Possibly the Object of Their Downfall). the the 13Th. Century Rowton Brook

THE VACCARY LANDS IN OUERNMORE otherwise, to larger pastures and then legally FOREST. established as perrnanent stock farms. P.J.Hudson One other route is possibly the conversion from Anglo-Saxon hunting areas, which would lands, available The date and extents of the first land enclosures theoretically have been empty settlement in one of the in the Quernmore area are not known for certain, for agricultural but there are several possibilities. Apart from population incursions, e.g. the Norse, which there the Hoton vill lands, the old park and horse farm took place before the Conquest and before written land in the north of Quernmore, there are in the south were any vills established or of the area two other pre 13th. cennrry enclosed charters for this area.to areas of land,t these are the two vaccaries at establishment, Rooten Brook- and Hare APPIe Tree.' Whatever the background to their by the immediate post-Conquest period the two These two vaccaries appeared in a system of Quernmore sites were occupied and enclosed several large enclosures (assarts) which were and were being developed as cow farms part of new land exploitation and development principally to breed and rear cattle as draught taking place in the northern forests of post- animals and to create a local supply to provision garrisons." Later Conquest England. Vaccaries can perhaps be meat and hides to the northern draught considered as evidence of the major changes that they not only supplied meat and to the Royal the Normans were making to the land holding animals, but milk and milk products going into system of northern England. Changes that Castles and Estates, with the surplus became permanent features in the landscape and the economy via local markets. the earliest major physical landscape evidence, vaccary sites at other than forests and parks, of the effects of the From this time these two appear name as Norman Conquest. Rowton and Hareappletree by ones farmed out to the crown lessees. In the crown lessees were either The vaccary areas in Quernmore were' possibly, Quernmore Forest In part of 'old lands' or earlier assarts which were the County Sheriff,t' or the Master Forester. the expansion of cow established illegally before the 12th century as 1262 there is a reference to ed pastures in the Royal Forest lands in Quernmore in and Wyresdale, and the master forester held the ey bailiwick of the king and exacted rents and were by then accepted, fined as a rent and retained the profits.'3 regularised.t Howevsr, these vaccary sites could have been survivals of pre-Conquest enclosures The two vaccaries in Quernmore and several of pass or land occupation which were taken over intact the adjoining ones in Wyresdale were to after the Conquest.t For example, the men of into the hands of the Gernets when they held the Foresters Overton appeared to have had rights to shielings hereditary post of Master Forester and at Ortner in Over-Wyresdale,' and retained this at Fee.'o (These extensive land holdings were right possibly until the vaccary farrrs were possibly the object of their downfall). The consolidated from these upland pastures in the Gernets wsre hereditary Mastsr Foresters in fee twelfth century. These rights could have been in the Forest of Lancaster from c1097 until ancient, possibly defined by now lost Anglo- c1262, without much interfersnce, and carried Saron land apportionment boundaries. There is on in the post but r:nder more control by the a similar problem in explaining why these two Earl, until 1280 when the Earls of Lancaster vaccaries at Rowton and Hareappletree were began to further develop lands in the Honour Later in established on land which must once have been towards the end of the 13th. Century." on the waste and commons, unless, of course, the 13th. century Rowton Brook and these sites were once shielings for the western Hareappletree along with another 20 or so part coastal and lower Lonsdale vills and were, like vaccary sites in Wyresdale, were to become the some of the Wyresdale and Bowland exarnples,n of the Honour of Lancaster and were in just converted and extended, either by consent or hands of the Earl. From this date the vaccary t4 ;ra"is q'ere farmed out, usually to the highest bi;"ier. The evidence used to determine these changes is based partly on the different methods of fencing r ffie early 14th. century vaccaries in the area the fields and the overall pattern of the results sdered a set-back during the Scottish raids and partly on the information found in the mfu,en the stock was driven off and so the rents primary source documents. The dating of q. nai ro be reduced. held blundaries by the fencing methods usedt not an