MEDIEVAL WITHAM – BEFORE 1500

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An interim paper by Janet Gyford,1996.© Janet Gyford.
I have given a copy of this paper to the Essex Record                                                                                                                                                                           Office, but I don't know its reference number there.
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Witham is situated in the middle of the county of Essex, in south-east England, about forty miles from London. Like most English parishes, it has a long and complicated history. The centre of the parish lies on an unusually large area of river gravel, on both sides of the river Brain, which runs approximately from north to south. The gravel is bordered by a number of springs, some of which are still visible today; furthermore, the lower water-bearing rocks rise near enough to the surface to be reached by wells.[i] Thus the place has always been attractive to people looking for somewhere to live. It was of considerable importance in prehistoric, Roman, Saxon and medieval times.

The early history of Witham was discussed thoroughly in a book by Warwick Rodwell, who had access to many previously unpublished reports, drawings, photographs, and archaeological finds.[ii] It is a very detailed and stimulating work, though some of his conclusions are necessarily speculative and controversial. He is particularly concerned with the archaeological evidence and with discussing the origins of the features from the period before about 1300. In most cases I do not have the expertise to enter into such debate; I aim more at the general reader, and in fact I am one myself when it comes to medieval and earlier affairs ! In fact this work began as an introduction to a history of Witham after 1500. Thus it seeks on the one hand to describe those features from the past that were still visible then in the town’s plan and topography, and on the other to describe some of the life of the people who were ancestors to the 16th-century residents of the town.

However, the maps on pp.xxx and xxx, showing the main features of Witham’s early history, do include several features which are not still visible.[iii] For instance, there were several small prehistoric hutted settlements, especially on the higher ground, where even the mild undulations of Essex would have allowed a view across to other similar places. Today these sites can often only be detected from air photographs. One example is near Holly Walk in the north of the parish, adjoining or under the Rivenhall Oaks golf course. Another is in the far west, north of Job’s Wood; here several of the fields include the name ‘Worboro’, both in Witham and the adjoining parish of Hatfield Peverel. The ‘boro’ part of the name implies some form of fortification, illustrating the usefulness of field names in detecting some invisible settlements.[iv]

More imposing in its time was the Roman temple and votive pond on a site of earlier occupation, near what is now Ivy Chimneys. Christianity reached Britain in the 3rd century and progressed unevenly thereafter during the remainder of the Roman occupation. Excavations at Ivy Chimneys during the past 30 years have suggested that the use of the site became Christian in the late 4th century. However, it was probably abandoned sometime during the mid 5th century, Christianity having declined after the departure of the Roman army from Britain in the year 407. The Saxons, who first began to land here in the same century, were not at first Christian. So despite its original magnificence, in subsequent years the site would probably have been just as unseen and unknown as the prehistoric hut sites.[v]

Three separate features from earlier years remained visible from the thirteenth to the early twentieth centuries, and can still be discerned in spite of more recent building. First there was the settlement and fortification at what is now known as Chipping Hill, near the east bank of the river Brain. Second there was the town of Newland, nearly a mile south of Chipping Hill. This is now the town centre; most of it was also on the east side of the river, but in addition there was building further west on what is now Bridge Street. Thirdly there were the outlying manor houses and other buildings, with their surrounding fields. 

Chipping Hill

This area is now away from the town centre, and is mainly known today for accommodating the railway station and the church; adjoining the latter are a small green and a few pleasant medieval houses. However, until about 1200, this was Witham. It was an early and significant site. Many features indicate this, and will be discussed and explained below. It had prehistoric fortifications and a probable early Saxon place-name. The key to its importance was that it was a Saxon royal estate, to which several other significant functions accrued, namely a minster church, a meeting place for the surrounding ‘half- hundred’, and an early market. Many of these features probably came before people came to live here in a village; nucleated settlements are usually thought not to have been formed until the 9th century, having been preceded by a more scattered pattern. There was also a Saxon burh either here or nearby.[vi] Witham is the only place in Essex known to have possessed all of these characteristics. In addition, although it does not now lie on a major routeway, a number of roads and tracks converge there. At the time of the Domesday survey of 1086, the Witham manor, which was based here had 93 men attached to it; this figure probably also included what is now Cressing. There were also over half as many again in the other manors of the Witham parish, which ranked as sixth out of the 400 parishes in Essex as a whole (see the table).[vii]

Chipping Hill provides an exception to the general rule that Witham’s archaeological remains were not known in 1500. A large ring-shaped earthwork covering about twenty acres was still clearly visible as late as the early part of the twentieth century, even though by then it had been cut through by the main railway line; there was a lesser ring within it. The traces are less noticeable now, but can be detected in places, for instance in the embanked gardens of houses in Albert Road and White Horse Lane, and in the steep gradients at the top of Collingwood Road and the Avenue (see the photo(s) on p.xxx). Some of the bank by the river may be natural, contributing to the attraction of the place as a defensive site. In 1425/6 it was described as ‘Withamhell’ (Withamhill), and in 1438 as ‘Tempylhelles’, when part of it was a rabbit warren; the latter name derives from the Knights Templars, who will be discussed later. The site was certainly known in the seventeenth century; a manorial document of 1680 records a ‘great ditch’ here.[viii]

Most historians in the past have given the earthwork a Saxon origin. More particularly, they have associated it with the ‘burh’ built at Witham by Edward the Elder in the year 912 A.D. Burhs were originally fortified residential places used by his predecessor King Alfred, in Wessex, but Edward used them more aggressively as military sites during his campaigns against the Danes. After a series of Viking raids during the 9th century, the latter had gained control of eastern England, known as the ‘Danelaw’, by treaty with Alfred in 878 A.D. Colchester, in the north of Essex, was the main base of the Danish army, and Edward’s eventual recovery of that town in the 920s was the basis of his control of Essex for most of the rest of the 10th century. The two burhs at Witham and Maldon, constructed in 912 and 916 respectively, were built to assist in this operation.[ix] Their making was described in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the compilation of which had probably begun during the 9th century (see the illustration on p.xxx, which shows the extract concerning Witham).[x]

Writing in the early 1700s, William Holman found the earthworks still visible, though partly ‘digg’d down’; he referred to the site as a Roman camp.[xi] The majority who have favoured Edward the Elder as their builder included Philip Morant in the 1760s, Joseph Strutt in 1775, the Reverend John Bramston, Witham’s vicar, lecturing in 1855, and F.J.C.Spurrell in 1885. John Bramston drew attention to the way in which ‘the ground … falls in a remarkable manner on all sides’, and to the ‘still more abrupt descent in the Temple-fields above the river’. The illustrations on pp.xxx show how the place was seen by Strutt and Spurrell.[xii] Remarkably, most of the area of the earthwork remained as a single land holding until 1882. In that year it was finally sold off in plots, when the sale catalogue announced proudly but inaccurately that it was ‘an ancient Roman camp’.[xiii]

During the 20th century there were some archaeological excavations of parts of the site, notably by F.Cottrill in the 1930s and in about 1970 (see the photo on p.xxx).[xiv] The results were not fully published, but during the 20th century it came to be assumed by historians and archaeologists that the inner embankment dated from the Iron Age, whilst the outer one was the Saxon burh.[xv] These earthworks are one of the main subjects of Warwick Rodwell’s book; he refers to them as the ‘camp’. He reviews all the available archaeological material, and concludes that in fact no evidence has yet been found for any of the earthworks being Saxon. He suggests instead that both inner and outer banks were built in the Late Bronze Age or Early Iron Age, and that there was a re-building of the outer one in the early 13th century. For this to be true, the burh referred to in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle must have been somewhere else; he gives Burgate field at Rivenhall End as a possible site.[xvi]

Whatever the origins of the earthwork may have been, the actual name of ‘Witham’ is Saxon in origin. ‘Ham’ means a settlement or a village; it is now thought by researchers that some places whose names end in ‘ham’ were amongst the earliest Saxon sites. The probability that Witham was one of these is supported by the other evidence of its early significance. No agreement has ever been reached about the origin of ‘Wit’; suggestions include the Saxon word for a bend, referring to the curve in the river Brain, the personal name of a local leader, or the general name for a councillor, derived from Witham’s role as the meeting place of the Witham half-hundred, discussed in the next paragraph. In 1855 the Reverend John Bramston suggested that it came from ‘wit’ meaning skill, as a result of the skill of the builders of the burh, but this idea has not received any more recent support.[xvii] Another form of ‘Wit’ is ‘Guith’, which was incorporated by 19th-century residents into the rather fanciful ‘Guithavon’, used for a street and house name; some of them thought that it was an earlier form of ‘Witham’.[xviii]

