Medieval Salt-Making and the Inning of Tidal Marshes at Belgar, Lydd

Introduction Until the publication of the Soil Survey by Green (1 968) most maps of the Romney and Walland Marsh area which attempted to reconstruct the topography of the marsh before the great storms of the 13th century showed a large estuary or channel running from near Appledore to curve south and east around the so-called 'Archbishops' Innings' (Elliott 1862) south-west of the Rhee Wall, before turning north-east to run past Midley to a mouth near New Romney (Steers 1964; Ward 1952,12). Since the Soil Survey was published most writers have assumed that the old main course of the Rother (or 'river of Newenden' as it appears to have been called in the thirteenth century) ran from Appledore to New Romney down the small meandering stream shown just north of the Rhee Wall on Green's map (e.g. Cunliffe 1980, 49-51). Recent study of available evidence now suggests that this stream was very small, and that we should perhaps return to the earlier model (though considerably refined by reference to Green's soil survey map). Brooks' problems with the name Rumen ea (broad river) can easily be resolved if this refers to the Wainway, and not to the small stream from Snargate. It is possible also that the main course of the 'river of Newenden' originally came south of the Isle of Oxney along the line of the county boundary, rather than north of Oxney past Appledore (Eddison 1985). The evidence for topographical change The course of the 'Rother' to Romney The lowest part of the principal channel to the Romney mouth until the twelfth century was probably on the line of the later Wainway channel in the southern part of Walland Marsh, and thence ran north-eastwards up the centre of the long arm of calcareous (younger) soils leading towards Old Romney (Fig. 9.1). The final course of this channel in the 12th century is probably marked by the long thin south-westerly extension of Old Romney parish, which is also entirely in the Canterbury Cathedral Priory manor of Lower and Upper Agney. This strip neatly cuts the parish of Midley into two parallel halves (though it is interesting to note that the tithes for it, as recorded in the 1842 apportionments, went to Midley). The strip continues to Old Romney church as Green's Creek Ridge No. 2 (Green 1968, 27-9) in the Decalcified (Old) Marshland. In the centre of this latter area are the demesne lands around Agney Court Lodge, which are documented in detail from the early 13th century (the Court Lodge building was rebuilt in 1287'). In 1225 a large amount of stock is recorded as having been taken to Agney (14 cows, one bull, 100 sheep, and four horses to plough) and there can be no doubt that the area of Creek Ridge No. 2 was, by this date, fully reclaimed (Smith 1943, 147). Between the demesne lands of the manor around the Court Lodge and the long strip of Upper and Lower Agney (which was inned in and after the fourteenth century: Gardiner, 1988) is a roughly triangular area which is enclosed by sea walls (the still very massive wall from Baynham to Hawthorn Corner is on its south side) and which contains a very large creek relic on Green's soil map. On the tithe maps for Old Romney this is called the 'Great Brack' or 'Breck' - and this must refer to the great break in the sea wall at Midley House (TR 016236) which presumably occurred in one of the storms of the later 13th century. (On Elliott's map of 1862, and often copied later, this enclosure is called 'Archbishop Peckham's Innings' and wrongly dated 1229: Peckham was, in fact, Archbishop from 1279-92. Thus, any work in Archbishop Peckham's time is likely to have been secondary reclamation following the breach.) Dating the change of river course to Rye A constantly-repeated assertion in the many books about Romney Marsh is that the Rother changed its course to a new outlet to the sea near Rye as a result of the great storm of 1287. This cannot be correct. The occupation ofAgney in 1225 is evidence that the river no longer flowed by Agney to Romney at that time, and it seems likely that the river had changed its course to empty into the sea near Old Winchelsea by at least the late 12th century. The effects of this change would have been felt in several ways. Silting problems in the port of Romney would have been very great and hence the almost immediate need for a new town and port nearer the sea, and ultimately for an artificial water channel to the port, in order to flush out the silt brought in by the tides. At the same time the creation of a new, more direct course for the 'Rother' to the sea near Old Winchelsea may have encouraged more land to be inned and drained in 106 Tim Tatton-Brown the