The Vineyards of Northfleet and Teynham in the Thirteenth Century

( 140 ) THE VINEYARDS OF NORTHFLEET AND TEYNHAM IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY. BY DOROTHY SUTCLIEEE. THE manors of Northfleet and Teynham were among the most ancient possessions of the archbishopric of Canterbury. It was in 798, at the fourth CouncU of Clovesho, by an exchange of land, agreed upon and made in the presence of the councU, with Cynedritha, abbess of the monastery of Cookham in Berkshire, that Archbishop Aethelheard of Canterbury received the lands of thirty famiUes at Teynham, and of sixty famiUes at Northfleet.1 In 801 King CenwuU of Mercia exchanged certain lands with the archbishop, whereby the land of twelve ploughs at Teynham was added to the possessions of Canterbury aheady in that place.2 Both Northfleet and Teynham were among the manors in the demesne of the Archbishopric at the time of the Domesday survey, according to the Domesday Monachorum.3 In the latter haU of the thirteenth century, from when the earUest bulk of records of the archiepiscopal manors has survived, of the whole number, about thirty in demesne, it was only on these two of the Kentish manors that vines were grown.4 And, probably, it was in these places alone, of aU the demesne lands of the archbishopric, that vineyards existed.5 Teynham seems to have had the more extensive 1 Cartularium Saxonicum, ed. W. de G. Birch, Vol. I, p. 405. Also in Haddan and Stubbs, Councils, III, p. 512. s Cart. Sax., ed. Birch, I, 419. 3 Cathedral Chapter Library, Canterbury, MSS. E.28. Printed in the Victoria County History, Kent, Vol. I l l , pp. 256-69. In the Exchequer Domesday only Northfleet is given. It is impossible to account for the omission of Teynham. There are other discrepancies between the two Domesdays. Domesday Book, ed. Farley and Ellis, I, f. 3. 4 The records are Ministers' Accounts preserved in the Public Record Office, manorial rent rolls among the Court Rolls' Collection in Lambeth Palace Library, and in the British Museum, Addit. MS .29794. 6 The accounts of the Keepers of the temporalities of the See of Canterbury during vacancy, 1270-2, 1278-9, and 1292-4 (P.R.O. Excheq. Pipe Rolls, Nos. 119, m. 21, 124, m. 23, 141, m. 27) reveal no revenue or expenditure for any other vineyards than those of Northfleet and Teynham. THE VINEYARDS OF NORTHFLEET AND TEYNHAM. 141 one in this period. Its fertUe soU made it in a later time famous for fine fruit of a different kind. It is, in Lambarde's words, " the cherry garden and apple orchard of Kent ", and in Camden, " the parent of aU fruit gardens of Kent ".1 There is evidence of vineyards here as early as the end of the tweUth century. Dugdale gives among the charters of the priory of St. Gregory at Canterbury one of Archbishop Hubert Walter confirming to St. Gregory's a tithe of the wine of Teynham, and Hasted remarks that this is " a kind of donation which appears by others of the like kind to other reUgious houses to have been esteemed of no smaU value ".2 The earUest evidence so far discovered, relating to the vineyard at Northfleet comes from a rent roU of some of the archiepiscopal manors for a year not much later than 1235, the second year of the primacy of Archbishop Edmund Rich.3 It is one of the items of the expenditure and runs as foUows4: In peeling the vine, layering, digging, hoeing and propping it up with trellises, and in payment of the cultivator, and in vine tools to be mended, 44s. 5d. In mending six casks for wine, and in wine measures, and in repahs of casks (MS. torn)—and in gathering the grapes, and in taUow and soap for the wine press, and in a smaU hogshead, and other expenses of the vintage time, 17s. 3d. In three gaUons of must (sweet wine) for filling up a cask, Qd. 1 Lambarde, Perambulation of Kent in 1570 (1826 edition), p. 263. Camden, Britannia (1806 edition) Vol. I, p. 340. a Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum (1846 edition), Vol. VI, pt. 2, p. 615. Hasted, History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent (1778), Vol. I I , p. 682. 