Times Of Change
AD1200 to AD 1800... the village moves and expands
... growing freedom and prosperity
By 1200 the villagers of Tasburgh had become dominated by the lords of three manors, most were bound to their masters and to the land for life, paying for their smallholdings by supplying the manor with labour and produce. Their lands were in small separate strips in open fields. Their earth-floored shacks stood beside the common lands which bordered the River Tas and the Hempnall stream or which curved south away from the river at two points in the north of the parish. The commons were owned by the manor lords but most villagers had limited rights to cut peat or furze from the common for their fires and to graze animals there.
The chief manor at this time appears to have been the moated manor house standing alongside the chapel of St Michael. which was almost certainly on Chapel Hill. In 1239 Ralph, the lord of Uphall. Manor and his wife Olivia, assumed the name of 'de Taseburgh'. In 1279 his descendant, Robert de Taseburgh appointed the first rector of Tasburgh known to us by name, Stephen Wints of Yarmouth. Also in Tasburgh was a manor known later as Hunt's. One likely site of the manor house is either at or close by Old Hall Farm and thus near to the ancient area of settlement near the church. Immediately across the Tas was the manor of Rainthorpe, held in 1200 by Robert De Reynesthorp and his wife Sibil. At that time the manor house must have stood some 500 yards north east of the present Rainthorpe Hall near the site of the old Roman farm. Here has been found evidence of both Saxon and medieval occupation and here probably stood the manor church for the site is called Church Wood to this day.
The absolute power of the lords of the manors over the villagers is illustrated by a record of a payment by the lord of the manor of Uphall, by then a Richard de Boyland, of the sum of six pence yearly to King Edward 1 for the right to exercise local justice with the aid of a ducking stool, a pillory and a common gallows!
A clearer picture of the village emerges from documents of the 15th century. By then the terrible losses of life of the Black Death in 1348 and a further plague in 1361 together with social upheavals including the Peasant's Revolt of 1381 had loosened the hold of the manors. While we have no evidence of events in Tasburgh during the Peasant's Revolt we do know that Sir Thomas Modeax rode out from Norwich through the besieging peasants with twenty armed men and twenty archers to confer with the local gentry at Long Stratton, hence he almost certainly passed through the village and local manor lords could well have attended the meeting. After these tumultuous times many villagers paid money rents for their strips of land on the open fields and were in turn paid wages for work for the manor. Yeoman farmers owning strips had appeared, their wills and land sale documents help us to name and identify the open fields, commons and roads of medieval Tasburgh.
The shape of the old commonlands of Tasburgh, now all gone, give us firm clues as to how the village grew since commons normally arose on the meadows or waste land adjoining the arable fields. The map shows that the medieval open fields of Burrfeld (Borough Field) and ChurchfyId situated on medium to light valley side soil are almost surrounded by common lands. Around these two large fields were spread Hunt's Manor, the Church, Uphall Manor, the Water Mill, the Rectory (now Glebe Cottage) and many of the older houses. Clearly this area, now surrounded by Low Road, Church Hill and Grove Lane was the original cultivated core of the village. Later the ploughland must have been extended eastward to a new boundary at Tasburgh Common. Further clearance took place on light soils above the Hempnall stream and along the line of the now defunct Figgett Lane (in medieval times known as Thefgateway ... an escape route from the main road for highwaymen?).
By 1444 even the previously forested heavy claylands of Upper Tasburgh had been put to the plough for in that year we have a record of an open field in the village named Burwodefeld, the name indicating that it stood on the site of the 'Borough Wood'. The final clearance of the wooded claylands is indicated in the far western corner of the parish by a field called Le Stubbs (i.e. tree stumps). Another interesting field name was that of Le Holibredlond, so called because the rent from this field paid for the 'holy bread' used at Mass in the church.
Most of the village dwellings at this time would have been earth-floored hovels with open hearths from which smoke escaped past sooty rafters through the thatched roof. They were scattered around the edges of the lower greens but a new group of houses had appeared around the junction of Rowegateway and Suthgate as Ipswich Road and Fairstead Lane were then known. Upper Tasburgh had been born! This new hamlet, with its long tradition of a smithy and an inn, probably arose from the growing traffic of packhorses and carts along the trunk road as the wool and cloth trade grew. One of the dwellings near Rowegateway possessed the first known house name in Tasburgh and an attractive one at that, it was called 'Bettysyard'. This must have been the prosperous part of the village for another house nearby had a chimney, a rare luxury indeed at the time it was recorded, 1483.
