Like today, throughout recorded history a variety of taxes and tithes were raised on the people of England by those in positions of power and authority, and so too the villages and villagers of Seale Parish were bound by dues imposed on them by church and state. Amongst these taxes paid to the church were the annual tithes, usually a percentage (one tenth) of the harvest, whether that be in grain or fleeces, which were transported to a tithe barn owned by the church. Large parts of Overseal and Netherseal were owned by Merevale Abbey in the medieval period and different taxes and tithes would have been due at various points in the year. Whether there was a tithe barn in the parish and where that tithe barn was located is not known and it may be that either the tithe was transported to Merevale itself or paid as a commuted sum in cash.
There may be a clue in local place names which can help us here. The word ‘grange’ has the meaning of ‘outlying farm with tithe barns belonging to a monastery’ and there are two in the ancient parish. Seale Grange in Netherseal and Grange Farm in Overseal are both contenders and may both have had a tithe barn attached. A further clue in Overseal’s case is found in the old field names; opposite Grange Farm are two fields (presumably once one) that are both called ‘Barn Yard’ and it is possible therefore that the tithe barn was located opposite the farm, which was owned by the Abbey at Merevale, across what was once a lane and is now the busy A444.
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Figure 1. Grange Farm and Barn Yard from the 'lost' Enclosure Award Map circa 1755. Was one of the buildings adjacent to the farm a replacement tithe barn? |
Similarly, Grangewood was an outlying wood owned, at least in part, by Merevale Abbey. Seale Grange, to the west of Netherseal, was an outlying farm also owned by the Abbey and was probably leased out rather than operated by the monks themselves. It is also the case that tithe barns can be associated with the parish church. There are some remarkable medieval tithe barns remaining around the country, although they were often replaced by later brick buildings. If it is the case that the barn associated with Grange Farm stood across the road from it, then the barn was gone by the middle of the 18th century, although there were a small number of brick-built outbuildings adjacent to the farm, with one of these now having been converted to a dwelling. The map image showing Grange Farm and the fields called Barn Yard dates to the eighteenth century, and the image of Seale Grange dates to the Tudor period and shows an outbuilding that may be a tithe barn. The image is taken from a remarkable map that will be the subject of a later post. The earliest that Seal Grange is mentioned in the records seems to date to around 1216.[1]
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| Figure 2. Seale Grange from the Gresley Processional Map of the Seale Estate. |
Other payments involved the collection of the tax and a procession to pay those dues, which could lead to confrontation. The collection of Peter’s Pence began as an annual donation under Alfred the Great from England to the Pope in Rome (actually to support the English College in Rome) and lasted until the Reformation. Pentecostal dues were collected at Whitsun and were a hearth-tax or chimney tax and were therefore known as ‘smoke farthings’ or ‘Whitsun farthings’ (a farthing is a quarter penny- a ‘fourthing’ or ‘fourth part’ of a penny). Smoke farthings were collected and taken to the cathedral of the see in which the parish was located, which involved a procession of the clergy and representatives from the parish, and until the middle of the 12th century in the case of Seale parish this entailed a journey to Lincoln Cathedral. This was long journey, fraught with difficulty and even once the party arrived in Lincoln, fights were common between parishes over precedence of who should enter first (Whitsun battles were common across the country) and no doubt the parishioners of Seale were witness to, if not actual combatants in these brawls. Bishop Robert de Chesney issued a mandate in the middle of the 12th century that allowed distant parishes to process instead to suitable churches chosen by the archdeacon, and Seale parish was expected to process to St Helen’s at Ashby de la Zouch, no doubt a significant relief to the locals. Whether this had fallen into decline by the early 16th century or whether Seale was paying its smoke farthings to Merevale Abbey or elsewhere is uncertain, but an archdeaconry court case of 1509 reinforced the fact that parishioners were supposed to process to Ashby.[2] Whitsun was a major festival in the church calendar, and these processions were often the opportunity for a celebration, and it’s tempting to imagine the whole of the parish processing to Ashby in their finery for a decent knees-up, followed by a gentle stagger home over the Woulds later…
[1] DRO reference no. D77/1/7/13
[2] https://www.le.ac.uk/lahs/downloads/Courtneyvolume72-2vsm.pdf Accessed 8th December 2020
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