3 Lambeth Palace Library, Court Roll Collection, No. 1193. In the items of receipt for the manor of Harrow is one of " HIJs HIJd. ob." for an increment of rent of the second year of Archbishop Edmund. This appears to be a recent increment, for there are other old increments mentioned and paid in with the assized rent. 1 In vinea discalcianda provignianda f odienda howanda et scalettanda et in stipendio vineatoris et in utensilibus vinee emendandis XLLTIJ.S. Vd. In emendis VJ doleis ad vineam et in cottulis et in reparatione doleorum (MS. torn), . . . et uvis colligendis et in sepo et sapone ad toroulam et in caudela et aliis custis vindemiandi XVI3s. IIJd. In I I J galonibus musti ad doleum implendum VId. One word in this material needs some explanation. " Provignianda " has, I suggest, the same meaning as "propaginare ", i.e. to layer young shoots of the vine, and the latter is the more usual word in mediaeval Latin. The former is undoubtedly coined from the French " provigner ". 142 THE VINEYARDS OF NORTHFLEET AND Among the Uberations of corn to the various servants on the manor the cultivator of the vineyard has his share, inseparable in its quantity from the total Uberation ; and the Ust of Uberations closes with the item : quod J doleum et J barUlum vini mittebantur apud Ottef ord et Wrotham. Both these manors were among the demesne lands of the see of Canterbury. The rest of the material relating to the vineyards of both Northfleet and Teynham belongs to the last thirty years of the thirteenth century, and wiU be given in chronological order. Expenses, it wiU be noted, generaUy loom larger than the receipts, except in the years when the archbishopric is vacant, and some of the wine, usuaUy drunk in the archbishop's household, is then sold. For the year 1270-1271, Michaelmas to Michaelmas, from the ministers' sede vacante accounts, among the " recepta " of the manor of Northfleet is this item1: Et de VJs. YUJd. de j . pipa vini de exitu vinee vendita. For Teynham during the same period, the " recepta " include: Et de LXVJs. VLTJd. de V doleis vini de exitu vinee venditis. " Expensa " of Teynham include:2 In peeling, digging, pruning and tying up the vine, £4 15s. In gathering the grapes, and in casks bought for the wine, 15s. 4d. The most abundant information about both the vineyards comes from the large roU of manorial accounts for almost aU the archiepiscopal manors in demesne from Michaelmas, 1273, for the foUowing year. The evidence of the date is in one of the items of the expenses of Aldington, clearly indicating that these accounts cover the year during 1 Public Record Office, Ministers' Accounts, 1128/1, m. 2, m. 4, and m. 5. The receipts and expenditure of all the archiepiscopal manors during the whole period of vacancy, 1270-2, are enrolled on the Pipe Roll for 3 Ed. I in the Publio Record Office, Excheq. Pipe Roll, No. 119, xasm. 21, dorse. But this gives no further information about the vineyards, as some of the receipts and expenses from Northfleet and Teynham are inseparably mixed with other items. 8 In vinea discalcianda fodienda cindenda et rebinenda I I I J . lib. XV*. In vinis vindemiandis et doleis ad vina imponenda emptis, XV*. IllJd. TEYNHAM LN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY. 143 which Archbishop KUwardby attended the second Council of Lyons, in May, 1274.1 In the receipts of Northfleet are the foUowing :2 And 20s. from the sale of one cask of wine. And lis. Qd. from the sale of haU a cask of wine. And 42s. from the sale of two casks of wine. And 4d. from the sale of the herbage in the vineyard. In the "Expensa":8 And in the purchase of five casks and measures for wine, and in cleaning and binding these, and in tallow and soap bought for the shaft (of the wine press), 6s. Id. And in gathering the grapes, 8s. 3d. And in pruning, digging, hoeing and binding up the vine, 34s. To the cultivator of the vines and to the reeve, per year, 20s. In the Uberations of corn the cultivator gets three soams two bushels each hah year. For the manor of Teynham there are two accounts for this year, and no indication as to which part of the year each apphes. In the first account there is one item of expenditure: In fossis circa vineam claudendam XUd. In the second account there are both receipts and expenditure. The items of receipt are:4 And 26s. 2\d. from the summer crop of herbage in Okenefaud together with the herbage cut from the vineyard and from the garden near the dovecot. And %d. from the wood cuttings of the vine. 1 British Museum, Additional MSS. 29794, m. 6. The accounts for Northfleet are on m. 7 dorse, and for Teynham on m. 2 dorse and m. 3. 