Medieval Northwood

Northwood today is a hamlet between Stottesdon and Sidbury, essentially comprising Upper and Lower Northwood Farms. However, in medieval times it appears to have been significantly larger. What makes it of particular interest is that it is well documented in a series of deeds, mainly from the late 13th Century and now held in the National Library of Wales. These give an unusually detailed picture of a township at this period. Extracts from these deeds are available elsewhere on this website; below is an account of Northwood at the time the deeds were written.

Medieval Northwood

Medieval Stottesdon [+]
This is a speculative reconstruction of land use in Stottesdon in late medieval times

Northwood is not mentioned in Domesday Book; it was presumably part of the large parish of Stottesdon. Indeed, it has always been part of that ecclesiastical parish. At some point, probably in the 12th Century, it came into the ownership of the Baskerville family. The Baskervilles also held Pickthorn from Wenlock Abbey and Newton, adjacent to Pickthorn on the north-west. Thus they held a significant parcel of land. The various heads of the Baskerville family sublet their land in Northwood to a variety of undertenants. The most significant of these belonged to a junior branch of the Baskerville family. In the second half of the 13th Century these were represented by Hugh, Juliana and Helewise, children of Isolda Baskerville and her husband, a member of the Botterell family of Aston Botterell. Hugh died in 1292/3 leaving Margaret his wife and two sons, Baldwin and John. John died by 1316/17 leaving a son, Thomas.

The deeds allow the identification of around 40 individuals who held land in Northwood over the period approximately spanning the second half of the 13th Century. Not all of these held land at the same time; ownership changed with deaths, individuals leaving or selling their holdings. There were around 20 individual families with land in Northwood, with around a dozen or so individuals having an interest in the open fields and any one time. The largest owners were the Northwood Baskervilles; Hugh and Margery his wife, John and Baldwin their sons. After Hugh’s death his lands would probably have been shared between Margery, John and Baldwin, although there is some evidence that Margery had some land in her own right even when Hugh was still alive.

Tracing the other tenants is not always easy as surnames were not well established in the 13th Century. Perhaps unsurprisingly, a significant number of individuals called “de Northwood” held land in Northwood; it is difficult to know if they were related or whether the apparent surname simply meant that they were from Northwood. Several families can be identified. There was Richard, son of Thomas, Matilda his wife and Alice his daughter. Additionally there was another Richard, sometimes called Richard Warner with his daughters Agnes and Emma. John, son of Nicholas de Northwood is probably from a third family. Two widows, Petroville and Margery were also of Northwood. A Northwood family was still resident in the township in the 16th Century. In 1259 there was a William de Northwood who married Emma, daughter of Paen de Northwood. Presumably after William’s death, Emma seems to have reverted to her father’s name and this was passed onto her son, Robert Paen.
Several families who held land in Northwood came from neighbouring communities. The de Chorleys can be traced from grandfather Stephen, father Nicholas and sons Henry and William. Henry Nicholas had one of the highest assessments for Stottesdon in a tax return of 1327. A number of de Hawkswoods, from Sidbury had land. Chief amongst these were Nicholas and his son John. Also from Hawkswood were Hugh le Mon and his son Richard. Possibly this Richard might be the same Richard de Hawkswood who held land in 1310 with his brother Gregory. Henry de Sidbury, clerk, was another Sidbury-based landowner. Roger Brun with his sons Henry and William came from Woodhouse in Stottesdon; Henry Brun was a tax collector for Stottesdon in 1327. There can be little doubt that Henry and William Blundell were the occupants of Blundell Farm, just to the south of Northwood. William de Ribley came scarcely from further afield. John de Cheilmers (Chelmarsh) was from a slightly more distant community. Thomas le Harpour from Stoke (St Milborough) held land in several parishes. Some individuals were certainly not local. John de Langebergia, a clerk (perhaps the same as John the clerk) could have been from Langborough, an administrative district in North Yorkshire. Nicholas de Bireton features prominently in the deeds both as a buyer and seller of land; there are Biretons in Cheshire and Buckinghamshire.

For some individuals, we have no clue as to where they lived. Some of these could have been small-holders from Northwood; perhaps William Silly and his wife Margery. Isaac could be Isaac the Dean, who witnessed a deed in Stottesdon of c1250. Hugh Heued was also of sufficient importance to witness deeds. John Bernard was from a Chetton family who became significant landowners in several neighbouring parishes.

The largest share of the lands were occupied the Baskervilles; perhaps around 40%, perhaps 80 acres. In 1255, the Baskerville holding at Northwood was reckoned to be six virgates; around 180 acres. This is probably not far off the entire area of the township and its lands. It seems probable that the Baskervilles had sold off most of this by 1300, retaining just their demesne land. Other individual holdings were probably around 10 acres. This has an important consequence. A holding of 10 acres is not sufficient to support a family. Thus the vast majority of holdings in the fields of Northwood were below subsistence level. Either their occupiers had extra land not within the open fields of Northwood or they had other sources of income. Within Northwood itself it is difficult to see what extra land could have been available. This was presumably not a problem for the majority of tenants who came from outside of the hamlet and who probably had more substantial holdings within their own communities. Some from within Northwood could of course have equally well owned land outside the township. However, there must at least have been a few who had other occupations and cultivated their own land when they could. These individuals could have been craftsmen or labourers, either on larger farms or perhaps even in nascent industries.