The parish church of St.Nicholas lies just outside the camp, to the west; note that the present spelling, ‘Nicolas’, only dates from the 1930s, so I shall use the original form. Warwick Rodwell suggests that it stands on a prehistoric religious site, that one of its predecessors was an Anglo-Saxon minster, or mother church, and that parts of the present plan of the building follow the Saxon outline. Christianity first came to the Saxon English in the year 597 A.D. and spread rapidly thereafter. It soon developed an organisation designed to provide both pastoral care and to collect financial support for the clergy. There is much discussion amongst scholars about the details, but the importance of the minster church or ‘monasterium’ from the 7th century onwards is generally agreed, though its characteristics and functions are debated and probably varied considerably. It was frequently associated with a major royal estate, though it was more usual for it to be a short distance from the estate’s centre, rather than in the close proximity found at Witham. Such places served an area or ‘parochia’ much larger than the later parish, and would normally have incorporated considerable religious communities within their precincts. Some later became monastic establishments, and others, like Witham, continued as important parish churches. One historian, John Blair, gives a description of a typical minster site which fits Witham perfectly: ‘the summits or shoulders of low hills and promontories … headlands in the bends of rivers’. They were in good farming areas but their sites would often have been particularly striking because of their isolation; when first founded they would normally have been set apart in a countryside of scattered hamlets and farmsteads, as the concentration of settlement in nucleated villages did not normally take place until about the 9th century. In addition John Blair points out that early religious sites were usually round or oval; Warwick Rodwell has noted that the site of Witham’s church gives evidence of having had such a shape initially. It is also interesting that baptism is thought to have often taken place in the open, in springs, rivers or wells, all of which are found near the Witham site.[xix]

None of the early church building at Witham is known to survive above ground, and the site and character of the other buildings that it once had are not known either, though there are tantalising reports of stone structures revealed by trenches dug in nearby roads.[xx] The structure which stands today is mostly thought to date from about 1330, at a time when many churches were being rebuilt, but the south doorway was probably re-used from a structure dating from about 1200. Much of the building is constructed in flint. Bricks and tiles in parts of the walls and tower were previously thought to have been Roman in origin, but Pat Ryan now suggests that they are medieval, probably from Coggeshall.[xxi] In the 1140s, the ownership and profits of the church were granted to the canons of the college of St.Martin’s le Grand with the intention of funding an additional canon. In 1223 the bishop of London ordained a vicarage at Witham, to which he has appointed the vicars ever since. Twelve years after this, Richard, the vicar, was sent a jar of wine by king Henry III , who was journeying through the town. It should be noted that a medieval church was a communal centre for many activities, rituals and celebrations connected with the social and economic life of the parish. These were often organised by gilds and fraternities, of which there were almost certainly some in Witham, although there are no surviving records referring to them.[xxii]

The tithes, which were a tenth of the produce and profits of the parish, went partly to the vicar, but under the system of appropriation, two-thirds of them, known as the ‘Great’ or ‘Rectorial’ tithes, could go to other people. In the early 1100s part of the great tithes of Witham and Cressing were given by Eudo to his new foundation of St.John’s Abbey in Colchester. In about 1320 the monks made a survey of the property affected, and in 1386 they let the tithes for ever to the canons of St.Martin’s, who already owned the other profits of the church. They retained them until the college was suppressed in 1503.[xxiii]

Another significant site in the Chipping Hill area, in or near the ‘camp’, was probably the meeting place or ‘moot’ for the officials of the fifteen parishes in the Witham half-hundred. The administrative system of hundreds and half-hundreds probably originated in the tenth century, from which time onwards they acquired many judicial and financial functions. No great significance or consistency has been found in the fact that some of some of the Essex units, like Witham, were described as half-hundreds rather than hundreds. The Domesday Book showed that the proceeds of the Witham half-hundred were owned by the king as lord of the Witham manor; such links between royal manors and hundreds are common in other counties, though there is probably only one other example in Essex. Non-royal manors could also own the incomes from the hundred; six Essex manors in all are known to have had hundredal proceeds attached to them, but Witham was the only one of these where the moot site was physically sited at the manor. It is probable that some of the meeting places pre-dated the institution of the hundredal organisation, which could help to explain why they were, like Witham, not in the centre of their hundreds, though some alterations in hundredal boundaries probably contributed to this also.[xxiv]

Several early references to what was later the Moat farmhouse, just outside the ‘camp’ to the west, used the name ‘le moot’, so it seems possible that the house was built on or near the meeting place.[xxv] Moat farmhouse was on the west side of Moat farm chase and has since been demolished. Chase House now stands on the site (see the illustrations on p.xxx).[xxvi] Support may be lent to this idea by the fact that the Moat house was freehold of at least three different manors, Witham, the Vicarage and Blunts Hall.[xxvii] At the moots, which were held monthly, the representatives probably sat on a square of earth banks in the open air; one contemporary description refers to ‘the four benches of the hundred’.[xxviii] In the nineteenth century there was a square pond in the grounds of the Moat farmhouse, near the river, about 10 yards square, but it is perhaps rather fanciful to suggest that this could have been enclosed by the remains of the banks on which the moot used to sit ! (see the plan on p.xxx).[xxix]

The Chipping Hill area was the centre of the main manor of Witham; the larger part of this manor was a royal estate in Saxon times. King Edward the Confessor, who reigned from 1042 to 1066, had probably held thirteen manors in Essex altogether; these probably represented only a part of what had been a larger royal estate in previous centuries. But nevertheless they had a larger total value than was possessed by any other landholder in the county. In 1066 they went to King Harold and then to William the Conqueror.[xxx] The royal manor of Witham probably also included Cressing, which did not have its own Domesday entry; it is combined with Witham in the earliest surviving manorial records of the 13th century, and the vicar of Witham church was at one time responsible for Cressing.[xxxi] The descriptions of Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk comprised the ‘Little Domesday’, which was more detailed than the main survey. Local assemblies were consulted by the king’s officials during its compilation, and the book specifically mentions that the representatives of Witham half-hundred discussed the ownership of two pieces of land, lying in Black Notley and in Witham. As to the latter, they were able to agree about the ownership of half of it, but it was reported that ‘as to the rest they know nothing’.

The men recorded in Domesday are generally taken to have been heads of households; an average household may have contained five or six people. In Witham parish altogether, over 140 men were recorded in 1086. This number was only exceeded by five other parishes in Essex; they were Colchester, Barking, Maldon, Writtle and Clacton.[xxxii] The men were put into five categories; on the one hand there were the relatively subservient villeins, bordars or serfs, and on the other there were the freemen and sokemen, who had more independence. In Essex as a whole, about 90 per cent of the men came into the first group; in the outer manors of Witham parish, the figure was 98 per cent. But Witham manor itself had about two thirds of the men in the parish, and here there was a different story. Here the villeins, bordars and serfs accounted for only 40 per cent of the men; the rest were freemen and sokemen. There were 57 of them, the largest such group in Essex. Such men were often particularly associated with ancient royal manors such as Witham. They were also common in the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, and along the northern boundary of Essex, where the county adjoined Suffolk.[xxxiii] In later centuries freehold remained the basic tenure of the manor of Witham outside the lord’s own demesne, whereas in many manors it was unusual. In Witham these freeholders held not only urban plots, but pieces of land often 20 to 40 acres in size. This is interesting in that a virgate was often about 30 acres, though it varied considerably; this was an early English land measure that was often adopted in allocations of property. About a dozen were still identifiable in the 17th and 18th centuries; the original subdivisions of another large area were by then unclear due to amalgamations.[xxxiv] Some were in the northern part of Witham, and others were in neighbouring parishes. These could well be the successors of free holdings in Domesday. Some such holdings were grants, but others resulted from the practice of ‘commendation’, where freemen could seek the protection of whatever lord they chose.[xxxv] The Danes were still a threat, as shown by many Domesday entries. So to belong to a fortified royal manor could have been attractive, even if it was some miles away, and even if heavy dues were exacted for the privilege. This process probably also explains how some holdings that were manors in their own right came to be freehold of Witham also, namely Termines in Hatfield Peverel, Benton Hall in Witham, and Ulting Hall in Ulting.[xxxvi] The majority of properties which were not freehold can be shown to have been taken out of the demesne at various times.

Not long after 1086, the manor of Witham was granted to Count Eustace of Boulogne, the greatest lay landholder in Essex and Hertfordshire; in Essex alone he held eighty manors. His whole estate together was what was known as an ‘honor’, and the court for the honor of Boulogne was held here at Witham. This seems to have continued even after the manor was no longer in the family’s hands; in 1259 one of the king’s envoys was engaged in arduous business in Ireland and so was allowed by the king to forgo his duty to pay suit of court at the ‘honor of Boulogne of Witham’. Other examples showed that the court met every three or four weeks. People with manors in many other counties had to do suit of court here, and some also had to give an annual donation to the sick and the lepers of Boulogne itself. The court was still said to be held at Witham during the 14th century.[xxxvii] Count Eustace’s daughter and heir was Queen Matilda, and she and King Stephen granted the manor of Witham to the Knights Templars in about 1147, together with the profits of the half-hundred court; the grant was confirmed by King John in 1199.

The Templars had been formed in about 1118 by Crusaders in Jerusalem to defend pilgrims there. Ten years before they received Witham, they had been given the adjoining manor of Cressing, which became their local headquarters, and where in the 13th century they built the two magnificent barns which can still be seen today. A survey of the Templars’ property in 1185 showed that Witham with Cressing then still had about 100 tenants, as it had at Domesday.[xxxviii] The Templars were very wealthy, and have been called ‘the international bankers of the western world’. However, they did not have complete control over their manors. The king’s courts also impinged on them, and in particular the occasional courts of the Forest of Essex, which included Witham between 1227 and 1311, and which had powers to deal with many offences, such as poaching and damage to trees.[xxxix]

The Pope disbanded the Templars in 1312, after their military strength had waned and they had been in dispute with the king of France. Their property was transferred to another group of soldier priests, the Knights Hospitallers, whose base was in Rhodes and later in Malta. They were also very prosperous; it is thought that already by 1240, long before they received the Templars’ properties, they held 19,000 manors and lordships all over the Christian world.

