THE STORY OF TORPEL A medieval manor
by Frieda Gosling
Illustrations by the children at John Clare Primary School at Helpston and Barnack CE Primary School IN THE BEGINNING
Saxon pot Roman pot New Stone Age arrowhead
Let’s find out what was happening before the arrival of the Normans
Saxon Villages The Danish settlers The first settlers lived in lived mainly north of the Welland valley. They the River Welland started to grow crops River Welland and tamed cattle, sheep
Roman Road and dogs. They polished Likely flint to make tools and site of weapons. Torpel Village Bainton + Ashton + + Helpston
+ Torpel Further south, in the Barnack Manor Nene valley - there were Field Roman villas, forts, a + Ufford town, pottery and iron King S North industries, even perhaps a governor’s palace.
treet
0 1 mile South + Saxon villages Ufford = Uffewurda (Uffa’s Farm) Bainton = Badingtun (Bada’s Farm) Ashton = Aesctun (Ashtree Farm) Helpston = Hylpeston (Help’s Farm) Barnack = Beornican (Warrior’s Oak) Torpel = Thorpell (Small village)
Here are some photographs of items found recently in the field next to Torpel Field. One is Saxon, one is Roman and the other was used by New Stone Age people. Which is which?
These finds make us believe that Torpel village was in this field and that it existed long before the arrival of the Normans.
1 ROGER DE TORPEL
Roger Infans is a Frenchman from Normandy who has come to England as part of the army led William the Conqueror. They had fought against the Saxons at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. The Normans had won the battle but the Saxons kept on fighting.
William the Conqueror says that all the land in England belongs to him. His soldiers steal the land of the Saxon lords and burn their houses. Roger is one of the Peterborough knights and he has to find 5 more knights as well as archers and foot soldiers to fight for the king when he needs them.
A Norman soldier
Both wear a hauberk which is a long jacket of chain mail and a helmet with protection for his nose. They both carry a sword and a shield and the knight has a long lance.
Roger is given land in return for fighting for the king. He and his family will be lords of Torpel manor for 150 years. A manor is like a big farm. Roger’s land is scattered across 13 villages. A Norman knight
2 TORPEL MANOR FIELD
Map of Torpel Field
Probable site of Roger chooses this site because it is next Torpel village. Outer wall (shaded to the old Roman road. He calls himself brown) of the bailey, The bailey – the now grassed over. Roger de Torpel because this is the name level area within of the cluster of huts at the roadside. the outer wall.
As you walk on to the Field, all that remains now is a few grassy banks, ditches and flat areas. We think that the first
Depressions – manor house was a wooden tower on the probably the low mound surrounded by the ditches and sites of medieval and high wooden fences for extra protection. more recent buildings. Main entrance to the A man-made medieval mound on manor. which the fortified Torpel Way manor stood. footpath entrance gate.
Remains of the old wall Shallow pond after Remains of wet weather. five-metre wide dry ditch.
There are rooms on 3 floors
Window spaces covered with shutters
The lord, his family, guests and servants live in the great hall
The Normans are building hundreds of castles and fortified manor houses, some of wood, some of stone, for example at Touthill next to Peterborough cathedral and at Rockingham.
Wooden tower built on a low mound
3 TORPEL‘S LEPER LORD
Robert de Torpel is the grandson of the first Roger de Torpel. He is lord of all the Torpel land until he begins to show the first signs of leprosy which is quite a common disease in the middle ages. At that time there is no cure for it and lepers carry a bell to warn people to keep away. They wear a cloak to hide their deformed bodies.
The first sign is the loss of feeling in their hands and feet. After a few years their fingers and toes drop off. Their hair and eyelashes and teeth drop out. They go blind.
Robert goes to live in a leper hospital at the edge of Peterborough. He lives as a monk. He is given white or brown bread and some beer every other day. Occasionally the hospital is given diseased pork or mutton for the lepers. He hands over Torpel manor to his brother, another Roger.
Lepers
We now know that leprosy is caused by bacteria and can be cured by antibiotics.