Fairfield and Brookland areas, as well as in the area west of Midley and Lydd, and it seems likely that it was at this time that the regular patterns of drains were created in these areas, so that much of the land could be used for arable. Old and New Romney The most important change in the marsh, which probably took place in the mid-12th century was the transference of the town or burh of Romney to a new site near the already ancient (Middle Saxon) church of St. Martin (see also Brooks 1988). Here a completely new planned town was laid out with the very large new double-aisled church of St. Nicholas. It is also about 1 140 that 'Old' and 'New' Romney were first mentioned as separate places - in the cartulary of the Abbey of St. Nicholas at Arrosaise in the Pas de Calai~.~ In this cartulary, the church of St. Clement "de Veteri Romenal" was given to the Canons of the Abbey, perhaps soon after the move. The new site on the shingle bank at the mouth of the estuary, which is similar in position to the roughly contemporary new town of Stonar on the shingle bank opposite Sandwich, was probably necessitated by the rapid silting up of the estuary leading up to Old Romney, and this in turn is likely to have been caused by the cessation of the pre-Wainway channel to act as the principal outlet for all the waters coming from the Weald of Kent and East Sussex to the west. One other piece of evidence suggesting a breach in the shingle in the Rye and Winchelsea area by the mid-12th century is the rapid rise of those two towns, from relative obscurity at the time of Domesday (1086) to full membership of the Cinque Ports as the 'two ancient towns' by the time of Henry 11, the latter confirmed in a charter of 1197. Within a hundred years one of them, Old Winchelsea, was destroyed by the sea. Old Winchelsea may have stood on a shingle bank, but it is also possible that in origin it was one of the islands in the marsh, like Cheyney and Scotney. Twelfth-century reclamations Documentary evidence suggests that reclamation started early in the 12th century, in the time of Henry I (1 100-35). At that time grants of land in Appledore by Christ Church Priory made the tenants "engage to maintain the walls and sewers against the salt and fresh water and, as often as there should be need, to repair and strengthen them, according to the law of the marsh" (Teichman Dervillle 1936, 5). The most interesting group of charters, however, concerns the area around Misleham, in Brookland pari~h.~ The first charter says that Prior Wibert (1 155-67) and the convent of Christ Church "granted Baldwin Scadeway and his heirs all their land of Misleham which lies in the marsh, in so far as Baldwin can inclose it against the sea". He will hold it free of all services for two years and then will pay 4d. for each acre. The second charter (1 191) settled a dispute between Simon Scadeway, son of Baldwin, and his brothers, called 'Englishmen' (anglicos). It was agreed that Simon held a fourth part of the land of Misleham of Christ Church "with the duty of walling (vallare) it on the sea side". This is then followed in the Register by six charters (one a duplicate) in which Prior Geoffrey (1 191-1207) and Christ Church grant to their men of Misleham at least five blocks of 35 acres each, to be held in gavelkind at 4d. an acre: they must also "defend the land against fresh and salt water by walls and watergangs". Each block of 35 acres is sub-divided into units of between one and 17* acres, and several of the 'Men of Misleham' have units in more than one block (Table 9.1). There can be little doubt that these charters show that Baldwin was inning new land in c. 1 160 and that thirty or so years later this was good arable land farmed by the 'Men of Misleham'. Remarkably, this area (Fig. 9.1) is still shown on the modern Ordnance Survey maps as an area of very regular fields (an almost rectilinear system), and the acreages as shown on the Tithe Map vary from three to eighteen acres. The principal drainage channel is still called Baldwin's Sewer, and there can be no doubt that the parish of Brookland (and its church) were newly created at this time. Baldwin's Innings also cover part of the neighbouring parish of Ivychurch, across the very straight parish and hundred boundary which still survives, and the pattern of walls in Green's soil map suggests that Baldwin's Innings is secondary to St. Thomas's Innings to the south-east. Here is situated More Court, which Hasted (1797-1801, 8, 401) says belonged to the More family from at least Henry II's time. St. Thomas's Innings, which also contains a very regular field and sewer pattern, has at its north-east corner a large block ofland which until 192 1 belonged to Magdalen College, Oxford (Frontispiece). The college owned this land (ofjust over 80 acres) from 148 1, when it took over the lands of the Hospital of St. Stephen and St. Thomas at New Romney, and charters in the college archives show that this was one of the original endowments of the Leper Hospital at New Romney confirmed by Archbishop Baldwin in c. 1 186-90, and by a Papal Bull in 121 1. The land is described in the charter as 'terra que fuit Galfridi Turcople', and in the Papal Bull as '80 acres called terra Turcopule in the close of St. Th~mas'.