Great Haywood, Past and Present, People and Places

By David Robbie

Founded by Angles in the sixth century and recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086, Great Haywood, with its manor that included the adjacent estate of Shugborough and the ancient Forest of Cank, became an important political, religious and commercial centre in the Middle Ages. It was involved in the tumultuous events surrounding the overthrow of Richard II in the 14th century, the Wars of the Roses of the 15th century, Tudor intrigues in the 16th century, the English Civil War of the 17th century, the Jacobite Rebellion of the 18th century, and the transport revolutions of the 18th and 19th centuries.

Great Haywood’s location on four great highways of travel and trade has allowed it to witness the migration of early settlers, the passage of powerful kings and queens, large armies and rich merchants, as well as eminent travellers and writers. Situated on the important River Trent, it also enjoyed the golden age of coaching, was once one of the busiest canal junctions in England and saw the building of two important national railway lines. It has been home to powerful nobles, influential politicians, fine artists and writers, a serial killer, Nazi war criminals and a large tropical reptile. And how many villages can boast of fascinating links with the Faerie Queene, the Holy Grail and The Lord of the Rings? Read on to find out more.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: May 24, 2024
• ISBN: 9781035804702

David Robbie

David Robbie was born in Blyth, Northumberland, and was educated at the local grammar school, then at Edinburgh University, where he gained a Master of Arts degree with Honours in History. He studied for a Postgraduate Certificate in Education at Hull University and then enjoyed a career of almost forty years as a teacher, first at the Percy Jackson Grammar School, Adwick le Street, near Doncaster, then at Rugeley Grammar School and its successor, Fair Oak School, in Staffordshire. In retirement, he has pursued his interests in local and family history, on which he gives talks and writes articles. He has lived in Great Haywood for over fifty years.

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About the Author

David Robbie was born in Blyth, Northumberland, and was educated at the local grammar school, then at Edinburgh University, where he gained a Master of Arts degree with Honours in History. He studied for a Postgraduate Certificate in Education at Hull University and then enjoyed a career of almost forty years as a teacher, first at the Percy Jackson Grammar School, Adwick le Street, near Doncaster, then at Rugeley Grammar School and its successor, Fair Oak School, in Staffordshire. In retirement, he has pursued his interests in local and family history, on which he gives talks and writes articles. He has lived in Great Haywood for over fifty years.

Dedication

To Ann

Copyright Information ©

David Robbie 2024

The right of David Robbie to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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Foreword

I came to live here in Great Haywood in 1966 when I moved to Staffordshire to teach at Rugeley Grammar School, and have continued to live here ever since. Throughout those many years, I have explored, observed, listened, read, asked questions and made notes. I now hope that this book, the result of my researches, will provide a full and interesting account of the village where I planted my roots many years ago and which I now regard as my home.

Although I was not born in this area, two discoveries in my family history have strengthened my links with the county and with this village. The first was that my great-great-great grandfather, Charles Robbie, a Scotsman from Aberdeenshire, served in the 80th (Staffordshire Volunteers) Regiment of Foot between 1816 and 1825, and during some of that time was stationed in Gibraltar and Malta.

Secondly, it is well known that when people adopted surnames, some of these names were occupational, reflecting their jobs such as Smith or Farmer or Tanner. Other surnames are habitational, because people adopted the name of their town or village, usually when they left it to live elsewhere, so that many people with the surname Haywood may have ancestors who originated here. I have known for a long time that one of my paternal great-grandmothers was called Caroline Haywood but, coming from the North-East of England, saw no connection with this village when I came to live here, just a happy coincidence.

It came as a big surprise to me, therefore, when I discovered, a few years ago, that my great-great-grandfather, Edwin Haywood, was born in Birmingham in 1815. And, apparently, many of the surnames found in Birmingham are derived from place names in its neighbouring counties. I have subsequently traced my Haywood ancestors to Rowley Regis, which used to be part of Staffordshire, thus strengthening the possibility that some of my distant ancestors may have originated in the Haywoods. Perhaps I was drawn here by some mysterious ancestral power.

In writing this book over a period of more than thirty years, I have received much information, help and advice from many people. I wish to acknowledge the assistance provided in a wide variety of ways by the following: the late Anne Andrews, the late Syd Ball, Peter Barnes, Peter Bathew, the late Barrie Birt, Fr Julian Booth, Steve Booth, Penny Breia of the Lichfield Studios, Andy Brooks, Keith Butler, Anne Clendon, Mike Deavall, the late Cys Dyble, Tudor Elsmore, the late Peter Emberton, Tom English, the late Trevor Field-Williams, Maggie Fitzpatrick, Ann Furber, Dave Girling, the late Rosie Gray, Liz Harris, Bob Hill, Christine Hill, Helen and Andy Holt, Claire Hunt, William Ives, Barry Job, Joan Jones, Simon Jones, Helen and Joe Kay, Marion Kettle, Tim Lawrence, Harry Lloyd, Jane Maingay, Marjorie Mellor, the late Monica Moreton, Graham Morrall, Caitlin Muir, Lauren Muir, Lynn and Colin Muir, Mel Newman, Geoff Pick, Mick and Angela Powner, the late Mick Reay, Anne Reid, Michael Thompson, Michael Tyrie, Geoff and Mary Wardle and the late Lady Imogen Wolseley.

