Rufford Abbey and the White Monks of Sherwood Forest

Rufford Abbey was founded by Gilbert de Gant in 1146.

Picture: Mercian Archaeological Services CIC, Groin-vaulted Rufford Abbey Undercroft

The charter confirming the foundation was granted by King Stephen on Christmas day of that year.

Rufford was a Cisterican Monastery, a daughter house of Riveaulx Abbey in Yorkshire.

The abbey was situated just to the West of the King's Highway to York which passed from Nottingham northwards through Sherwood Forest, and the Abbey was an attractive stop-over for weary travellers on the long road through the forest.

The Abbey sat towards the northern edge of a vast tract of heathland, meadow, woodland and farmland consolidated from the possessions of the villages of Rufford, Crately, and Inkersall, granted to the Abbey. Rufford village had 8 families when the monks arrived, but was abandoned by the end of the Thirteenth Century. Crately was slower to become deserted, but villagers eventually moved to settle in nearby Edwinstowe and the village of Wellow (see Rufford Charters entry for information about the grants of lands and the Charters recording them).

The Church of the Abbey was dedicated to St Mary, and was built in the remote wastes and woods of Sherwood by the Cistercians, who favoured the isolation and separation from the world provided by the forest.

The Abbey complex included the Church, Cellar, Lay Brothers Frater, Cloister, Kitchens, Monks Frater, Warming House, Undercroft and Dormitory above, Inner Parlour, Chapter House, and Sacristy.

The surrounding landscape included areas of Woodland: 'ye abote wode', 'Abott Ymmslow', and 'burne abotote wode'. There were also large areas of heather lyngges, or wastes known as 'the Forest'. The valley of the Rainworth Water to the south of the Abbey was managed as Meadows to provide winter fodder for large numbers of sheep. The Cistercians were prolific sheep farmers.

The Abbey organised much of these land-holdings into 'Granges'- most of them within a days walk of the Abbey- the best know being Inkersall Grange which sat on Rainworth Water on the southern-most extent of the home estates.

As well as the demense farming which provided income for the Abbey, the Monks also possessed large parts of the town of Rotherham in Yorkshire which provided a vast amount of taxable income for the Abbey.

The Abbey was a popular over night resting place on the great road through the Forest and would have provided welcome accommodation as night fell over the desolate heaths and remote woodland of the High Forest (see A Journey through Sherwood Forest: Rufford Abbey to Nottingham post). 

Accommodation was provided for free by the monks- so it was essential that the monastery could provide for itself and visitors. The large amounts of farmland kept by the Abbey was therefore of great importance to ensure they could provide for all these travelers.

These could include Royalty, and in 1290 Queen Eleanor of Castile, wife of King Edward I stayed here while Edward held Parliament at his nearby Royal Palace and Hunting lodge at Clipstone (see Parliament Oak: Icon of Sherwood Forest entry for more details ). In fact the Abbey was among her final resting places as she was ill during her stay there, and died during an attempt to move to Lincoln for Spiritual and Medical help.

Rufford was a part of the fabric of life in Sherwood Forest for 400 hundred years.

It would sadly come to an end in the 1530 under King Henry VIII along with all other monasteries in the Kingdom.

At the Dissolution of the Monastery the Abbot was accused of being incontinent with two married women and 4 single women- six of the monks were said to be desirous of exemption from their duties- and the monastery was dissolved in 1536 (it is quite likely that these charges were trumped up as they were very convenient for the crown- however Priests were often badly behaved at times in Medieval Sherwood Forest).

Despite this inglorious ending, Rufford Abbey passed into the hands of rich landowners and eventually emerged to become a Country Park in the present Day with parts of the Medieval Abbey surviving within the later house. These  include the Lay Brothers Frater and the Undercroft which can still be visited to this day.

Photograph: Mercian Archaeological Services CIC, Rufford Abbey Country Park

Mercian Archaeological Services CIC

Daily life in Medieval Sherwood Forest- Peasant Rights

Medieval society and the medieval landscape were for the common person predominantly rural and agricultural in nature.

Very little of the landscape was not utilised, and in some areas such as the ‘Champion’ (from the French champ- for field) landscapes of the Midlands, almost every inch was turned over to arable- especially in the boom years of population expanse during the 13^th century.

In Sherwood Forest it was similar, in that almost every resource was used.

Every village had its great open fields, where crops were rotated through the season, and the people farmed strips of land spread throughout them. Each year one field stood fallow to recover for the following years crops.

This fallow field was fertilized by the animals of the village. Pigs and sheep would be concentrated at night into temporary pens to ‘focus’ their fertilization efforts.

Between these times it was necessary to graze animals away from the open fields.

No matter how much an animal fertilizes a field it will always take more nutrients than it returns, if it grazes exclusively from the same field that it fertilizes, as it requires nutrients to grow.

An external source of nutrients and energy was therefore required, and in Sherwood Forest this came from the great heaths and Lyngges ( Old Scandinavian for heather- see There’s Vikings in the Heather entry).