In England, Edward II had already arrested all the Templar brethren in 1308, and begun an inquest of their estates, but it took some time for them all the property to be transferred to the Hospitallers; they probably received Witham and Cressing in about 1321. In the meantime the king entrusted the estates to a series of ‘keepers’. One of these was in the Fleet prison in 1326/7 for allegedly keeping back over £240 due to the king from Witham and Cressing. A slight reduction was made in his debt because of the corn he had sown before the estate was handed over to the Hospitallers, but he was still too ‘poor’ to pay, and was eventually released on condition that he gave £10 a year.[xl]

The properties transferred to the Hospitallers had often been badly maintained, causing considerable financial problems. In 1333 the prior in London seemed to be raising a loan from some Florentine merchants of nearly £1,800, using as security the assets of 32 English manors including Witham and Cressing. The belongings of all the manors included over 1,000 pigs and over 10,000 sheep, 40 sacks of wool, and also silver vessels weighing about one hundred pounds.[xli] But Witham and Cressing comprised one of the Hospitallers’ most profitable estates in Essex. Their other properties in the north of the county were supervised by the local administrator or preceptor at Cressing, who was not usually a local man; he was appointed by the chapter of the Hospitallers as a whole, usually meeting at their English headquarters at Clerkenwell. The preceptor was spoken of as being lord of the manors, but had the assistance of other resident brethren, and also laymen like Stephen de Thornham, rent collector at Witham in 1375.[xlii] The estate was enlarged during the time of both the Templars and the Hospitallers, as a result of donations, often in other parishes, and probably motivated mainly by the wish for prayers to be said for the soul of the donor.[xliii] One of the largest gifts was 100 acres in Rivenhall in 1255, which may have become the basis of what was later Rickstones farm.[xliv]

Although the manors were organised from Cressing, the old ‘camp’ site, within the Chipping Hill earthworks, seems to have served as an additional centre for Witham itself. In 1608 it was still known as ‘the site of the … manor being a toft of arable land called Temple Hill’.[xlv] It was described as ‘Witham Temple’ in 1423, when it was said that the manorial court for 1388/9 had been held there.[xlvi] Thus it was probably within the ‘camp’ that the various manorial buildings of Witham were situated. They may well have been somewhere in the vicinity of the present ‘Albert Hotel’ and ‘the Grange’, to judge from several indications that they were opposite the Temple garden, which is referred to again later.[xlvii] There is reference at various times between the mid-13th century and the early 14th century to a chapel, a granary or barn, and a messuage with a garden and a dovecote. In 1309/10 the house was shown to have been small, consisting of a single hall only. So when manorial courts were held, the visiting officials had to be housed elsewhere. In 1290 the wife of Richard the Taverner was forgiven the payment of 3d. which she owed the court as a fine for brewing and selling ale; the reason for the concession was that ‘the whole court had accommodation in her house’.[xlviii] At this date, surnames may still be taken to indicate the occupation of their holders, and thus it can be seen that Richard and his wife were known as taverners. Taverns were usually drinking houses, and distinct from inns, which provided accommodation. But perhaps this establishment was in the process of extending its facilities, as it was probably the one that became known as the George inn in later years.[xlix] The George inn was on the site now occupied by nos.59/61 Newland Street, Barclay’s Bank and the Town Hall. Parts of the structure of no.61 date from the 15th century.[l]

A settlement grew up to the west of the ‘camp’ around the church; Peter Boyden has suggested that it was in fact planted by Edward the Elder outside his Saxon burh, and that a similar arrangement obtained at Maldon.[li] At Witham this would of course be called into question by Warwick Rodwell’s theory that the Chipping Hill earthworks were not a burh. But nevertheless, it is quite probable that the settlement outside the earthwork was Saxon in origin, like those of most of the nucleated villages of south-east England. A survey of 1185 shows that many of the tenants of Witham and Cressing manors had only small pieces of land and worked in non- agricultural pursuits; thus there were smiths, a mason, a thatcher, a baker and a skinner. This same survey gave two men as being ‘of the market’, and another who rented the right to receive the market tolls.[lii]

This market was what gave the area its later name of Chipping, from the Old English ‘ceap’. It has been suggested that many of the Essex hundreds may have had markets in Anglo-Saxon times, particularly connected with royal manors, like Witham.[liii] But written records of markets are not usually known until after the Conquest. A writ was issued in about 1154 to safeguard Witham’s market, which was then said to have been in existence in the time of Henry I, who reigned from 1100 to 1135; it could of course have been there before that. There are only five markets in Essex for whom earlier documentary evidence survives; they are Colchester and Maldon who were mentioned in 1086 in the Domesday Book, and Hadstock, Newport and Saffron Walden who appeared in other records in the 1140s. The right to hold the Witham market was confirmed by King Henry II in about 1160, and again by King John in 1199. Its site may have altered in early times, but in due course it came to be held on the green south of the church.[liv] Richard Britnell has analysed the fortunes of early markets, and concluded that they stood a better chance of success than later ones, particularly if they stood on routeways and had the support of a strong manor.[lv] But as will be seen below, the Chipping Hill market faced competition from Witham’s new market at Newland from about 1200 onwards, and already by 1290 the whole area of Chipping Hill was known as the ‘old market’ [vetus forum]; this name persisted for some time and could have outlasted the actual closure of the market itself. The date of this closure is uncertain, but it had probably taken place by 1379, when Richard II gave a grant of what may have been an additional market day at Newland, to be on Tuesdays, and to be in place of a Tuesday market at ‘Witham’.[lvi] The decrease or demise of trade at Chipping Hill is illustrated by the building of houses called ‘Druggles’ and ‘Litmans’ on part of the green by the 1400s. ‘Druggles’ still survives, as do several other fifteenth-century houses around the edge of the green.[lvii] ‘Druggles’, was later known as ‘Druggles and Struggles’ and is now nos.26-30 Chipping Hill. Litmans, in front of nos.26-30, used to be nos.32-34 but was demolished in the 1930s and its site is now part of the green again.[lviii].A survey of 1413-4 refers to ‘Drogles’, and there was a John Litman with a tenement at ‘the old market’ in the early 1400s. There was a Thomas Druggel and an Adam Liteman in Witham in the 1290s, so the original formation of the sites could possibly date from that time.[lix]

There was also a more regular series of plots north of the ‘camp’ on both sides of what is now Church Street, previously called Hog End; this was then the main road to Cressing. The regularity of these sites suggests some deliberate planning, which is likely to have been carried out when both sides of the street were in the same manor. Thus it may well have been before the 1140s, because the Vicarage manor was probably granted with the church then to St.Martin’s; the west side of the street owed dues to the Vicarage manor and the east to Witham.[lx] On the other hand, some or all of the plots on the Vicarage side may have been laid out in imitation of their neighbours, in a way that is discussed later in connection with Bridge Street; it is noticeable that whilst all the plots in Witham manor on the east side of the road are freehold, whilst on the west, in the Vicarage manor, only those at the southern end, near the church, are freehold, the rest, further north, being copyhold. So possibly the southern end was laid out in freehold plots whilst the whole area was in Witham manor, and then continued northwards in differing ways after the separation.[lxi]


Newland Street and Bridge Street

Newland Street is the main street of Witham; sometimes today it is also called the High Street. It is now well-known that it originated as a medieval planned development, but this did not really receive attention from historians until the 1960s, when its origin was dated at about 1200. The main factual basis of our information is the charter for a Thursday market and an annual three-day fair, granted to the Templars in 1212 by King John; it was to be located in ‘their new town of Wulversford in the parish of Witham’. A year later the king restored to them some ‘land of Newland’ which they had leased out. It is not really clear whether or not Wulversford was a pre-existing settlement, though there was a reference in 1185 to a ‘Henry of Wolvesford’ holding land of the manor. By 1320, the name was used to describe the bridge over the Brain at the south-west end of Newland.[lxii]

Many similar ‘new towns’ were founded during the 13th century, and others grew, as a result of expansion in the national economy and in trade. Richard Britnell has pointed out that the peak period in Essex was from 1247 to 1256, when as many as 17 new markets were founded in the county. Newland did have two of the features that he found to be important for survival, namely good communications and strong manorial backing. But so did many of its competitors, and other towns began to overtake Witham and Newland in size. Particularly relevant was the growth of two pairs of settlements within ten miles of Witham, at Chelmsford with Moulsham to the west, and Braintree with Bocking to the north.[lxiii] At the time of the Domesday survey in 1086, these places had been mere hamlets. Together with the existing boroughs of Colchester to the north-east and Maldon to the south, they circled Witham as they do today. As seen earlier, the parish of Witham with Cressing had ranked sixth in the county in 1086 in terms of numbers of people recorded, but in 1327 it ranked eleventh, in spite of the establishment and growth of Newland between the two years. In the latter year Witham alone, without Cressing, ranked nineteenth; it had a similar position in 1523, at 21st. However, in a county of over 400 parishes, this still gave it reasonable status, which is also illustrated by the fact that it was about tenth in size of the 170 parishes within 15 miles (see the table).[lxiv]