Important changes had taken place at Rainthorpe some time before 1500. The hall and church at the Church Wood site were abandoned and Rainthorpe Hall was rebuilt in its present position, albeit in a basic form. At the same time it seems that the Tasburgh parish boundary was extended across the Tas to encompass the new hall; henceforth the lords of Rainthorpe Manor used and supported Tasburgh church.
The moated manor hall alongside Chapel Hill appears to have been resited some time in the Middle Ages. As at Rainthorpe, the parish boundary has been distorted across the natural water boundary, this time crossing the Hempriall stream to create an approach route to a rectangle of Tasburgh parish projecting into the parish of Stratton St Michael. In this annexed area medieval sherds have been found and here still exists Hall Farm. A Tasburgh manor owned the watermill in 1445 but later in the century it was sold together with thirty-six acres of land and the rents from another eleven acres.
Soon after 1500 many of the commons and parts of the open field system were enclosed giving the manor lords and some of the villagers their own separate fenced or hedged fields and meadows. Such land reallocations could lead to discontent and were the chief reason for Kett's rebellion which involved most of the county in 1549. The process of enclosure was completed in Tasburgh in 1818.
By 1550 the social structure of the village had changed radically. Secure at the top were the - often absentee- manor lords with their manor houses, 'hall farms', bailiffs and hired servants. The rector had a substantial rectory with farm buildings, fields and servants. The upcoming class were the yeomen farmers who were busy consolidating their holdings into compact farms and building comfortable farmhouses. Less affluent were the 'husbandmen', their smallholdings often comprising scattered rented strips in the remaining open fields. Frequently they made ends meet by working at other trades. At the foot of the social ladder were the landless and generally tradeless poor, living in flimsy shacks, hiring out their labour whenever and wherever they could and frequently supported by charity.
At all levels men and women had become freer to improve, or to worsen, their lot. Old wills and parish records give us glimpses into the lives of these Tasburgh people of three or four hundred years ago.
Edward Alexander, who died in 1569, described himself as a husbandman and was also one of the two blacksmiths in the village at the time. He owned a house and twenty-four acres of land in various small pieces which he left to his eldest son William, together with the smithy and tools. He had purchased a little house with a yard which he bequeathed to his second son, Richard, along with some land. All the corn growing on his land, his farm implements, stock and household goods were to be divided between his two sons. To his married daughter, Barbara, he left a small sum of money.
We must presume that Edward was a widower for no mention is made of his wife but another husbandman-blacksmith, John Marten, in 1597 made detailed provision for his wife Margaret. She was to live in the new parlour at the west end of the house and her two sons were to provide her with a hundred good bound faggots of wood which must be stacked in the yard before Candlemas (2nd February) so that they would be seasoned for the following winter. She was to be allowed to go in and out of the family house as she pleased, to have use of the oven to bake her bread and free access to the well. She was to be given five pounds yearly, half in March and half in September. On All Saints Day (1st November) she was to receive a combe of well cleaned mixed corn, 141b of well rotted hemp with which to spin and weave her linen and a combe of malt to brew her ale (the everyday drink before tea and coffee were known).
An interesting trade in the largely self-supporting village was that of glover. As early as 1355 we have a record of David the Glover and his wife Matilda living at the Ipswich Road/Fairstead Lanejunction. In 1603 another glover, John Allgard, died in Tasburgh and we learn from his will that he and his wife also ran a smallholding with cows, two horses and poultry. They grew a little corn and made hay. The stock in his shop included no less than 224 pairs of gloves together with bags, thirty-two money purses, fifteen small purses, two pairs of dannocks (hedging gloves) and a small satchel. These were mostly made from the skins of sheep and calves, but some were of dogskin. The larger items were made of horse or cow hides, these were probably easy to obtain for there was at that time a tanner in Tasburgh. In addition to helping on the land and doing the household chores Mrs Allgard used a spinning-wheel to make yarn from hemp which she wove into coarse cloth. She also brewed ale, made cheese and butter and salted bacon.
Rainthorpe Hall, which had been burnt down in about 1500 and rebuilt within three years, was purchased in 1579 by Thomas Baxter, a barrister. He undertook a major redevelopment of the hall to create much of the beautiful building which we see today. Mystery surrounds his death in 1611 when the rector wrote in the parish register, 'Thomas Baxter of Rainthorpe, gent, was buried ye ninth day of December in ye night, by whom 1 know not.' His tomb stands in the church chancel. By this time the two Tasburgh manors of Uphall and Hunt's had been brought under the single ownership of an absentee landlord, Sir Thomas Gresham, Lord Mayor of London.