Shepherds and swineherds would tend their flocks and herds on these vast swathes of lowland heath around Sherwood Forest that stretched for mile after mile across the open countryside. Vast areas such as ‘Basforde Lyngges’, the heaths of Rufford Abbey Lordship, ‘Budby Oute Fieldes’ and the ‘Moor of Kirby’, would be dotted with these herds, and the sight of flocks and shepherds would have been common to the traveller passing through the forest.

Each parish had their own areas of woodland, usually at their edges.

In the more populated southern ‘Thorneywood’ area they occupied the high ground between parishes, such as on the ridges between the villages of Lambley, Woodborough and Calverton.

These woods often joined together to form giant woods that could cover miles, but they each had names reflecting to whom they belonged. Carleton Wode, Gedling Wode, Basforde Wode (named after villages) Kettulbarne Haw, Fox Swaht, Prior Stobyn, Samson Wode (after landscape features or owners past and present).

In the ‘High Forest’, (the northern part of Sherwood Forest) these woods were sometimes vast such as the great Maunsfelde (Mansfield) Wode, Sutton Wode, Blidworth Wood and Hay Wode, as well as the great crown woods of the Hay of Birklands, Bilhaugh and Lyndhurst Wood (see Lyndhurst Wood- the chief wood of Sherwood entry).

It is worth reminding that nobody could actually cut down the tress in these woods for timber because it was forbidden by Forest Law (see Forest Law page). However the rights to the woods were heavily guarded by the people, because they had other kinds of rights within them.

As well as the rights to pasture on the great heaths and commons peasants had the right to graze their animals in woodland at certain times of the year. One such time was the ‘Pannage’ season (just after the acorns fell) when peasant could graze their pigs on acorns in the woods of the forest.

Picutre: A peasant beating acorns from the tree for his pigs

These rights to access woods were strictly controlled under Forest Law with ‘Agisters’ acting as tax collectors to control quotas and extract fines (see Forest Law Page)

Peasants also had the right to take some smaller timber from the woods for ‘Haybote’ (hedge repair) and ‘Husbote’ (house repair).

These rights were often jealously guarded!

An Inquisition Post Mortem into the rights of the people of Clipstone Manor, dated 20^th April 1327 early in the reign of Edward III shows some of the rights of the peasant to the resources of their land.

The Inquisition was presented in front of John De Crombwell Keeper of the Kings Forest beyond Trent, by the oath of John de Annesley; Philip de Caltoft, knight; Thomas Whaton; Richard Russell; Richard Ingam; John de Holm; Richard de Bestewod (Bestwood); Thomas de Lyndeby; Simon de Lameley; John le Warde of Crathethopre; William Basage; and john Moigne of Carleton…

‘The King’s tenants of his manor of Clypston in Shirwod (Sherwood), which is of ancient demesne of the crown of England, and their ancestors, tenants of the same manor, from time immemorial have been accustomed to have all ferns growing in a place which is now called the park of Clypston, for thirteen shillings and six pence, to be rendered yearly to the King’s ancestors by the hands of the justice of the Forest; and to collect the leaves fallen from the trees in the same place for manuring their lands, without rendering anything therefor; and to have pasture for all kinds of beasts in the same, doing in return the custody of the vert and venison in the same place by two of the tenants’.

This shows how the peasants had customary rights to access the ‘park’ for livestock grazing, and to gather ferns and leaves for fertilizer, (in exchange for looking after the deer and timber for the King)

It also shows that they were empowered enough to appeal through the court system to protect those rights.

The reason for the inquest is that Edward II had closed off access to the park, preventing them from their customary rights. The newly crowned Edward III was being petitioned by the men of Clipstone to have their rights returned. They also informed the King that he was losing the money they would normally pay for their rights!!!

Presumably he would be more likely to listen if his wallet was affected.

The men also pointed out that they could not get sufficient pasture outside of the park for their needs- as stated earlier nutrients for flocks and open fields needed to come from somewhere other than the fields themselves.

So as can be seen the landscape of Sherwood Forest provided opportunities for people to make their living from agriculture and from accessing the resources that the Forest provided around them. It was also the case that people would guard these rights vigorously, petitioning through the courts and to the legal system.

The laws of the land prevented many people from having many things, but they also enshrined rights over generations and the law could be called upon to protect those rights if they were threatened.

(More on farming practices in Medieval Sherwood Forest including the ‘Breck System’, and more on the courts and laws of everyday medieval life coming soon).

Lyndhurst Wood- the 'chief wood of Sherwood'

Medieval Sherwood Forest was not one giant wood, but had a mixed landscape of villages with their arable fields, pasture and meadows. The forest however was chosen because it had a large amount of woodland and heath.

There were many different woods across the forest- most had names of their own.

A huge area of woodland stretched north-eastwards from Nottingham along the clay ridge now known as Mapperley tops. This wood was divided into many separately named woods belonging to all the different villages nearby (more of that later).

In the northern High forest there were also many woods such as the mighty Mansfield Wood, Kirkby wood, Haywood Oaks, and the woods of Clipstone and Edwinstowe. (these will be discussed in turn at some point).

The crown also held the two great woods of Birklands and Bilhaugh (now the Sherwood Forest National nature Reserve).

Alongside all of these was a wood described as the ‘chief wood of Sherwood’ in the Forest Book; Lyndhurst Wood (spelt Lindhurst in modern times).