Newland was located along the main road from London to the coast. It was probably a former Roman road, although no physical traces of this have yet been found at Witham; the nearest evidence comes from Kelvedon, four miles away to the north-east, and Chelmsford, ten miles to the south-west.[lxv] The route ran conveniently across the Templars’ demesne land. A series of plots of about half an acre were laid out, with a narrow frontage to the road. Comparison with later documents, particularly manorial ones, and also with the present pattern, suggests that their frontage usually seems to have approximated to 5 rods and their depth to 15 or 16 rods. A rod was 16½ feet and was one of the most common measurements used by surveyors, who would have instruments ready calibrated both for simple layouts like this and for complex buildings like cathedrals; Adrian Gibson has recently applied rod measurements successfully to the structure of the great barns at Cressing, which were built later in the 13th century.[lxvi] At Witham the narrow shape was an indicator of the value of the street frontage and the competition for it in an urban situation. Holdings of this shape and status are usually known as burgage plots, though they were never said in Witham to be held by burgage tenure as such; they were all freehold like most of the rest of the holdings in Witham manor. A document of about 1320 refers to them as ‘all the half-acre strips called Les Halveacres’.[lxvii] The area was also called the ‘new market’ or Newland. To accommodate the market, the street had a widening in the centre, which can still be seen, though as in many towns part of has been built on since.[lxviii] There was a ‘cross’ in the middle of the main street; this could possibly indicate a building as well as a cross in itself; there was certainly a market house in the 16th and 17th centuries.[lxix] But even in later years no reference has been found to other communal buildings such as a guildhall, though these were found in other similar towns.[lxx]

It may be that Newland was immediately treated as a distinct manor; certainly by 1291 there were separate courts held for Newland and for ‘Witham’. And in 1435, when Thomas Dowfe was found to hold a large number of properties, some of the details thereof were said to be found in the rentals held at both the ‘temple of Witham’ and at Newland.[lxxi] At some time a two-acre section of the western side of the street came to be freed from paying dues to Newland manor and was known as Batfords manor; Morant gives it as a ‘grant from the Honour of Grafton’. There was a Robert of Batford or Batesford in Witham in the late 13th and early 14th centuries but it is not known whether he was connected to this manor. Possibly his family came originally from the village of Battisford in Suffolk; there was a Hospitallers’ preceptory there from the 12th century onwards, but he appeared in Witham before the Hospitallers took over here.[lxxii] At various times it also seems that Blunts Hall and Powershall manors owned some Newland Street properties; possibly this was a result of purchase by the lords of those manors.[lxxiii]

Bridge Street, across the river from Newland and to its south-west, was formerly known as Duck End. Physically it was part of the Newland Street commercial centre by the 16th and 17th centuries. Warwick Rodwell suggests that it originated as the first stage of the Templars’ planned development in the 13th century.[lxxiv] However, there is a problem with this idea, in that Bridge Street does not appear to have belonged to the Templars; its northern and southern sides were in Blunts Hall and Howbridge manors respectively. Thus it seems probable that the lords of those manors, who were lay barons, promoted their own developments, in order to benefit from the Templars’ trade. Similar reactions have been found by researchers in the Essex towns of Billericay and Brentwood; in both those places the first plan was confined to one side of the road; the other side was in different ownership and was developed later. At Brentwood the first is known to date from the 1170s and 1180s, and the second from 1234.[lxxv].

In Witham, surviving records do not reveal very much about Bridge Street, although they would repay further study. The fact that the properties there were freehold of the two manors, like the Newland plots, and that most had rentals of a shilling or part thereof, does suggest some degree of planning. On the northern side the sites are restricted by a stream to a depth of not much more than forty feet, whilst on the southern side there is a depth of about fifty-five feet before the restriction of ‘Vicar’s Acre’, which was subject to Vicarage manor, and lay along the end of the plots.[lxxvi]


Fields and outlying settlements

The parish of Witham covers over 3,000 acres, so in the past it included a large area of agricultural land in addition to the settlements already described.[lxxvii] The parishes were originally ecclesiastical units; the way in which they developed is the subject of considerable discussion amongst historians. I shall attempt a brief summary relating to Witham, which should be treated with caution. As described already, Witham had a Saxon minster church, which could have dated from around the 7th century, and whose ‘parochia’ would have considerably exceeded that of the present parish; it may have had some relationship with tribal land, with a previous organisational unit, or with an early extensive royal estate, or with all three. There were separate subsidiary churches at various other places within its territory; some may have been set up at around the same time as the minster church, but others, dating from the 10th and 11th centuries, were probably based on manors or areas of land granted out of the royal estate to individual barons. From about the 10th century, these lesser units began to acquire the right to claim tithes and thus their territories became parishes in their own right and boundaries became fixed; the relationship of Faulkbourne parish to Witham shows clearly that Faulkbourne was once taken out of its ‘parent’. The residual area became Witham parish, more or less as we know it today. In addition to the royal Witham manor, it included several manors which had been granted to other people but did not have churches of their own. It was therefore a large parish, as those with former minster churches and the residue of a ‘parochia’ often are.[lxxviii]

Parishes containing several manors were particularly characteristic of the eastern counties of England, and a standard work on medieval England quotes Witham as a good example of a parish incorporating several manors.[lxxix] There were basically five, Witham, Powershall, Blunts Hall, Howbridge Hall and Benton Hall, but at Domesday some of these were subdivided, so that there were then nine units in all. There were also nine in later years, but they were rather different ones, and some only had limited manorial functions. Thus the original five continued, together with one of the Domesday subdivisions, namely the division of Howbridge Hall into Howbridge itself on the one hand, and Little Howbridge or Ishams on the other. There were also three new manors made out of parts of Witham, namely the Vicarage, Newland and Batfords.[lxxx]

As already seen, the main manors of Witham with Newland were owned by institutions. But the outer manors were held by individuals, and had manor houses. One of the lords, Robert le Power, who owned part of Powershall, was involved in the rebellion of the barons against Henry III in the 1260s. This culminated in the defeat and death of Simon de Montfort at the battle of Evesham in 1265. By 1268 Henry had re-established his control, and a ‘ransom’ was taken from the lands of Robert le Power in Witham, ‘by reason of trespasses which Robert was said to have done against the king’ in the time of ‘the disturbance had in the realm’.[lxxxi]

Some of the manor houses may have had the lords living in them, whilst others were probably sublet, especially when the lord owned a number of estates. At Blunts Hall there was a small earthwork which can still be seen today, and probably dates from the 12th century. It has been suggested that it was the one for which a licence was granted in 1141 by King Stephen to Geoffrey de Mandeville; the latter was a rival of Count Eustace, owner of Witham. The adjoining field was variously known as ‘Castle Bayleys’, ‘Casting Baileys’ and ‘Casting Barleys’ in the 18th and 19th centuries.[lxxxii]

At the time of Domesday the five main manors of Witham also had a water mill each. It may be that the mill that then belonged to Powershall later became the Witham or the Newland mill, because in 1309 it was stated that one of the Templars’ water mills, with an acre of meadow, had been given to them by Robert Power and Geoffrey of Hemenhale in return for prayers; Robert had held part of Powershall manor.[lxxxiii] Some of the outer manors of the parish may already have included small hamlets or ‘Ends’, such as Blunts Hall green and Powershall End. Small settlements such as these were characteristic of ancient countryside and are still widespread in neighbouring villages such as Terling.[lxxxiv]

Most of Essex, and indeed most of south-east England, did not have the sort of open field system that used to fill school text- books. It is now realised that open fields were not universal. They were probably a Saxon introduction to certain parts of Europe and an area in the middle of England; thus in Essex only the extreme north-western corner was affected by them.[lxxxv] Like much of the rest of the county, Witham had an ancient pattern of rectangular enclosed fields, of a fairly regular but not a rigid form. In the extreme east, across the river Blackwater from the town, there were fairly small divisions, probably taken out of woodland; this is on the hilly ridge which is part of a feature running through most of Essex. The western area of Witham in contrast, had larger fields; these appear to be part of a widespread system that now lies on both sides of the ‘Roman’ road (see the map on page xxx). The latter was laid down across the fields at an angle; this helps to date the fields themselves as pre-Roman or at the latest early Roman.[lxxxvi]

In Witham itself some of this pattern has been obliterated by more recent layouts aligned along the road. In addition to the urban planning of Newland Street and Bridge Street already discussed, there are signs of planned agricultural holdings along the northern side of what is now Hatfield Road, to the west of Bridge Street, in Blunts Hall manor (see the map on p.xxx). Here there appears to have been a line of several regular plots of about ten acres at right-angles to the road, not necessarily built on. They were copyhold of Blunts Hall manor and seem most likely to have been a manorial allotment from the demesne, which they backed onto; it could be medieval or even earlier in origin. Most were still in separate ownerships from the 17th century onwards, when records first begin to yield information about them, so they are unlikely to result from late 18th-century planning, as suggested by Warwick Rodwell.[lxxxvii] More recently this area has been occupied by Lodge farm, Witham Lodge, Ivy Chimneys, and the front part of Allectus Way; two of the nineteenth century field names still recalled those of the earlier plots, namely Witherswalls and Black Land. It is not clear whether the land further east, towards the town, was part of the same allotment.[lxxxviii]

North and east of the river Brain there is rather more variety in the field pattern. In the south-east it appears to be in a similar alignment to the Roman road, making it impossible to say which came first. In the north-east and in adjoining Rivenhall there are some long continuous north-south hedgerows (see the map on page xxx). It has similarities with the ‘reave’ pattern which has been found elsewhere to date from the Bronze Age. This is the area where some ancient woodland still survives, in Rivenhall Thicks and Tarecroft Wood. All this area east of the river became part of the Saxon royal manor of Witham, which also included the Chipping Hill settlement already described.[lxxxix] In an article about mid-Essex, the historian Richard Britnell has used the records of this Witham manor, and of others in nearby parishes, to illustrate some of the features of medieval agriculture in ancient countryside. He noted that the system of enclosed fields was more complicated than might appear at first sight, with new subdivisions frequently being made and with some fields being divided into different ownerships not separated by a boundary. The large areas of land in the demesnes and the smaller individual holdings were usually cultivated on a basically three-course rotation, of winter-sown crops.

