The Little History of Lancashire E-Book

Hugh Hollinghurst

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Sachliteratur, Reportagen, Biografien
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 254

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

The Historic County of Lancashire once stretched from Coniston Water in the Lake District in the north to the River Mersey in the south. It was the scene of Georgian triumph and tragedy in the first Industrial Revolution, and philanthropy and civil rights struggles in the Victorian era, followed by decline, renewal and hope for the future. From the formation of the county's terrain in the Ice Age and its earliest occupation by the Celts, through Roman occupation, the arrival of the Normans and the turbulence of civil war, Hugh Hollinghurst guides us through the ups and downs of Lancastrian history. Complete with illustrations and photographs, The Little History of Lancashire is the story of those who suffered – and those that benefited.

Leseprobe

First published 2024

The History Press97 St George’s Place, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, GL50 3QBwww.thehistorypress.co.uk

© Hugh Hollinghurst, 2024

The right of Hugh Hollinghurst to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the Publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data.A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 80399 313 3

Typesetting and origination by The History Press.Printed and bound in Great Britain by TJ Books Limited, Padstow, Cornwall.

eBook converted by Geethik Technologies

Map of Historic County of Lancashire in 1814 by John Cary in Cary’s Traveller’s Companion. Note the prominence given to roads, rivers and canals before the advent of railways.

Contents

Acknowledgements

1    A Little Pre-History

2    The Romans Came, Saw, Conquered – and Went

3    Dark Ages and Light

4    Normans Herald the Medieval Age

5    Tudor Peace and Stuart War

6    Georgian Innovation and Change

7    The World’s First Industrial Revolution

8    Victorian Philanthropy, Pleasure and Pain

9    Decline and Renewal

Bibliography

Acknowledgements

Among the works listed in the bibliography, I have found the following particularly useful:

Aspin, C., Lancashire, The First Industrial Society.

Brazendale, David, Lancashire’s Historic Halls.

Crosby, Alan, A History of Lancashire .

Gooderson, P.J., A History of Lancashire.

Historical Society of Lancashire and Cheshire Journals.

Wikimedia Commons for all the illustrations unless otherwise indicated.

Above all, I pay tribute to my wife Joan, without whose understanding and support this book could not have been written.

1

A Little Pre-History

ADVENTURES OF AN ERRATIC BOULDER STONE

How was the landscape of the Historic County of Lancashire shaped? A boulder stone can tell you a story. Weighing in at 18 tons, it is a little sister of the 2,000-ton Bowder Stone in Borrowdale in the Lake District, created out of volcanic rock tens of millions years ago.

Comparatively recently, only a few thousand years ago, it was carried south during the glacial period over the sediments that had settled in the meantime. The earliest of these have bequeathed us the millstone grit and limestone of the Pennines. In the south-west of the county, later deposits were laid down of coal, marl and sandstone. The glacier carrying our ‘erratic’ boulder ground its way south over this terrain. As it journeyed, it spread a thick layer of clay over the Lancashire plain and river valleys. These give the distinctive pattern of a series of valleys that stretch down between the uplands of the Pennine hills in the east and the sea in the west.

Our boulder stone ended its journey at Crosby on the mouth of the River Mersey. There it rested until 1898 when workmen discovered it in a brickfield. With great labour and the help of a traction engine, it was transported from there to be the centrepiece of a road junction at the centre of the village. When that proved to be a hindrance to the flow of traffic, it was saved from destruction in the interests of science and placed in an honourable position in a nearby park, where it stands to this day.

The Bowder Stone in Borrowdale near Keswick in the Lake District. A plaque on the Boulder Stone in Crosby Coronation Park tells us that it consisted of gypsum (hydrous calcium sulphate) and its longitudinal axis was lying in a direction 48 degrees east of magnetic north.

After the boulder came to rest, when the glaciers were still retreating in about 10,000 BC, you can imagine hunter-gatherers chasing an elk, which is foraging with reindeer over the thinly vegetated tundra of the Fylde. They are armed with clubs and weapons tipped with 3in-long barbed bone points. The wounded animal escapes but falls, dying, into a muddy pool. In 1970 its skeleton, antlers and all, was discovered in a garden at Poulton-le-Fylde. During the interlude between this and the next scene the warming climate produces deciduous tree cover and vegetation more hospitable to people and animals.