Lyndhurst means ‘lime-tree wood’ suggesting that species was dominant at one time. In the medieval period it was mainly oak- used for the upkeep of Nottingham castle.

‘During the extensive works that took place at the castle between 1358 and 1368, when Stephen Romylowe was constable, a great deal of timber was taken from Lindhurst. The surviving accounts give details of the employment of carpenters and sawyers there and of the expenses of carting the timber to Nottingham.’ (Crook 1981 in bibliography). 

Lyndhurst was originally all the 'wode growing on the eesh parte (east part) of the grete (great) way that leedeth betwxyt Notynhham (Nottingham), and Maunsfeild (Mansfield) unto Sothwell rode (Southwell road) in lengith (length), and the syke (stream) of Rayewath (Rainworth Water) on the southe parte, and the valey where a syke called oulde Idle (foulevil brook- see below) hathe the course of the northe parte in lengith, is called the chieffe wode of the foresh of Shirewood (the chief Wood of Sherwood Forest)'  

As stated above the wood was defined by Rainworth Water (a tributary of the River Maun) to the south, and on its northeastern side by a stream called ‘foulevil brook’ (a tributary of Rainworth Water)- the name does not suggest it formed a natural beauty spot at the time.

The Wood was positioned to the south of the manor of Mansfield and to the north of the manor of Blidworth. The Manor of Mansfield belonged to the King, and Blidworth to the Arch-Bishop of York.

Lyndhurst was a jealously guarded property of the crown and was separate to the Manor of Mansfield.

It had its own keeper: in the 13^th and early 14^th century its keeper was Ralph Clere who lived in a lodge called the ‘new repair’ on its south side.

A rectangular moated site survives – sometimes called ‘Friar Tuck’s Island’ (where Robin Hood was reputedly thrown in the river in the 'Curtal Friar) at this location known as Fountain Dale, Lyndhurst. It is on the opposite side of Rainworth Water to the spring known as Friar Tuck's Well.

The site can be visited from the A60 near Harlow Wood and Thieves Wood on the road to Mansfield. 

This keeper of Lyndhurst as well as looking after the wood had the job of collecting the tax of Cheminage, a toll on carts passing through the forest, payable to his master the Keeper of Sherwood Forest (see Road Tax entry) Robert D'Everingham.

 

Queen Joan and the keepership of Sherwood Forest

Queen Joan was the second wife of Henry IV (1399-1413) of England.

She was born the daughter of Charles II (the bad) of Navarre and Joan of Valois.

Her grandfather was John (the good), King of France (the second King of the house of Valois).

The Hundred Years War which ran from 1337 to 1453, was the dynastic struggle for the throne of France between the English Plantaganet dynasty and the French House of Valois. With both houses claiming the French throne.

Henry IV had seized the throne of England from Richard II in 1399, and married Joan in 1403.

You would think such a link between the royal houses would help to bring about peace- it didnt of course- it never did!

She ruled as Queen of England until her husbands death in 1413.

Her step son Henry V accused and convicted her in 1419 of witchcraft.

Following a four year spell in Pevseney Castle she spent the remainder of her time living in Nottingham Castle.

There she seems to have assumed some of the rights of the Keepership of Sherwood Forest during that time.

Back in the times of Hereditary Keepership, the De Caux and D'Everingham families, based at Laxton Castle, had had a number of rights through their office, which they held from Norman times until 1287 (see Women Keepers of Sherwood Forest entry), when the keepership was lost by Robert Everingham for poaching.

Amongst these right and privileges, was the right of Chiminage - the right to collect taxation from carts travelling through the forest (see Road tax entry).

A record in the Court rolls for Nottingham from 1431 lists an 'Action by Queen Joan for ferm of Chiminage of Sherwood Forest':

'Johanna, Regina Angliae , per Galfridum Kneton, et Robertum Clapam, attornatos sous, queritur de Thoma Bayle, de Notingham, [de placito] debiti vjs. viijd'.

'Joan, Queen of England, by Geoffrey Kneveton, and Robert Clapham her attourneys complains of Thomas Bayle of Nottingham, [of a plea] of debt of 6s 8d'.

She claimed that Thomas Bale took from her the Chiminage of the Forest of Sherwood at the feast of St Martin in the 9th year of Henry V until the same feast a year later- the money should have been repaid by the feast of 'All Hallows' in the 10th year of Henry V, but had not been. This amounted to 6s and 8d...

In fact he refused to pay her it.. and so she brought a claim to the court for the money.

As well as the right of Chiminage, she also seems to have upheld the forest laws regarding the 'hambling of dogs' in the forest (dogs in the forest had to have their claws removed to prevent hunting (see Forest Law page)):

An 'action by Queen Joan for the ferm of the Hambling of Dogs within Sherwood Forest', dated 29 October 1433 was brought before the Nottingham court:

The claim presented that a Thomas Rothewood withheld from Queen Joan and Geoffrey Kneveton the rents from the hambling of dogs within the Forest of Sherwood (pro redditu expeditationis canum infra Forestam de Shyrewode).

It is claimed in the case that Thomas owed 12d for the rent.

Her counterpart in these claims is one Geoffrey Kneveton- who was actually Constable of Nottingham Castle.