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Notes

[i] Geol.Surv.Map 1:50,000, drift, sheets 223 (1982 edition) and 241 (1975 edition).

[ii] W.Rodwell, The Origins and Early Development of Witham, Essex; a Study in settlement and fortification, Prehistoric to Medieval, Oxbow Monograph 26, Oxbow Books, 1993.

[iii] The maps were compiled from a variety of sources referred to elsewhere in this chapter; field boundaries are from tithe maps (E.R.O. D/CT 109, 167, 290, 405) and from other maps including E.R.O. T/M 35, E.R.O. D/DU 1420, E.R.O. D/DHh P1; 1882 Sale Catalogue is E.R.O. Sale Catalogue B5160.

[iv] Conversation with Barrie Foster about his air photographs taken for the Brain Valley Archaeological Society; E.R.O. D/CT 405, 405A, plots no. 740, 742-5; E.R.O. D/CT 167, 167A, plots no. 686-7; conversation with Margaret Gelling, 1987.

[v] R.Turner, Ivy Chimneys, Witham; an Interim Report, Occasional Paper no. 2, Essex County Council, 1982; W.Rodwell, The Origins and Early Development of Witham, Essex; a Study in settlement and fortification, Prehistoric to Medieval, Oxbow Monograph 26, Oxbow Books, 1993, pp.43-5, 59-60, 62-64; note that this latter book suggests that the name ‘Ivy Chimneys’ indicates the presence of a ruin, medieval or possibly even Roman in origin; so far the earliest discovered written use of the name only dates from 1749 (E.R.O. D/P 30/3/3); there is another similarly interesting field name at the west end of the complex, ‘Witherswalls’, ‘Weather walls’, etc. (E.R.O. D/CT 405, 405A, plots no. 781-2).

[vi] Thanks are due to Chris Thornton for pointing out the significance of this collection of characteristics.
This website also includes an illustrated essay about the earthworks :

The IRON AGE and ANGLO-SAXON EARTHWORKS at CHIPPING HILL, WITHAM (also the Grange, 4 Chipping Hill)

[vii] W.R.Powell, Essex in Domesday Book, Essex Record Office, 1990, p.3.

[viii] E.R.O. D/DBw M99, m.10; E.R.O. D/DBw M100, m.8; E.R.O. D/DBw M28, 30 Oct.1680.

[ix] P.B.Boyden, ‘A study in the structure of land holding and administration in Essex in the late Anglo-Saxon period’, London University Ph.D. thesis, 1986, pp.190-4, 245-9; A.C.Edwards, A History of Essex with Maps and Pictures, Darwen Finlayson, revd.ed., 1962, pp.11-12; M.R.Eddy with M.R.Petchey, Historic Towns in Essex: an Archaeological Survey of Saxon and Medieval Towns, with Guidance for their future planning, Essex County Council, 1983, p.4.

[x] G.N.Garmonsway (transl.), The Anglo Saxon Chronicle. J.M.Dent, 1953, pp.96-7; R.Flower and H.Smith, The Parker Chronicle and Laws, no. 208 of Early English Text Society Original Series, O.U.P., 1941, folios 21a-21b; the date in the original was given as 913 but this has since been corrected to 912; the facsimile in the illustration is taken from the latter, with the permission of the Early English Text Society; grateful thanks are due to Kevin Crossley-Holland for help with the translation.

[xi] E.R.O. T/P 195/10.

[xii] P.Morant, The History and Antiquities of the County of Essex, ii, 1763-8, pp.105-6; J.Strutt, Horda Angel-Cynnan, a Compleat view of the Manners, customs, arms, habits etc. of the inhabitants of England, from the arrival of the Saxons to the reign of Henry VIII, 1775, p.25 and plate II; Revd.J.Bramston, Witham in Olden Time: Two lectures delivered at the Witham Literary Institution, Meggy and Chalk, 1855, p.10; F.Spurrell, ‘Withambury’, Essex Naturalist, i, p.19- 22.

[xiii] E.R.O. D/CT 405, 405A, plots no. 44, 607-15; E.R.O. Sale Catalogues B355, B2701, B5160; E.R.O. D/DU 56/5, p.278; E.R.O. D/DU 56/4.

[xiv] F.Cottrill, note on ‘A trial excavation at Witham, Essex’, Antiquaries Journal, xiv, pp.190-1; The Times, 30 June, 15, 30 Aug., 1934, 10, 23 Aug., 1935.

[xv] M.R.Eddy with M.R.Petchey, Historic Towns in Essex: an Archaeological Survey of Saxon and Medieval Towns, with Guidance for their future planning, Essex County Council, 1983, p.91.

[xvi] W.Rodwell, The Origins and Early Development of Witham, Essex; a Study in settlement and fortification, Prehistoric to Medieval, Oxbow Monograph 26, Oxbow Books, 1993, pp.8-33, 46-8, 76- 88.

[xvii] A.Mawer (ed.), The Chief Elements used in English Place Names, C.U.P. for English Place Name Society, 1924; M.Gelling, ‘Recent Work on English Place-names’, Local Historian, xi(1), quoting B.Cox, ‘The Significance of the Distribution of English Place-names in ham in the Midlands and East Anglia’, English Place Name Society Journal, v; P.Reaney, The Place Names of Essex, C.U.P., 1935, pp.299-300; letters sent to Mr.Hardy, Agent General of Queensland, August and September 1971, following note by him in Essex Countryside; W.Rodwell, The Origins and Early Development of Witham, Essex; a Study in settlement and fortification, Prehistoric to Medieval, Oxbow Monograph 26, Oxbow Books, 1993, p.65; there are potential objections to all the explanations for ‘Wit’; the bend in the river bend is not very marked, there is no supporting evidence for the personal name, and many other settlements were hundredal meeting places but were not called Witham; Revd.J.Bramston, Witham in Olden Time: Two lectures delivered at the Witham Literary Institution, Meggy and Chalk, 1855, p.12.

[xviii] E.R.O. Q/RHi 5/20(B) gives a new street called Guithavon Street in 1841 (the land was given by the Pattisson family, as a result of which their property acquired a new road frontage); E.R.O. D/DU 467/2 gives Jacob Howell Pattisson of Witham House otherwise Guithavon House, in 1848; Revd.J.Bramston, Witham in Olden Time: Two lectures delivered at the Witham Literary Institution, Meggy and Chalk, 1855, p.12, mentioned the idea about ‘Guithavon’ being an earlier form, and dismissed it.

[xix] J.Blair and R.Sharpe, Pastoral Care Before the Parish, Leicester University Press, 1992, pp.1-10; S.Foot, ‘”By water in the spirit”; the administration of baptism in early Anglo-Saxon England’, pp.181-2, S.Foot, ‘Anglo-Saxon minsters, a review of terminology’, pp.212-6, and J.Blair, ‘Anglo-Saxon minsters: a topographical review’, pp.226-35, J.Blair and R.Sharpe, Pastoral Care Before the Parish, Leicester University Press, 1992; W.Rodwell, The Origins and Early Development of Witham, Essex; a Study in settlement and fortification, Prehistoric to Medieval, Oxbow Monograph 26, Oxbow Books, 1993, pp.65-76.

[xx] Conversation with David Smith.

[xxi] Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (England): An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Essex, ii, Central and South-West, H.M.S.O. 1921, p.263; T.A.Henderson, The Parish Church of Saint Nicolas, Witham, Essex, Witham P.C.C., 1986, pp.4-6; conversation with Pat Ryan.

[xxii] P.Clark, The English Alehouse: a Social History 1200-1830, Longman, 1983, pp.27-8.

[xxiii] R.C.Fowler, The Church of St.Nicholas, Witham, Wiles, 1911, pp.5, 37; T.A.Henderson, The Parish Church of Saint Nicolas, Witham, Essex, Witham P.C.C., 1986, pp.5-6; Cal.Chart.R. 1341-1417, 18; E.R.O. D/DBw M101-2, M106, M145, compared with other records especially E.R.O. D/CT 405, 405A; Cal.Close, 1234-7, 56, 211; W.Rodwell, The Origins and Early Development of Witham, Essex; a Study in settlement and fortification, Prehistoric to Medieval, Oxbow Monograph 26, Oxbow Books, 1993, pp.xi, 37, plausibly attributes the layout of Church Street to the 12th century or earlier.

[xxiv] P.B.Boyden, ‘A study in the structure of land holding and administration in Essex in the late Anglo-Saxon period’, London University Ph.D. thesis, 1986, pp.176-87, 204-20, 240-4; D.Whitelock, The Beginnings of English Society, (Pelican History of England ii), Penguin, 1974, pp.137-8; Oxford English Dictionary.

[xxv] The following give the name of the Moat house as the ‘moot’: Cat.Anct.D. ii, C 2067; (this is a seven-year lease dated 1370, reserving the use of a chamber in the upper part of the hall for the owner when he needed it, for a maximum of two days at a time); E.R.O. D/DBw M99, mm.10, 12, 13, 13d., 14, 14d., 16, 16d. (1423-5); E.R.O. D/DBw M100 m.16d. (1433). The following uses the term ‘mote’: E.R.O. D/DBw Q1 (1413-4).