There are in excess of 20 deeds, involving 14 distinct families. This alone shows that there was a vibrant land market in the latter part of the 13th Century and is consistent with the open fields being subdivided into small parcels, largely owned by individuals from other settlements. Where it is possible to estimate acreages, the average sale was for 3.7±0.9 acres, around 1/3 of the average holding. On the face of it, the sales are almost all freehold with no evidence of land being surrendered to the lord of the manor before resale. In total they represent sales of about 70 acres.

In addition to the lands in the open fields, 10 tenements or messuages are mentioned or implied (three in one deed), split between 8 owners. It is possible that some of the houses feature in more than one deed; a figure of 7 or 8 distinct houses is perhaps more plausible. Equally however, not every house might be expected to be recorded by the deeds. Around 1300, it seems likely that there were houses either owned or occupied by John de Baskerville, Baldwin de Baskerville, John de Northwood, the families of Richard de Northwood and Richard Warner, Henry Blundell, William Blundell plus perhaps a couple of other villagers.

It is possible to reconstruct the evolution of the landscape of Northwood up to the end of the 13th Century. A crop mark showing an oval enclosure by Northwood may be evidence of Iron Age or Romano-British settlement, although crop marks such as this are not easy to date. The name itself quite clearly indicates that the area was wooded in early medieval times and this is also reflected in the names of neighbouring farms or settlements. Chorley to the east still retains substantial woodland. To the south, Blundells and Ribley almost certainly arose as woodland clearances (assarts); to the west was Stottesdon Park and the Woodhouse. In the 19th Century there was a complicated pattern of boundaries around Northwood, with junctions between Northwood itself, Pickthorn, Stottesdon and Harcourt or Bradley. It would be rash to assume that these were unchanged from early medieval times, but they may have originated in part from the division of an area of woodland between the four townships, perhaps in or before the 11th Century, when Pickthorn and Harcourt were separated from Stottesdon.

Whilst there were probably some isolated patches of woodland still left in the late 13th Century, most had been cleared for agriculture. There were three fields. Pickthorn field, Sidbury Field and Chorley Field. In some of the earlier deeds, Northwood field is used to include Pickthorn Field. It is possible that this may be an earlier name for the field and may even reflect times when two fields were worked on a “on-field, out-field” system, although it is perhaps more likely the term may simply reflect a vagueness in the wording of the deeds. There were numerous features within the fields, although few can now be identified. The land is divided up by a number of short but steep-sided valleys or batches, that drain into the brook that forms the parish boundary with Sidbury. These were individually named. Les Coumbes in Picthorne field might be the same as Coumbesbatch in Sidbury Field, in which case it would be the boundary between the two. Stanley’s Batch was by the modern farm of Stanley in Sidbury field; Northam (perhaps sometimes Norrey’s) Batch was another valley in the same field. Also in Sidbury field were Foulham Batch, Foulham brook and Fouleye. These may refer to the same feature. Foulham can be taken to mean “muddy meadow”, Fouleye would mean something similar or “muddy clearing”. Wulfshale, described as leading to the river of Sidbury Mill (ie the parish boundary stream) appears to have been another valley; this is one meaning of “hale”. Sidbury Mill, described as newly built in 1259 was somewhat surprisingly, in Northwood although owned by Ralph D’Arras of Sidbury and can be located exactly. “Coliwin Schawe” opposite the mill pool, is so garbled as to defy interpretation although “shaw” can mean a copse. “Scale Brayne” is even more impenetrable.

Ponthull Hay, Haye Green and Hethe Green all occur in Sidbury field and all have woodland associations. A hay can simply be a hedge but it is usually an enclosure within or around a woodland. A green usually implies land cleared from woodland and a heath also arises from woodland. Given the preponderance of valley names close to the parish boundary brook, these might refer to woodland pasture on higher ground. Grassland is also implied by the Leys in Chorley Field and Old Leys way, a road in Pickthorn Field. Pickthorn field was also next to the “moors”, divided up between various members of the Baskerville family. In this case, the moor is likely to mean marshy land, too wet to plough and so used for grazing or perhaps meadow. There are explicit references to meadow. Dinglemede must have been an area of grass in a damp valley bottom; in one of the numerous batches. Les Ewes, on a road from Stottesdon passing through Northwood must have been a prominent glade of yews.

The deeds refer to the park of Stottesdon, known also from 14th Century references. This was a small area of enclosed woodland where it is likely that deer belonging to the Lord of Stottesdon could graze. The Woodhouse may been the parker’s house.

The “vill” or hamlet of Northwood was almost certainly around the current Upper and Lower Northwood Farms. Here would have been the dwelling of the Baskervilles. Some at least of the houses of Northwood were clustered together in a group; the tenements owned by William Blundell, Henry Blundell and Hugh Le Mon were next to each other. However, this does not necessarily mean that all houses were in a single group. As noted above, Blundell Farm and Ribley originated as assarts. William and Henry were clearly from Blundell, although as it was not part of the 19th Century township of Northwood, they may have moved the short distance to Northwood from this place. Within Northwood, Stanley might have arisen as an assart. It is perhaps best to consider that by 1300 the landscape would have had clumps of houses; Northwood at the centre but also perhaps some assarts with the original pioneering pioneering farms and a cluster of later cottages.