The office of Keeper of Sherwood Forest and that of the Constable of Nottingham castle was brought together following the demise of the D'Everingham dynasty's hereditary claim to keepership of the forest (as stated above)...

Perhaps with a member of the royal family also living at the castle alongside the Constable, these roles became blurred, with Queen Joan assuming some of the powers of Keeper of the Forest of Sherwood for herself...

The Butcher, the Bacon and Bestwood: Trespass in Bestwood Park in 1440

Bestwood Park was the largest Royal Deer Park in Sherwood Forest - see Bestwood Park entry for more details), 

On Janurary 16th 1440, an 'action by Ralph, Lord Cromwell, for breach of Bestwood Park', was brought before the Nottingham Court...

The inquest begins:

'Radulphus, Dominus de Crumwell, myles (Ralph Lord of Cromwell, knight), complains of William Fisher, of Nottingham, butcher, in a plea of trespass against the peace of our lord the present King...

...And whereupon he says, by his attornies William Alwin and John Morton, that the aforesaid William, together with others, on Tursday next after the feast of All Hallows, in the 19th year of the reign of king Henry VI, here at Nottingham, with force and arms, to wit, with a club, drove four hogs (porcos) put and arrested for pannage within the Park of Bestwood out of the park aforesaid, and broke the park aforesaid... to the cost of 20s...' 

William presented himself to the court to show he was innocent... 

Unfortunately there is no follow up to the case, so it is not certain of the outcome of the trial.

What is strange is that this is not poaching in the normal sense.

These are not the Kings deer, and the butcher was not hunting with a bow.

He went in to the park, broke the park pale (three metre high fence) down, and stole four pigs who were grazing within - using a club.

Clearly Bacon was not easy to come by for his butchers shop at that time...

The pigs were grazing in the park legitimately under the pannage system.

Pannage was a common right for peasants who were allowed to graze their pigs in the woods of the forest when the acorns fell and for a period of time after. This season was decided at the Verderers Court (see Forest Law page for more details) and the numbers of pigs were monitored by Agisters who acted as tax collectors. 

This entry shows that with the demise of the Forest Eyre Courts by the time of 1440 (see 1287 Sherwood Forest Eyre Court and 1334 Sherwood Forest Eyre Court entries); how breaches of the forest law were dealt with.

The Keeper of the Forest here brought complaint before the Nottingham Court to gain the money back from the accused, caused by the trespass and damage to the park.

Ralph Cromwell was Keeper of Sherwood Forest and Constable of Nottingham Castle as appointed by King Henry VI in 1437. He held land and a manor house at Lambley- and may also have been the man for whom the Belvoir Map of Sherwood Forest was made (see Oldest map of Medieval Sherwood Forest).

the Archbishop of York and Sherwood Forest

During the medieval period the religious life of Nottinghamshire and Sherwood Forest was influenced by the many religious houses and churches, spread throughout the landscape.

Picture: Southwell Minster

The church was intrinsic to everyday life, its festivals and feast days followed the seasons of the year, its saint days were used to document the meetings of the courts and administration of the land, and the church protected and legitimised the role of the monarchy itself.

The church in England was until the reformation of the 16^th century part of the great Catholic Church under the control of the papacy in Rome.

The leader of the church in medieval England was the Archbishop of Canterbury, who held the office of St Augustine, since the 6^th century.

In the north of England however it was the Archbishop of York who held sway over the lives and souls of the people.

In Nottinghamshire the Archbishop held a great amount of power both spiritually and temporally.

In Domesday he is listed as having full jurisdiction and market rights and the King’s customary dues of two pence over his manors.

The Archbishop is the fifth landowner listed in Domesday for Nottinghamshire behind the King and a small number of Counts and Earls.

The Domesday Posessions of the Archbishop include the Manors of Cropwell (Bishop), Laneham, South Muskham, Blidworth, Oxton, Norwell and Sutton with its outliers of Lound and Srooby, and in the great Manor of Southwell in central Nottinghamshire. The Archbishop also held land in other places including Woodborough (Morris 1977).

Blidworth and Woodborough were both within the boundaries of Sherwood Forest.

The rest of the Archbishops properties were outside the 13^th century boundary of Sherwood Forest, but the Archbishop was subject to forest law in many of his lands. His influence may even have affected the forest boundaries over time.

Sutton, Scrooby and Lound in north Nottinghamshire were granted by charter to the Archbishop, then called Oskytell, by King Edgar of England in the year 958 (Davies T.GT. 1983).

Interestingly this charter mentions a ‘scirwuda’ (shire wood) as part of the boundary perambulation of the estate. This is often cited as the earliest reference to Sherwood Forest, but sadly it cannot be directly linked to the Forest of Sherwood, due to its location, and a separation of nearly 300 years in the use of the name.

Scrooby was also incidentally later the home of William Brewster a leader of the Pilgrim Fathers who sailed to America on the Mayflower.

In a charter in 956 two years before Sutton, Lound and Scrooby were granted to the Archbishop Oskytell, King Edgar's brother the preceeding King Eadwig had granted the Manor of Southwell to the Archbishop.

Southwell became the heart of the Archbishop’s power in the county.

With all its outliers the Manor of Southwell became an incredibly well defined area of power belonging to the Archbishop .

