Flooding in Early Modern England: Cultures of Coping in Gloucestershire and Lincolnshire
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Flooding in early modern England: Cultures of coping in Gloucestershire and Lincolnshire John Emrys Morgan Department of History Thesis submitted for the degree of PhD in History at the University of Warwick September 2015 Contents Figures 4 Abbreviations 5 Acknowledgements 6 Declaration 7 Abstract 8 Introduction 9 Historiography 9 Key terms 19 Methodology 23 Local contexts 27 Chapter outlines 34 1. Risk and reward: flooding and rural production 38 Introduction 38 Risky and rewarding landscapes 46 The communal imperative 74 Conclusion 88 2. Dangerous and disastrous flooding 91 Introduction 92 Hydro-social systems 101 Vulnerability 124 Conclusion 132 3. Understanding flooding 134 Introduction 134 Providential pamphlets 138 Local sources 154 Conclusion 180 4. Flooding and political discourse 183 Introduction 183 Medieval attitudes towards flooding 187 The contribution of improvement 192 Flooding and the Statutes of Sewers 204 Improving flooding I: surrounded grounds 215 Improving flooding II: drainage projects 229 Conclusion 248 5. Flooding and state formation 252 Introduction 252 Central and regional responses 260 2 Quantitative change: the ‘quickening tempo’ of governance 268 Qualitative change: the codification of custom 283 The limits of Commissions’ powers 294 Conclusion 299 Conclusions 302 History and contemporary flooding 306 Future directions 308 Bibliography 313 3 List of figures 0.1 Map: The Severn Estuary Levels 28 0.2 Map: Holland within southern Lincolnshire 31 0.3 Map: Reclamation of the silt fens in South Holland prior to 1307 32 1.1 Water meadows below Salisbury on the river Colne 55 1.2 Map: Gloucestershire water meadows 56 1.3 Map: Gloucestershire ridge and furrow 59 1.4 Littleton Warth, on the Severn Estuary Levels 63 2.1 Flood defence costs estimated by the Gloucestershire Commission of 119 Sewers, 1583-1704 2.2 Population change in four Gloucestershire parishes, 1522–1650 123 2.3 Changes in burial rates in five Gloucestershire parishes after the 1688 124 flood 2.4 Time taken to repair flood defences and drains as a percentage of total 129 time allowed, 1583-1631 3.1 Four flood pamphlets 146 3.2 Three storm pamphlets 147 3.3 Flood level marker on the porch of St. Thomas’ parish church, Redwick 167 3.4 Flood level marker at St. Mary the Virgin parish church, Nash 169 3.5 Flood level marker at St. Peter’s former parish church, Peterstone 170 Wentlooge 3.6 Flood level plaque at St. Bridget’s parish church, St. Brides Wentlooge 170 3.7 Flood level plaque at St. Mary Magdalene parish church, Goldcliff 171 3.8 Flood memorial plaque, All Saints parish church, Kingston Seymour 171 3.9 Flood memorial in St Mary the Virgin parish church, West Walton 172 5.1 Meetings of the Gloucestershire Court of Sewers, 1583–1705 272 4 Abbreviations APC John Roche Dasent (ed.), Acts of the Privy Council of England (45 vols, London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1890-1964) Berkeley Manuscripts John Smyth (ed. Sir John MacLean ), The Berkeley Manuscripts (3 vols., Gloucester: John Bellows, 1885) Commons Journal Journal of the House of Commons, 1547-1660 (7 vols, London: HMSO, 1802) CSPD Robert Lemon and Mary Anne Everett Green (eds), Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1547-1660 (49 vols, London: HMSO, 1856- 86) English Reports The English Reports (178 vols, Edinburgh: W. Green & Son, 1900- 1930) Holland Sewers A. Mary Kirkus and A.E.B. Owen (eds), The Records of the Commissioners of Sewers in the Parts of Holland, 1547-1603 (3 vols, Lincoln: The Lincoln Record Society, 1959-1977) Lords Journal Journal of the House of Lords, 1509-1649 (10 vols, London: HMSO, 1767-1830) OED Oxford English Dictionary (Online, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015) <http://www.oed.com> ODNB Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Online, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015) <http://www.oxforddnb.com> Statutes Statutes of the Realm (11 vols, London: HMSO, 1810-1828) TBGAS Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society Units km Kilometres m Metres ha Hectares Note on the text: Unless otherwise stated, all dates are given in the ‘old style’, except that the year is taken to have turned on 1 January, rather than 25 March. Original spellings have been retained, except for the silent expansion of common contractions and the substitutions of ‘j’ and ‘i’, ‘u’ and ‘v and ‘vv’ and ‘w’. Titles of primary sources have been left unchanged. 