~ Of particular interest is the way that the Rhee Wall cuts through this land -which suggests that the Rhee is younger, because if a major waterway had already been cut across the land in 1186-90, it would surely have been mentioned in the charter. Also, on its east and south sides this block of land is surrounded by an original wall of St. Thomas's Inning, which was probably built before the Christ Church land at Agney had been reclaimed. The earliest maps of Romney Marsh and the Magdalen College map5 show a windmill on top of this bank (later called Millbank Lane), and this was probably on the same site as that erected soon after 1200, a moiety ofwhich belonged to the Hospital at New R~mney.~ The famous Patent Roll reference in 1258, to the building of the last part of the Rhee Wall (Cal. Pat. The Topography of the Walland A4arsh Area Rolls 1247-58,635-6) probably refers to this land when it mentions where the new course of the channel was to be started. The channel was to run "from a cross of the hospital of infirm persons of Rumenal which stands near Aghenepend". This must mean that there was a cross on the corner of the hospital lands. 'Aghenepend' must be a ponded-up part of the older part of the Rhee to the north-east. To the west of Baldwin's Innings more land (later parts of the parishes of Snargate and Fairfield) was being inned in the later 12th century. This is referred to in a well-known dispute in 1400 relating to land in 'the Becard' (now the Becket's Barn area).' This records that 107 Table 9.1 Grants of Land to the 'Men of Misleham' in the time of Prior Geofrey (1191-1207) (Canterbury Cathedral Arrhivcs, Reg. C. ff. 256-257. The Roman numerals are the original charter numbers, given in the left hand column) Acres xli and xlv (duplicates) when Robertsbridge Abbey was founded in 11 76 they were given 700 acres of marsh in Snargate, but soon afterwards there was a dispute between Robertsbridge and Alan, Prior of Christ Church (1 179-86) because Christ Church claimed that this land was partly in their manor of Appledore. This was resolved and Roberts- bridge got 100 acres "lying next to the bank of the Abbot and Convent (of Robertsbridge) near the land of Adam of CharingX. Again, we know exactly where Adam of Charing's land was, as it was given shortly afterwards (c. 1186) to New Romney Hospital - and passed on to Magdalen College, Oxford, in 148 1, being 40 acres of land shown on the Magdalen College map. Yet another suggestion of major new innings in the area was the creation of the new parish of Fairfield. The church is dedicated to St. Thomas Becket, who was canonised in 1173, and church dedications to St. Thomas are common in the later 12th and early 13th centuries. Unlike Brookland, this church was always of timber, and in its exposed position clearly suffered in the storms of the later 13th century. A visitation in 1294 records that "the church was never dedicated (i.e. it had not formally been dedicated by the archbishop or his suffragan), and the altars in the chancel were of wood, badly put together. Also the walls of the church were in bad condition because they were full of holes in the lower parts. Moreover, the churchyard was dedicated, but not the church, because it was of wood and daub (de ligno et plostra terra)" (Woodruff 191 7, 162). Unlike all the other churches it was never rebuilt in stone. The present church is still a 15th century timber-framed building, which was only clad in brick in the 18th century. Nearby is the large Fairfield Brack (or Hole) which is shown on the Soil Survey map as well as on the early Ordnance Survey maps, and which still floods in very wet winters. Suggested Model The following is suggested as a model for the development of the Walland Marsh area between the l l th and 13th centuries. 