At the centre of this estate was the Minster church of Southwell.

Southwell Minster operated as a collegiate of secular canons.

This was effectively a collection of religious brothers similar to a monastery- the term secular means they were not tied to one of the religious orders of the day.

Each of these canons provided religious service to surrounding communities known as ‘Prebeneds’ in exchange for land and money.

By the 1290’s Southwell had acquired 16 Prebends in the surrounding area some of them in lands they had possessed since Domesday and some aquired overtime.

These were at The Sacrists' prebend, Normanton, Woodborough, North Muskham,South Muskham, Dunham, Beckingham, Halloughton, Rampton, Eaton, and North Leverton, three Prebends at Norwell, and two at Oxton (Page 1910 Victoria County History).

The dominion and jurisdiction the Archbishop had over the lands around Southwell resulted in it being known as the ‘Southwell Peculiar’.

The above is a short introduction to the relationship of the Archbishopric to the land and people of Nottinghamshire.

So what does this all have to do with Sherwood Forest?

The Archbishop of York held the manor of Blidworth, and the Prebend of Woodborough, both in Sherwood Forest as defined by the 13^th century perambulations.

At Blidworth he was confirmed in an inquisition of 1155/6 as having the right to ‘hunt in his wood of Blidworth for nine days a year, three each at Christmas, Easter and Pentecost. There he, his canons and his men had all their easements without waste, their own foresters, honey, eyries of sparrowhawks and hawks and pannage’ (Crook 1994).

Also as a leader of the church his lands were protected with regard to  trespass against the forest law by threat of excommunication (see Mutilation and Damnation entry)

In 1300 the forest boundary was perambulated at the order of Edward I. The boundary was altered to allow the Archbishops wood at Blidworth to be exempt from the forest law (Boulton 1964). This wood was known as ‘ye Bischopes Wode’ in the 1400’s, and sat at the northern boundary of Blidworth against the lordship of the Abbots of Rufford (see A journey through Sherwood Forest: Newstead Priory to King John's Palace).

The remainder of the Archbishop’s lands were outside the boundary of Sherwood Forest at this time.

There were however many issues regarding the Archbishop and the forest.

An inquest in 1155/6 at the start of the reign of Henry II (1154-1189) into the rights of the Archbishop of York in relation to the forest law in Nottinghamshire in the reign of his grandfather Henry I (1100-1135) gives us our earliest known boundary of the forest in  Nottinghamshire (see Oldest known boundary entry).

This ‘Old Forest’ as the inquest calls it, in the time of Henry I, stretched all the way up the western half of the county. The documents refer to this forest as the 'Forest of Nottingham'.

The Archbishop’s lands were exempt from the forest law to the east of this line in the time of Henry I because they were outside of the forest.

In the reign of Henry I’s grandson, Henry II (1154-1189), and his sons, Richard I (1189-1199) and King John (1199-1216) all of Nottinghamshire north and west of the Trent was subject to forest law.

This meant that all of the Archbishop’s lands in the area to the east of the 'old forest' were subject to forest law.

As forest law gradually engulfed all of Nottinghamshire north and west of the Trent during the reign Henry II, Richard I and John, the area to the east of the Forest of Nottingham came under forest law. This area seems to have gone by the name ‘Forest of Clay’

The boundary between the two forests was defined by the boundary of the ‘Old Forest’ of Henry I, and reflects mainly the geology and soils of the region (see Forest of Clay entry). But effectively the crown administered this huge area as one forest.

The crown enforced forest law in the Forest of Clay as it did in the Forest of Nottingham throughout the later 12^th and early 13^th century:

In 1167 the Canons of Southwell and the collegiate church were fined by Henry II ‘the men of Norwell “of the part of Master Viacrius’ paid half a mark as a result of the forest Eyre of Alain de Neville”’ (Crook 1994)

This seems to relate to one of the Prebends of Southwell in Norwell in the Forest of Clay.

In 1185 Vicarius was ‘charged with 40s for waste of his wood and trespass against the assize, in the forest eyre of Geoffrey Fitzpeter’ (ibid.) along with Andrew the canon charged 100s, Geoffrey the canon 2 marks, and Master Gilbert 2 marks- most likely all canons of Southwell.

‘Two years later, in another Eyre by Geoffrey Fitzpeter, Andrew canon of Southwell was amerced the enormous sum of 40 marks for receiving venison and removing it contrary to the assize. At the same time Master Vicarius was again charged with 2 marks for trespass against the assize, canons Gilbert and Laurence 40s each for the same offence and for default… 

...it was probably the 1187 forest eyre which led Hugh of Avalon, the saintly bishop of Lincoln to excommunicate Geoffrey Fitzpeter for enforcing the forest law’ against the Archbishops men (Crook 1994).

In the time of Richard I (1189-99) it seemed that things had got better for the Archbishop, when in 1189 Richard granted the Archbishop ‘disaforestment of all the lands of the church of York in Nottinghamshire, both those held in demesne and those in the prebends. They were quit of all wastes and assarts and pleas of the forest, and of the regard, and no forester or other bailiff was to interfere with them’ (Crook 1994).

However the archbishop's men still got fined or bought their way out of fines in 1198 and 1209 at the forest eyres, suggesting that the charter of Richard meant little.