Special thanks are due to Scott Whitehouse of the Staffordshire Libraries and Arts Service whose collaboration on the J. R. R. Tolkien in Staffordshire 1915–18 Centenary Project brought us so many wonderful discoveries and experiences on Cannock Chase, in the village and elsewhere in the county. I also wish to thank Professor Nils Ivar Agøy, Nancy Bunting and John Garth for their knowledge and advice on my Tolkien pieces; and Cathleen Blackburn of the Tolkien Estate and Catherine McIlwaine, the Tolkien Archivist at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, for their kindness and assistance with other Tolkien materials.

Many thanks also to Robin Mathams and David Barrett for sharing with me their extensive knowledge of local railways, especially the Trent Valley Railway; and to Alan and Annette Bloor for sharing their detailed knowledge of St John’s Church. I also wish to express my gratitude to those many contributors to the Haywoods Remembered page online, which is a wonderful resource of shared memories and memorabilia, and in particular to Kate Louise Elsmore, Ann Hall, Michael Jenkinson, Andrew King, the late Paul Millard, and Amanda Pearson.

I am also very grateful to Paul Green who drew the location map; to Chris Copp, Collections Manager at Staffordshire County Museum, for his patient assistance with illustrations; to Steve Banner for two brilliant aerial photographs of Essex Bridge; to the Lewis family who have allowed me to use the Lewis Family Collection of picture postcards to illustrate this book; to Claire and the late David Hunt for the use of their photographic collection; to all those individuals who have allowed me to use their old photographs as illustrations; to Chris Platt who took photographs especially for this book; and to John Garofall who has read the manuscript and made many valuable suggestions about style, grammar and vocabulary.

Any author’s profits from the sale of this book will be shared among Great Haywood’s St Stephen’s Church, St John’s Church, the Memorial Hall and the Sports and Social Club.

David Robbie

Great Haywood, 2022

Historical Note

There are some doubts and disagreements about the location of the ancient settlement of Haiwode that was described in the Domesday Book of 1086. Some writers have stated that it probably lay where Great Haywood now stands while others believe that it must have been closer to the modern villages of Little Haywood or Colwich, nearer to the ancient church at Colwich. Some writers have even said that the present village of Great Haywood may not have been within the old Manor of Haywood, the eastern boundary of which stretched only as far as the Trent. It is doubtful whether the truth can ever be established beyond doubt, but the evidence that is available does suggest to me that ancient Haiwode stood roughly where modern Great Haywood stands and that it did lie within the Manor of Haywood. In the 15th century, a smaller secondary settlement was established about a mile away that became known as Heywode Parva (Little Haywood), while the original settlement became Heywode Magna (Great Haywood). This account is based on these assumptions.

Introduction

I have written this book, over a period of more than thirty years, in an attempt to provide a guide, for villagers, visitors and others, to the past and present, people and places of the village of Great Haywood in Staffordshire. I hope it will be useful to anyone interested in local and/or family history and, since there are few other books on Great Haywood, that it will also encourage others to continue to chronicle the history and life of our village. Local history is the collective memory of a community, from which it can draw strength and inspiration. A study of local history, as of family history, gives us a greater sense of identity, of knowing who we are and where we have come from, and helps to bind us together as a distinctive community.

I have tried to write in such a way that the book can either be read through as a continuous narrative, or each section and even each chapter can be read independently. It can also be used simply as a reference book. I have not included an index, but there is a detailed list of contents. I have also sought to include my sources in the text, where possible, rather than use footnotes or long lists at the end of the book. There is some unavoidable repetition of some details, but this has been kept to a minimum by including references to other parts of the book where further information can be obtained on a particular topic. I have also included a substantial bibliography which lists my sources and provides opportunities for further reading.

The account has been limited, as far as possible, to Great Haywood including, on the opposite bank of the River Trent, Shugborough, with which it has long been closely linked, first as a Bishop’s residence and then as an aristocratic estate. The physical link between them was originally a ford then a wooden, and later a stone, bridge, and the two have grown together for centuries. Early references to Haiwode or Heywode often meant Shugborough, while the village developed partly as a settlement serving the Shugborough Estate. No village exists in complete isolation, however, and I have wandered occasionally into neighbouring villages and areas when I felt it to be necessary or appropriate.

People often live in or visit places and yet are totally unaware of what lies behind what they see there. At first sight, Great Haywood is a fairly ordinary English village on the River Trent, close to the county town of Stafford and to Cannock Chase, but behind its unspectacular appearance there lies a great deal of fascinating fact (and fiction) that stretches back over many centuries and is full of interest and variety. It has witnessed many important events and has been home to many prominent, influential and talented people.

Founded by the Angles in the 6th century and recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086, Great Haywood, with its manor that included the adjacent estate of Shugborough and the ancient Forest of Cank, became an important religious and commercial centre in the Middle Ages. It was involved in the tumultuous events surrounding the overthrow of Richard II in the 14th century, the Wars of the Roses in the 15th century, Tudor intrigues in the 16th century, the English Civil War of the 17th century, the Jacobite Rebellion of the 18th century and the transport revolutions of the 18th and 19th centuries.

The village is situated on four great highways of transport and trade, past and present—the River Trent, England’s third longest river; London Way, later the Great North West Road, for centuries the main route from London to Chester and North Wales, and to the North-West of England and the West of Scotland; the Trent and Mersey and the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canals, which were essential parts of the Grand Cross network of canals linking four great ports of England; and the Trent Valley and North Staffordshire Railways, which are now part of the high-speed West Coast Main Line.

