the footpath takes off up the hill to Uppingham? That is very probably just what was done before the fishponds were built.

I think the reason that the Main Street (know in 1804 as Front Street) follows its current route, is that the Bishops Bailiffs moved the street away from the all important water course that had been built to supply his brand new fish ponds.

I believe that at a slightly later period the Bishop then laid out burbage plots along this newly created roads.  At least four of these plots can be seen running down the fields towards the artificial channel or leat.

There are other burbage plots below the gazebo at the lower end of the village. These are concealed under or in the fabric of later properties built like Bay House in the 1656.  However careful inspection of the stonework at the rear of that property suggests that it incorporated earlier stone work of a house that was end on to the road.

The barn with two garage doors to its immediate south is ostensibly 18th Century, but in fact includes much earlier masonry and former door frames of another cottage built end on to the road.

Lyddington before the Black Death was a more important market town than Uppingham, and held its own until the Reformation, before losing a great deal of its reason d'etre when the Bishops ceased to use the site.

 I would like to acknowledge the help I have had from Rosemary Canadine's book, and from earlier mentors in Lyddington History including the late Hugh Clarke, and Mrs Mary Baines.

[1] Rosemary Canadine, Buildings and People of a Rutland Manor, Lyddington, Caldecott, Stoke Dry and Thorpe by Water. Published 2015. Page 21. and many other pages.

[2] "Long Lank Lousy Liddington" was what Lyddington was called by many of the locals in the 1920's and before when farming was in a deep depression, many families were having to leave, and many of the houses had become very run down.

Welland Valley Wind & Water Mills

Figure 1: The wind and water mills adjacent the Welland at Gretton in 1587 [1]
[Please click on this image and all the following ones for a larger version.]

The following blog was sparked by a recent post on Twitter by Dr Susan Oosthuizen.

She was drawing attention to extracts of a map made in 1587 on behalf of Sir Christopher Hatton, by Ralph Treswell, that has recently been posted on the Rockingham Forest Trust Website. Oostuizen is a distinguished landscape historian whose work predominantly covers the Medieval Period in Cambridgeshire and the Fens. She specialises in water features and the use of water in the landscape.

Having been brought up in Lyddington in Rutland, I have been intrigued over the past year or so to see her interest in landscapes spreading from Cambridgeshire into East Northamptonshire, and indeed in this latest post up to the very county boundary with Rutland at Lyddington.  Gretton Mill and indeed the stretch of the River Welland from here down to Harringworth, were my childhood playground, and one where I would exercise myself and my dog.

Figure 2: Gretton Mill in 2014. [2] Notice the very low flows.

During the 1970's I worked on the construction of Rutland Water, and was part of the River Authority team that took that landscape apart, almost literally, when we cleared the reservoir bottom of trees, hedges and buildings, and built the new facilities. Archaeologists came to record many of the sites we had exposed, and as a result of this experience I became hooked on landscape archaeology.

The late Hugh Clarke from Lyddington owned a copy of the Lyddington Enclosure Award Map, and working from that, and field walking, I explored much of this area, so it was with agreeable surprise that I looked at the new information Susan Oosthuizen was presenting.

Since the 1970's I have moved away from the area, however sources of information have become much more readily available in recent years than they formerly were, so that I have been having fun revisiting my original research, and with some rather intriguing results.

Figure 3: Gretton Mill in 1899. [3]

When I first visited the mill during the late 1960's, the mill building itself had already disappeared. 

The River Welland and Nene River Authority, the predecessor body to the Environment Agency, had installed a large green guillotine lifting gate as a form of weir in an attempt to maintain the water level upstream of the site. This was successful, and the presence of  the large pike in the pool was a strong attraction for us local boys.

Figure 4: A chart showing the water levels at Duddington. [4]

While Susan Oosthuizen was undoubtedly right to draw our attention to the apparent incongruity of  building a windmill adjacent to a watermill, it begins to make much more sense when you know something of the flow patterns in the River Welland.  For many months of every year the flows in the river here are so low, that it could well have been difficult to have provided an adequate milling service using water power for ones clients. This can be demonstrated by the flows recorded by the Environment Agencies gauging weir at Duddington, which is the nearest gauging weir on the river.  It shows how the river rises and falls very rapidly, and only runs at comparatively low levels for most of the time.