FoSSIL FOOTPRINTS AND AUROCHS

Picture a crowded Lancashire beach in prehistoric times. Wading birds abound and black and white oystercatchers with orange beaks and pink legs reap a rich harvest. Two huge cranes, larger than those we see today, are enacting a courting ritual. Huge aurochs (extinct wild cattle) dominate the scene. They dwarf the Stone Age men who are tracking red deer that have ventured out from the marshy, wooded hinterland and are roaming over the sands. Barefoot women are harvesting shrimps and razor-shellfish from a lagoon or gathering birds’ eggs from the reeds that surround it. Children are playing in the sand and mud. Most are smaller in stature than us but probably have a healthy suntan, although some are hindered by physical difficulties: perhaps pregnancy, deformed feet or arthritis.

Not all of these scenes would be seen at the same period of time, but many have has been deduced or suggested by scientific observations made by Gordon Roberts of astonishing prints left on Formby Point.1 The stage was set at the end of the last Ice Age. About 10,000 years ago sea levels rose and, in the melt down, a salt marsh was formed. Over the centuries, as sea levels stabilised and the tides retreated, a freshwater enclave of marsh and wood emerged that invited a variety of fauna and flora. Between 5000 and 2500 BC a thin stratum of sandy mud was formed, ready for imprints that were baked hard in the sun. Nowadays, before they are washed away by the sea, the footprints must be located and ideally photographed with measuring sticks for scientific research. This was achieved systematically from 1989 onwards. The latest research indicates that some of the semi-fossilised footprints may be 9,000 years old, dating to between 5350 and 3150 BC, that is, from the late Mesolithic to the mid-Neolithic Stone Age periods.

A complete red antler has been excavated from the later Stone Age period and hoofprints of domestic oxen have also been recorded. By analysing more than 200 human footprints, it has been calculated that the average heights for both male and female were smaller than ours today, although six-footers were not uncommon. Moccasin-like shoes have been observed but their bare feet show that they were troubled by many of the complaints we endure now: bunions, claw foot, high arch, bursitis and muscular dystrophy, not to say uncut toenails!

An awesome auroch, once widespread throughout Europe, including Formby and Martin Mere, but long extinct. (Courtesy W.G. Hale and Audrey Coney, Martin Mere: Lancashire’s Lost Lake)

The most impressive tracks are those of the aurochs. The shoulder height of these fearsome beasts could measure 6ft and their length 11ft from muzzle to rump. With a hoofprint nearly a foot long, they had a stride of about 6–7ft and sported broad, elongated horns that could reach 31in long. However, although they could move swiftly, it appears they did so nervously and may not have been a danger unless provoked or attacked. Although depicted in Palaeolithic cave paintings 15,000 years ago and widespread throughout Europe, they finally became extinct in Poland in 1627. Formby has the best-preserved remains of its tracks.

Massive auroch hoofprints – twice the size of cattle prints – have also been discovered in the silt of Martin Mere. Prints of wolves, the antlers of red deer and the bones of boar and sheep show that they also once roamed the area. An elk with antlers ‘two yards across’ was found buried below the peat. Geese, ducks and wildfowl have bred here since before the nineteenth century, most notably mallard, teal, shoveler and possibly tufted duck. The black-headed gull may have nested on islands in the mere and local people still take eggs for food in the spring.

CELTIC VIEWS, AXES AND SKULLS

Near the village of Bleasdale, high in the nearby fells, are the remains of a wooden henge circle dating from the early Bronze Age, maybe about 2,000 BC. Concrete posts mark the place where the wooden timbers originally stood before they were removed to Preston Museum for preservation. Gradually, from about this time, the Celts arrived. From hunting and gathering, they turned to converting the deciduous forest to farmland using flint axes and other tools.

Stone circles, hill forts and cairns indicate aesthetic appreciation, a religious outlook or territorial awareness, as in the cluster of sites in the Ulverston area. Here, commanding a beautiful view across the Leven Estuary and Morecambe Bay, a circle of stones at Sunbrick is surrounded by bracken on Birkrigg Common. A younger hillfort nearby at Skelmore Heads, Urswick, known locally as the Druid’s Circle, utilises the edge of a limestone scar to span the southern half of the Furness peninsula with two stone concentric circles bearing signs of ceremonial activity. Remains of five cremations have been discovered, one with an inverted urn.