1 Et de XXs. de J. doleo vini vendito. Et de XJs. VId. de medietate dolei vendita. Et de XLIJs. de I J. doleis vini venditis. Et XVd. de herbagio in vinea vendito. 3 In V doleis cum cottulis ad vinum emptis et eisdem mundandis et ligandis, sepo et sapone ad fusillum emptis VJs. 3d. In vinis vindemiandis VIIJs. II3d. In vinea cindenda fodienda howanda et liganda XXXLTIJs. Vineatori et preposito per annum XXs. * Et de XXVJs. I3d. quad de herbagio estimali in Okenefaud cum herbagio de vinea et curtilagio juxta columbarium. Et de V3d. de chasonis vinearum venditis. The word " chasonis " is probably a form of " casnus " (French, chassain), meaning here the wood cut in pruning the vine, and which was sold. 144 THE VINEYARDS OF NORTHFLEET AND I n the expenses1: In covering (thatching ?) in parts, the house for the vine, 18d. In 20,013 props made for the vineyard, and two new paUsades for the same, haU a tale of steel and hon for making hoes, and in payment of the workman for making the same, 10s. 2d. In peeling and manuring the vines, digging, pruning, binding, tying up and repairing the same, £7 Is. 8d. In the wages of one cultivator from the Sunday following St. Valentine's Day to Michaelmas, for 224 days, 37s. 4c?. In payments to the same, 16s. 8d. To the same for his clothes, 8s. To Lambert, the assistant cultivator of the vines, as a favour this year, 6s. 8d. In the Uberations of corn the cultivator gets as his share from Christmas to Michaelmas four soams seven bushels. The period of vacancy between Archbishop KUwardby and Archbishop Pecham lasted a year aU but seven days. The accounts of the keepers of the temporahties run from 6th June 1278 to 30th May 1279, when Edward I released them to the new primate. These accounts are arranged in grouped items, and the total receipts of the two vineyards are put together, and likewise t h e expenses. But, unfortunately for the present purpose, the latter are included in a mass of other items, simUar to the method of presenting the accounts for the vacancy period of 1270 to 1272.2 As the passage contains other items of local and of general interest, especiaUy 1 In domo ad vinum per loca tegendo, XVIIJd. M In XXXIIJ scarettis ad vineam factis, I J novis bechiis ad eandem, dimidia garba aceri et ferro ad howottas faciendas et stipendio fabri pro eodem fabricando Xs. I3d. In vinous discalciandis et compostandis et eisdem f odiendis at cindendis ligandis rebinendis et reparandis VIJ. lib. XXd. In vadiis J. cultoris a dominica post festum sancti Valentini usque ad festum sancti Michaelis per CCXXIIIJ dies, XXXVLJs. IlUd. In stipendiis eiusdem XVJs. VHJi. Eidem pro roba sua VIIJs. Lamberto seoundario vineatoris hoc anno de gratia Vis. VU3d. There is some difficulty here in the large number of little props or ladders (soarettae); for as the number stands in the MS. thus, xxxiij, with the " M " over the second " x " it is 20,013. This seems unusually large and there may be some slip in the MS., and the number be intended for 1,033. 2 P.R.O. Excheq. Pipe Rolls, No. 124, m. 23. TEYNHAM IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY. 145 in its reference to the defence against the sea and the river Thames, it wiU be given in fuU. The item of receipt is : Et de XXVIJ. lib. XIXs. VUJd. de XXIV doleis et J. pipa vini de vineis in manerns de Tengham et Northflete. In the expenses : Et in custu vinearum de Northflet et Tenham doleis emptis ad vinum imponendum, reparacione molendini stagnorum et gurgitum eorumdem murorum, pratis falcandis, ferris levandis bladis sarclandis metendis cariandis, sepibus, claudenda wallata contra mare et aquam Tamisis, in quibusdam maneriis emendacione grangerum bovariarum et quarumdam aUarum domorum per quedam maneria. LX. lib. VIJs. IIIJc?. quad. The accounts for the next period of vacancy, 1292 to 1294, are arranged in completely different fashion from any of the preceding ones for the see of Canterbury. The manors of the archbishopric are now grouped in baihwicks, the related items in each standing together under one total sum. This is the manner in which they are enroUed on the pipe roU.1 Whether this is significant of changes in the manorial administration it is impossible to teU, for lack or ignorance of evidence. The wine of Teynham is mentioned among the items of receipt of the baUiwick of Maidstone, and has been sold to the king. The item includes other interesting produce from the manors in this baUiwick, and runs as foUows2 : And £75 lis. 10^d. from the sale of hay, fodder, underwood, pannage, verjuice, cider, one millstone, brushwood and garden fruit, together with sixteen casks, one pipe, of wine from the manor of Teynham sold to the king. Northfleet, in the baUiwick of Otford, has its wine sold together with the cider from other manors in this item of receipt: Et de LXXIVs. de vino et cicera in predictis maneriis venditis. 