4 TORPEL DEER PARK AND HUNTING
Hunting deer with a cross bow
Hunting is one of the favourite occupations of the lords and ladies of Torpel Manor. The deer park provides them with fresh meat and they are able to enjoy the field sports and entertain their friends. Sometimes they hunt foxes, hares, rabbits, pheasants and partridges.
Roger de Torpel has to pay the king 100 shillings to put a fence or wall round some of his own woods to start his deer park. Usually a deer park includes some woods and some open grazing areas called "lawns". They are surrounded by a "pale", a six foot high wooden fence on a bank and sometimes there is a ditch as well. There are also "deerleaps" where wild deer can jump in but find it difficult to escape.
Only the lords and ladies can hunt. If they are caught, poachers pay a fine or their hands are cut off.
Hunting deer on horseback with dogs Artwork by Ivan Cumberpatch
5 THE NEW TORPEL MANOR HOUSE
William, the last of the de Torpel family, dies in 1242 without a son to inherit the manor so it passes to his sister whose name is Asceline. She is married to Ralph de Camoys and they want to live in a house which is more comfortable than the old tower on the mound.
The new house is built of stone and has a local slate roof. There is even glass in the windows so it is warmer and lighter than the old house. Inside there are wooden floors and plastered walls. The great hall downstairs has a hearth near one end and stairs up to the solar or family sitting room and bedrooms.
Artist’s impression of the new house by Ivan Cumberpatch
The great hall
Outside there is a lean-to kitchen with a bread oven. Surrounding the house there are two gardens, one is used for growing vegetables and the other is an apple orchard. There is also a pen for sheep.
6 YOU ARE INVITED TO DINNER AT TORPEL MANOR HOUSE
Cooking meat on a spit
Before dinner is served in the hall, servants put up the trestle tables with the high table at one end. Cloths and knives are put out but no forks as food is eaten with the fingers. Spoons are used to eat soup. The lord, his family and guests sit on chairs at the top table, above a bowl of salt. Everyone else sits on benches on either side of the tables down the hall.
Reminders
Use your knife to cut your meat Do not dip your meat in the salt bowl Do not put your elbows on the table Do not belch Do not take over-large helpings Wipe your mouth after drinking Wipe your knife and spoon after use
7 A horn is blown to announce that the servants are bringing round jugs and bowls of water and towels for hand washing. Grace is said and the servants bring round trenchers, which are thick slices of bread which are used instead of plates. Only the lord’s bread is made from white flour and baked every day. Food is served in small dishes which are shared between neighbours. The lord and his guests drink wine. The servants drink home- brewed ale.
The high table
MENU
1st course River Welland eel pie Meat balls in jelly Meat pottage with mutton, herbs and spices
2nd course Roast heron, partridge, baby rabbit Torpel venison roasted on a spit All served with spicy wine sauce with herbs, beans, leeks and onions
3rd course Spiced baked apples and pears Cheese
8 TORPEL MARKET
Market stalls
The year is 1264 and Ralph de Camoys is lord of the People from nearby villages all bring their produce manor. Torpel now has the right to hold a market to sell at Torpel. This is the only time in the week to every Thursday and an annual fair. buy essentials like candles, nails and sewing needles. It is a chance to catch up with local news and a welcome break from the normal routine.
The stocks are punishment for selling a mouldy or underweight loaf
9 TORPEL FAIR
Stalls at Torpel Fair
The fair is held on the feast day of St Giles, September 1st, as well as the day before and the day after. It is the highlight of the year for most people, the only time when they leave their villages. A procession of horse-drawn carts heads along the old Roman road to Torpel, piled up with cloth, furs, leather and leather goods, spices, wine, salt and pepper, dyes. There are horses and sheep, hens and eggs. The traders set up their stalls, a bell is rung to open the fair and customers pour in from far and wide.
Although the main aim is buying and selling there are all kinds of entertainments like cock fighting, puppets, jugglers, musicians and dancing, archery and wrestling as well as food stalls and ale houses. Dancing on swords
Bear baiting with dogs
10 TORPEL CHILDREN
The lord of the manor’s children have quite a comfortable life. Even 200 years after the Norman Conquest they still speak French at home. The boys have a tutor to teach them how to read and write, probably in Latin, before being sent to serve in another lord’s household.