The Iron Age came in gradually between 800 and 500 BC. With this more settled way of life, communities could build monuments and afford to trade as well. As can be seen from the illustration on page 16, socketed axes from this period are well preserved and beautifully decorated.

Looking down the valley towards Whalley at Portfield, excavations have revealed life in Iron Age times but there were almost certainly settlements on the site going back to 4,000 BC. Finds that bear witness to the civilised people who lived there include axes, a sharp, pointed knife, stud, gauge and part of a hilt. Of particular interest, all from the Bronze Age, are a penannular brooch (a loop of metal with an attached moveable pin), possibly of Irish craftmanship, a gold tress-ring (for binding the hair) and a biconical vessel (in the form of two cones joined point to point).

In contrast, finds have been made in the bogs and marshes of lower-lying land. Indeed, during excavation work associated with Preston Dock in 1885, a sensational discovery unearthed thirty human skulls, sixty pairs of red deer antlers, forty-three ox skulls, two pilot whale skulls and two dugout canoes. Recent research has revealed traces of trackways, grazing land and permanent settlements. These consisted of circular huts roofed with branches and then covered by skins or thatch. Each of them was probably inhabited by an extended family.

By the time the Romans arrived to usher in the next scene, the local tribes seem to have come under the aegis of the Brigantes, a tribe whose influence spread from a centre in Yorkshire over the north-west from coast to coast.

Iron Age axe heads from Skelmore Heads with beautiful decorations.

2

The Romans Came, Saw, Conquered – and Went

VENI VIDI VICI (JULIUS CAESAR), ‘I CAME, I SAW, I CONQUERED’ – BUT NOT HERE IN LANCASHIRE

Julius Caesar made two reconnaissance expeditions in 55 and 54 BC and temporarily occupied part of south-east England. This was followed up a century later by an invasion under the Emperor Claudius and Roman civilisation then spread to the north-west. There are no Roman villas in Lancashire that are confirmed by archaeology (but many, for example, in Yorkshire and only one in Cheshire). It seems that Roman civilisation here was largely confined to forts and their accompanying ‘vici’ (not ‘I conquered’ in this context, but villages that grew up outside the forts to provide services for those inside). They made little impact on the settled way of life that Celtic farmers and communities led in Lancashire. Finally, in AD 383, after three centuries of occupation, the Romans withdrew their forces from Britain starting in the north and west of the island.

‘BEFORE THE ROMAN CAME TO RYE …

… the rolling English drunkard made the rolling English road’ (G.K. Chesterton, ‘The Rolling English Road’, 1913). But the Romans planned their straight and direct network carefully, constructed by the army primarily for military reasons. The line of the route was surveyed; there were no problems of land ownership to be overcome; and construction was immediate, well maintained and lasting. One of them led over the Pennines from Manchester to York. Remarkable remains can be observed at Blackstone Edge near Littleborough where a paved road with a central gutter runs through a sunken stretch of land (a holloway). Although suggested to be a turnpike road, it is overlaid with medieval features in places and only the Romans could have constructed a road of that quality before then. The best view of a typical straight line of a Roman road, maybe even in England, can be viewed from Jeffrey Hill above Longridge. Look north along the line of the road from Ribchester to a fort at Burrow in Lonsdale, 2 miles south of Kirby Lonsdale. The summit of Pen-y-Ghent, the sighting point for the Roman surveyors, can also be seen in the far distance.

A QUEEN, FAITHFUL TO THE ROMANS, UNFAITHFUL TO HER HUSBAND

From their initial landings in the south-east, roads were crucial in the Roman advance to the north-west. The road network linked up with forts at Chester and York, which were established in the AD 70s. The Romans were then in a position to advance into the territory of the Brigantes, a tribe covering the north of England. Here, Queen Cartimandua and her husband Vinutius befriended the Romans and suppressed an anti-Roman faction. Then, when Caratacus, the national leader of the opponents of Rome, was defeated in battle and fled to her for protection she promptly reinforced her loyalty by handing him over to the invaders. When Vinutius became alienated from his wife, she seized his brother and other relatives. He retaliated by invading her kingdom but Cartimandua was reinstated by the Romans. She scandalously replaced Vinutius with his armour bearer, but the infuriated Vinutius returned to the fray and again she had to be rescued by the Romans. The quarrel was ended when a new Roman governor, Agricola, took control. His biography, written by the Roman historian Tacitus, is the best historical record for this period of Britain.