Great Haywood and Shugborough have been home to powerful nobles and dominant families such as the Aston, Whitby, Anson and Clifford families; the adventurer Admiral Lord Anson; fine artists and writers such as Thomas Peploe Wood and his brother, Samuel; the poet, playwright and essayist, Dr Samuel Johnson, best known as the compiler of A Dictionary of the English Language; J. R. R. Tolkien, author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings; the serial killer William Palmer, known as the Prince of Poisoners; the internationally renowned photographer, Patrick Lichfield, who was also Shugborough’s 5th Earl of Lichfield; and many notable local characters. Well-known travellers such as John Leland and Celia Fiennes have journeyed through here and left their descriptions of what they saw. War saw prisoners of war and Nazi war criminals here.

Great Haywood has also been home to many people who have contributed to the development and the life of the village and it is impossible to give accounts of everyone. We do not even know the names of those early families who felled the trees, cleared the undergrowth, uprooted tree stumps and rolled away large stones to establish the village in the first place, or those many people who toiled on the land hereabouts and worked at their trades through many centuries, earning little but ensuring that they and their families survived and that the village prospered. In the 19th century the wide variety of trades represented in the village made it into an almost self-sufficient community.

Here you will find, over the years, a multiplicity of trades—farmers, labourers and dairymen; shepherds, cowmen and swineherds; butchers, bakers and grocers; tailors, cordwainers and dressmakers; fishermen, net makers and fish dealers; surveyors, roadmen and tollhouse keepers; wharfingers, lock keepers and collectors; platelayers, pointsmen and station masters; quarrymen, brick-makers and thatchers; stonemasons, bricklayers and carpenters; plumbers, glaziers and painters; brewers, coopers and excise men; vicars, priests and ministers; schoolteachers, solicitors and architects; stablemen, grooms and coachmen; footmen, butlers and valets; gamekeepers, bailiffs and land agents; kitchen maids, scullery maids and nursery maids; doctors, nurses and midwives; publicans, millers and policemen—all contributing to making the community virtually self-sufficient.

In more recent times many more people, some of them mentioned elsewhere in this book, have made valuable contributions through their work in providing village amenities. Many more, whose names do not appear here, have contributed through their time and efforts given freely and willingly to lead youth groups and interest clubs, or to serve on councils and committees. We can, however, identify certain people who spent all or part of their lives in the village who achieved national fame (or infamy), or who have made marked contributions to the village, as well as others, less well-known but notable or colourful local characters who have provided interest and variety in the life of the village.

People have over the years created buildings here to meet their various needs, from humble cottages to a grand mansion. Great Haywood has a church that has moved two miles from where it was built originally; a bridge that is the oldest, longest and, many believe, the most beautiful, of its type in England; and a canal basin where, it can be said, the waters of the North Sea, the Thames Estuary, the Bristol Channel and the Irish Sea all meet. The village also has a Square that was once called the Bull Ring but is in fact more triangular in shape, plus the remains of a fine banqueting hall. During the Second World there was an American hospital here which later became a prisoner of war camp. It has a village hall that is also a war memorial and a reading room that is now a social club; and an Abbey and a Manor House that have never been what their names suggest they once were. It witnessed one of the earliest fatal motorcar accidents and once was home to a large tropical reptile. And how many villages can boast of links with the Faerie Queene, the Holy Grail, and Middle-earth? Read on to find out more.

Past

1. Beginnings

(i) The First Settlers

Surveys of the historical character of the area around Great Haywood suggest various early prehistoric activities and settlements. The remains of several woolly rhinoceroses, dating back 30-50,000 years, were discovered in a quarry near Alrewas in 2002, and bones from mammoths, reindeer, wild horses, bison and a wolf have also been found. Human activities appear to have increased from the Neolithic period onwards suggesting that the area was well used and probably cleared of many of its trees. Stone Age remains have been found at Bowers Cave, Etchinghill, Rugeley and an antler tool was found in the bed of the River Trent near Essex Bridge in 1961.

There are indications of Bronze Age activities at Ingestre and in Shugborough Park where shards of pottery and charred barley grains have been discovered. A bronze weapon was ploughed up at Swansmoor in the 19th century. Bronze implements have been found at Yarlet, Stone and Leigh, and there was possibly a Bronze Age settlement at Tixall. Iron Age hill forts were located at Castle Ring and Bury Ring and there is evidence of an Iron Age track at Shugborough. Roman coins have been found near Tixall and Roman pottery at Chartley but there is no evidence of any major Roman settlements in the immediate area. There was at one time a cohort of soldiers stationed at Wolseley to guard the ford crossing the River Trent there, and later a Romano-British settlement at Shugborough. Major Roman civil and military settlements were established at Water Eaton (Pennocrucium) near Penkridge and Wall (Letocetum) near Lichfield.

The first human settlement in or near what is now Great Haywood was probably established by a group of Angles at some time in the 6th century A.D. Angles had been leaving their homelands in northern Germany since the 3rd century because of pressures on their lands from flooding, rising populations and

conflicts with other tribes. Many had crossed the North Sea in their boats and had settled first in eastern England before groups moved into the Humber estuary and along the River Trent and other rivers. No one knows exactly where these first settlers landed and established their settlement but they probably navigated the Trent for as far as they could to a point just before the river narrowed as it lost its tributary river, the Sow, and became more difficult to navigate. They landed on the wooded banks of the river and here made a settlement.

The place had several advantages for a settlement. The Trent itself provided a water supply, fish and wildfowl to eat, a means of transport and some degree of defence against attack. At this point, the river could be crossed by a ford and further upstream its power was later to be harnessed to drive a mill. The land was sheltered and fertile, excellent for growing crops and for grazing animals. The forest supplied timber for fuel and building materials as well as wild animals, such as boar, deer, cattle and birds for food. The wild cattle that once roamed the Chase were possibly the ancestors of the white cattle of Chartley.