The river flows shown are probably not entirely representative of those in 1587, as the river has been substantially straighted and shortened. Between Rockingham and Duddington, David Harper was able to show in a study that some 6% of its length had been lost since the 1960's. [5] This alone would have a really significant effect on the rivers regime.

In earlier centuries it is very probable that similar straightening had already occurred upstream and when this is combined with the greatly increased arable acreage present in the Welland Valley since 1939, as well as the increased urban growth, which has hardened up the surfaces of many former fields around the villages and Market Harborough, which thereby increased the rate of runoff, it can clearly be understood how in former years, the peaks of the floods were very probably less pronounced than they are today.  The flows probably came down the river in a more steady and consistent rate than they do today.

I believe that the old mill house, which is still clearly visible on the 1899 Ordnance Survey map was pulled down during the first half of the 20th Century, and very possibly as part of the works when the lifting gate was installed. I cannot date the installation of the gate, however I know that the River Authority installed many similar gates elsewhere in the catchment during the 1940's and 1950's.

A considerable amount of dressed stone almost certainly coming from the old mill, is present in the bottom of the downstream mill pool, where it had probably been spread in order to reduce the scour in the plunge pool.

During the early 1980's a Siphonic Weir was installed, as can be seen in the following photograph. This involved realigning the channel, and considerable landscaping using the arisings from the works took place in the adjacent field. I believe that it was this work that has effectively removed any sign of the windmill's base.

In 1899, the Ordnance Survey recorded the site as a mill. Interestingly the site of the next water mill down the river at Thorpe is recorded as being a "Disused Water Mill". This suggests that the Gretton Mill was still working in 1899, unlike that at Thorpe.

Figure 5: Recent Drone footage showing the Gretton Mill Site [6]

Not having researched the history of Gretton Mill before, but having previously researched several mills of similar age mills in Rutland and Suffolk, I turned to the British Newspaper Archive, to see if there were any references to this mill.  Rather surprisingly given what I had found elsewhere, very little seems to be recorded about Gretton Mill.

Unlike the other mills, there are no advertisements for its sale or lease.  It appears, that unlike the windmill at Lyddington, and water mill in Thorpe by Water for instance, which were owned by the Earl of Exeter's Burleigh Estates and which came up from time to time for the renewal of their leases, that Gretton Mill was most probably owned, occupied and operated by the miller, and that it cannot have changed hands very often.

The following death notice from 1791 in the Northampton Mercury enabled me to identify one of the millers.

Deaths

"Tuesday se’night ….   Same day, Mr. John Gray, of Gretton-mill in this county.

Saturday 21 May 1791,  Northampton Mercury."[7]

While following up the Gray family I struck lucky on Ancestry.Com website as the two following photos appear on that site.

Figure 6: Gretton Mill from the upstream side.

Although the photos are very low resolution the profile of the building clearly matches that of the building on the 1899 Ordnance Survey map in Figure 3 above.  The main building has two very interesting features. Firstly, the steepness of the gable wall is such that it is almost certainly an early building from the period between 1540 and 1600.  From studies in Lyddington and the surrounding villages, it is possible to work from the known dates of similar buildings, such as the Homestead at 81 Main Street in Lyddington that has a similar gable and which dates to before 1650.  As the centuries rolled on the steepness of the gables reduces steadily.

The roof also appears to have the raised stonework borders on either gable that was originally intended to retain the thatch in place.

Interestingly enough in Figure 1, Treswell shows a red roof, and therefore presumably it was a tiled roof.

Thatch lasts at least 30 or more years. If the roof had originally had a thatched roof, that would suggest that if it were re-tiled by 1587, that it might have been originally built at least 30 or more years earlier.

Figure 7: Gretton Mill from further upstream.

It is very difficult because of the very low resolution of the images to make an assessment of the date when the photos were taken, however they have the feel of photos taken after the widespread adoption of the Box Brownie camera, which came into popular usage by 1914.  Earlier photos tend to have much better resolution, as they were made on larger cameras, often with glass plates for the images and tend to have far better resolution.

This leads me to believe that the photos probably date from the 1920's or 30's.

Figure 8: Seaton Wind and Water Mills.  In the background Harringworth Viaduct can be seen.