1 P.R.O. Excheq. Pipe Rolls, No. 141, m. 27, dorse. 2 Et de LXXV. lib. Xls. Xd. quad, de feno, foragio, subbosco, pannagio, viridi succo, cicera, J. molari, busca et fructu gardini venditis cum XVJ doleis J. pipa vini in manerio de Thegnham venditi domino Regi. 18 146 THE VINEYARDS OF NORTHFLEET AND In the expenses for the same period repahs of the vineyards at Northfleet and Teynham and the wages of the cultivators of the vines are mentioned, but the list of items in which they are included is too long to be given here. It is significant that these are the only vineyards referred to in this comprehensive account of aU the manors in the demesne of the archbishopric of Canterbury.1 The last piece of material relates to the vines at Northfleet only, and comes from the baUiffs and reeve's account for the year ending at Michaelmas, 1299. There is an unusuaUy long Ust of items relating to the vineyard in the expenditure, and containing some important information. The only item of receipt is : Et de XJdL de herbagio vinee. The first nine of the foUowing items of the expenditure are in the main account. The rest are from a supplementary account immediately foUowing the main one, and for the same period.2 In pruning and doing repahs to the vine 32s. 6d. In getting together trellises at Bexley 18d. In gathering the grapes "8s. 3%d. In the purchase of eight wine casks, with cost of carriage 16s. In cleaning and rehooping the same 16|d. In tallow and soap for the shaft 2d. In taking one cask to Lambeth 15%d. In help in carrying two casks to Otford 9d. In payment of the cultivator of the vine, per annum 10s. Total 71s. lid. 1 P.R.O. Excheq. Pipe Rolls, no. 141, m. 27 dorse. 2 Lambeth Palace Library, Court RoU Collection, No. 777. In vinea scindenda et reparanda XXXIJs. V3d. In scalettis apud Byxle colligandis XVIIJd. In vinis vindemiandis VIIJs II3d. ob. In VIIJ doleis ad vinum emptis cum cariagio XVJs. In eisdem mundandis et religandis XV3d. ob. In sepo et sapone ad fusillum 13d. In uno doleo cariando apud Lamhee XW. ob. Lh auxiliando cariandi I J dolea ad Otteforde IXd. l a stipendio vineatoris per annum Xs. Summa LXXJs. XJd!. In XIIIJ doleis vaouis ad vinum emptis oum cariagio XVs. V3d. In eisdem mundandis et religandis oum circulis emptis XXIIJd. In uno barillo ad viridem sucoum empto VJX3d. In eodem faoiendo et sale empto Vd. ob. TEYNHAM IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY. 147 In the purchase of fourteen empty wine casks, with carriage 15s. 6d. In cleaning and rebinding the same with hoops to be bought 23d. In the purchase of one barrel for verjuice 8d. In making the same, and in the purchase of salt 5fd. In the account of the Uberations the cultivator of the vineyard gets three soams and two bushels twice in the year, as he did more than twenty years before, 1273-4. There are several aspects from which aU this material presents interest and fascination. The most important is, undoubtedly, the economic, in the revelation of prices of materials for the cultivation of the vines, the costs of labour, the slight but valuable indications of inter-manorial trade, and in the varying prices the wine was sold at in different years. It is impossible to assess profit or loss in the cultivation of these vineyards, for even in the periods when the see of Canterbury was vacant probably some of the wine was stored for future sale or use in the archbishop's household. It is quite clear from the evidence that the vineyard at Teynham was very much bigger than the one at Northfleet, for the expenses are far heavier there, including a higher sum paid in wages to the chief cultivator of the vines, and occasionaUy, as in 1273-4, an extra payment to his assistant "as a favour this year". When the totals of receipts and expenditure are compared in aU the various accounts given, the impression is, in spite of the large sum of £57. 