Nevertheless, the first settlers faced a huge task in establishing the original settlement, which was just a clearing in the forest, created with fire and axe probably by a single family, or at most a few families, since the cleared land would not be able at first to support many people. The trees that were felled were used to build houses and to create an area of habitation, cultivation and grazing for animals. The settlement was probably then enclosed and protected by a wooden stockade, one of a series of small islands of cultivated land in the area connected by rough tracks.

The settlement continued to thrive and to grow, attracting more settlers and acquiring a name—something like Haegwudu, derived from two old English words—haeg, meaning an enclosure, and wudu, a wood, and together meaning an enclosed wood or an enclosure in a wood. The word hay came to be used quite widely in the Cank Forest (now Cannock Chase) to indicate an enclosed area. The area of habitation and cultivation continued to expand and the village became a thriving settlement within a larger area of Angle settlement that developed into the Kingdom of Mercia. This became the largest and most powerful of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, a fact confirmed by the discovery of the Staffordshire Hoard near Lichfield in July 2009.

At its peak, the Mercian kingdom stretched from London to Derbyshire and from Herefordshire to Lincolnshire. Mercian kings called themselves Rex Britanniae (King of Britain) and the kingdom stood at the centre of the Anglo-Saxon world. It flourished in the 7th century under the leadership of strong kings such as Penda (d. 655) and Wulfhere (d. 675) and grew even stronger in the 8th century under Ethelbald (d.757) and Offa (d.796).

In the 9th century, however, central Staffordshire fell under Danish control as part of the Danelaw. There is no evidence of any Danish settlement in Haywood itself, although Viking raiders appear to have penetrated as far as Danelsuch Bridge on the Trent, between Bishton and Rugeley, about three miles from the village on the south-east boundary of the present Colwich Parish. The use of the word carucate, however, a measure of land used by Danes, in the Domesday entry for the nearby hamlet of Coley suggests there may have been a Viking settlement there, and there was possibly one at Tixall as well, its name possibly derived from a Danish warrior called Tyche who settled there.

In the 10th century, as the Danelaw was gradually reconquered, Mercia was divided, for the purposes of war organisation and peaceful government, into Shires grouped around and named after the chief town or Burh (fortified town). So Staffordshire became an administrative unit centred on the Burh of Stafford and it was subdivided into five hundreds, each of which originally consisted of about a hundred households and which dealt with matters such as law and order and taxation. Haiwode, as it was called in the Domesday Book, was part of the Pirehill Hundred, named after a small hill south of Stone.

(ii) Domesday Book

After the Normans, under William, Duke of Normandy, defeated the English under King Harold at the battle of Hastings in 1066, England acquired a new king, William I, and a new ruling class of Norman lords whose loyalty was rewarded by William in the form of lands confiscated from Englishmen who opposed him, and with high offices in both Church and State. William and the Norman lords proceeded to stamp their authority on their new realm with ruthless efficiency. William twice visited this part of Staffordshire with his armies to stamp out rebellions against him in 1069 and 1070. Much destruction was wrought and much of the Stafford area was laid waste but we do not know how much Haywood suffered.

William believed that all the land in England belonged ultimately to him so he needed to discover more about the country he had conquered and especially to discover its worth in taxation. He wanted to know what land he had, who held it from him and wished to define the duties and responsibilities of each landowner. William therefore ordered Commissioners to tour the country and to record as many details as possible about every town, village and hamlet.

The information collected by the Commissioners was copied by the King’s Clerks into folios which were bound together into what became known as the Domesday Book of 1086. This gives us a very detailed picture of England at that time, which was basically the old English society pre-1066 now under the new management of foreign lords. The English called it Domesday Book because it reminded them of the Day of Judgement, a record the details of which could not be altered and that was valid for all time. It was written in an abbreviated Latin and provides us with the first written record of Haiwode. This is what it said:

TERRA EPI CESTRE

IN PEREHOLE HUND.

Ipfe eps ten HAIWODE. Scs CEDDE tenuit T. R. E.

Ibi dimid hida. Tra e.x.car. In dnio funt ii 7 ix. uilli 7v.

bord cu pbro hnt. vi. car 7 dimid. Ibi molin de. v. folid.

Valuit 7 ual. XL. folid.

This is an abbreviation of:

TERRA EPISCOPUS CESTRE

IN PEREOLLE HUNDRED

Ipse episcopus tenet HAIWODE. Sanctus Cedde tenuit Tempore

Regis Edwardi.

Ibi est dimidia hida. Terra est X carcucis. In dominio sunt II & IX villani & V bordarii cum presbytero habentes VI carcucis & dimidiam. Ibi

molinus de V solidus.

Valuit & valet XL solidos.

This translates as:

LAND OF THE BISHOP OF CHESTER

IN PIREHILL HUNDRED

The same Bishop [of Chester] holds HAYWOOD. St Chad’s [Bishop of Lichfield] held it in the reign of King Edward [the Confessor].

There is half a hide. There is land for 10 ploughs. There are 2 ploughs in demesne and 9 villeins and 5 bordars with a priest who have 6¹/2 ploughs There is a mill worth 5 shillings.

The value was and is 40 shillings.

