In the Derbyshire Record Office there is a truly remarkable map.[1] It is known as the Seale Processional or the Gresley Processional, or to give it its DRO title the 'Procession Way plan of the Seale Estate’ which came into the care of the DRO from the estate of the Gresley family. It is a map of the Seale estate, which was brought back into the family’s possession in the later 16th century after a long period mainly in the hands of the Church. Much of the land, especially in Overseal, had been granted to Merevale Abbey near Atherstone, although large parts of Netherseal too were owned by the abbey, and they collected the tithes and taxes on such land as they owned. Land ownership itself is a confusing subject at this period as although the land might be owned by king, church or lord, in fact all sorts of people, commoners included, had rights to the land, with few exceptions (Forest law stands out here as an example of where common rights could be extinguished). No cartographer’s name is given, and the map is undated but from the style of handwriting is believed to have been created between 1500 and 1600. It is coloured ink in paper and is 40 x 44cm in size, and shows the villages of Overseal, Netherseal, Clifton Campville, Lullington, Coton-in-the-Elms, Rosliston and Linton. It is oriented to the east and Jerusalem, in keeping with other maps of this period.
With the Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII between 1536 and 1541, Merevale Abbey was sold off on 13th October 1538 along with all of its land and property, to lord Ferrers of Chartley on behalf of his son Walter Devereux.[2] Devereux sold the land to his relative, Sir William Gresley, sometime around 1570 and it was inherited by his son, Sir Thomas Gresley when his father died in 1573. It is possible that the map was created either by Ferrers, Devereux, or one of the Gresleys, giving a fairly wide date for its creation of between 1538 and 1570. The map is centred on what had been known as Grimswood but which we know as Grange Wood and Potter’s Wood. It was much larger in size then and in fact was divided into several woods, named on the map as Pype wodd, Spitoll wodd, Coton Park, Potteres wodd, Candilo wodd and Grange wodd. I’ve kept the original spelling partly to keep the connection and partly to try and convey some of its charm. Spitoll or spital wood was later known as Seale wood, still remembered in the names “Sealwood Lane” at both Overseal and Linton. Overseal was known for a time as “Spital Seale”, due to it being mainly owned by Merevale Abbey and the rents and tithes going perhaps to the upkeep of the abbey infirmary or lodging houses, or perhaps for alms giving. Other, later, maps also refer to Seale Wood as simply ‘the Great Wood’.
The whole of the wood would likely have been subject to Forest Law. There are still remains of the boundary ditch and bank, which would have had a paling fence to keep the deer in. This type of ditch, bank and fence was known as the park pale. This perimeter fence is called “the owte (outer) ring hedge”. Beyond the pale the law was different.
The most charming thing about the map are without doubt the drawings of the villages. The artist has drawn the houses in 3 dimensions and shows the roads through the villages. Each village is surrounded by an encircling hedge and sits within its own field system. The road through each village is gated and with the protective hedges and the gates, ruffians, footpads and robbers could be excluded after dark. The track from Overseal to Netherseal was a corpse path still known as Church Way and this can be seen on the map running across the open fields to the north side of Netherseal church.
The cardinal points are drawn to each side of the map, with east (Est) at the top, south (Sowthe) to the right &c. There are three churches, Netherseal, Clifton and Lullington and these are drawn accurately so we may assume that the village houses are also drawn accurately. However, this leaves us with a slight problem as Overseal has only eight buildings drawn, Netherseal has eight or nine plus the church (although as it is at the margin of the paper there may be more out of view). This cannot be an accurate representation of the number of houses, and neither do I think that is what the artist intended. The parish records are available from 1563 and a tally of the family names alone for the parish between 1563 and 1599 (approximately one generation) gives just over 200 individual family names. That does not take into account persons passing through the parish (gypsies or travellers), or individuals moving into the parish (through marriage perhaps), nor even multiple households with the same family name in the same village or the wider parish (my cousins grew up in Netherseal, our branch of the family in Overseal, for example). Even that is fraught with potential error though as besides Overseal and Netherseal the parish includes Donisthorpe, Boothorpe and any outlying farmsteads, with multiple spellings of the same name.
To keep my population estimates as simple as possible, I have taken Netherseal as the largest village in the parish, Overseal and Donisthorpe are smaller but similar in size to each other, and that Boothorpe is a small hamlet (Seale Grange coming under Netherseal). I estimate 80 houses in Netherseal, 55 each in Overseal and Donisthorpe, and 10 in Boothorpe. When outbuildings and barns are added in, that would make around 100 buildings in Netherseal, 65-70 in Overseal and Donisthorpe and 13 or so in Boothorpe. Little wonder then that the artist sketched an example rather than try to recreate entire villages. If my simple estimates are correct then population numbers would mean that Netherseal had perhaps 250 inhabitants, Overseal and Donisthorpe around 160 each and Boothorpe perhaps had 30 people living there. This seems to tally reasonably well with estimates of people to arable land or village acreage[3] and isn’t an unreasonable representation of the family names from the records. Peasant houses were not necessarily the hovels we might assume, so the representations of the style of buildings themselves are probably accurate.[4],[5]
The map is focussed on land ownership and the procession way was a form of beating the bounds. By making the circuit of the land each year, calling at specific boundary points the owner re-staked his or her claim to the land. This procession way leaves us with something of a problem in that the route of the way doesn’t conform exactly to modern roads or even public footpaths. The Seale Estate as purchased from Merevale Abbey did not include Boothorpe or Donisthorpe and these are not indicated on the map- but then neither were Lullington, Rosliston, Coton, Linton nor Clifton and they all appear, possibly because Donisthorpe and Boothorpe were separated from the great wood by land ownership and by the Woulds. The only person mentioned on the map is William Wakelin, because the land known as ‘Fyvelowes’ to the north of Overseal is in the lordship of Overseal but in his tenure. This must have been considered important enough to mention on the map, Wakelin’s tenure meant he held legal rights to the land even though it was not in his or his family’s permanent ownership. Perhaps it was held for a number of lifetimes, making it worthy of mention- although there were other tenures within the parish and I have no reasonable explanation why Wakelin should be mentioned specifically, unless the land area was a considerable size. The route then is not possible to completely identify and parts of it are now lost.
This Tudor map is both charming and remarkable and rightly features in the top ten of the ‘treasures’ of the DRO. We should consider ourselves incredibly lucky that it survives; how many parishes can claim a Tudor map as part of their shared cultural heritage? My thanks to Sue Brown of Packington for her invaluable assistance in reading the sometimes difficult Tudor script. Any mistakes are mine and not Sue's.
[1]https://calmview.derbyshire.gov.uk/calmview/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=D77%2F8%2F10&pos=7 Accessed 6thDecember 2020
[2] https://dottietales.wordpress.com/2015/12/08/merevale-abbey/ Accessed 6th December 2020
[3] https://ludusludorum.com/2014/10/28/get-medieval-the-village-in-the-middle-ages/ Accessed 7th December 2020
[4] https://www.archaeology.co.uk/articles/peasant-houses-in-midland-england.htm Accessed 7th December 2020
Amazing as we have a couple of similar names here in Tasmania. We have colonial settlers from Leicester shire here as well.
ReplyDeleteThat’s very interesting Helen, they took their hometown names with them then.
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