13. 10. in the receipts from the sale of the wine from both vineyards in 1278-9, that the cost of the upkeep of the vineyards is, on the average, a heavy charge. The sum total of the expenses for the vines at Teynham in 1270-1 is £5. 10. 4., and in 1273-4 it is as high as £11. 2. 8. In the very earUest account of the vines at Northfleet the expenses amount to £3. 2. 2. In 1273-4 they are £2. 18. 4., and in 1298-9 they amount to £4. 10. 5|. The price of a cask of wine varies very much in the years for which it is possible to calculate the average price. The highest price was obtained in 1278-9, when a cask fetched nearly 23/-, and as this is the year when a very large amount of wine was sold some of it, U not aU, must have been from previous vintages. At other times, 148 THE VINEYARDS OF NORTHFLEET AND in 1270-1, the wine of Teynham was sold at 13/4 per cask, and in 1273-4 the wine of Northfleet at £1 the cask. A Uttle comparison can be made in the cost of labour at each place. The chief cultivator at Teynham gets £1. 17. 4. for 224 days' work, that is twopence a day, and an additional payment of 16/8 during the year 1273-4. At Northfleet in the same year the wages of the cultivator are ten shillings for the year, and in 1298-9 they are the same. Both men have theh Uberations of wheat along with the other, servants of the manors. The cost of gathering the grapes at Northfleet in 1273-4 is 8/3, and in 1298-9 this charge has increased only by a haUpenny. This stability in the costs of labour on the manors over a fahly long period is an important feature. There are a few indications of inter-manorial trade. The Uttle ladders for the vines at Northfleet in 1298-9 came from Bexley, another of the demesne manors of the archbishopric of Canterbury in north Kent. Wine was sent to Otford and Wrotham from Northfleet, according to the earUest manorial account given for Northfleet, and in 1299 it cost 1/3| to take a cask from Northfleet to Lambeth, and 9d. for help in carrying two casks to Otford from the same place. The wine that these Kentish vineyards produced was probably a sour variety and needed to be sweetened with other sorts to make it fit to drink with any pleasure. There is evidence from the late thhteenth or fourteenth century that blackberry wine was mixed with it.1 But, in spite of its sourness and the uncertain amount of the yield in a northern chmate, there are plenty of signs that vine cultivation was not a rarity in England in the Middle Ages. The various processes in the dressing of vines were a popular subject in the mediaeval sermon, giving the preacher much opportunity for pointing a moral and adorning a tale, as in the sermon preached by Thomas Wimbledon " haranguing at Paul's Cross " in 1388.2 The pruning of the vine is the 1 Archcsologia Cantiana (1864-6), Vol, VI, pp. 327-9. 2 G. R. Owst, Literature and Pulpit in Mediaeval England, p. 37 and p. 550. TEYNHAM IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY. 149 symbol of the month of February in the dehghtfuUy carved scenes representing the months on the miserere seats in the parish church of Ripple in Gloucestershire. Further west, in south Wales, a pleasant orchard and vineyard flourished by the castle of Manorbier in the mid-tweUth century, and there, Ghaldus Cambrensis teUs us, he spent many happy hours in his youth. There is plenty of evidence of vineyards in many parts of Kent in the fourteenth century, and perhaps some of them date from a much earUer time. Most of these, of which evidence has been printed, were on the lands of the church. There were vines at the Northolme, in St. Martin's parish, Canterbury, belonging to the abbey of St. Augustine ; at Strood, Snodland and Hailing, belonging to the bishopric of Rochester. The monks of Christchurch, Canterbury, had vineyards at Copton, Barton, Chartham, Brookland and HoUingboume, and there was probably at some time a vineyard at Wingham, a manor of the archbishopric, but there is no evidence of one there in the later thhteenth century.1 Unfortunately, in many places, only a name has survived to show where once a vineyard flourished. 1 Arch. Cant., Vols. II, p. 226, IX, p. lxv, X, p. ex, XV, p. 356.