THE ROMANS INVENT OUR MOTORWAY NETWORK

The network of Roman roads in the region was constructed by the army for the military purposes of supply and policing, as in the rest of the province. The first one to be constructed in Lancashire may have been from Chester.

M6: The road from the south crossed the River Mersey at its first fordable point at Wilderspool (near the Thelwall Viaduct) where there was a Roman ‘mansio’, or lodge, for travellers. It grew into a small industrial town manufacturing bronze, iron, glass and pottery.

M62: There seems to have been a road from Wilderspool to Manchester (Roman Mamucium), from which radiated at least three Roman roads. One led over the hills to York. Alongside it, at Blackstone Edge near Littleborough, stands a mysterious grit stone pillar called the Aiggin, which is possibly a waymarker for the pack horse route, also marking the boundary between Lancashire and Yorkshire. Originally 7ft high, it has fallen or been pushed over and reduced to 4ft. It is incised with a Latin cross and the enigmatic letters I and T, possibly standing for the Latin I(n) T(e) ‘In you’ (we trust). The name is said to be derived from the French aiguille (needle) or aigle (eagle). It shows how the road enjoyed a continuity of use from Roman times through centuries to the later period.

M61: Another Roman road radiating from Manchester led towards the River Ribble. On the way, you pass another early medieval cross at Affetside, once again showing a continuity of use. At the Ribble, a bridge was protected by a fort at Ribchester which, like Manchester, was a hub for radiating Roman roads.

M55: Want to visit Blackpool? Take the Roman road from Ribchester travelling west and well marked on the Ordnance Survey map. This would take you through what is now Preston to Kirkham, where there was a small fort, probably to maintain a cavalry presence.

M6: If you wanted to go north or south from Ribchester, you would travel on the Roman equivalent of the M6. This continued north from Wilderspool on the Mersey crossing to Lancaster, passing through Wigan (Roman Coccium), where there was probably a fort, to Walton-le-Dale near Preston. There, a Roman military supply depot has been unearthed with finds of silver, lead, pottery, wine, oil, glass and jewellery. Nearly every site in Roman Britain reveals Samian ware. Made out of red clay, it made a long journey by sea and road from the centre of France where it had been designed and manufactured. One example unearthed at Walton-le-Dale was richly decorated with a centaur, sea bull, panther and Mercury. The Roman road bypassed Preston, thus anticipating the construction in 1958 of the first motorway in Britain, the Preston bypass! The road proceeds onwards to Lancaster (called Galacum by the Romans). Here it travels north towards Hadrian’s Wall. There, many mortaria (kitchen vessels) have been found that were manufactured at Wilderspool, where our journey started. Like our motorways, Roman roads stimulated trade and prosperity.

-CHESTER/-CASTER/-CESTER

Place names ending in -chester/-caster/-cester/-ceister proclaim the site of a Roman fort. These endings are derived from the Latin word castra, meaning a camp. The first part of the name may be an adaptation of the Roman word of the fortification or a local place. Ribchester was therefore the site of a Roman fort on the banks of the River Ribble. Its Roman name was Bremetennacum Veteranorum (of the veterans) and indicates that it was eventually garrisoned by veteran soldiers. At first, soldiers were recruited from Spain and Hungary in accordance with the common Roman practice of using foreign, not local, troops to garrison their provinces. It may be that when the Hungarians retired, their home territory had been abandoned by the Romans in the meantime and they could not be returned to their homeland. They were therefore retained at Ribchester, which was accorded special status and importance and became a centre of the region.

UNDERFLOOR AIR VENTILATION

The fort housed a cavalry unit to maintain order and protect the Roman settlements. It was originally built in the AD 70s with a rampart of turf topped by a wooden palisade. Timber barracks were built and stables were constructed with timber stakes driven into the ground, walls made from wattle and daub, and straw floor coverings. The fortifications were extended and later replaced in stone along with the gatehouses, towers and main buildings to combat threats and uncertainties associated with the local tribe of the Brigantes. A stone slab records that the construction was carried out by a legion based in Chester, the ‘XX Valeria Victrix’ (Twentieth Victorious Valerian), probably in honour of a victory obtained under their commander Valerius. The fort was constructed in a Roman standard design for infantry and adapted for cavalry occupation. It contained three most important central elements: granaries with underfloor air ventilation, the commander’s house and a headquarters building where all the troops could assemble and be given their orders. Four stone columns from one of the buildings adorn the entrance to the White Bull pub in the village and there are mysterious Roman Tuscan columns in the church that may have come from the fort.

