Pastsearch Newsletter Issue 102: June 2021
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PastSearch Newsletter Issue 102: June 2021 Welcome to PastSearch Newsletter You can find a downloadable version at www.pastsearch-archaeo-history.co.uk May Round Up...................1 York: The Story of its Walls May Round Up Bars and Castles – The Normans (part 5)……….....2 St. John’s Dance……..……6 This Month in History.....................7 British Monarchs ...............8 HOSM Local History Society...................10 Bishops Palace Community Dig & Howdenshire Archaeological Society …………………………11 Managed to get out and complete a site in Holme-on Spalding Moor Picture This........................12 area, unfortunately after another few days of rain, so very soggy. Just For Fun.......................12 Thankfully the machine driver was able to scrape the slop away to Just for Fun make a route through for me between the seven trenches. Answers.................13 Dates for Diary…………..13 Although Holme-on Spalding Moor parish has a lot of archaeology, PastSearch YouTube there were only land drains encountered in these trenches, which must Channel………………..…13 have been blocked, considering the amount of surface water. What’s Been in the News..............14 Adverts..............................15 Zoom Talks this month looked at the 1984 York Minster Fire, which completed the series of three talks. Also the history of British coins, from the Celtic Potins (c.80BC), through the centuries, noting the new introductions and those taken out of circulation to the 20th century and decimalization. For June and July Zoom Talks see ‘Dates for Diary’ on page 13 and Adverts on pages 15-18. Or go directly to the PastSeach Eventbrite page to find all the talks as they are added. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/d/online/pastsearch/ 1 York: The Story of its Walls, Bars and Castles T P Cooper (1904) The Normans (Part 5) – The King’s Fishpool (Part 2): “The large expanse of water in succeeding years became an important royal fishery. With the increasingly rigid rules of ecclesiasticism, as to fasting and abstinence from flesh meat, the supply of fish as an article of diet became a very important matter. Frequently the regal owners of the pond made presents to their favourite courtiers, bishop, and abbots of the bream, pike, and other fish for which the locality became celebrated. Many of these gifts are recorded on the Close Rolls. In 1221 the Sheriff of Yorkshire, by a mandate from the King, presented to Walter de Gray, Archbishop of York, as from his royal master, ten bream (Breimas) from ‘vivario de fosse.’ In 1228 the Archbishop received another fift of thirty bream. The King, in August, 1256, ordered the Sheriff ‘to let the Friars Preachers, Toft Green, have six pike out of the royal stew of Fosse, for the occasion of the Provincial Chapters of the Order held at York in that year.’ Under a like order, sixty bream were given to the Abbot of Fountains in 1229. On the 20th of August, 1285, instructions were given to the Sheriff ‘to cause Master Geoffrey de Aspehale, master of the Hospital of St. Leonard’s, York, to have in the water of the Fosse, twenty-four bream, of the King’s gift.’ These are typical presents of fish from the King’s Pool. Many such could be enumerated, but these few will help to show the value of the water as a royal stew. The men who were employed I the fisheries of the Ouse and the regal waters of the Fosse would of course reside in the vicinity, and seem to have given the name of their occupation to the street, Fishergate. The custodians of the Fosse were appointed by the King, and held the office under the Sheriff of the County, who paid them their wages, and the amount was allowed in that official’s account at the Exchequer. As each new sheriff took office he was authorised by writ to pay the stipend of the keeper of the fishery. Many of these documents are entered on the Close and Patent Rolls, from which we have been able to compile a long list of custodians. Particulars of the earliest keepers traceable are given herewith…….. Grant (on the 5th May, 1280) to Henry le Esqueler (‘Squeler’ in the marginal title), during good behaviour of the bailiwick of the custody of the gate of York Castle and the custody of the prison of the said castle, with the custody of the water of Fosse there, if the custody of the prison and water aforesaid belong to the said Baliwick, and he is to receive as much as other keepers. By the King on the information of Anthony Bek and brother William de Faversham. The custody of the Castle gate and prison was not always held in conjumction with the keepership of the Fosse. These offices, in later times, were kept distinct and held by separate persons whose names are recorded, with the amount they were paid as wages. Some of the keepers were royal pensioners, and others wealthy persons whose duties were perfomed by deputy. On January 20, 1312, an order was given to the Sheriff ‘to pay to Richard de Alverton and William de Castelay, keeper of the King’s fishpond (vivarii) of Fosse, their wages , to wit, 2d daily each, together with the arrears of the same since the sheriff’s appointment. By the King on the information of Edmund de Malo Lacu, Steward of the Household.’ Eight years later we find the keepership had changed hands and the wages show a substantial increase. The Sheriff, on January 22, 1320, was instructed ‘to pay to Oliver de Sambuce, yeoman of the king’s chamber, the arrears of his wages as keeper of the King’s pond of Fosse, the custody whereof the King granted to him for life, on 6th November, in the 12th year of his reign, receiving therefore 6d a day from the Sheriff of Yorkshire, and to continue to pay the same.’ One of the duties of the keepers was to detect and arrest trespassers, or poachers, of the King’s fish. It will be seen from the following extract from the Patent Rolls that a Thomas de Warthill, a trespasser, was a person of some estate: ‘Appointment (June 7, 1293) of Master Henry de Neuwerk, dean of York, to the 2 custody of Alice, late the wife of Gilbert, de Luda, and her lands, until Thomas de Warthill, who was appointed to the custody until she should become sane, and who is now in York gaol for trespasses in the King’s stew of Fosse, has done the king’s pleasure for the said trespasses.’ The custodians of this great fishpond had peculiar privileges. In the King’s name they claimed the exclusive right of a narrow strip of land around the entire circuit of the lake. The bounds of the pool which were of considerable extent, were from time to time surveyed and set forth in various inquisitions. In rugged days of old, when ‘might was right,’ it was considered proper – ‘That they should take who have the power, and they should keep who can.’ This grasping spirit was occasionally manifested by the all-powerful sheriffs, who unscrupulously, under the slightest pretext, appropriated lands verging upo the brink of the pond. Robert de Crepping, who was Sheriff of the Coundt, from April 22, 150 to Easter. 1253, appears to have gained an unenviable notoriety in such practices. One arm of the pool extended between Layerthorpe and Hull Road, at its extremity Tang Hall Beck flowed into the fishpond. Certain meadows, belonging to the Hospital of St. Nicholas, and others in the possession of the Prebend of Fridaythorpe, pertaining to his Hall of Tang, and bordering the Fosse, were unlawfully seized and occupied by Sheriff Crepping. The Master and Brethren of the hospital complained to the King of the injustice of Crepping’s purpresture. The following judicial inquiries of the subject are printed in vol. i: Yorkshire Inquisition, Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, but it will be seen that the aggrieved monks, after the proverbial delays of the law, received little amends for the loss they had sustained. By writ dated at Windsor, 17 July, 3rd Edward I. (1275), the following inquisition was taken with respect to an alleged encroachment upon the lands of the hospital: ‘The King sent to Gwychard de Charrum and William de Northburgh, that whereas it was shown on behalf of the Master and Brethren of the Hospital of St. Nicholas, York, that one carucate of land and one acre and a half of meadow in the suburb of the City of York, were provided for the support of the lepers coming to the hospital by the ancestors of the King, and confirmed by them, and that they and their predecessors had peacefully held the land and meadow from the time when they were first enfeoffed, until Robert de Creooinge, sometime Sheriff of Yorkshire, in the late King Henry’s time, ejected them unjustly amd without judgement, so that the meadow had been withheld by him and other Sheriffs of Yorkshire for twenty years, to the no mean damage of the said Master and Brethren and their manifest disinhersion – Now Robert de Creppinge, called by the said Gwychard and William, says that while he was Sheriff of Yorkshire, he saw that the acre and a half of meadow abutted the King’s vivary, of Fosse, so that at every inundation of water the meadow was covered; and because he saw that if the King should wish to move his mills, then beneath the Castle, and to raise the head of his vivary, that meadow would be under water every hour of the year.