The boys are taught how to use the long bow
Girls stay at home with their mothers, learning music, dancing and embroidery. They are often married when they are 12.
By the time they are 7, all the village children are out in the fields working with their parents. In a good year the family can grow enough food for them to survive the winter but famine is common after a bad harvest. As well as poor diet and cold, damp houses, diseases are caused by lack of clean drinking water and drains. Only a few children learn to read and write after instruction from the village priest. They play with hoops, skittles and spinning tops and Chess is popular with all the lord’s children games like tag, leapfrog and tug-of-war.
11 WHO IS WHO AT TORPEL MANOR IN 1300?
First you must meet Geoffrey, who is a villein. That just means that he lives in a vill or village. Most of the people living on the manor are born as villeins and will die as villeins. They are not quite slaves but they cannot move away from Torpel and work on another manor.
For 3 days every week Geoffrey has to work on the lord’s land. He also rents some strips of land where he grows his own crops on other days. There are also taxes to pay, for example there is a tax if he daughter marries and when he dies his family have to give his best animal to the lord.
Geoffrey is also the reeve, whose job is to ensure that the other villeins work on the lord’s land and pay their rents. He is not paid to do this but has the right of firewood and grazing his pigs in the lord’s wood. Knocking down acorns to feed pigs
THE FEUDAL SYSTEM AT TORPEL IN 1300
The King
Edward I
Tenant in Chief Great seal of Edward I
Peterborough Abbey It pays rent to the King and Torpel Manor pays rent to the Abbey
The Common People
• Villeins, like Geoffrey • Freemen, who own and rent land and do not work on the lord’s land • Cottars, who rent land and work on the lord’s land • Servants
Monk taking Torpel rent to the Abbey
12 LUCY CHAT
Lucy and her tethered hen by Lorna Grey
Lucy Chat is a widow who lives in Torpel village. She Meat such as hare or rabbit is a rare treat. Milk from wears a floor length dress with a white linen hood the ox is made into cheese and her hens give her called a wimple over her hair, neck and chin. She has eggs. to spin and weave wool to make cloth and makes all her own clothes. Inside Lucy’s house it is dark and smoky. There is an earth floor covered in straw. There is a metal Lucy has no breakfast, just two meals a day. Bread is cooking pot over the fire in one corner. Her bed is at her main food. It is dark brown when it is made from the other side behind a screen. Her only furniture is wheat and rye. It is baked once a week in the lord’s a table, bench, chair and stool. She owns a jug and oven. By the end of the week it is cut into thick wooden bowls. slices and used as a trencher or plate. Outside there is a well for drinking water and there Pottage made from oats, peas and leeks is her other are sheds for a privy, pig sty and a hen house. daily food. It may be flavoured with bacon or herbs.
13 TORPEL VILLAGE
Strips in the open Path fields The houses have a wooden frame
They are plastered with a mixture of mud, straw and manure
There are no windows, Gardens only shutters where they Headland were grow the ox-teams vegetables pulling the Ridge plough turns Furrow Torpel village is a row of round houses at the side of the old Roman road
Apple and pear trees
Artist’s impression of Torpel village and open fields by Lorna Grey
Lucy’s son looks after the ox and works on the lord’s land and on their strips in the open fields. They are villeins and so are most of the other 20-30 people who live at Torpel.
Lucy has to pay 9 pence a year in tax to the king. Her income comes from selling vegetables and herbs and brewing ale from barley and oats. When she has ale to sell she hangs a pot on a post to let her neighbours know.
Outside there is a well for drinking water and there are sheds for a privy, pig sty and a hen house. Lucy warming her feet
14 TORPEL MANOR IN 1300
Most of the land is used for growing crops and the villeins do all the work. They grow wheat, oats barley and peas for food as well as dredge, a mixture of grains which is given to the animals.
First of all the land has to be ploughed to turn over the turf and bring the goodness in the soil up to the top. The plough makes just one furrow and turns the soil over to the right. It goes round and round turning in a loop at each end, piling up the soil into a ridge or strip. The uneven ground is called ridge and furrow.
