_The Forest and Vale in Norman Times_
A.D. 1066-1154
In the early years of the reign of William I., when the northern counties
rose against his rule, the Pickering district seems to have required more
drastic treatment than any other. In 1069 the Conqueror spent the winter
in the north of England, and William of Malmesbury describes how "he
ordered the towns and fields of the whole district to be laid waste; the
fruits and grain to be destroyed by fire or by water ... thus the
resources of a once flourishing province were cut off, by fire, slaughter,
and devastation; the ground for more than sixty miles, totally
uncultivated and unproductive, remains bare to the present day." This is
believed to have been written about 1135, and would give us grounds for
believing that the desolation continued for over sixty years. A vivid
light is thrown on the destruction wrought at Pickering by the record in
the Domesday Book, which is as follows:--
"In _Picheringa_ there are to be taxed thirty-seven carucates of land,
which twenty ploughs may till. Morcar held this for one manor, with its
berewicks _Bartune_ (Barton), _Neuuctune_ (Newton), _Blandebi_ (Blandsby)
and Estorp (Easthorp). It is now the king's. There is therein one plough
and twenty villanes with six ploughs; meadow half a mile long and as much
broad: but all the wood which belongs to the manor is sixteen miles long
and four broad. This manor in the time of King Edward was valued at
fourscore and eight pounds; now at twenty shillings and four-pence."[1]
[Footnote 1: "Dom Boc," the Yorkshire Domesday. The Rev. Wm. Bawdwen,
1809, p. 11]
This remarkable depreciation from £88 to £1 and 4d. need not be, as
Bawdwen thought, a mistake in the original, but an ample proof of the
vengeance of the Conqueror. All the lands belonging to the powerful Saxon
Earls Edwin and Morcar seem to have suffered much the same fate.
The Domesday account also mentions that "To this manor belongs the soke of
these lands, viz.: _Brunton_ (Brompton), _Odulfesmare_ ( ), _Edbriztune_
(Ebberston), _Alnestune_ (Allerston), _Wiltune_ (Wilton), _Farmanesbi_
(Farmanby), _Rozebi_ (Roxby), _Chinetorp_ (Kinthorp), _Chilnesmares_ ( ),
_Aschilesmares_ ( ), _Maxudesmares_ ( ), _Snechintune_ (Snainton),
_Chigogemers_ ( ), _Elreburne_ (Ellerburne), _Torentune_ (Thornton),
_Leuccen_ (Levisham), _Middeletun_ (Middleton) and _Bartune_ (Barton). In
the whole there are fifty carucates to be taxed, which twenty-seven
ploughs may till. There are now only ten villanes, having two ploughs: the
rest is waste; yet there are twenty acres of meadow. The whole length is
sixteen miles and the breadth four."
The unrecognisable names all end in mare, mares or mers, suggesting that
they were all on the marshes and Bawdwen is probably incorrect in calling
_Locte-mares_--Low-moors. Associated with each place the Domesday record
gives the names of the former landowners.
I give them in tabular form:--
Manor in Domesday Modern Name Held by
Bruntune Brompton Ulf
Truzstal Troutsdale Archil
Alurestan Allerston Gospatric
Loctemares Low-moors or marshes Archil
Torentun Thornton-le-dale Torbrand, Gospatric
and Tor
Elreburne Ellerburne Gospatric
Dalbi Dalby "
Chetelestorp Kettlethorp "
Lochetun Lockton Ulchil
Aslachesbi Aislaby Gospatric
Wereltun Wrelton "
Caltorne Cawthorne "
Croptune Cropton "
Abbetune Habton Ulf and Cnut
Ritun Ryton Canute
Berg. Barugh Ligulf
Berg " Esbern
Wellebrune Welburn Grim
Normanebi Normanby Gamel
Bragebi Brawby Ulf
Chirchebi (?) Kirby Moorside Torbrant
Chirchebi (?) Kirkdale Gamel
Lestingeham Lastingham "
Spantun Spaunton "
Dalbi Dalby Gamel
Sevenicton (?) Sinnington Torbrand
Hotun Hutton-le-hole or Torbrant
Hutton Buscel
Atun Ayton Gamel
Micheledestun Great Edstone "
Parva Edestun Little Edstone Torbrant
Mispeton, now Belonging to
Kirby Misperton Chirchebi
The number of ploughs, of oxgangs and carucates, and of villanes and
bordars in each manor is given in Domesday, but to give each extract in
full would take up much space and would be a little wearisome.
