THIS NUMBER HAS ARTICLES ON KING’S SUTTON: AN EARLY ANGLO-SAXON ESTATE? ORTHAMPTONSHIRE THE EXTENT OF WHITTLEWOOD FOREST AND THE IMPACT OF NPAST•AND•PRESENT DISAFFORESTATION IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES CATESBY: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDY, PART II Number 56 (2003) A PLAN DEVISED IN NORTHAMPTON 250 YEARS AGO IS STILL BEING PUT INTO PRACTICE ENCLOSURE AT ROADE, WARMINGTON AND WHITTLEBURY SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT: CAROLINE CHISHOLM NÉE JONES 1808-1877, THE EARLY YEARS – NORTHAMPTON BOOK REVIEWS JOURNAL OF THE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE RECORD SOCIETY WOOTTON HALL PARK, NORTHAMPTON NN4 8BQ £3.00 Cover illustration: Wakefield Lodge in Whittlewood Forest from a late 18th-century engraving (Northamptonshire Record Office, P3422) AND PRESENT PAST NORTHAMPTONSHIRE Number 56 2003 £3.00 Northamptonshire Record Society NORTHAMPTONSHIRE PAST AND PRESENT 2003 Number 56 CONTENTS Page Notes and News . 5 King’s Sutton: An Early Anglo-Saxon Estate? . 7 Deborah Hayter The Extent of Whittlewood Forest and the Impact of Disafforestation in the Later Middle Ages . 22 Mark Page Catesby: an interdisciplinary study, part II . 35 Brian L. Giggins and Jane Laughton A Plan devised in Northampton 250 years ago is still being put into Practice . 56 James Harrison Enclosure at Roade, Warmington and Whittlebury . 62 John Mulholland Setting the Record Straight: Caroline Chisholm née Jones 1808-1877, the Early Years – Northampton . 77 Carole Walker Book Reviews . 92 Obituary Notices . 100 Index . 102 All communications regarding articles in this and future issues should be addressed to David Hall, the Hon. Editor, Northamptonshire Record Society, Wootton Hall Park, Northampton, NN4 8BQ. Published by the Northamptonshire Record Society Number 56 ISSN 01490 9131 Typeset by John Hardaker, Wollaston, Northants and printed by Alden Press, Oxford OX2 0EF THE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE RECORD SOCIETY (FOUNDED IN 1920) WOOTTON HALL PARK, NORTHAMPTON NN4 8BQ President: Sir Hereward Wake, Bart., M.C., D.L. NOTES AND NEWS Landscape studies are very much in fashion at the moment. The Whittlewood project is concerned with settlement origins and development in the south of the county. It is organized by the Medieval Settlement Research Group and is successor to the studies of Wharram Percy in Yorkshire, perhaps better known to archaeologists than to historians. We have an article from Mark Page, historian to the Whittlewood Project, on the bounds of the Forest. English Heritage is about half way through a series of ‘Historic Landscape Characterization’ projects aimed at completing all of England, county by county. Modern features, such as urban areas and quarries, as well as more obviously historic items like field-patterns and country-house gardens are identified and mapped. The analyses are based on the modern Ordnance Survey map, which has the advantage of being available in an electronic format enabling the results to be computer based and the data presented as a series of county maps. The disadvantage is that many areas have changed very much over the last 50 years with quarrying, urban development and not least removal of hedges. This difficulty can mostly be remedied by underlying the modern digital data with the 1880s Ordnance Survey maps. The analyses will be used for various aspects of planning control. Although the methodology is not that of precise historical research (there are traps if, for instance, all rectangular field systems are assumed to be the result of parliamentary enclosure and all curved hedges are classed as belonging to early enclosure), there are nevertheless some results of interest to the historian. Northamptonshire is currently undergoing such a study. A different type of mapping is being conducted with the Rockingham Forest Trust. The area investigated is the north-east of the county lying west of the River Nene and approximately between the A14 and A1, i.e. including all of Rockingham Forest. For every parish, a map of the open fields has been drawn (using the results of my field work) and, where data survives on maps c.1525-1850, old enclosure, woods, heaths, parks and details of settlements have been digitally mapped by Tracey Britnell and Glenn Foard. Hence the changing landscape of the whole area can be studied, from the Middle Ages, to the partially enclosed 18th-century countryside, and finally the fully enclosed landscape mapped by the Ordnance Survey in the 1880s. All the information is in electronic format and examples of regional mapping and other research applications will be provided in a future article in NPP. * * * * * There was grave concern earlier in the year about the fate of one of the Record Office’s most significant family estate collections. The Finch-Hatton collection had been offered to the nation in lieu of death duties. But the value of the collection was such that a sum in excess of £470,000 had to be raised by the