Ploughing in autumn
The man steers and keeps the plough at the right depth
The mallet can be used if the plough gets clogged up The plough is pulled by 4 oxen
A wooden board which lifts A flat blade up the turf and turns it over which cuts under A metal blade which the turf cuts into the soil like a knife
15 TORPEL MANOR IN 1300
Sowing the seeds and bird scaring in spring
A big bird has already found the sack of seeds
The seeds are carried in A dog sees off a wicker basket and a black crow then scattered by hand
Other birds are scared away by a man with a rope sling and a bag of stones. Next a horse pulls a harrow over the field to cover up the seeds.
Harvest time in summer – both men and women have to help
A handful of corn is cut The corn is now This woman is using with a sickle ripe and ready to twisted straw to bind cut the corn into a sheaf
16 TORPEL ANIMALS IN 1300
Oxen have stronger shoulders and thinner rear ends than our cattle. The lord has 10 oxen and most villeins own at least one. They all graze together under the watchful eye of a herdsman.
Four oxen are yoked to pull a plough
The sheep are smaller than ours today and have long necks and tails. They are kept mainly for their wool. Flocks of sheep are moved to new pastures along drove roads. A large amount of money is spent on hurdles as well as sheep ointment and bitumen to mark them. Those in a pen by the manor house are milked to make cheese.
Sheep in a pen by the manor house by Lorna Grey
Horses are also used to pull carts which carry hay, sheaves of corn, sacks of flour and straw for thatching.
A horse is used to pull the harrow
The pigs are much smaller than ours today. They have a dark skin and a bristly coat. Every villein has at least one pig
The fox has killed one of the geese The cat has caught a mouse Bees provide honey
17 LOLHAM MILL AND FISHERY
Lolham Mill is a water mill on the south bank of the River Welland a mile and a half north of Torpel up the old Roman Road. Bread is a daily necessity and Torpel people either walk or saddle up the horse carrying a sack of grain to be ground into flour.
Thatched Mill stream roof
Timber framed building
Solid wooden door The water wheel is driven by the flow of water which turns the mill wheels inside
Lolham Water mill
Mill stream from River Welland
Only the lord and his family are allowed to catch fish there. They do not eat meat on Fridays or during Lent so there Woven fish traps which catch eels, tench, dace and bream was a demand for fish.
Fish traps in the mill stream above the mill 18 THE BLACK DEATH
A black rat
We call it the Great Pestilence. It reached London last year, and has now spread to Northamptonshire.
• The first sign is fever and coughing blood. • Next there are boils in your armpit or groin, which sometimes grow as big as an egg. These are black and called "buboes" which give it the name bubonic plague. • There are no doctors or cures and you can expect to die in a few days.
Little children still sing "Ring a Roses" "Ring around a rosie" = a red rash is an early sign of the disease "Pocket full of posies" = carrying flowers to place round the affected person "A tissue" = a sneeze "We all fall down" = many people die
Nobody in 1349 knows what causes the disease. Is it due to our sins? Is it carried by a poisonous cloud? Is it spread from person to person?
Rats were everywhere
HISTORICAL NOTES
1. It was in fact caused by a bacillus which lived in the blood or stomach of a flea, which made its home in the fur of black rats. Fleas were also carried in grain and bales of cloth. It spread rapidly because of overcrowding in cottages, where a dozen people might sleep on straw on the floor in the same room. 2. It now seems likely that it was also spread from person to person. 3. We know that 32 of the 64 monks in Peterborough Abbey died. 4. Some people think that Torpel village may have been wiped out by the Black Death, but there were other reasons such as the famines caused by climate change earlier in the century.
19 JOHN CLARE`S GHOST STORY
John Clare as a young man is working for a farmer at Ashton. After harvesting late into the evening and eating supper, it is nearly midnight. John Clare sets off on his mile-long walk across the fields to his family’s cottage at Helpston. He has to cross Torpel Manor Field and he has heard stories of "ghosts and goblings" so is looking out for them.
He sees a shadow quivering across the path. It seems to be alive. In his fright it looks like a horrible figure. It has long ears and vast amounts of hair. He trembles and wishes the earth would open up to hide him. He is too frightened to speak to it, but tries to pass it and runs as fast as he can. When he reaches the stile he finds it at his heels. He runs all the way home feeling nearly fit to die.