We know that the impoverished country was, like the rest of England, given
by the Conqueror to his followers. The village of Hutton Buscel obtains
its name from the Buscel family which came over to England with William
the Norman. Hinderwell, quoting[1] from some unnamed source, tells us that
"Reginald Buscel (whose father came over with the Conqueror) married
Alice, the sister of William, Abbot of Whitby, and at the time of his
marriage, gave the church of Hotun, which his father had built, to the
monastery of Whitby." This was before the year 1154, and the lower part of
the tower of the present church of Hutton Buscel, being of Norman date,
may belong to that early building.
[Footnote 1: Thomas Hinderwell: "History of Scarborough," p. 331.]
On Vivers Hill to the east of the village of Kirby Moorside there are
indications among the trees of what is believed to have been the castle of
the Stutevilles. Robert de Stuteville is said to have come over with the
Conqueror, and to have received land at Kirby Moorside as a reward for his
services.
The country having received the full fury of William's wrath very slowly
recovered its prosperity under Norman rulers. On the slope of the hills
all the way from Scarborough to Helmsley, castles began to make their
appearance, and sturdy Norman churches were built in nearly every village.
[Illustration: The South Side of the Nave of Pickering Church.]
The arches on the north side are of much simpler Norman work. The nearest
painting shows the story of the legendary St Katherine of Alexandria.
[Copyright is reserved by Dr John L Kirk.]
The great Norman keep of Scarborough Castle with its shattered side still
frowns above the holiday crowds of that famous seaside resort, but of the
other strongholds of the district built in this castle-building age it is
not easy to speak with certainty. But the evidences of Norman work are
fairly plain at Pickering Castle, and there seems little doubt that a
fortress of some strength was built at this important point to overawe the
inhabitants. Mr G.T. Clark in his "Mediæval Military Architecture"[1] says
that he considers Pickering Castle to represent "one great type of
Anglo-Norman fortress--that is, a castle of Norman masonry upon an
English earthwork, for the present walls, if not Norman, are
unquestionably laid on Norman lines." He thinks that the earthworks would
be taken possession of and fortified either late in the eleventh or early
in the twelfth century, and that the keep, the chief part of the curtain
walls, and the Norman door near the northwest corner are remains of this
building. The gateways may be Norman or they may belong to the time of
Richard II. (1377-99) but Mr Clark inclines to the earlier date. It is
possible that the Norman doorway just mentioned may have been an entrance
to one of the towers mentioned by Leland but now completely lost sight of.
The architrave has a beaded angle ornamented with pointed arches repeated,
and if it is of late Norman date it is the only part of the castle which
Mr Clark considers to be "distinctly referable to that period."
[Footnote 1: George T. Clark: "Mediæval Military Architecture in England,"
p.372.]
There is no doubt at all that the arcades of the present nave of Pickering
church, were built at this time, and the lower part of the tower is also
of Norman date. The north arcade is earlier than that on the south side,
having perfectly plain semi-circular arches and massive columns with
fluted capitals. On the south the piers are much more ornate, the contrast
being very plainly seen in the photograph reproduced here.
To have necessitated such a spacious church at this time, Pickering must
have been a populous town; possibly it grew on account of the safety
afforded by the castle, and it seems to indicate the importance of the
place in the time of the Norman kings.
One of the most complete little Norman churches in Yorkshire is to be seen
at Salton, a village about six miles south-west of Pickering. It appears
to have been built at the beginning of the twelfth century, and afterwards
to have suffered from fire, parts of the walls by their redness showing
traces of having been burnt. A very thorough restoration has given the
building a rather new aspect, but this does not detract from the interest
of the church. The chancel arch is richly ornamented with two patterns of
zig-zag work, the south door of the nave has a peculiar decoration of
double beak-heads, and though some of the early windows have been replaced
by lancets, a few of the Norman slits remain.
[Illustration: The South Doorway of the Norman Church of Salton. It is
ornamented with very curious double beak-heads. In the upper corners are
given two of the curious corbels on the south side of the nave.]