1. In the early l l th century a broad channel, the Rumen ea, runs from just south of the later East Guldeford area in a curve up through Lower Agney to Old Romney. This channel, which was later called the Wainway, is clearly shown on Green's soil map. It must have provided the fine natural harbour which sheltered Alwin son of Wateman William son of Godard Tedgar Prat and his brothers Tureburn Godfrey son of Wuluric Elphege and his brothers Aluric son of Wulmar and William son of Almar Walter son of Wudeman Alwin son of Alflod Norman son of Stefel xlii Tureburn son of Wulmar Aluric his brother Norman son of Ailnoth and Aluric his brother Alwin Blund Alwin Wint and Wulfwin his brother Hugh son of Alwin Aluric son of Tureburn Robert son of Wateman xliii Aluric son of Frenar and Snelgar his brother Lefwin son of Ordnod and William de Grana and Livere son of Fuhel Alwin son of Wulfwin and his brothers and Meremius Henry Carpenter and Snelgar son of Frenar Alwin and Blakeman sons of \Yudeman and Fresnod xliv Robert son of Britheve Fresnod Alwin Blund Norman son of Wakerild Hugh son of Arnold and Lodowic son of Aluric William son of Norman xlvii Aluric son of Wakerild and Wulwin his brother Godard son of Godric Wulwin son of Ailmar Godit daughter of Quykeman Kemet son of William Robert son of Britheve Turebern son of Wulmar and Alwin Blund 35 acres 342 acres 11 8 8 4 2 35 acres 35 acres 173 4 4 24 4 !Z 3 35 3 acres Note: In this area four virgates equalled one acre. Virgates 3 3 1 1 1 f 1) 1 f 1 3 the fleet of ships of Earl Godwin which William the Conqueror sought to secure immediately after the battle of Hastings in October 1066. Earlier than that, the channel may have divided into two on either side of Midley (the Middle Island) - into Green's creek ridges numbers 1 and 2, and may have been the channel up which the Danes came in 892. By the 11th century, however, Creek Ridge No. 1 must have become blocked at its east end (near Belgar and Caldecot) by the longshore drift of shingle and sand from the direction of Lydd, and the whole of the north and north-west facing shore of this area was the Langport or burh of Romney. The interior of Walland Marsh at this time was perhaps a large salt marsh (Domesday Book records many salt works there), in which there was a series of islands, the names of some of which survive - Cheyne, Scotney, Agney and Midley. 2. In the early 12th century the Rother is diverted to an outlet in the Old Winchelsea area, causing the broad channel between Lower Agney and Old Romney to silt up rapidly and destroy the port of Romney. A new planned town is created at New Romney. With the rapidly rising population of the time much new land is inned in the Old Romney to Snargate areas in the later 12th century. This continues in the early 13th century with the draining of the Agney Manor channel near Old Romney and the reclamation of more land in the Fairfield area, where a church dedicated to St. Thomas Becket is built for a new parish. There is also more inning on the south side of the Wainway (otherwise known as the 'Water of Cheyne') in the Lydd (Scotney Court) and Broomhill areas (Gardiner 1988). 3. In the mid-13th century the climate deteriorates and there is perhaps a rise in sea level, requiring more massive sea walls to be built. The documented great storms of 1250, 1252 and particularly of 1287-8 breach many walls and flood much of the newly-drained land, and also destroy many buildings including possibly the Court Lodge at Agney, Midley church and the whole of the eastern part ofSt. Nicholas' church at New Romney. It also piles up large quantities of sand and shingle in the town as well as in the port ofNew Romney. As a result of this, the huge new seven-mile long and 50-yard wide artificial channel, the Rhee, had to be cut in the mid 13th century. The Patent Roll of 21 June 1258, in a much-quoted reference (though wrongly dated 1257 in Green 1968,41) makes it clear that by this date much of the Rhee was complete (probably only recently completed, however) and that it was being extended from near the Hospital lands at Old Romney to the port of New Romney. This massive undertaking shows both the importance ofthe port and also that there was a large local population which could supply the many diggers needed to be hired to carry out the work. The later 13th century was, however, an age of great public works and the digging of the vast ditch or moat around the Tower of London in the 1270s, for which hundreds of 'ditch diggers' and 'hodmen' (carriers of earth in hods) were required is perhaps the largest comparable example which can be cited. At another major East Kent port, Sandwich, the Patent Roll in 1285 records the digging of another artificial trench to divert an upland stream to flush out the port and bring fresh water to the town. This trench, which is nothing like the width of the Rhee, is three miles long and remains a water channel 700 years later. 