The relief of poverty in medieval times was undertaken chiefly by the church, additionally at Tasburgh the Guild of Our Lady took care of its members in difficulty. In 1598 responsibility for the support of the poor was placed upon each parish which raised rates to this end. Individual cases of poverty in the village are seldom recorded but we do know that in 1640 Elizabeth Shepherd asked for charity from the parish. Her husband, John, had died owing money to several people in the village including the miller's brother, George Riseing. She had married when she was twenty-eight years old. Her house had three rooms, in one was a bed, a chest and some pewter and brass utensils, in another was a loom and some hemp. In dealing with her application for charity the rector described her as, 'very old in years and also impotent and lame in limbs and in respect of both more fit to receive the collection of charity of our parish ... her poverty craves for mercy'. She was only fifty-five years old!
Another pauper who we know from the parish records is Gilber Libbick who, in 1676 was seen by Tharston people stubbing up their gorse on Tharstom Common for firewood. He alleged that 'the inhabitants of Tasburgh would no longer maintain him'. He was fined sixpence.
In 1750 the lot of paupers in the village was probably improved by the building of the Town House at Marl Bottom which accommodated the poor and the sick together with an overseer and his family.
In 1747 Robert Browne bought a new churchwarden's register for seven shillings and sixpence and for more than half a century he continued to keep the accounts. No doubt with a new book he wished to make a fresh start for in the next year the church was reroofed. The following year he made a serious attempt to put the churchyard in order, hiring a man with a horse and cart for fifteen days. He had little encouragement for at the 1747 Vestry Meeting only five people attended in addition to the churchwardens and there is nothing to suggest that the rector ever attended a Vestry Meeting during Robert's tenure of office.
In the absence of accurate maps the parishioners and their priest would ensure that parish boundaries were not forgotten by walking them each Rogation Sunday. At every major boundary mark or turn Psalm 104 was said; to impress the place on the adults they beat it with willows while the spot was imprinted on the children's minds by upturning them. The northern parish boundary from the Tas to the main road was in those days a lane and since it was used for beating the bounds was called Procession Way. After a long walk around the limits of the parish there was a church service followed by a meal. The churchwarden's accounts for 1750 show that nine shillings was paid for beef, 'for when we went the bounds' and eight shillings and sixpence was spent 'for bread, wood and cooken of the same'. Usually ale was bought but this year none is recorded. Had overmuch been consumed the previous year?
According to Lloyds Evening Post and British Chronicle of 2nd August 1758 the local justices had ordered that a bridge be built across the Hempnall stream where Ipswich Road crossed the miry Deepwade. The bridge was no sooner erected than a mob of Long Stratton men pulled it down, determined not to lose their earnings obtained by dragging coaches and wagons from the mud. Ten years later the road was rebuilt as a turnpike with a tollgate at the top of the hill from Newton Flotman. A bridge and causeway were constructed across the Deepwade and again the Long Stratton men struck, attacking the workmen and pulling down the bridge but this time law and order prevailed and the bridge survived at the third attempt to build it.
In 1779 there was a house in Lower Tasburgh with a butcher's shop next door, a stable, a barn, a garden and orchard together with ten acres of arable land in several scattered pieces, ten acres of meadowland and ten acres of pasture. With the property went grazing rights for any sort of cattle on a common. The original document conveying the property from a Mr Marton to John Browne, a Tasburgh farmer and butcher still survives. It is very large and splendid, written on parchment, with a wide border at the top decorated with drawings in the middle of which is an ornate copy of the king's arms. The initial letter of the deed is about nine inches square and incorporates a drawing of George 111 surrounded by many scrolls. Attached by ribbon is a large seal six inches wide.
Mrs Addington's researches uncovered many strange words in the wills and inventories of our predecessors. for example, in a list of his household goods in 1606, John Turrold, a yeoman, possessed a trindle bed with lym, a chafendishe, one hakob, a wafflinge stole and a pair of quernes. Other words from 16th and 17th century documents include: chlisyn, whetlet, wilke, towercrub, waterskoove, gruffbeasts, dinefatt, kuwfer and pille ... any suggestions?