[Illustration: Curious Ornament in the Norman Chancel Arch at Ellerburne.
The crude carving suggests Saxon work, and it was possibly the production
of Saxon masons under Norman supervision.]
Middleton church has already been mentioned as containing what appears to
be a Saxon doorway in the tower. This may have been saved from an earlier
building together with the lower part of the tower, but if it did not come
into existence before the conquest the tower and nave were built in early
Norman times. The south arcade probably belongs to the latest phase of
Transitional Norman architecture, if not the commencement of the early
English period. Running along the west and north walls of the north aisle
is a stone bench, an unusual feature even in Norman churches.
Ellerburne church has some very interesting Norman work in the chancel
arch. The ornament is so crude that it would seem as though very primitive
Saxon workmen had been working under Norman influence, for, while the
masonry is plainly of the Norman period, the ornament appears to belong to
an earlier time. There must have been a church at Normanby at this period,
for the south door of the present building is Norman. Sinnington church
also belongs to this time. The Norman chancel arch was taken down many
years ago, but the stones having been preserved in the church it was found
possible to replace them in their original position at the Restoration in
1904. There are remains of three doorways including the blocked one at the
west end. The south doorway is Transitional Norman, and is supposed to
have been added about 1180. The porch and present chancel belong to the
thirteenth century, but during the Restoration some interesting relics of
the earlier Norman chancel were discovered in the walls of the fabric that
replaced it. A small stone coffin containing human remains with several
wild boars' tusks and a silver wire ring was found in the nave.
[Illustration: The Transitional Norman Crypt under the Chancel of
Lastingham Church. It is a complete little underground church, having
nave, apse, and aisles.]
Lastingham church as it now stands is only part of the original
Transitional Norman church, for there are evidences that the nave extended
to the west of the present tower which was added in the fifteenth century.
It appears that the western part of the nave was destroyed or injured not
many years after its erection, and that the eastern part was repaired in
early English times. The chancel with its vaulted roof and circular apse,
and the crypt beneath, are of the same date as the original nave, and
though the capitals of the low columns in the crypt might be thought to be
of earlier work, expert opinion places them at the same Transitional
Norman date. The crypt has a nave, apse and aisles, and is therefore a
complete little underground church. Semi-circular arches between the
pillars support the plain vaulting only a few feet above one's head, and
the darkness is such that it requires a little time to be able to see the
foliage and interlaced arches of the capitals surmounting the squat
columns.
At Brompton the Perpendicular church contains evidences of the building of
this period that once existed there, in the shape of four Norman capitals,
two of them built into the east wall of the south aisle and two in the
jambs of the chancel arch. In the massive walls of the lower part of the
tower there may also be remains of the Norman building.
At the adjoining village of Snainton the old church was taken down in
1835, but the Norman stones of the south doorway of the nave have been
re-erected, and now form an arch in an adjoining wall. The font of the
same period having been found in a garden, was replaced in the church on a
new base in 1893. In Edstone church the Norman font, with a simple arcade
pattern running round the circular base, is still to be seen, and at
Levisham the very plain chancel arch mentioned in the preceding chapter is
also of Norman work. Allerston church has some pieces of zig-zag ornament
built into the north wall, and Ebberston church has a slit window on the
north side of the chancel, and the south door built in Norman times. The
nave arcade at Ebberston may belong to the Transitional Norman period and
the font also.
Most of the churches in the neighbourhood of Pickering are, therefore,
seen to have either been built in the Norman age or to possess fragments
of the buildings that were put up in that period. The difficulty of
preventing the churches from being too cold was met in some degree by
having no windows on the north side as at Sinnington, and those windows
that faced the other cardinal points were sufficiently small to keep out
the extremes of temperature.
[Illustration: The Norman font at Edstone.]
The written records belonging to the Norman period of the history of
Pickering seem to have largely disappeared, so that with the exception of
the Domesday Book, and a few stray references to people or places in this
locality, we are largely dependent on the buildings that have survived
those tempestuous years.
Pickering appears to have been a royal possession during the whole of this
time, and it is quite probable that the Norman kings hunted in the forest
and lodged with their Courts in the castle, for a writ issued by Henry I.
is dated at Pickering.