5 Acknowledgements I am very grateful to my supervisor, Professor Beat Kümin for guidance and encouragement over the course of writing and researching this thesis. His insightful and hawk-eyed critiques of my writing have improved it immeasurably. His broad intellectual horizons, enthusiasm for research and continuing willingness to discuss the misfortunes of Newcastle United have also made my time as a postgraduate student genuinely enjoyable, for which I will always be grateful. I am grateful to Professor Peter Marshall for his musical recommendations, and the opportunity to undertake research on nothing to do with early modern flooding, which proved a welcome and fascinating distraction. Thanks are also due to Professor David Anderson for reading and commenting on parts of this thesis. Whether in person or by correspondence, archivists have always been helpful, willing to field questions, and politely curious as to why I should want to view often esoteric and unloved records. My thanks go to the staff of Berkshire Record Office, Bristol Record Office, Gloucestershire Archives, Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies, Kent Archives, Lincolnshire Archives, Staffordshire Record Office, and Warwickshire Record Office for their assistance and patience. I have been very fortunate to have been funded over the past three years. The Agricultural History Society, Royal Historical Society, and Department of History through the Callum MacDonald Memorial Bursary have kindly provided funding for conference travel. The Humanities Research Centre has also funded two conferences at Warwick that have greatly widened my perspectives on the past. I am thankful to all of them. I am profoundly grateful to the Wolfson Foundation for funding me for three years. The Wolfson Postgraduate Scholarships in the Humanities are a model to which all postgraduate funding schemes should aspire. My studies would not have been possible without the Foundation’s financial support, and I hope they go on to fund many more humanities postgraduates in the same generous manner. Postgraduate students sometimes comment on the isolation they experience as lone researchers, working on an individual project perhaps for the first time. Thankfully, I have never experienced this, due to the many colleagues and friends I have found amongst fellow postgraduates in the Department of History and Centre for Renaissance Studies. Collectively, through their thoughtful responses in Graduate Research Forum and their own shining examples of success, they have been a source of motivation and inspiration. Individually, Dave, James, Jenny, Josh, Malik, Matt, Meleisa, Naomi, Paula, Ruth, Sara, Steve and Tom have been good friends and intellectual companions. Personal thanks are due to my brother, Rory, Warwick’s FC Staff & Postgrad, NCSF United and the Bristol Panthers for welcome distractions and reminders that there are worlds beyond work. I am particularly grateful to my parents, Anne and Ian, two teachers who taught me the value of education and who always encourage the desire to learn. Whilst being relentlessly brilliant in her own academic work, Grace has somehow always found the time and energy to offer support and encouragement when it has been needed most. I cannot thank her enough for her understanding and kindness. 6 Declaration This thesis is the author’s own work and has not been submitted for a degree at another University. Parts of this thesis have been published by the author: John Morgan, ‘Understanding flooding in early modern England’, Journal of Historical Geography, 50 (October, 2015), pp. 37-50. 7 Abstract This thesis examines the social, cultural and political contexts of flooding in early modern England. It explores the relationships between floods and the productive practices and organising principles of the communities in which they occurred. Drawing on insights from the environmental humanities and social sciences, this thesis approaches flooding as a socio- natural phenomenon, in which humanity and nature played mutually influential parts. Taking in evidence from England as a whole, and with special reference to South Holland in Lincolnshire, and the Severn Estuary Levels in Gloucestershire, this thesis locates flooding at the forefront of cultural and political changes occurring over the early modern period. Following recent European approaches to histories of flooding, this thesis considers the ways in which early modern society contributed to, and sought to mitigate the effects of particularly damaging flooding. In five chapters it analyses the productive and destructive role of flooding in local communities, how these floods were interpreted by those they affected, the political nature of disputes about flooding and the impact of flooding on the early modern state. Together, these chapters stress the need to understand flooding as a socially and culturally generated phenomenon that had political implications. Far from being purely ‘natural’, flooding was a complex process which contemporaries both recognised and actively negotiated. In analysing an environmental process with specific reference to the traditional domains of social, cultural and political history, this thesis links the small but expanding subdiscipline of early modern English environmental history to broader historical narratives, showing the potential for an environmental approach to pre-modern England. 8 Introduction This thesis argues for the social, cultural and political significance of flooding in early modern England. It argues that such significance comes from continual, mundane, everyday interactions with flooding and flood risk, as well as from high-intensity moments of ‘catastrophe’. Daily interactions with water resources, and chief among these the management of flood risk, shaped the experience of rural life and the nature of local communities.