The next day he finds out that the ghost is a foal which has been bottle fed, and just the day before has been turned out into the field on its own.
John Clare’s ghost by Lorna Grey
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Very little was known about Torpel Manor Field until the Selected sources of information: Langdyke Countryside Trust bought it in 2009 and a group of Victoria County History of Northamptonshire Volume 2 enthusiastic volunteers began to research its history and archaeology. Janet Backhouse Medieval Rural Life This book aims to answer some questions about Torpel and is This is based on the Luttrell Psalter about a manor at Irnham, intended particularly for the local school children, their only 15 miles from Torpel. families and friends. I would like to thank: Exchequer Special Commissions - Torpel House. Archive at • the children at Helpston and Barnack Primary Schools for Public Record Office. their exciting and imaginative illustrations, also their head teachers, Rachel Simmons at Helpston and Neil Fowkes at Sandra Raban The White Book of Peterborough. Barnack and their enthusiastic teachers for their co- This includes the Accounts of Geoffrey of Crowland, Abbot of operation. Peterborough Abbey, for Ufford including Torpel, in 1301 • all the volunteers involved in the Torpel Project which was designed as a community project. Their dedication has been Ian Mortimer The Time Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England inspirational. • The Heritage Lottery Fund for funding half this book’s printing costs. • The Francis and Maisie Pryor Charitable Trust for funding the other half. 20 Time Line for the Story of Torpel
Page IN THE BEGINNING 1 AD 43 The Romans began their conquest of Britain From The 5th Century The Anglo-Saxon settlers came from North Germany 1066 The Norman Conquest
About 1070 ROGER DE TORPEL, A NORMAN KNIGHT 2 About 1070 TORPEL MANOR FIELD, DITCHES AND TOWER 3 1146 ROBERT DE TORPEL, THE LEPER LORD 4 1198 TORPEL DEER PARK AND HUNTING 5 1242 Death of William, the last of the Torpels The Manor passed to the Camoys family
About 1270 NEW TORPEL MANOR HOUSE 6 1275 DINNER AT TORPEL MANOR HOUSE 7-8 1264 TORPEL MARKET AND FAIR 9-10 1280 John de Camoys sold Torpel to the King to pay his debts
1300 TORPEL CHILDREN 11 WHO IS WHO AT TORPEL? 12 LUCY CHAT AND TORPEL VILLAGE 13-14 TORPEL MANOR IN 1300 15-17 LOLHAM MILL AND FISHERY 18
1349 THE BLACK DEATH 19 From 1400 The manor had some famous owners, such as Henry V111 and Queen Elizabeth1 but they never lived there. The buildings became ruins. 1799 The open fields were enclosed, hedges were planted, footpaths were blocked by KEEP OUT signs and the village people had nowhere to graze their animals. They became farm labourers or went to live in the towns.
About 1812 JOHN CLARE’S GHOST STORY 20 TIME LINE 21 HOW TO BE A TIME DETECTIVE 22
21 HOW TO BE A TIME DETECTIVE
Place name endings are a good starting point:
• Roman names such as -caster, -cester, -chester. Castor is one. Do you know of any others? • Saxon names ending in -ing, -ham and -ton. Can you think of any? • Danish names ending in -by. Can you think of any?
Thorpe or Torpel can be Saxon or Danish.
Look at old buildings
Stonework from Torpel Manor can be seen in Helpston.
Can you find any?
Look for buried "treasure"
Note that Torpel is a Scheduled Ancient Monument so no one can dig holes there. Our best treasure is the Torpel key which was found by the farmer under a stone on the mound.
If you find anything of interest, perhaps a piece of pottery in your back garden, take it to Peterborough Museum to find out its date and what it was.
Torpel key, dated 1330 - 1450
22 HOW TO GET TO TORPEL MANOR FIELD For more information about the Langdyke Countryside Trust and to arrange a visit to the Visitor Centre please see www.langdyke.org.uk Permission to use map of Torpel Manor Field granted by Frances Brown.
Printed by Peterborough Printing Services, Fengate Peterborough PE1 5XG. Tel: 01733 349881 www.pps-print.com