4. Immediately following the period of the great storms the Walland and Denge Marsh areas, as well as other marshes between Romney Marsh proper and the County of Sussex, received Royal ordinances in 1288 and 1290 so that the many breaches in the sea walls made by the great storms of 1287-8 could be speedily repaired. These walls and the creek relics behind them (probably scoured out during and after the great storms), are clearly shown on Green's soil map in the area between Snargate and Fairfield, and on past the Woolpack Inn at Brookland, to Cheyney. There is then a re-entrant area at the head of the Wainway ('The Great Brack') before the irregular line of walls which runs south-westwards from south of Midley church to Broomhill. Behind these walls, particularly near Scotney Court, is a series of creek relics, which must also date from the storms of the late 13th century. The great storms also probably breached the shingle barrier between New Romney and Willop (south of West Hythe) for the first time, because in 1287 there was a meeting of the 24 jurats, the landholders of the marsh and their representatives at Snargate, at which they decreed "that a new wall should be built at Holewest where once a jetty had been erected. They said that the land could not otherwise be saved from flooding unless such a wall was built 12 feet high and of a given length and breadth" (Smith 1943, 169-70). Work was to start on Monday February 4th and the wall should be six feet high after one month and finished by Easter (two months). Holewest (a significant name) was in Dymchurch, and there can be little doubt that this is the precursor of the wall, though extended, shown on the earliest maps of the marsh in the late 16th century running from High Knock Wall end (now near St. Mary's Bay) to Everden Groyne (now near the Dymchurch Redoubt). The east side of this wall was decreed as the responsibility of the Archbishop and the Prior of Christ Church (whose manors of Willop and Orgarswick were just behind the wall), while the rest of the cost was to be borne by the other marsh lords. For later history of this wall, see Robinson (1988). 5. Once the major walls are erected and repaired, new innings are created and land drainage took place in various areas. At the Christ Church manor of Agney, records of 1292-3 and 1298-9 (Smith 1943, 182-3) mention "three perches of wall repaired in Nova Terra (Newland)" and "two furlongs and 22 perches of wall being built contra mare" at a cost of L3.5s.6d. This was followed by the construction of two dams in 1301-2 to regulate the drainage, and in 13 15-6 Nova Terra was cultivated with 5+ acres of oats and 4 acres of vetch, showing that desalination of the the soil in this area may have taken about 20-25 years. Agney was still, however, largely pasture and there were 300 sheep on this manor 110 Tim Tfi by 1322 (Smith 1943, 152). 'Newland' is in the area later called Upper Agney and innings there and in the neighbouring archiepiscopal manors of Cheyne and Midley (in Midley parish) continued throughout the 14th and early 15th centuries. For example, a licence was given in 1359 for the Archbishop to grant to John of Gosebourn of Appledore "72 acres of land of his marsh lying outside the wall of his innings (inclusi) of La Cheyn called Estwall between the land of the Abbot of Boxley on the south and land called 'Newelond' on the north". Gosebourn was also granted a way one perch wide from St. Thomas's Inning as far as the land granted to him above. This land is called 'Begham' in 1398 (modern Baynham) and must be the inning between Old Cheyne Court and Scott's Marsh House on Green's soil map (Fig. 9.1). Areas of Romney Marsh proper were also being better drained at this time as a Visitation Roll of 1293 makes clear from the parish of Newchurch. Here "the lands which used to be grass, and on which animals were pastured, which were of much profit and convenience to the vicars, are now under the plough on account of the drying up of the marsh" (Woodruff 191 7, 158). 6. During this period the Rhee continues to be used as a ship canal, though silting is already obviously a problem. From the late 14th century until about 1420 desperate efforts were made to dig out the Rhee and to keep the sluices clear, and between 1409 and 14 13 the sluice at the port was replaced by a new 'Great' or 'Harbour' Sluice, which probably brought in water from the surrounding marshes. But after this these efforts are given up and the sluices at Snargate and the port were taken down, and from about 1427 'the land between the walls' was first rented out for pasture (Scott Robertson 1880, 2734 footnote; Vollans 1988). In the late 13th and early 14th centuries, however, this remarkable channel was still very much in use, and ships must have moved regularly up and down the channel between Appledore and