As I have already alluded to, due to the low water flows that occur for many months of the year, it was probably not possible to mill with water power, except for limited periods.  Having an auxiliary windmill appears to have been a common feature in the Welland valley.

This is clearly demonstrated in Figure 8, which shows a very fine post mill in the field next to Seaton Water Mill.  The viaduct was built in 1878, so that this photo must date from about 1880 or slightly later.  This mill was the home to the Royce family, and this was where Mr Royce, of later Rolls Royce fame spent much of his childhood.

A similar situation existed in Lyddington.  Throughout the later 18th Century and first half of the 19th Century Lyddington had two mills. One was the windmill that sat on top of Windmill Hill, one of the three hills to the east of the village that look out over the Welland Valley, and a second water mill, that was located in Thorpe By Water.  Both mills were owned by the Earl of Exeter, and were let together. In 1757 Edward Sharman entered into a 21 year lease. Both of the mills and his house in Lyddington must have been in very poor condition when he entered into the lease, because he reached an agreement with his landlord for a very major programme of rebuilding of all of his buildings.

Sharman had previously leased these properties from 1743 to 1758, and was presumably able to apply pressure to the Earl's land agent to force the Earl to fund the improvements, to what were probably old time expired mills, before he would take out a new lease.

Details of the leases are given in much more detail in Rosemary Canadine's book, "Buildings and People of a Rutland Manor, Lyddington, Caldecott, Stoke Dry and Thorpe by Water published in 2015. Rosemary Canadine worked for a number of years as an archivist in the Burleigh House Archive.

Interestingly these were not the only wind mills closeby in the area bounded by Caldecott, Lyddington and Gretton.

On Bowen's strip map of 1753, two windmills can clearly be seen to be astride of the highway between Caldecott and Lyddington.  Bowen was almost certainly not the surveyor for this map, which is copied from an earlier survey carried out by John Ogilby in 1674, then reproduced by Bowen and a long line of other publishers.

So what we can see next probably shows the situation as it existed in about 1674.

Figure 9: Bowen's Map of 1753.

It is not immediately apparent where these two post mills were located.  It is known that the road layout locally was considerably altered in 1804 when Lyddington and Caldecott were Enclosed.  The modern A6003 road from Caldecott to Uppingham only came into being shortly after the 1755 Act of Parliament for a Turn Pike from Bowling Green in Kettering to West Bridgeford Lane in Nottingham was passed.

The following plan is drawn from the 1899 Ordnance Survey plan and shows the layout of the earlier pre-1804 roads that were converted into footpaths after they were replaced by the new post enclose roads.

Figure 10: Map showing the route that I believe John Ogilby surveyed in 1675.  The blue circle rings the area in which I conjecture that the two post mills were situated in.

The ringed area is situated on a slightly elevated piece of ground in an otherwise flat plain.

It is clear that the villagers and the surveyors have probably slightly realigned the footpath, as it appears to leave the line of the original ploughing baulks, and the modern footpath cuts across the ridge and furrow of the former ploughing. This would have almost certainly have not been acceptable to farmers before the Enclosures took place.

The upper third of the route nearest Lyddington follows the original hedge boundary between Holbrook Field to the north, and Nether Field to the south. It is interesting that Ogilby's survey appears to show a hedge, in a solid line, whereas the opposite highway boundary is dotted. [9]

Figure 11: The probable site of the two windmills in Ogilby's Survey on the parish boundary of Caldecott and Lyddington. Notice the crop mark of a possible hollow way in the top of the central field.

Notice how the footpath as drawn on the map, and as can be seen aerial image as a faint line.  This puzzles me as the path is clearly crossing plough ridges, which would have annoyed those growing crops. I think that it does allow us to plot the road however, because the curved hedge leaving the top centre of the aerial view is clearly on the path, and from here on into Lyddington, it follows headlands.

To the immediate left of both images is the deserted Medieval village of Snelston.  The parish boundary between Lyddington and Caldecott is the dotted line on the map.  With a height of just over 200 feet I believe that this ridge must have been the site of the windmills.  I believe that the road in 1675 followed the hedge along and did not cross the post 1804 field. It ran into the "triangular" shaped field on the left centre of the image, which was formerly part of Snelston and out down the current A6003 into Caldecott.

There is what appears to be a crop mark for a hollow way or pond running into the field. Could this be leading to the mill sites?