Record Office in order for the collection to remain in the county rather than be offered for sale on the open market. This collection is invaluable for its information on national and local events, the family and all the people they came into contact with, from the landed gentry to common labourers; it includes outstanding estate maps, antiquarian papers and fascinating estate records. Luckily, the sum was found and we are grateful to Sarah Bridges, County Archivist, for her efforts in acquiring the major part of the money from the Heritage Lottery Fund and considerable sums from Northamptonshire County Council, the National Art Collections Fund and the Friends of the National Libraries. The collection will remain, fully accessible to all, in the Northamptonshire Record Office. * * * * * Northamptonshire Black History Project is now well under way and you can read a summary of the work in the September 2003 issue of Hindsight (available from 6 Baker’s Lane, Norton, Daventry, NN11 5EL, price £3.50). Next year there will be an update on progress in NPP. The current Project finishes in July 2005, and the Director is anxious to have as much help as possible from Record Society members. If you know of any reference to Black People in your own parish records or other sources, then please let one of the officers know. To find out more about the Northamptonshire 6 northamptonshire past and present Black History Project contact: Carolyn Abel, Director, Northamptonshire Black History Project, Doddridge Centre, 109 St James Road, Northampton, NN5 5LD, Tel. 01604 590 967, or e-mail [email protected]. * * * * * The article on ‘Lieutenant Henry Bowers’ by Steven Hollowell in NPP 54 (2001), posed the question of how a letter sent to South Africa came back to the county before eventual arrival at the Record Office. Mr. W. P. A. Asbrey of Kettering writes to say that he is a great nephew of Emily (Emma) White of the article, whose address recorded in his mother’s address book was ‘Coqills Hotel, Wynburg, Cape Town.’This clearly establishes the Whites as the proprietors of the hotel there and they would have brought the letter back on their return to Kettering. * * * * * We have obituaries of two distinguished members of the Society. Dr. David Sargant contributed articles and was an indefatigable reviewer for NPP. Dr. David Bates was one of the younger members of the Council and will be greatly missed. He also contributed several articles to NPP, one of his particular interests being the industrial and scientific developments in Northampton and the county during the 18th-century. The article contributed by James Harrison in this NPP on the early origins of the Royal Society of Arts partly serves as a memorial to David. * * * * * My thanks are due, as usual, to Leslie Skelton and Jean Hall for their help with NPP production. David Hall Notes on contributors Brian Giggins has lived in Northamptonshire for over 30 years and is the chair of Northamptonshire Blue Badge Tourist Guides. In 1997 he changed a career as a chartered surveyor to become Archaeological Officer for Milton Keynes Council and in 2000 was awarded an MA in Archaeology and Heritage by the University of Leicester. He has been an extra-mural lecturer for the University of Leicester on building history. Deborah Hayter lives in south-west Northamptonshire and is part-author of Charlton & Newbottle: the History of Two Villages. She recently completed an MA degree in Local History at the University of Leicester, and now teaches Local and Landscape History for the University of Oxford Department of Continuing Education, in North Oxfordshire, and for the University of Leicester, in Northampton. James Harrison is a textile technologist with an interest in history in general and technical history in particular. His association with the Royal Society of Arts began more that 50 years ago. Over many of those years he contributed articles to the Society’s Journal on technical subjects that formerly received the Society’s attention. Jane Laughton has an MA in English Local History from the University of Leicester and a PhD from the University of Cambridge. Her interest in Northamptonshire and Catesby began with her work as a Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham. Jane is now an Honorary Visiting Fellow in the Centre for English Local History at the University of Leicester. John Mullholland was born in Northampton, returning seven years ago after spending most of his life elsewhere. He studied for a degree in History and Economics at University College, Northampton, afterwards obtaining an MA in Modern History. Dr. Mark Page is a Research Fellow in the Centre for English Local History at the University of Leicester, where he is working on the Whittlewood Project, an archaeological and historical investigation into the origins and development of the English village. Dr. Carole Walker, an adult education tutor, was working for her MA in Victorian Studies at Leicester University when she discovered the work of Caroline Chisholm.