New Romney. The sluice gates at either end (seven miles apart) must also have incorporated some sort of larger gates making it a gigantic lock. A record in the Calendar of the Patent Rolls on May 20th 1337 of a licence tells us that a great change had happened in the north-western two miles of the Rhee, between Appledore and Snargate, in the late 13th century, perhaps as a result of the 1287 storm. The jury References (Superscript numbers in the text refer to unpublished sources, listed below.) Published sources Brooks, N. P. 1988: Romney Marsh in the Early Middle Ages. In this volume, chapter 8. Butcher, A. F. 1980: The hospital ofSt. Stephen and St. Thomas, New Romney: the documentary evidence. Arch. Cant. 96, 17-26. Cunliffe, B. W. 1980: The evolution of Romney Marsh: a preliminary statement. In F. H. Thompson (editor), Archaeology and Coastal Change (London, Soc. Antiquaries), 37-55. in 1337 stated that 'an ancient trench' which passed through the manors of the Archbishop, the Prior of Christ Church and Margaret de Basinges (i.e. Snargate, Appledore and Kenardington) has become so ob- structed by shingle and sand that ships could not pass through to the town of Romney as they had used to do (Scott Robertson 1880, 266 gives the original Latin text). There was, however, a 'certain other trench' which had "lately been made by the force of the sea, by which boats and ships might pass without hindrance" to Romney, and that this had been the case for "30 years and more". The dimensions of both the old and the new channels are given (700 by 10 perches and 500 by 20 perches respectively), and these can both be plotted on the ground with the help ofGreen's soil map where three old walls are shown running east from Appledore. 'The channel on the north, which is the longer and narrower one, appears to be the old man-made one, while that on the south, which is shorter and wider and is shown with a meandering water-course in it, is likely to be the new channel made by the force of the sea at the end of the 13th century (see also Vollans 1988). Conclusions The changes in the central area of Romney Marsh and Walland Marsh in the 12th and 13th centuries are crucial to our understanding of the earlier history of the marsh, and it is hoped that the model given above can now be refined, and that individual key areas around Old and New Romney, Agney Court, Appledore and Snargate can be examined in detail. Fieldwork and excavation in these areas may well locate the waterlogged remains of ancient channels and sluices, as well as possibly the remains of some of the ships and boats that moved through the area. Acknowledgements I am extremely grateful to Dr. Nigel Ramsay for very kindly helping me to read many of the original medieval documents in Canterbury Cathedral Archives, and to Jill Eddison for her typing and helping to make this a much more readable paper. Eddison, J. 1985: Developments in the lower Rother \alleys up to 1600. Arch. Cant. 102, 95-1 10. Elliott, J. 1862: suggestions and maps. In T. Lewin, The Inuasion of Britain by Julius Caesar. (London). Gardiner, M. F. 1988: Medieval settlement and society in the Broomhill area, and excavations at Broomhill church. In this volume, chapter 10. Green, R. D. 1968: Soils ofRomney Marsh. Soil Surv. Gt. Britain, Bull. 4. (Harpenden). Hasted, E. 1797-1801: The History and Topographical Survey of the County ofKent, 2nd edition (Canterbury). The Topography of the Walland Marsh Area Robinson, G. W. 1988: Sea defence and land drainage of Romney Marsh. In this volume, chapter 13. Scott Robertson, W. A. 1880: The Cinque Port Liberty of Romney. Arch. Cant. 13, 261-80. Smith, R. A. L. 1943: Cantrrbtrry Cathedral Priory, a Study in Monastic Administration. (Cambridge). Steers, J. A. 1964: The Coastline of England and Wales. (Cambridge). Teichman Derville, M. 1936: The Level and Liberty of Romncy Marsh. (Ashford). Vollans, E. C. 1988: New Ron~ney and the 'river ofNewenden' in the Later Middle Ages. In this volume, chapter 11. Ward, G. 1952: The Saxon history of the town and port of Romney. Arch. Cant. 65, 12-25. Woodruff, C. E. 1917: Some early visitation rolls preserved at Canterbury. Arch. Cant. 32, 143-180. Unpublished sources 1. British Library, MS. Cotton, Galba E iv, f. 104 (Prior Henry of Eastry's Memorandum Book). 2. Amiens, Bibliothtque Municipale, Ms. 1077. 3. Canterbury Cathedral Archives, Reg. C, ff. 568. 4. Magdalen College Muniments, Deeds (Romney Marsh) 58 and 31; and Magdalen College, map 24 (map of their Romney Marsh estates, William Web, 1614). See also Butcher 1980, 18-9. 5. Magdalen College, map 24 6. Magdalen College, Muniments, Deeds (Romney Marsh), 37. 7. Canterbury Cathedral Archives, Reg. C, ff. 2556.