The fact that they were being directly fined for forest infringements suggests that royal forest law applied over all of Nottinghamshire north and West of the Trent, and the Archbishops land at Southwell in the Forest of Clay.

When King John was in control of Nottinghamshire as Count of Mortain between 1189 and 1194 he confirmed that Maud de Caux was keeper of the Forests of Nottingham and Derbyshire (see Women Keepers of Sherwood Forest).

In 1222 Maud de Caux was referred to as the keeper of the Forests of Nottingham and of Clay’ (Crook 1979).

Also Brian De Lisle as Chief Justice of the Forest was ordered to allow Walter de Evermue to take timber from Clay as well as Sherwood to repair his houses (ibid).

This suggest that the crown continued to have jurisdiction over the Forest of Clay into the 13^th century, possibly up until the boundaries of the forest were finally agreed in 1227.

The crown seems then to have maintained control over the forest of Clay in the reigns of Henry II, Richard I and John up until 1227 in the reign of Henry III, with the Archbishop’s men being some of the victims of this policy.

The boundaries of the Sherwood Forest were reduced following Magna Carta and the subsequent Forest Charter.

This new area removed the Forest of Clay from the equation, as the forest retreated into an area that may or may not have been the original forest (see Castles and Sherwood Forest entry), which may have fallen within the jurisdiction of Nottingham Castle.

This meant that the problems the Archbishop of York had had regarding the forest had been finally resolved.

As previously stated the condition improved further when the boundary was altered by Edward I in 1300 to allow his forest at Blidworth to be exempt too.

It could be that the area of jurisdiction that the Archbishop of York had around Southwell was one of the reasons for the strange shape of Sherwood Forest from the 13^th century when it retreated into a boundary from an earlier time.

Perhaps the Doverbeck River provided a natural boundary between the jurisdiction of the castle of Nottingham (and therefore the original boundary of the forest) and the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of York to the east of it. 

It is not possible to know for sure if this was the case, with the evidence known at the moment.

But it is clear that the Archbishop of York was an important figure in the lives of the people of the time, and that he held significant authority in the county. It is clear that the Archbishops' faced the authority of the forest law as did everyone else- often despite their exemptions from it. It seems that over time they eventually managed to remove the majority of their lands from under forest law, and it is also possible that their influence even helped shape the original boundary of Medieval Sherwood Forest.

(More on Bishops, Archbishops the church and everyday life and the church and the forest law soon).

Priests behaving badly in Medieval Sherwood Forest

Medieval society was a highly religious place.

In people’s minds the spiritual and the natural world were intertwined. Evil was all around, and battle had to be done to protect people from malignant forces that surrounded on all sides.

This battle was undertaken by an army of spiritual warriors who prayed and worshiped between them around the clock for the souls of both the living and the dead.

Priests, monks, friars, priors, chaplains, warrior monks, Hospitallers, nuns, vicars, chantrists, Bishops and Abbots took this fight for salvation to the enemy, and protected their flocks.

Their abbeys, priories, churches, chantries, perceptories, chapels and roadside shrines dotted the landscape of Medieval Sherwood Forest in the towns and villages, and in the remote areas of the great heaths and woods (see the Monks and Friars of Sherwood Forest entry).

In modern times a life in the cloth is seen as a calling- a spiritual choice based on faith. In medieval times where all the world was religious and had faith, it was a career choice taken by many younger sons of the local gentry; by clerics wishing to rise through the ranks; and by great men of the realm becoming Abbots and Bishops and wielding incredible power and attaining immense wealth.

Many of those who joined the church probably lived quiet lives dutifully tending to their flock and the needs of their parishioners...

But such quiet lives rarely raise enough of an eyebrow to warrant recording... but for every quiet and dutiful man of the cloth there was a ‘priest behaving badly’ to provide us with a rich story of life in medieval times... the religious men of Medieval Sherwood Forest were no different...

The religious houses of Sherwood Forest provide us with many tales of misdemeanour:

Monks were often found wandering away from their houses, such as at Newstead (see Gadding aboutin the Forest entry) and Lenton where in 1350 Prior Peter requested Civil assistance to ‘prevent three apostate monks of Lenton walking abroad in secular dress’ (Marcombe and Hamilton 1998)...

Worse still Prior Gilbert de Ponteburgh of Thurgarton Priory just outside the forest was accused of adultery with two local women in 1284, a few months later Alexander de Gedling was in trouble for swearing during a meeting of the chapter and in 1290 Walter de Bingham assaulted a John de Sutton in church and was excommunicated!

At Newstead Priory in Sherwood a Roger of the Cellar and a Geoffrey of the kitchen were dismissed as being a nuisance to the monastery, and evidence suggests drinking and wandering outside the cloister was common...

... In 1307 the prior was accused of ‘incontinence with one woman and of relapsing into incontinence with another’ (Marcombe and Hamilton 1998)...

Vicars, priests and monks were often known felons and members of notorious gangs who committed kidnap and extortion as well as vandalism and robbery (see Medieval Outlaws: the Folville Gang entry for more details).