COME OUT OF THE FORT AND ENJOY YOURSELF IN OUR VILLAGE

Outside a fort a vicus (village) grew up that would develop into a thriving community of its own with links to the outside world.

You can imagine how they might advertise their attractions:

Do you want new armour and weapons? Our metal and leather workers will supply them.

Does your equipment need repairing? Our joinery shops offer excellent service.

Do you dream of shaking off the strict military discipline in the fort? Drink, gamble and socialise with us!

Are you tired of a standard military meat diet? Supplement it at our butchers with extra beef, mutton, pork, goatmeat, venison, fowl and fish.

Our bathhouse provides all the facilities a Roman soldier deserves: a changing room, cold plunge pool and three rooms heated by a furnace. Enjoy a hot water bath, a steamy sauna or a chat in a warm relaxing atmosphere.

Our women are excellent company. Form a long-term relationship. Think of marriage and a happy family life.

See the tombstone of Julius Maximus, a soldier in the guard of the governor. The inscription affectionately records the death of his wife, who lived 38 years, 2 months and 8 days; their son, who lived 6 years, 3 months and 20 days; and her mother, who lived until she was 50. Julius set up the memorial to his ‘incomparable’ wife; his son, who was ‘most devoted’ to his father; and to his ‘most steadfast’ mother-in-law.

EXCITING DISCOVERIES

The whole complex of fort and vicus was surrounded by a Punic ditch (an extra line of defence that was dug in a V shape with one side much steeper than the other). Two particularly interesting objects have been excavated. The gravestone of a spirited horse and horseman was found in the River Ribble in 1876. He was inscribed as coming from Asturias in Spain. Shown bareheaded with a luxurious crop of hair, he is spearing an adversary underfoot. A ceremonial helmet (pictured above), one of the finest items of bronze work ever found in Britain, was discovered by a boy in 1796. The skull part of the helmet is decorated with a battle scene of eleven combatants on foot and, significantly, six on horseback. Originally gilded or silvered, the helmet would have been worn by a skilled rider in a show where the cavalry practised and demonstrated their skills. It was purchased by antiquarian collector Charles Townley of nearby Towneley Hall and then sold on to the British Museum but a replica is displayed in Ribchester Museum.

The Ribchester Helmet, now on display at the British Museum, dates from the late first or early second century. It was found by a clog maker, bought by antiquarian Charles Townley of Towneley Hall and on his death sold to the museum by his heir and cousin.

A SIGNALLING SYSTEM

A Roman signal station used to stand on Mellor Moor, 2 miles to the south of a fort. It was situated strategically, so that signals could be sent by fire or smoke between there and a fort on Carr Hill, Kirkham, nearer to the Ribble Estuary and the sea. Its outline is difficult to decipher now because of overploughing, two excavations and overgrowing vegetation but it consisted of a wooden tower surrounded by a ditch and bank and possibly a slight timber palisade. It was probably part of a wider system that linked up with Burrow in Lonsdale in the north and possibly west, where there are good views. However, to get past Whalley and beyond Pendle, a further three stations would be needed to obtain good sightings.

A CHRISTIAN ACROSTIC

Mamucium was a Roman fort with a hill shaped liked a breast (Latin mamma), hence Manchester. A fragment of stone was discovered there dated to the second century AD. On it was inscribed a Latin acrostic, which could be evidence of Christianity, as shown in the following table.

Usually in an acrostic the initial letters of a series of words form another word. In this case, the initial letters do so reading across, down and in reverse, and can be translated accordingly as well (‘the sower Arepo directs the wheels in his work’). If each letter is removed and displayed in the shape of a cross, it forms the Latin for ‘Our Father’ horizontally and vertically. There are two As and two Os left over as shown, which could represent the Greek letters Alpha and Omega, the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, symbolising the eternity of God. It might therefore be interpreted as a secret Christian sign.