Why does this all matter?

Well amongst the fascinating things I found over the past week of research is the following passage from an early 18th Century book, "The Natural History of Northampton-shire: With Some Account of the Antiquities." By John Morton published in 1712.

Figure 12: The Natural History of Northampton-shire

Morton was the Rector of Oxendon near Market Harborough, and his book is absolutely full of fascinating details about the natural history of Northamptonshire, with many valuable descriptions of the places and events in the area.  In the following passage presumably written after 1705 and before 1712 he describes a weather event that took place shortly before a thunder storm.  Both the Lyddington and Gretton windmills are mentioned.  Bear in mind that these are post mills, so that they swivelled around the supporting centre post to face into the wind.

Figure 13: A description of the two mills, presumably working on that day.

Windmills had to be secured when they were not working, and the cloth sails rolled up, or stripped down to prevent the wind breaking the mill. This could lead to a fire breaking out inside the mill, which would very quickly cause the flour to burn in with an effect that would be very like that of an explosive.

It was just such a fire in about 1840, that destroyed the only other windmill that could possibly be being described by Morton. That was the one located on top of Windmill Hill at Lyddington.

Until the 1980's this mill site was readily accessible and half of one of the mill stones lay partially buried in the topsoil on top of the hill. This was a popular destination for a Sunday afternoon walk. The hill is heavily earth worked with both ridge and furrow as well as a sunken roadway leading to the mill site.  Sadly the pastureland was planted in trees, and the site is no longer easily accessible, although the crown of the hill was left unplanted.

Figure 14: A plan showing the locations of the mills near Lyddington

As can be seen, there is a surprisingly large number of mills in this area. The are also watermills at Caldecott and at Seaton.

Thorpe Water mill went out of business by 1899. The building survived without its roof until about 1968. I can remember playing in and around it.  The masonry was again bulldozed into the river and along the toe of the adjacent railway embankment by the River Authority.  The retaining wall of the sluice is still visible below the footbridge as can be seen in the following photo.  The mill lade survives, however it was heavily modified by the construction of the railway line during the late 1850's, and it was probably this work that caused the mill to cease production. Nobody knows when it started in production, but it was probably operating in competition with Gretton Mill. A footpath leading directly to Gretton crosses the bridge in the photo. A nearby footpath goes by a less direct route over the back stream to Gretton over an old masonry & brick bridge now on the point of falling down.

Figure 15: Thorpe By Water former water mill site. [10]

When did all this milling start?  One intriguing clue survives.  The following Lidar image of Gretton Mill survives.  Two streams can be seen.  The main river, with the Gretton Road Bridge just to the east of the mill sites.  To the north is the back stream. It has a very sinuous course, and as can be seen on Figure 10, is the County and Parish Boundary, which suggests to me that the current main river is probably an early artificial cut  made in order to achieve a suitable fall.  There is evidence of another cut close still to the mill, and it looks as if quite a bit of digging was undertaken here by the original builders.

Figure 16: A Lidar image of Gretton Mill courtesy of the Environment Agency.

Why did these mills close. Of course it could have been for many reasons, obsolescence, being worn out, or competition.

I personally believe that it was due to the price of wheat and barley, which has fluctuated greatly over time.

Figure 17: William Playfair's Chart showing the price of wheat. [11]

To most historians over the past century who tend to have urban and socialist leanings, the rise in the price of wheat has negative connotations. However it should be borne in mind that the struggle for the balance of power between the consumer and the producer was here long before the supermarket was invented. For much of that time the farmer was on the losing side of that balance. When the red line fell below 40 towards 30, in Figure 17, farming communities began to feel the pain.

Conversely when the price rose, farmers prospered as they did from 1940 until about 1975.

It is interesting to consider that Gretton Mill was already operating in 1585 and had probably just had a new tiled roof installed. I believe that it was built on the back of rising demand for grain, and increased incomes resulting from the grain prices shown above. I think that the windmills date from the second prosperous period starting in about 1650, but that they went largely out of use following the crash in farm gate prices during the 1720's.

 Arable rents fell away to very low levels, way lower than the rents that grazing could command.  The pair of mills were almost certainly derelict and gone by the time the surveyors measured up between 1799 and 1804 for the enclosures.  The remaining mills then had a final burst of prosperity and activity during the Napoleonic Wars, before finally fading out of use as the land was turned over to pasture and cattle fattening once more.