In Nottingham the Friars of the town provide us with a few incidents of note:

In 1402 the warden of the Franciscans was arrested in Leicester on a charge of sedition and in 1500 warden William Bell was charged with incontinence as a pimp!!  (Marcombe and Hamilton 1998).

It should be noted that the some of the clergy had a bad record of frequenting houses of Ill-repute. In London the Brothels called ‘stews’ in medieval times were controlled by the Bishop of Winchester, where the women were known as the ‘Winchester Geese’.

In Nottingham there was probably a brothel, with a vacant plot of land called ‘Parodyse’ situated in ‘Whore Lane’ in 1391 (Foulds 2006)... subtle...

Maybe the Warden of the Grey Friars was involved somewhere nearby...

In 1398 an action was brought before the borough court of Nottingham against a Chaplain for misbehaviour with a parishioner’s wife:

John de Bilby made a complaint against Roger de Mampton, chaplain on a plea of trespass:

While John was at Ratcliff (Radcliffe-on-Trent) attending his affairs, Roger ‘broke his close and entered his chamber on ‘Brydilsmythgate’’ (Modern Bridlesmith Gate), Nottingham, and ‘was found under a curtain of the bed’.

John warned Roger not to be found by him ‘with his wife, nor in his house in any manner’ again...

Roger promised not to... however:

Sometime later Roger ‘came by night to the house of the aforesaid John in ‘Stonestrete’ ‘(they must have moved to Stoney Street- maybe to get away from the vicar?!)...’and here broke the wall... and leaped over it to the houses of the aforesaid John de Bilby where his secret places were, which he entered with the wife of the aforesaid John and was there with the wife of the aforesaid John for a long time, without the permission and consent of the aforesaid John, and so was there continually for a whole year after the aforesaid warning’...

Apparently Roger the Chaplain and Johns wife damaged two pairs of sheets, a table cloth, towels and one brass pot during their times in the ‘secret places’...

Well I never...

When brought before the court Roger the Chaplain pleaded that he was carrying out his duty ‘as is the custom with the parochial clergy to go through their parish with the holy water’...

He was administering Holy water!

That’s one way of putting it.

Such stories remind us that the medieval world was a colourful place.

They come down to us through the records and enrich our understandings of the lives of the people who reside in those documents.  It is often the bad stories that outshine the good... but we all love gossip, and the medieval records provide plenty of it...

Many lay people’s lives are also recorded and will be discussed soon. 

They include forestalling and black-market dealings, robberies, fist-fights, scolds, cuckolds, hangings and banishings...

It is worth remembering that such things will always be found in court records, and should not be taken to reflect the activities of everyone in medieval life. They do however offer us a chance to view a world full of humanity and strife- not to dissimilar to our own...

(more from the Borough Court Rolls of Nottingham, Inquisitions Post Mortem and the Manorial Court Rolls from the villages of medieval Sherwood Forest coming soon)...

the Vikings of Sherwood Forest

During the 8^th and 9^th century England was subject to violent incursions by Vikings from Scandinavia- often portrayed as mindless berserkers. They rampaged around the coast of England laying waste in their tracks. They even found time to pop across the water and create Dublin in Ireland, and to visit North America on their travels.

The earliest reference to Nottingham in the written records comes from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle and refers to an army of Vikings over-wintering there:

'In this year the (Danish) army went into Mercia to Nottingham and took up winter quarters there. And Burgred, the king of the Mercians, and his councillors asked Ethelred, the king of the West Saxons, and his brother Alfred to help him to fight against the army. They then went with the army of the West Saxons into Mercia to Nottingham, and came upon the enemy in that fortress, and besieged them there. There occurred no serious battle there, and the Mercians made peace with the enemy. In the following year the raiding army returned to York'.

The Vikings in the area were clearly considered hostile by the author of this account.

It seems that the initial phase of Viking contact was violent, but overtime their attention seems to have turned to settlement and farming.

Or at least there was a large assimilation of Viking culture in the area. Either way, the area that was and would become Nottinghamshire, and subsequently Sherwood Forest took on a distinctly ‘Viking’ or ‘Old Scandinavian’ flavour.

It seems probable with more modern research such as genetic sampling; that the Viking people were settling in areas which had some traditional ties to the Scandinavian world, having cultural links with the region dating back to prehistoric times.

They may not have had such a hostile reception from the locals.

By the 9^th and 10^th centuries this Viking cultural control of the area had become official with Nottingham being part of the Danelaw, an area of northern and eastern England under Danish rule. During this period Nottingham was one of five Boroughs which controlled the area of Northern Mercia, the former Saxon Kingdom now under Danish influence.

This entry is not about life in Viking times, it is more interested in the legacy of these people on the landscape, language and life of Medieval Sherwood Forest.

The Scandinavian cultural impact on the medieval landscape and people was immense.

The dialect used in medieval Sherwood Forest is preserved in the landscape as a legacy of this cultural link. Their presence can be seen at every level; from the names of the large districts to the smallest landscape feature.

The largest administrative level of society below that of the county was the ‘hundred’ a unit of authority which had its own jurisdiction and system of law courts. In Nottinghamshire in the area of the Danelaw, and subsequently in Sherwood Forest the ‘hundreds’ were known as Wapentakes.

