AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |
Back to Blog
Lost medieval villages8/30/2023 Because the de Ports held many manors in the county, they did not suffer a loss of income and although 2nd and 3rd sons occupied the house periodically there was no attempt to revitalise the trading post of Abbotstone and so the village dwindled and diedģ. In 13th C, the nearby community of Arlesford Burgus began to grow and become more prosperous, drawing trade away, the final nail in the coffin being the construction of bank for the village fishpond that funnelled travellers away from the old route and along the new route to London via the new settlement. At one time the main Winchester to London road passed through the village, which also had its own mill and was owned by the de Port family, who were granted it by the Conquerer. This reduced visitors to a town or village and hence trade,so people would drift away to a more prosperous community The lost village of Abbotstone, near Arlesford in Hampshire is an example of a village that died due to the loss of an important trade route. So if a community or its Lord, were felt to be disloyal, the King could start its decline by moving the market to a neighbouring community. Markets were granted by the King and it was considered a punishment to a town or village to withdraw permission for a market. Most counties had at least one Royal forest, and many had either a large acreage or multiple sites. So if you hadn’t been evicted and were free to do so, you might decide to move to a nearby manor, outside the reaches of the King’s forests. And if the King or his agents were feeling particularly in need of coin, then you could be fined for wastage through the over zealous collection of firewood. Fees were also applied for activities such as pannage, the grazing of pigs within the forest and the use of common grazing lands. As well as these fines, an additional financial penalty would be applied, an annual rent for the land. For example fines, known as amercements were paid for cutting down trees and brushwood to create new arable lands (wastage and assart), and for enclosing and / or building on these lands (prepusture). Forest Law, prohibited peasants from hunting for the pot on Royal lands or using their arable and grazing lands as they saw fit. Although the 12th C chronicler, Henry of Huntingdon, states that William the Conquerer did move people off the lands when he established the New Forest in Hampshire, in order to “make it a habitation for wild beasts he loved like he was their father”. Whilst this in itself should not be a reason to move peasants off the land, application of forest law could make lands untenable. But today I thought I’d give a brief overview of the others. I’m going to take a couple of these subjects and write a more in depth post about them over the course of the week. During the medieval period villages were abandoned for many reasons including the clearance of land to make hunting parks, build monastic houses, enclose lands for sheep farming, the effects of plague, movement of trade routes as the prosperity of settlements changed, new land holders or changes in the priorities of a family who held the lands, reduced soil fertility and low yields, diversion of water sources, murrains (cattle plagues).
0 Comments
Read More
Leave a Reply. |