W.Rodwell, The Origins and Early Development of Witham, Essex; a Study in settlement and fortification, Prehistoric to Medieval, Oxbow Monograph 26, Oxbow Books, 1993, pp.65, 87, suggests instead that the name derived from the ‘moat’ around the earthworks, and he suggests other sites for the moot, including the camp itself.

[xxvi] E.R.O. D/CT 405, 405A, plots no. 39-40 et al.; E.R.O. D/DRa T126-31; E.R.O. Sale Catalogues B2693, B2679, A321.

[xxvii] Manor no. 128; E.R.O. D/DBw M101-2, M145 (property no. 3); E.R.O. T/B 71/2, 10 Dec.1619 (also transcript in E.R.O. T/B 71/1).

[xxviii] D.Whitelock, The Beginnings of English Society, (Pelican History of England ii), Penguin, 1974, pp.137-8; D.M.Stenton, English Society in the Early Middle Ages (Pelican History of England iii), Penguin, 1965, pp.136-7.

[xxix] D.Whitelock, The Beginnings of English Society, (Pelican History of England ii), Penguin, 1974, pp.137-8; D.M.Stenton, English Society in the Early Middle Ages (Pelican History of England iii), Penguin, 1965, pp.136-7; E.R.O. D/CT 405, 405A, plot no. 39 (date 1839); E.R.O. Sale Catalogue B2679 (date 1857).

[xxx] A.Rumble (ed.), Essex, volume 32 of J.Morris (ed.), Domesday Book, Phillimore, 1983, section 20; P.B.Boyden, ‘A study in the structure of land holding and administration in Essex in the late Anglo-Saxon period’, London University Ph.D. thesis, 1986, pp.69-73, 150-74, 380-1; to avoid glorifying the Edward, Domesday ascribes all the royal estates in Essex to Harold, together with a considerable number of estates which he had held in his own right before he became king; it is suggested by Peter Boyden that King William subsequently took from Harold only the 13 ancient royal estates, so that the latter can be identified by having belonged to William in 1086 and Harold previously.

[xxxi] J.Gyford, Domesday Witham, Janet Gyford, 1985, p.4; E.R.O. D/DBw M98-100; T.A.Henderson, The Parish Church of Saint Nicolas, Witham, Essex, Witham P.C.C., 1986, pp.6, 12-13.

[xxxii] W.R.Powell, Essex in Domesday Book, Essex Record Office, 1990, p.3.

[xxxiii] A.Rumble (ed.), Essex, volume 32 of J.Morris (ed.), Domesday Book, Phillimore, 1983, sections 1, 30; J.Gyford, Domesday Witham, Janet Gyford, 1985, p.10.

[xxxiv] For instance, see E.R.O. D/DBw M82, an eighteenth century descriptive ‘index’ to the court rolls contains a useful survey, but any of the rentals etc. in E.R.O. D/DBw will show the same. The following were the main non-urban freeholds, with acreages where known and parishes where outside Witham (groupings where given are suggested by me on grounds of proximity):- manor nos. 1,8 & 9 (32 acres), 11 (Hatfield Peverel & Witham), 14, 18 (Little Totham), 19 (20 acres, Hatfield Peverel), 20 (45 acres, Terling & Fairstead), 21 (27 acres, Terling), 22 (30 acres, Rivenhall), 36 & 37 (51 acres, Ulting, Hatfield Peverel and Langford), 43 (30 acres, Faulkbourne), 45 (130 acres, Witham, Faulkbourne and Rivenhall), 62 (3 acres, Fairstead & Terling), 76 & 78-9 (28 acres), 87, 130 (24 acres); 113-126 had been amalgamated.

[xxxv] P.B.Boyden, ‘A study in the structure of land holding and administration in Essex in the late Anglo-Saxon period’, London University Ph.D. thesis, 1986, p.286-307.

[xxxvi] Manor nos. 11, 14, 37; Termines also owed dues to Blunts Hall manor (E.R.O. T/B 71/2, 10 Dec.1619 (also transcript in E.R.O. T/B 71/1).

[xxxvii] A.Rumble (ed.), Essex, volume 32 of J.Morris (ed.), Domesday Book, Phillimore, 1983, section 20; Cal.Close, 1256-9, 367; Cal.Close, 1381-5, p.279; Cal.Inq.p.m. ii, pp.38, 362, 372, 394, iii, pp.15, 123, iv, pp.45, 91, 95, 180, 247, v, pp.108, 117-8, vi, pp.60, 154, vii, p.1, ix, p.270, xiii, p.11, xiv, p.237, xv, p.307; Cal.Fine R. 1347-56, 254; The Victoria History of the County of Essex, i, St.Catherine Press, 1903, pp.343-4, gives the court of the honor of Boulogne held at Witham, though volume ix of the same series says that the centre of the honour was at Colchester in Matilda’s time (J.Cooper (ed.), The Victoria History of the Counties of England; a History of the County of Essex, ix, University of London, Institute of Historical Research, 1994, p.21, quoting R.H.C.Davis); B.A.Lees (ed.), Records of the Templars in England in the twelfth century, O.U.P., 1935, p.lxxii; for more about honors see D.M.Stenton, English Society in the Early Middle Ages (Pelican History of England iii), Penguin, 1965, p.68.

[xxxviii] B.A.Lees (ed.), Records of the Templars in England in the twelfth century, O.U.P., 1935, pp.lxxii, 1-10, 145-5; M.Gervers (ed.), The Cartulary of the Knights of Jerusalem in England: Secunda Camera: Essex, O.U.P. for British Academy, 1982, pp.3-4, 30-1; D.Stenning, ‘The Cressing Barns and the Early Development of Barns in South-east England’, D.D.Andrews (ed.), Cressing Temple: a Templar and Hospitaller manor in Essex, Essex County Council, 1993, pp.62, 68.

[xxxix] G.H.Cook, English Monasteries in the Middle Ages, Phoenix House, 1961; W.R.Fisher, The Forest of Essex, its History, Laws, Administration and Ancient Customs and the Wild Deer which lived in it, Butterworth, 1887, pp.136, 138; lecture on ‘The Forest of Essex’ by Bill Liddell at W.E.A., Hatfield Broadoak Branch, 16 March 1985.

[xl] G.H.Cook, English Monasteries in the Middle Ages, Phoenix House, 1961; M.Gervers (ed.), The Cartulary of the Knights of Jerusalem in England: Secunda Camera: Essex, O.U.P. for British Academy, 1982, pp.xlvii-xlix; Cal.Close, 1318-23, 485; Cal.Fine R. 1307- 19, 135, 170; Cal.Mem.R. 1326-7, pp.39, 63, 120, 150, 344;

[xli] Cal.Close, 1333-7, 124; the silver vessels were 200 marks in weight; according to Oxford English Dictionary, the weight of a mark ‘varied considerably, but it was usually regarded as equivalent to 8 ounces (= either two-thirds or one half of a pound, according to the meaning given to the latter term)’.

[xlii] M.Gervers (ed.), The Cartulary of the Knights of Jerusalem in England: Secunda Camera: Essex, O.U.P. for British Academy, 1982, pp.xlix, lviii-lx.

[xliii] E.g.:- Essex Archaeological Society, Feet of Fines for Essex, i, 1899-1910, pp.1, 74, 135; M.Gervers (ed.), The Cartulary of the Knights of Jerusalem in England: Secunda Camera: Essex, O.U.P. for British Academy, 1982, pp.xxxvii-xxxviii, 183, 223.

[xliv] Cal.Inq.p.m. i., p.100; Rickstones farm can be shown to have been part of Witham’s manorial demesne by tracing the fields through various documents, e.g. E.R.O. D/DDc T81 (which refers to it as ‘the scite of the Farme of Witham’); E.R.O. D/DDc T105, E.R.O. D/P 30/28/17, E.R.O. D/DHh T34, E.R.O. D/CT 290, 290A, 405, 405A.

[xlv] P.R.O. LR 2/215 (also photocopy in E.R.O. D/DRa Z14, and transcript in E.R.O. T/B 71/1); manor no. 196.

[xlvi] E.R.O. D/DBw M99, m.16d.

[xlvii] E.g. E.R.O. D/DBw M27, 5 April 1627; also see note 144 below.

[xlviii] Cal.Inq.p.m. i, p.100; P.R.O. DL 43/14/1; M.Gervers (ed.), The Cartulary of the Knights of Jerusalem in England: Secunda Camera: Essex, O.U.P. for British Academy, 1982, pp.52-4; P.R.O. E 142/95; L.B.Larking (ed.), The Knights Hospitallers in England, being the Report of Prior Philip de Thame to the Grand Master Elyan de Villanova for A.D. 1338, Camden Society, 1855, pp.168; E.R.O. D/DBw M98, m.8 (note that Richard Britnell puts the episode of Richard the Taverner’s wife, and others in the same period, as in 1325-6 (19 & 20 Edward II), whereas they seem in fact to have been in 1290-2 (19 & 20 Edward I) (R.H.Britnell, ‘The Making of Witham’, History Studies, i, p.19; E.R.O. D/DBw M98, mm.2, 2d., 8-17; the numbering of the membranes is more or less ‘random’, i.e. not in date order).