It is not certain exactly where this settlement of Haiwode was located, although many believe that it stood where the village of Great Haywood stands today. So what does the Domesday Book tell us about Haywood? It tells us first of all that the village of Haywood belonged to the Bishop of Lichfield before 1066 but after the Conquest it was held by the Bishop of Chester. In fact, at the start of the reign of Edward the Confessor, Lichfield was the centre of the diocese and the Bishop of Lichfield the most important Bishop. During William’s reign, however, the balance of religious power shifted to Chester and the centre of episcopal power had been transferred there in 1075. The Bishop of Chester in 1086 was Robert de Limesey, one of the King’s chaplains and his staunch ally, and he was later to transfer the centre of the diocese to Coventry in 1102.

The Domesday Book tells us that there were about 60 acres of arable land (one hide was roughly 120 acres) belonging to the Lord of the Manor. The number of ploughs noted in the Domesday Book was in fact the number of plough-teams of eight oxen per plough, and one plough-team was generally regarded as capable of ploughing one acre in a day. Ploughland in the survey was in theory what a team of eight oxen could plough during a farming year. So land for ten ploughs suggests that by 1086 a total of about 3,500 acres of land had been cleared, although this does not mean that all of this was being cultivated as arable land.

There were nine villeins, five bordars and a priest who altogether had 6¹/2 ploughs, that is 52 oxen. Villeins were villagers who held land from the lord in return for labour services on the lord’s land, while bordars were poorer smallholders or labourers who might have a small amount of land but depended on paid work to survive. The record that part of the village was in demesne tells us that some of the land in the village was farmed specifically for the lord himself, who owned two plough teams. This in turn suggests that there was a building in or near the village where the lord, the Bishop of Chester, could reside. There was a mill that was valued at 5 shillings per year for taxation, one of the most valuable in the county.

So Haiwode was really quite a small village, with a population of probably no more than 30 when we include the wives and families of those noted in the Domesday Book. The existence of a priest is interesting since that suggests a church or chapel as well. There may well have been such a building in the village, but it would have been a wooden structure of which no records or remains exist. It is more probable that the church or chapel was well away from the area of settlement in what is now Colwich.

There is a legend that St Chad, who brought Christianity into Mercia, and who was consecrated as the first Bishop of Lichfield in 669 A.D., lived for a time as a hermit in the Cank Forest and built a wooden chapel on the site of what is now the Church of St Michael and All Angels, Colwich, about two miles from Great Haywood. The name Colwich suggests a settlement of charcoal-burners and it could be that Chad built his chapel in a clearing in the forest here, where the charcoal makers lived. It is possible that there was still a chapel there in 1086 and that it served a number of local farming communities such as Coley, Bishton, Moreton and Wolseley as well as Haywood. Certainly a stone chapel was built on the same site at some time after 1100, part of which is probably now incorporated into the north aisle of the church. The use of the term the church of Heywode for Colwich church in medieval documents supports this idea.

The value of the village in 1086 had not increased since before 1066, while the value of many other settlements had increased considerably. This suggests that William’s visit to the area with his army in 1069–70 had probably not caused a great deal of suffering in the Haywood area, although the Domesday Book did report much land that had been laid waste in Stafford, Brocton and Bednall. In general, Domesday Book recorded Staffordshire as a fairly poor, thinly populated county, with much of the land described as woodland or waste. At the time of the Domesday survey, the county was still suffering the effects of three harryings—by the Danes at the end of the previous century, by Edmund Ironside in 1016 and by William in 1069 and 1070.

The book recorded 334 settlements in Staffordshire, of which only about 150 had 30 or more recorded inhabitants, although it did count only heads of households, not wives and children. There were very few priests noted and it is possible that English priests had suffered badly in William’s visits to the county in 1069 and 1070. This and the general poverty of Staffordshire may also help to explain why the centre of the diocese had been moved to Chester in 1075. There were only three towns in the county—Stafford, the county town, Tutbury, an important trading centre, and Tamworth, the old capital of Mercia. Lichfield was an important religious centre and there were about 40 churches in the county.

Domesday Book, however, continues:

Hae trae fufcriptae ptin ad haiuuode.

Ipfe eps ten HVSTEDONE 7 picot de eo. 7 Nigell de picot. Ibi

Ibi funt.v.uilli cu. II. car. 7 III.ac pti. Valuit 7 ual. x. fol 7 ix. den.

Ipfe eps ten VLSELIE. 7 Nigell de eo. Ibi dim hida ptin ad

Haiuuode. Ibi funt. IIII. uilli 7 II. bord cu. I. car.7 III. ac pti

Valuit 7 ual. XL. denar.

Ipfe eps. ten FRODESWELLE. 7 Aelfelm de eo. Ibi ptin ad Haiuuode.Tra. e. v.car. Ibi funt. III. uilli 7 II. bord cu. II. car.

Ibi. I. ac pti. Silua dimid leuu lg. 7 II qz lat.

T.R.E. ualb. III. fol.Modo. XIII. folid. 7 IIII. denar.

In M HAIWODA funt. VI. ac. pti. Silua. II. leuu leg. 7 una lat.

This is an abbreviation of:

Hae terrae subscriptae pertinent ad haiuuode.

Ipse episcopus tenet HUSTEDONE & picot de eo. & Nigellus de picot. Ibi

Ibi sunt V villani cum II carcucis & III acrae prati. Valuit & valet X solidos & IX denarios.

Ipse episcopus tenet VLSELEI. & Nigellus de eo. Ibi dimidia hida pertinent ad Haiuuode.

Ibi sunt IIII villani & II bordarii cum I carcuca & III acrae prati.