There was clearly a great deal of arable farming going on in the high Medieval Period in the area, as is borne witness to, by the sheer amount of remaining ridge and furrow.  Out of about 2200 acres in Lyddington over 1800 acres were ridge and furrow. Assuming a three course rotation, about 600 acres was cropped for cereals in any one year. This might have yielded somewhere between 600 and 900 tonnes of grain.

Confirmation of just how much grain there was comes from a great discovery arising from Rosemary Canadine's work in Lyddington. She secured a Lottery Grant that enabled a dendrochronology survey in many of the village houses, and in a barn at Prebendal Farm.  This barn outwardly dated to 1726-51, turned out to have two reused beams inside it that were dated by dendrochronology to c. 1347-72.

Experts believe that these beams had formerly been uprights, and from the jointing details present in the beams, that they had served a barn 12 metres wide, and that the barn would have contained from 6 to 8 of these bays.

Lyddington, Caldecott and Thorpe by Water all belonged to the Bishop of Lincoln who had a substantial Palace in Lyddington.  The Bishop had both the access to capital and the power to commission such a barn, which is thought to be the only such tithe barn of this size in Rutland or Leicestershire.

It was clearly bigger than the 18th Century barn, and would not be equalled in the village until the 1970's when arable farming was once again highly profitable.

If you had this much grain to process, water and wind mills were a must.[12]  It is very likely that the Bishop had a hand in the development of the first mills in this area, which date to 1280, if not before.

It is not known where the huge barn was located, however it is very likely that it was under the site of the later 18th Century barn and the surrounding crew yards.

The date of construction of the Medieval barn is a puzzle because the Black Death is widely believed to have so reduced the population, that arable farming greatly diminished afterwards. Perhaps the Bishop was better at praying than he was at agricultural economics and planning.

After the 1540's the barn presumably became far to large for the farming outputs of the day, and it would have fallen into disuse just as many Model Farms from the 1800's and first half of the 20th Century have done over the past 40 years.

As Figure 17 shows there was a resurgence in crop prices from about 1650.  Interestingly enough this coincides with the arrival of the Great Re-building in both Gretton and Lyddington. W.G. Hoskins who coined the phrase assigns the period to 1570 to 1640.  However in Lyddington, while there are buildings from this date that survive, it is clear that the main period of serious re-building dates from about 1650, with a peak in about 1680.

Rosemary Canadine has produced graphs that show the age distribution for the houses, and they show about 48 of the ones that survive come from this period out of about 103 houses that existed in the 1804 survey.[13]

Some really serious money was flowing into these villages at this period, so that I believe that it was coming in large part from grain, and milling was of course all part of getting that added value from ones crop.

[1] http://resource.rockingham-forest-trust.org.uk/SiteResources/Data/Templates/1Parishother.asp?DocID=544&v1ID=&docidfile=

[2] Photo courtesy of Patterdale Paddler. This intepid gentleman canoes down many of the local rivers, and his excellent photos provide a really good record of many of the features of this little known stretch of the River Welland. http://www.songofthepaddle.co.uk/forum/showthread.php/51210-All-Welland-Good-Ashley-to-Gretton-in-Sunshine

and
http://www.songofthepaddle.co.uk/forum/showthread.php/43466-A-Ditch-Too-Far-but-otherwise-a-great-day-at-Gretton-on-the-Welland

[3] Courtesy of the National Library of Scotland, Ordnance Survey Maps Collection.

[4] http://www.gaugemap.co.uk/

[5]http://ea-lit.freshwaterlife.org/archive/ealit:1546/OBJ/19000408.pdf

[6] A still from a video by Nigel Ward of drone footage found on the web at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCOFFIP8vzA The video shows the area surrounding the site well.

[7] Courtesy of the British Newspaper Archive website.

[9] See Rosemary Canadine,  "Buildings and People of a Rutland Manor, Lyddington, Caldecott, Stoke Dry and Thorpe by Water published in 2015. page 43.

[10] Photo courtesy of Patterdale Paddler.

[11] See http://www.johnhearfield.com/History/Breadt.htm for a very good blog on this subject.

[12] Rosemary Canadine, pages 119 and 120.

[13] Rosemary Canadine. pages 121 to 175.