The name Wapentake comes from the Old Norse ‘vapnatak’ which may to refer to the method of voting at a meeting by raising weapons.

Sherwood Forest stretched across three Wapentakes. These were Bassetlaw, Thurgarton and Broxtowe (more soon).

Picture: The Wapentakes of Nottinghamshire.

The use of Wapentakes instead of Hundred is a clear legacy of Viking influence down into the Medieval Forest.

Viking influence can also be seen in the Domesday Book of 1086 through the use of the terms such as ‘Carucate’. A Carucate was the unit of land that could be a ploughed by a team of 8 oxen in a season. Outside the Danelaw this area was known as a ‘Hide’.

Vikings can also be seen in the place names they left behind. Danish name endings such as ‘Thorpe’ as in Gunthorpe, and ‘by’ as in Linby are derived from Scandinavian words. The word ‘By’ still means ‘town’ in Danish today, the word ‘thorpe’ meant a settlement.

The Wapentake districts named above required meeting places.

One such site in Bassetlaw Wapentake has a name of Viking origin; Thynghowe.

The derivation of Thynghowe is þing haugr, meaning ‘hill of assembly or meeting place’, “þ” is the old letter ‘thorn’ pronounced “th”.

Thynghowe is mentioned in Medieval perambulations of the Kings Woods of Birklands and Bilhaugh most probably dating to 1334 (Boulton 1964)

It sits on the boundary of 3 parishes and may occupy an even older site than its Viking name suggests (see Thynghowe –ancient meeting place entry for more details).

A recent award of funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund to the Friends of Thynghowe group will enable further archaeological research into the site including a LIDAR survey of the surrounding landscape (see the Friends of Thynghowe website for more information).

The 'Friends of Thynghowe' have done a great amount of research into Thynghowe over the last few years looking at the history of the Danleaw and the development of the landscape around Thynghowe. They have also promoted the site internationally at conferences and increased understanding of the site by visiting related sites across the Scandinavin world. 

Some of their research can be seen at http://thynghowe.blogspot.co.uk/ , and they can be followed at http://www.facebook.com/thynghowe. More of their research will doutbless emerge over the course of the project.

Viking language and culture also littered the landscape of medieval Sherwood Forest in the names of landscape features and field names.

Here are a few examples:

Bridges such as Trent Bridge, known in medieval times as ‘Hethbethbrigg’ used the Old Scandinavian word ‘Brigge’ which still survives in the word ‘Brygga’ for jetty or bridge in Swedish.

The vast areas of open heathland that characterised the forest were known as Lyngges meaning heather from the Danish word 'Lyng' (see there's Vikings in the Heather link).

Streams were often called ‘Becks’ such as Doverbeck from the word ‘bekkr’ for stream, or ‘Sik’ such as ‘Stanker Sike’ in the High Forest area of Sherwood, from the word for a small stream in Old Scandinavian.

Valleys were known as ‘Dales’ such as ‘Rydale’ and ‘Paddock Dale’ in Bestwood Park, from the Old Scandinavian word ‘dael’.

One of the areas of crown woodland in the High Forest area known as Birklands had a Scandinavian derivation.  Birklands comes from the Old Scandinavian for Birch tree ‘Birk’ and ‘Lund’ the word for wood.

The Old Scandinavian word ‘kjarr’ for marshy scrubland was used in the form ‘Carr’ such as ‘Nettleworth Carr’. It survives in the name Bycarrs Dike- (the canal in the marsh of the village) combining the Scandinavian words ‘by’ and ‘carr’ (see the waterways of Sherwood Forest entry for more details).

All of these uses for features in the landscape show the cultural impact of Viking people on the landscape of medieval Sherwood Forest. There are many more besides those listed. But there is enough here to give a flavour of the impact that Viking settlement in the 8^th and 9^th centuries had on the later landscape of Medieval Sherwood Forest from the 12^th onwards.

The impact on the medieval landscape is clear but can we ever know much about the actual Viking people from the 8^th and 9^th centuries?

Unfortunately documentary evidence does not exist to give us much personal detail.

Archaeology can give us a window on these people’s lives, and can show us what they ate and the tools and weapons they carried, but unfortunately can never really put name to faces.

One way however is open to us where we can see the names of some of these people.

They gave their names to some of the villages that cover the landscape.

In Sherwood Forest there are place names with Old Scandinavian name endings, but there are also a handful of place names that contain the names of ‘Viking’ people:

These are Clipstone meaning ‘Klyppr’s Farm’, Gunthorpe meaning ‘Gunnhild’s settlement’, Thoresby meaning Thur’s town, and on the edge of the Forest: ‘Vlar’ at Walesby.

Scandinavian names from sometime before Domesday Book in 1089, showing again the presence of ‘Viking’ people or Scandinavian cultural influence in Sherwood Forest.

The Vikings of Sherwood Forest are there if you know where to look…

(More on the cultural landscape of Medieval Sherwood Forest, and the early Saxons of Sherwood Forest soon)

Place names all come from:

Morris, J. (ed) 1977. Domesday Book Nottinghamshire. Phillimore.

Chichester. 

J. E. B. Gover J.E.B & Mawer, A & Stenton, F.M. 1940. Placenames of Nottinghamshire. English Place names Society XVII