[xlix] P.Clark, The English Alehouse: a Social History 1200-1830, Longman, 1983, pp.6-14; a manorial rental dated 1413-4 includes a tenement formerly of Richard Taverner, after that of John att Holdiche, after that of John Makehait, and then of William and Alice Dyer; the endorsement in the margin, dating from 1485-6, gives it of John Dyer, called the George. Another document shows that John Dyer had inherited it from his father in 1466-7 (E.R.O. D/DBw Q1; E.R.O. D/DBw M86; the surviving documents do not however actually refer to it as an inn until 1608 (P.R.O. LR 2/215 (also photocopy in E.R.O. D/DRa Z14, and transcript in E.R.O. T/B 71/1)).

[l] Manor no. 7; Ministry of Housing and Local Government, Historic Buildings, Survey Report, Witham, c.1970.

[li] P.B.Boyden, ‘A study in the structure of land holding and administration in Essex in the late Anglo-Saxon period’, London University Ph.D. thesis, 1986, p.247.

[lii] R.H.Britnell, ‘The Making of Witham’, History Studies, i, pp.14- 15; B.A.Lees (ed.), Records of the Templars in England in the twelfth century, O.U.P., 1935, pp.1-8.

[liii] P.B.Boyden, ‘A study in the structure of land holding and administration in Essex in the late Anglo-Saxon period’, London University Ph.D. thesis, 1986, p.249-53, quoting R.H.Britnell.

[liv] A.Mawer (ed.), The Chief Elements used in English Place Names, C.U.P. for English Place Name Society, 1924, p.14; M.Gervers (ed.), The Cartulary of the Knights of Jerusalem in England: Secunda Camera: Essex, O.U.P. for British Academy, 1982, pp.5, 30-1, 56-7; W.Walker, Essex Markets and Fairs, Essex Record Office, 1981, pp.32- 5, does not mention the 12th century reference to Witham market, but usefully summarises other charter dates in Essex, showing only two others before 1153, i.e. 1129 at Hadstock and 1141 at Saffron Walden; R.H.Britnell, ‘Essex Markets Before 1350’, Essex Archaeology and History, xiii, pp.15-16, gives a list of 24 markets known to have been in existence before 1200; to those before 1153 mentioned in the latter work he adds Colchester and Maldon (Domesday Book, 1086), and Newport; W.Rodwell, The Origins and Early Development of Witham, Essex; a Study in settlement and fortification, Prehistoric to Medieval, Oxbow Monograph 26, Oxbow Books, 1993, pp.34-7, 85 (one of his hypotheses is that the market place was first of all at a widened southern end of Church Street).

[lv] R.H.Britnell, ‘Essex Markets Before 1350’, Essex Archaeology and History, xiii, pp.18-9.

[lvi] E.R.O. D/DBw M98, mm.14, 15 (1290-1); E.R.O. D/DBw Q1 (1413- 4); E.R.O. D/DBw M99, mm.8, 13, 14 (1427, 1424-5); E.R.O. D/DBw M100, m.5 (1439/40); Cal.Chart.R. 1341-1417, 258.

[lvii] Ministry of Housing and Local Government, Historic Buildings, Survey Report, Witham, c.1970.

[lviii] Nos. 26-30: P.R.O. LR 2/215 (also photocopy in E.R.O. D/DRa Z14, and transcript in E.R.O. T/B 71/1); manor nos. 131, 149; no. 131 was said to have been held by copyhold until the time of Henry VII (1485-1509), emphasising its new foundation, but it then became freehold like the rest of the houses round Chipping Hill.

Nos. 32-34: manor no. 182; this always remained copyhold, unusually for a built-up plot in this manor; information about demolition from Mr.Fred Gaymer; also see Electoral registers, Maldon Division, 1928-39, showing nos. 32-4 ‘disappearing’ between 1930 and 1931.

[lix] E.R.O. D/DBw Q1; E.R.O. D/DBw M99, m.13; E.R.O. D/DBw M98, mm.2, 12-13, 15, 17.

[lx] Location of manorial ‘territory’ deduced from various sources including E.R.O. D/DBw M39-85; M101-7, M140-5.

[lxi] In the Vicarage manor, the plots from what are now nos. 33/37 northwards to the chapel, inclusive, are copyhold (plots 11, 10, 1a, 1 and 13 in later manor records); south of 33/37 as far as and including what is now the Woolpack, they are freehold (plots 18, 17, 14, 2 and 12) (derived from D/DBw M101-2, 106, 145). The freehold plots on the east side in Witham manor are manor nos. 140, 141, 134, 133, 148, 139, 129, 142, 138.

[lxii] R.H.Britnell, ‘The Making of Witham’, History Studies, i, pp.13- 21; M.Gervers (ed.), The Cartulary of the Knights of Jerusalem in England: Secunda Camera: Essex, O.U.P. for British Academy, 1982, pp.6-7; B.A.Lees (ed.), Records of the Templars in England in the twelfth century, O.U.P., 1935, p.3; Cal.Chart.R. 1226-57, 5, 8, 1341- 1417, 258; J.L.Fisher, ‘The Leger Book of St.John’s Abbey, Colchester’, Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, N.S. xxiv, pp.99-101; P.Morant, The History and Antiquities of the County of Essex, ii, 1763-8, p.111.

[lxiii] R.H.Britnell, ‘Essex Markets Before 1350’, Essex Archaeology and History, xiii, p.17; M.W.Beresford, New Towns of the Middle Ages: town plantation in England, Wales and Gascony, Lutterworth, 1967, pp.436-7; J.C.Ward (ed.), The Medieval Essex Community: Lay Subsidy of 1327, Essex Record Office, 1983.

[lxiv] Calculated from: W.R.Powell, Essex in Domesday Book, Essex Record Office, 1990, p.3; J.C.Ward (ed.), The Medieval Essex Community: Lay Subsidy of 1327, Essex Record Office, 1983; E.R.O. T/A 427/1.

[lxv] M.R.Eddy with C.Turner, Kelvedon, the Origins and Development of a Small Roman Town, Essex County Council, Occasional Paper no. 3, 1982, p.30, shows the route at Kelvedon changing during Roman times; P.J.Drury and W.Rodwell, ‘Settlement in the later Iron Age and Roman Periods’, D.G.Buckley (ed.), Archaeology in Essex to AD 1500, Council for British Archaeology (C.B.A. Research Report no. 34), 1980, pp.59-62.

[lxvi] Observation on the ground; manorial documents of Newland in D/DBw M; A.V.B.Gibson, ‘The constructive geometry in the design of the thirteenth century barns at Cressing Temple’, Essex Archaeology and History, xxv, pp.107-112.

[lxvii] J.L.Fisher, ‘The Leger Book of St.John’s Abbey, Colchester’, Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, N.S. xxiv, p.99, has the ‘Halveacres’ reference; note that one specific plot also seems to have been called ‘Halfacre’ in the Newland manor court record of 1336/7 (E.R.O. D/DBw M98, m.4, tenement held by Adam Basset); two other references therein, in 1336, are rather ambiguous (E.R.O. D/DBw M98 m.5, to half an acre of land lying next to ‘Halfacres’, and to three rods of land held by John the Tailour lying in ‘Halfacre’, without the ‘s’; the latter was next to ‘Mauland’ or Mayland, which was probably part of the demesne behind the Newland plots, to judge from later documents); confusingly, the only uses of the name in a survey of 1413-4 are in the Witham section, i.e. in the Chipping Hill area and not at Newland at all; these relate to ‘two cottages and one acre of land in Halfacre’, ‘one acre of land … in Halfacre’, and ‘one acre and three rods of land in Halfacre’ (E.R.O. D/DBw Q1).

For an example of the name ‘new market’ see Essex Archaeological Society, Feet of Fines for Essex, ii, 1913-28, p.48, item 314, and for ‘Newland’ see E.R.O. D/DBw M98, m.17 line 44, dated 1290.

Note that Warwick Rodwell speculates that Newland was laid out in several stages, though they would have been carried out in fairly rapid succession, as he suggests that they were all complete by the mid 13th century; he also also thinks that part of the development was situated within a large earlier earthwork, the eastern boundary of which followed what is now Maldon Road and Lockram Lane (note that on his plan of this on p.41, the situation of ‘La Holleditch’ is hypothetical; it is known from a survey of about 1320 (J.L.Fisher, ‘The Leger Book of St.John’s Abbey, Colchester’, Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, N.S. xxiv, pp.99-100, which has ‘a ditch called Le Holledyche’ and ‘Adam de la Hollediche’; there was a John atte Holdich in 1413-4 (E.R.O. D/DBw Q1). Also, the site he gives for ‘Lyon mead’, east of Maldon Road, is probably wrong; later records give it on the west side of Maldon Road (manor no,8)). As at Chipping Hill, he has a theory that the earlier market did not begin life in its final position; in this case he speculates that its first site in the area east of what are now Maldon Road and Lockram Lane, to be replaced in due course by what he suggests may have been the last section to be set out as building plots; however, an excavation in this area did not reveal any trace of a market place (W.Rodwell, The Origins and Early Development of Witham, Essex; a Study in settlement and fortification, Prehistoric to Medieval, Oxbow Monograph 26, Oxbow Books, 1993, pp.38-42, 89-92).

[lxviii] The fronts of the sites now nos. 40-64 Newland Street appear to have been set out in what was formerly the widened street area.