Valuit& valet XL denarios.

Ipse episcopus tenet FRODESWELLE. & Aelfelmus de eo. Ibi pertinent ad Haiuuode.

Terra est V carcucis. Ibi sunt III villani & II bordarii cum II carcucis.

Ibi est I acra prati. Silua dimidia leuua longa & II quarentenae lata.

Tempore Regis Edwardi valebat III solidos. Modo XIII solidos & IIII denarios.

In MANERIO HAIWODA sunt VI acrae prati. Silua II leuuae longa & una lata.

This translates as:

The following lands belong to Haywood

The same Bishop [of Chester] holds HIXON and Picot holds it from him,

And Nigel from Picot. There are … [hides].

There are 5 villeins with 2 ploughs and 3 acres of meadow. The value was and is 10 shillings and 9 pence.

The same Bishop [of Chester] holds WOLSELEY and Nigel holds it from him. There is ½ hide, which belongs to Haywood. There are 4 villeins and 2 bordars with one plough and three acres of meadow.

The value was and is 40 pence.

The same Bishop [of Chester] holds FRADSWELL and Aelfelmus holds from him. There are…[hides] that belong to Haywood. There is land for 5 ploughs. There are 3 villeins and 2 bordars with 2 ploughs.

There is one acre of meadow. The woodland is ½ a league long and 2 furlongs wide.

In the time of King Edward [before 1066] it was worth 3 shillings; now 13 shillings and 4 pence.

In the MANOR OF HAYWOOD, there are 6 acres of meadow. The woodland is 2 leagues long and 1 wide.

What this part of Domesday Book tells us is that there was also a Manor of Haywood, extending much further than the village of Haywood itself and stretching from Fradswell in the north, through Hixon, to Wolseley in the south, making it an area of about thirteen miles in length by about five miles in width. These outlying villages are known as berewicks. The manor belonged to the Bishop of Chester and his main tenants were Picot, Nigel and Aelfelmus. There was a considerable amount of arable and meadow land, and the manor was prospering as its overall value had increased since 1066. There is also mention of woodland which would be forests preserved as royal hunting grounds. The area near Fradswell was small but the larger area two leagues long and one wide (6 miles by 3 miles) refers to that part of the Cank Forest that fell within the manor.

Other local settlements recorded in Domesday Book, but which were outside the Manor of Haywood, were Scoteslei (Coley), Mortone (Moreton), Bispetone (Bishton), Gestreon (Ingestre), Ticheshale (Tixall) and Certelie (Chartley).

2. The Manor of Haywood

(i) Haiwode

The early Anglian settlers in Staffordshire established their own pattern of village settlements, most of them, like Haywood, located along rivers. The first settlers in Haywood were free men who worked together to establish the settlement but then laboured alone to support their families. As time went by, however, it became increasingly difficult to remain free. High taxes, crop failures and lawlessness led free men to put themselves under the protection of a powerful local lord.

The Norman Conquest of 1066 virtually completed the process of turning many previously free men into serfs who owed allegiance and services to a lord. Lords, who were the king’s tenants-in-chief, gradually organised village settlements into manors or estates and the Manor of Haywood developed over many years prior to 1086 as local lords gradually extended their control. We do not know who the early lords were but we do know that in 1066 the Lord of the Manor of Haywood was Peter, the Bishop of Lichfield, and in 1086 Roger de Limesey, the Bishop of Chester.

The settlement has had several different versions of its name over the years. The first written names of Haiwode and Haiwoda that appear in the 1086 Domesday Book became variously written in the 12th and 13th centuries as Heywode, Haywode, Heiwode and Heywood. The Great was added in the 15th century as Heywode Magna (first recorded in 1428), recognising the new settlement at Little Haywood or Heywode Parva, first recorded in 1432. The spelling Heywood was still in common use into the later 19th century.

In the later Middle Ages, the Bishop (at different times titled Bishop of Lichfield, Bishop of Chester or Bishop of Coventry) continued to be Lord of the Manor of Haywood until 1546, in the reign of Henry VIII (see part (v) of this Chapter, and Chapters 13 and 16). The Bishop held several manors but each one was run as a separate business, keeping its separate accounts and paying separate taxes. The Manor of Haywood, first described in the Domesday Book of 1086, was large, covering not just the settlement of Haywood but also the outlying hamlets or berewicks of Fradswell, Hixon and Wolseley, plus a large amount of surrounding land.

The early Manor House was probably little more than a larger, more comfortable, version of a peasant’s cottage, occupied by a manor official. In the early 14th century, however, Bishop Walter Langton had a stone-built Manor House constructed on a piece of land at Shugborough close to where the rivers Trent and Sow meet, and located between his palace at Lichfield and his castle at Eccleshall. Most of the inhabitants of the manor were peasants, some of them freemen and some of them serfs. The manor’s arable land consisted partly of the lord’s demesne, the fields cultivated directly for him and partly of fields held by peasants in return for rents or labour services.

A traveller approaching medieval Haywood along the rough track way that was London Way would first sense its location through the sight and smell of smoke from wood fires rising from the village. The peasants’ cottages, some clustered in the centre of the village and others scattered along the roads leading in and out of the village, were little more than huts, simply made and put up by the peasants themselves. A wooden framework in the shape of a tent was made by two curved, crossed timbers at each end (a cruck frame) connected at the top by a ridge timber and similar timbers along each side to make the frame rigid. The gaps were then filled with a rough latticework of twigs (wattle) and then plastered over with a mixture of mud, dung and straw (daub). Openings were left for a door and some small windows, some of which had wooden shutters. The roof was then thatched with straw and a hole was left to allow smoke from the fire to escape.