THREATS FROM THE SEA

Two altars have been found at Lancaster Roman fort (Galacum). One is dedicated to Mars, the Roman god of war. That is nothing unusual as Mars was one of the twelve Olympians who formed the pantheon of the Greek and Roman gods. What is unusual is that the altar was dedicated not just by the Commander Sabinus but also by the company of bargemen who were under his control. There was a series of forts built on the site, culminating in a coastal defence fortification that was also a supply base built in the fourth century AD. This was to combat the threat coming from the sea, not just from Ireland but from the Saxons. It formed part of a coastal defence line along the west of Britain.

CAUGHT IN AN AMBUSH?

At Ribchester, another altar is unusual because it is dedicated to an extremely rare god, Lalonus Contrebis, maybe a god of the meadowland, who is described as sanctissimus (very holy). Only two other altars have been discovered with his name, one in Yorkshire and the other in Provence, where the god is allied to Fortuna (good luck). This is near to Spain, where there was a centre called Contrebia and troops from Spain were stationed in Ribchester. Julius Januarius, the dedicator of the altar, announces himself as a former decurion (an officer commanding a troop of about thirty cavalrymen) who was emeritus (retired, like present-day professors). He says he set up the altar to fulfil a vow. Can we imagine he was caught in the meadowlands, surrounded by a rebellious tribe and, despairing of his life, prayed to his ancestral god, who by good luck saved him?

3

Dark Ages and Light

ANGLO-SAXONS INVADE

During the Roman occupation of Britain, the life of most of the Celtic population continued as before. When Rome was captured by the Goths in AD 410, the Roman garrisons were withdrawn from Britain. Use of Latin in social life and in the army ended, organised maintenance of the roads ceased and the forts were adapted for other purposes or robbed for use as building material. North-west England truly entered a dark age. The civilising influence of the Romans and historic evidence both disappear from view.

It seems that the Romans may have adopted a scorched earth policy when they abandoned Ribchester. The only standing structures are those of the granaries, and they bear scorch marks as if they had been deliberately razed to avoid the enemy using them to their advantage later. The forts would have crumbled anyway through lack of maintenance and been taken over by British Celts. They lived in the buildings or adapted them for other uses, or they incorporated the materials in other structures. These can give valuable evidence of the Roman occupation. Ribchester church is built within the confines of the Roman fort, for example, and whole columns from the fort seem to have been embodied in the church. Innumerable individual and unidentified bricks and stones scattered in medieval buildings will have a story to tell of Roman times.

Even before the Romans left Britain in the fifth century, Anglo-Saxons had raided Britain. After that, their penetration into England was slow, starting in the south-east. DNA analysis suggests that there is minor Anglo-Saxon influence on the gene pool of the south-east of England, let alone the north-west. Their advance into the north-west may have been from over the Pennines. Place names can indicate where Anglo-Saxons settled. For example, the -ton suffix comes from the Old English for a farm or estate and there are more than 200 examples of this in Lancashire. Eccles is especially interesting. It is derived from the Greek for an assembly or church (hence ecclesiastical) and appears both by itself and with the addition of -ton. This is a sign of the spread of Christianity that was reignited in England by the arrival of St Augustine of Canterbury in 597.

FROM KINGS DOWN TO SLAVES

A hierarchy of rule and service stratified during the Anglo-Saxon period. The king was the main landholder but an aristocracy of earls also held large tracts of land. Subservient to them were thegns (thanes), who were lords of the manors, and drengs. Both classes owed service to the king, especially for supplying soldiers in times of war. Burgesses were townsmen, whose tenure was based on a financial payment. Radmen (riding men) performed errands for the king. All these were free men. Below them was a large class of villeins, small landowners owing services to the lord of the manor. ‘Borders’ owned less land than villeins and may have been ex-slaves, and oxmen may have had ploughing duties. At the bottom of the pile were the slaves with very little freedom. They worked for their masters but might have a little property and saved up for their freedom by working in their spare time.

Living conditions for the villagers were primitive. Their cottages, which they built themselves out of mud and wood, were so low they could scarcely stand upright. The roofs were covered with timber or thatch and the earth floor was strewn with rushes. They were kept warm by a fire in the middle and by the livestock that surrounded them (excellent environmentally, but what a hard life!). Porridge and vegetables were cooked on the fire, but oatmeal bread and beer would have to be brought in. Ewes and cows provided milk. If it could be afforded, salt was obtained from Furness or Cheshire to cure meat for the winter.

VIKINGS, DANES OR NORSEMEN?