exact science, but has to be resorted to 1323 list when there are few other specific sources of ne vaccary rents return of 1322 to t' r"ereappletree at 6s and l5s. and Rowtanbrook areal evidence available. r,s & 7s; Vaccary rents of 1346 show :{ardappiltre at 6 pounds this is an increase of f4 Map One shows the possible expansion process, t, l4s 0d over the 1322 frgve which is perhaps a with fences radiating out from the core farm site. o ugn of some recovery in its value. This resulted Overall this evidence shows expansion of the d rn a change in management, as most of the fenced land being pushed further out into the less rs named vaccaries then appeared in the documents fells to the east and north. This is land with It as tenanted holdings. In the 1322 lists" the fertile soils and, in the case of Rootenbrook, n cnant at Hareappletree was Adam King and at increasing altitude. This is land which is rough )r R.owtenbrook was William of Gruskholme. "out-bye" pasture, is difficult to improve and It William of Gruskolme could be the person who only viable when the products of the farming il held the vaccary of GrusLrfram in Mewith further system are profitable, or there is a severe land o up the Lune Valley. Gruskham is mentioned in shortage or a changing agricultural philosophy, lnquest Post Mortem, dated May 1325 on the which encourages speculation even in the most death of Mathew de Burgh. It stated he held a unlikely areas. rt ruinous messuage, 10 bovates of land being ts s'aste from the devastation of the Scots etc, and In the late l5th. century land in the two holdings n a 20 acres pasture called Groskolm in Mewith, appears to have been split up into smaller farms, tr destroyed by the Scots. with sub-tenants. The Eyre Court of 1480 lists a n William Winder of Wharmore and John Boyland w The surviving documents name both Rowton as tonants at Harapultre. It is possible that this 'e Brook and Hareappletree over a period of some was always the way these lands were farmed' It IE 800 years, and the nirmes of tenants, rents etc are was certainly the case in the 16th. century when rd recorded from time to time. Later, after the the vaccaries were in the hands of the crowns vaccaries were sold by the crown,tt the names of life lessees.'n Later they were sold by the state- the tenant farmers and owners are known from For example, Sir Richard Tempest of Collynge rf surviving leases and other legal documents, but (Bolling?) Yorks was granted by letters patent and is 3S unfortunately these records do not always give the life tenancy of Rowtenbrook vaccary te any information, such as the acreages or mentioned in a law suit of 1529. Sir Richard rs stocking rates for the early periods. This lack of Tempest was master forester of Bowland in te detailed information has made it difficult to 1529, and at the same time was keeper of IE produce precise maps of the extents of the two Quernmore and Wyresdale. This could well be (Bolland) Hall Quernmore vaccaries, but the field survey work Sir Richard Tempest of Bolling dl has found and recorded enough landscape Bradford and Bracewell in Craven, who is :d features to determine the gpdual extension of buried in the choir at Bradford Parish Church, le the connected field systems and the several re- now Bradford Cathedral. er organisations of these lands at different periods ur in their history. From the surviving records it is possible to in determine thpt at the beginning of the l6th. rd The writer feels that at some early stage in the csntury there were the following farms so development of these two holdings the ancient established on the hvo original vaccary sites, fi field boundaries were discarded and a whole known by these names: on the old Rowon he new system superimposed, possibly by the late vaccary lands there was Rooten Brook (or ry 15th. Century. Troughton Broke), RoWen Brook, Fell End, 15 hatters, masons, Kelsalls, Brow Top and Chapmans. On the old websters, linen weavers, lands of Hareappletree there is Hareappletree quarrymen and smiths. and Little Hareappletree, Booth Fall, Longmore and farm or Longmire, Tongue Moor, Damasgill and These socio-economic changes the lTth century to the Blackwood. These farms were possibly worked developments occur from by Duchy of Lancaster tenants until most of this land was sold off in the 1620's. However, if the vaccaries were one unit they again fragmented exhibit some features which suggest that both Later these land units were in being subject to nouveaux-riche Quernmore vaccury sites and other vaccaries after then the inheritance laws, until the area, consisted of several smaller fa::rr and speculation and herd units (possibly based on a dual herd the late l9th.

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