The cottages in Haywood had one or two rooms and living conditions were very uncomfortable. The floors were simply bare earth that became wet when it rained. Sometimes rushes were spread on the floor but, since families shared their homes with chickens and other livestock, the rushes soon became wet and foul-smelling. Fires were made on a large flat stone in the middle of the floor and the smoke had to find its way out through the hole in the roof but also through the doorway, the windows and any other gaps it could find. Furniture was simple and home-made—wooden stools and tables, metal or earthenware cooking pots and wooden utensils and eating bowls. In the evenings, light was provided by dimly burning candles. Families slept on bags of straw in their everyday clothes covered with rough blankets. Homes were small, crowded, sooty and very smelly.

(ii) The People

The ordinary villagers of Haywood all lived in houses like these even though there were considerable differences of rank among them. The highest class of peasant in England were the freemen, the last survivors of the old free villagers. They held their land in their own right, which they could sell if they wanted to. They did not usually have to perform any services for the Bishop and they were not subject to his justice in the manorial court. They did, however, acknowledge the Bishop as their lord in return for protection in an age of uncertainty and even lawlessness.

There were no freemen living in Haywood in 1086 at the time of the Domesday survey, but they do appear later because serfs were able to gain their freedom. Sometimes the Bishop granted freedom in gratitude for services rendered, or out of a sense of religious duty, and a serf could also buy his freedom, often at a high price. Even those who became free men often retained a liability to seasonal services, such as harvesting and haymaking, and even hunting in the Cank Forest.

Most of the peasants were serfs, who were not slaves but neither were they free men. Their ranks were determined by how much land they held. Those holding the most land were villeins, who held their land from their lord, the Bishop, in return for labour services on the lord’s land, plus rent in the form of gifts and money. The usual amount of land held by a villein was called a virgate, which was a quarter of a hide or about 30 acres. There were other serfs who held very little land, five acres or less, plus a small garden near their houses. These serfs were called cottagers (or sometimes cottars or bordars). They did some work for their lord in return for their land but, in addition to tending their few acres, they also earned a living by working as paid labourers either for the lord or for the richer villeins, or as shepherds, cowherds and swineherds. About one-third of tenants in Haywood in the 14th century were smallholders with five acres or less.

The amount of work that a villein had to do in Haywood was determined by the custom of the manor and by how much land he held. The more land a villein had, the more work he had to do. These labour services included regular tasks or week work (perhaps two days a week) such as ploughing, harrowing, sowing, carting, marling, weeding, reaping, mill work, ditching, fencing and thatching. They also did additional boon work at busy times of the farming year—ploughing and seeding in the spring and harvesting, haymaking and even nut-collecting in the Cank Forest in the autumn.

In addition, there were payments in money or goods, usually at Easter, Christmas and on certain saints’ days. Because in law the villeins of Haywood were the property of the Bishop, they could not leave the manor without his permission and also needed his permission (in return for a money payment called a merchet) for their daughters to marry. When they died, the Bishop could claim their finest possession (a heriot), usually their best beast. There were also obligations to mill their corn at the manorial mill and bake bread in the manorial ovens for small payments.

Week work gradually disappeared in Staffordshire and was replaced by money payments, which gave greater freedom to tenants, and allowed lords to employ paid labour. This seems to have happened more slowly in Haywood than in other manors, however, and in the 14th century there was still a large number of unfree tenants in the manor who had to perform week work for two days a week for fifteen weeks from mid-June to Michaelmas (29 September), who still had to make payments, such as pannage for the right to graze their pigs in the Cank Forest, and merchet when their daughters married, and still had to perform seasonal services such as haymaking and harvesting.

Peasants also had certain obligations to the Church, particularly the payment of tithes, originally a tenth part of their crops, to the priest. These were stored in a tithe barn, built specifically for this purpose. Today, Tithebarn Farm stands, presumably, on the site where the original tithe barn stood. Tithes were later converted to money payments.

(iii) The Land

The arable land used by the peasants in Haywood to grow crops was not in separate farms but scattered about in strips in three large open fields. In Haywood, because of its position close to the River Trent, these fields must have stretched out from the centre of the village, one to the north towards Hixon, one to the north-east towards Coley and one to the south-east towards Wolseley. The land was divided in this way because that was the way it was parcelled out when the first settlers brought the land under cultivation a little at a time.

Each strip was about the length of a furrow (a furlong or 220 yards), that is the distance a team of oxen could pull a plough before taking a short rest, and up to 4 rods or a chain (22 yards) wide. Strips were separated from each other by narrow pieces of unploughed land (balks) or by marking pegs or stones. The Bishop, as lord of the manor, freemen, villeins and bordars all had their land scattered in this way, so that quite a lot of travelling was needed to reach an individual’s strips and, although farm equipment consisted only of simple wooden ploughs and harrows, pulled by teams of oxen, moving them from strip to strip.

The arable fields were cultivated according to a three-year rotation system (see Chapter 3 (i)) that provided the villagers of Haywood with cereal crops such as wheat, barley, rye and oats for bread and home-brewed ale, but it was equally important to produce food for their animals. Because of the location of the village of Haywood on the banks of the Trent, the pasture fields lay beyond the open arable fields in the area still known as Pasturefields today. These fields were common, meaning that all villagers could graze their animals there.

In addition, because animal grazing was so important other areas were also used. Animals were allowed to graze on fallow arable fields, manuring them in the process. The meadows close to the rivers were used for growing grass for hay for winter fodder. They were fenced off from March to June when the grass was cut, dried and stored. For the rest of the year, they too were used as pasture. Grass was also grown on the balks between strips and cut for hay. The local woodland, especially the Cank Forest, provided valuable feeding for pigs, as well as some winter fodder for animals in the form of branches and bark. All these were essential to enable the peasants to survive the winter.

(iv) The Manor Officials and Court

Responsibility for running the Manor of Haywood fell on the manor officials. A rich and busy lord like the Bishop of Lichfield held several manors and probably appointed a Steward to oversee them. The day-to-day running of each manor, however, was the job of the Bailiff, who probably lived in part of the Manor House. He was a freeman and needed to be a good farmer and a good businessman in order to manage the lord’s demesne successfully. The bailiff had to make the best use of the villeins’ labour services to ensure that the manor was kept in good order and made a good profit. Because he often had to be strict with the peasants, the bailiff was not a popular person.

One local villein was usually appointed by the lord to be the Reeve to assist the bailiff, who himself was often an outsider, while a villein born and bred on the manor knew plenty of details about the locality and its people. The reeve could also be unpopular, however, and most were reluctant to serve in the job, preferring to pay a fine to the lord to be excused. Another important official was the Hayward, who helped the reeve to supervise the work on the lord’s land. His job was to ensure that all the farming tasks performed by the villeins, such as the ploughing, sowing and reaping, were all done properly.

The Manor Court or Court Leet lay at the centre of all the business of the manor, and serfs were obliged to attend it as part of their service to their lord. Anyone absent had to send a very good excuse or else be fined. The court met at the Manor House at regular intervals, and was presided over by the Bishop himself or, in his absence, by his Steward. A clerk kept the roll of the manor court, which recorded details of past business, agreements and decisions, so that no-one could deny what had happened at previous courts. In addition to dealing with the running of the manor, the court provided local justice by dealing with minor criminal offences and civil disputes. Between 1574 and 1582, the Haywood Court met 166 times and on each occasion was attended by more than fifty people. In those years, a total of 268 cases were dealt with, including 137 involving debts, 37 concerning trespass and damage and 35 related to the distraint of animals.

The first task of the Manor Court was to hear excuses sent by those who were absent. If these were accepted as satisfactory, they were entered on the court roll. Secondly, offences were dealt with. All manor officials had the responsibility of reporting people who failed to do their labour services, or did not perform them satisfactorily, or did not keep fences and ditches in good condition, or allowed their cattle to stray. Straying animals were rounded up by the pinder and put in the village pinfold, from which their owners could recover them only on payment of a fine. The court also dealt with peasants who had taken wood to which they were not entitled or had poached the lord’s game. Those found guilty were fined.

Next, disputes were heard, such as one man charging another with the theft of, or damage to, his property, or sometimes accusations of assault or slander. Evidence was taken from reliable men of the manor, verdicts reached and punishments decided. In some cases, the whole court decided the verdict, the clerk wrote it down and the lord or steward fixed the fine or other punishment. The records of the Manor Court list many of the daily problems of rural life such as damaged hedges, broken gates, scabby horses feeding on the stubble, unringed pigs and the sale of turf outside the manor.

The next business of the court was to hear requests, for example villeins seeking to leave the manor or asking permission for their daughters to marry or their sons to enter the Church, and appropriate money payments were agreed on. If necessary, the court then elected manor officials. Finally, important decisions were made to ensure the smooth running of the farming year on the manor. It was decided which crops were to be grown in the open arable fields and the dates for the many events in the farming calendar, such as the start of ploughing, sowing, reaping and mowing. The arable fields and the meadows had to be fenced off at certain times of the year in order to protect growing crops from animals. In 1413, it was agreed in the Haywood Manor Court that Lady Day (25 March) would be the date for the spring fencing, while the date for fencing the winter field would be Martinmas (11 November).

The Manor Court continued to meet well into the 18th century. In 1740, according to Stafforda’s Guide and History of Ancient Haywood, the court proclaimed that…any persons inhabiting Shutbrough and Great Haywood or any Township, ville or place within this mannor…shall at all time sufficiently wring [ring] their swine and keep them up, or well-yoaked so as to prevent their going abroad and destroying the corn now sowed…in the said places, especially the Common Field in Shutbrough aforesaid, called Leacroft Field, and that the respective inhabitants of Shutbrough do keep the fences of the field…and their parts…in good repair.

It also decreed that…the several Inhabitants of Great Haywood…make fence between Hixon field and the piece of Ground in Great Haywood, called Gan Brook, shall do on this side and before the First day of December…repair their part of the said fence…and make their part of the water-course there, four foot wide or broad at the Least, to carry off the water that Annoys the road there…and continue to fence and repair…until the next Court Leet be held…any-one Neglecting shall forfeit Five shillings to the Lord of the Mannor.

Furthermore…No inhabitants of Great Haywood or Shutbrough shall at any time Receive, Entertain or Lodge any Inmates or Vagrants…on forfeit of Five Shillings.

(v) The Cank Forest

The Manor of Haywood included parts of the Cank Forest, with its herds of red, roe and later fallow deer. After 1066, the King himself had claimed the Forest as the King’s Forest of Cank, had appointed an Englishman, Richard Chenvin—Richard le Venur or Richard the Forester—as Chief Forester or Steward for the whole of the Cank Forest and had granted him Rodbaston,