[lxix] J.L.Fisher, ‘The Leger Book of St.John’s Abbey, Colchester’, Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, N.S. xxiv, p.99; E.R.O. D/ABW 27/146; E.R.O D/ACA 54/141v; E.R.O. D/DBw M138.

[lxx] M.R.Eddy with M.R.Petchey, Historic Towns in Essex: an Archaeological Survey of Saxon and Medieval Towns, with Guidance for their future planning, Essex County Council, 1983, p.10.

[lxxi] E.R.O. D/DBw M98, mm.9 and 12, have courts on 28th and 29th June 1291 for Witham and Newland respectively, and mm.8 and 17 similarly on 4th and 5th October in the same year; mm.9d. and 10 have courts on 3rd September 1292 for both separately; these references therefore indicate a ‘parallel’ system of courts; only a few rolls survive from before this date, all for courts held at Witham itself, except for one on 14th April 1291 at Newland, so it is not possible to tell for certain when the holding of near-simultaneous courts for both manors began; E.R.O. D/DBw M100, m.13d.

[lxxii] P.Morant, The History and Antiquities of the County of Essex, ii, 1763-8, p.100; his description of Batfords manor house fits no. 100 Newland Street, known as Batfords (now Batsford Court Hotel); Batfords manor almost certainly also included nos. 86-116, which are not in the Witham and Newland manorial records; the following give some of the other history of these sites:- E.R.O. D/DC 41/486; E.R.O. D/DE T75; E.R.O. D/DEt T75; E.R.O. D/NC 3/30; E.R.O. D/DBw M98, mm.8, 11, 14, 15 (1290-2); Essex Archaeological Society, Feet of Fines for Essex, ii, 1913-28, p.187, item 725 (1318-9); J.C.Ward (ed.), The Medieval Essex Community: Lay Subsidy of 1327, Essex Record Office, 1983, p.27 (1327); S.Lewis, Topographical Dictionary of England, 7th edn., i., p.478; The Victoria History of the County of Suffolk, ii. 120- 1.

[lxxiii] References to Newland Street properties being in Powershall manor include:- E.R.O. T/A 188 (in 1415); Revd.J.Bramston, Witham in Olden Time: Two lectures delivered at the Witham Literary Institution, Meggy and Chalk, 1855, p.16 (he attributes it to a pre- Newland property having belonged to Powershall, but it seems more likely to have been the result of a later purchase or grant); in the 18th century the manors of Newland and Powershall were in the same ownership for a time, so some ‘adjustments’ may have taken place then ([P.Muilman], A New and Complete History of Essex from a late Survey, i, Lionel Hassall, 1770, p.354).

References to Newland Street property being held of Blunts Hall manor include:- E.R.O. D/ACR 2/210 (in 1528); E.R.O. Sale Catalogue B845 (in 1816); E.R.O. D/P 30/28/14 and E.R.O. T/B 71/2 (also transcript of most of these two in E.R.O. T/B 71/1) (various dates especially 1619 and 1835).

[lxxiv] W.Rodwell, The Origins and Early Development of Witham, Essex; a Study in settlement and fortification, Prehistoric to Medieval, Oxbow Monograph 26, Oxbow Books, 1993, pp.39-42, 88-93.

[lxxv] M.R.Eddy with M.R.Petchey, Historic Towns in Essex: an Archaeological Survey of Saxon and Medieval Towns, with Guidance for their future planning, Essex County Council, 1983, pp.19, 27. At Epping a planned development seems to have been confined to one side of the road throughout medieval times (p.50); many thanks to Chris Thornton for pointing these references out.

[lxxvi] Manorial affiliations of Bridge Street were derived from various sources including E.R.O. D/P 30/28/14 and E.R.O. T/B 71/2 (also transcript of most of these two in E.R.O. T/B 71/1), E.R.O. C/TS 27A, and E.R.O Sale Catalogues B778, B826, and comparison with E.R.O. D/CT 405, 405A; note that the records of the manors of Witham and Newland do not include Bridge Street or Duck End, except that ‘the Three Mariners’ in Duck End was included in the manor of Newland records in error for a while (manor no. 10); it was found some time after 1717 that it had only been ‘pretended to hold of the Mannor … but hold of Mr.Lingard’s mannor’ (E.R.O. D/DBw M73); John Lingard of London was lord of the manor of Howbridge Hall (P.Morant, The History and Antiquities of the County of Essex, ii, 1763-8, p.110; E.R.O. C/TS 27).

[lxxvii] J.Gyford, Domesday Witham, Janet Gyford, 1985; E.R.O. D/CT 405A.

[lxxviii] J.Blair and R.Sharpe, Pastoral Care Before the Parish, Leicester University Press, 1992, pp.1-7; A.Thacker, ‘Monks, preaching and pastoral care in early Anglo-Saxon England’, J.Blair and R.Sharpe, Pastoral Care Before the Parish, Leicester University Press, 1992, pp.146-52.

[lxxix] M.M.Postan, The Medieval Economy and Society, Penguin, 1975, pp.129-33.

[lxxx] P.Morant, The History and Antiquities of the County of Essex, ii, 1763-8, pp.106-10 gives six manors. He combines Witham and Newland, but as discussed above they were treated as separate manors from medieval times. He omits the Domesday manor of Benton Hall; although also freehold of Witham, this was referred to as a manor also, and a manorial rental survives for 1791-1818 (E.R.O. D/DHh M188). He also omits Ishams, which had little trace of manorial status in later years, but which I have included because of its probable Domesday status, ascribed mainly because of the reference to ‘Little Howbridge alias Ishams’ in the Patent Rolls of 1548 (Cal.Pat. 1547-8, 276), but also because at Domesday, the smaller Howbridge entry had a very large area of wood (for 100 pigs), and Ishams probably owned much of the large Chantry Wood which adjoined it (E.R.O. D/CT 405, 405A, plot no. 380).

[lxxxi] Cal.Pat. 1266-72, 24.

[lxxxii] D.H.Trump, ‘Blunt’s Hall, Witham’, Transactions of Essex Archaeological Society, i, 3rd series, p.37; deeds of Witham Cooperative Society property, in private hands, packet no. 205 (in 1749); E.R.O. T/M 35 (date 1752); E.R.O. D/CT 405, 405A, plot no. 755 (in 1839).

[lxxxiii] J.Gyford, Domesday Witham, Janet Gyford, 1985, p.4; the mills belonged to Witham, Powershall, Blunts Hall, Howbridge Hall, and Benton Hall; M.Gervers (ed.), The Cartulary of the Knights of Jerusalem in England: Secunda Camera: Essex, O.U.P. for British Academy, 1982, pp.53-4; P.R.O. E 142/10; P.Morant, The History and Antiquities of the County of Essex, ii, 1763-8, pp.107-8.

[lxxxiv] O.Rackham, The History of the Countryside, Dent, 1986, pp.4- 5.

For Blunts Hall green or hamlet see:- E.R.O. D/P 30/28/14, 13 Nov.1576, 15 March 1595/6, 12 April 1669 (also transcript in E.R.O. T/B 71/1); E.R.O. D/DDc T82 and E.R.O. D/DRa T107; E.R.O. D/ABW 21/130; E.R.O. D/P 30/28/14, 10 Dec.1669 (also transcript in E.R.O. T/B 71/1); E.R.O. D/DO T790/45 and T755; note that Warwick Rodwell suggests that Blunts Hall green was in the disused outer bailey of the earthwork, extending about 500 feet immediately east of Blunts Hall itself, bounded by the bend in the road; however, the above examples suggest that it extended further east (W.Rodwell, The Origins and Early Development of Witham, Essex; a Study in settlement and fortification, Prehistoric to Medieval, Oxbow Monograph 26, Oxbow Books, 1993, pp.49-51).

[lxxxv] Course on ‘Roman and Medieval Landscapes’ by Tom Williamson, at W.E.A. Essex Federation’s week of study, July 1986; O.Rackham, The History of the Countryside, Dent, 1986, pp.4-5.

[lxxxvi] Course on ‘Roman and Medieval Landscapes’ by Tom Williamson, at W.E.A. Essex Federation’s week of study, July 1986; O.Rackham, The History of the Countryside, Dent, 1986, pp.159-61; W.Rodwell, The Origins and Early Development of Witham, Essex; a Study in settlement and fortification, Prehistoric to Medieval, Oxbow Monograph 26, Oxbow Books, 1993, pp.58-9; P.J.Drury and W.Rodwell, ‘Settlement in the later Iron Age and Roman Periods’, D.G.Buckley (ed.), Archaeology in Essex to AD 1500, Council for British Archaeology (C.B.A. Research Report no. 34), 1980, pp.59-62.

[lxxxvii] W.Rodwell, The Origins and Early Development of Witham, Essex; a Study in settlement and fortification, Prehistoric to Medieval, Oxbow Monograph 26, Oxbow Books, 1993, pp.96-7; in fact the divisions are already evident in 17th century manorial records of Blunts Hall manor, and in spite of amalgamations there were at least three different ownerships throughout the 18th century and up to the 1830s; there may have been more – the relevant surviving Blunts Hall manorial records are not very complete (information derived from various sources including – E.R.O. D/P 30/28/14 and E.R.O. T/B 71/2 (also transcript of most of these two in E.R.O. T/B 71/1), E.R.O. D/DBs T26, E.R.O. D/DRa E109; E.R.O. D/DRa T113-7, E.R.O. D/DRa M31- 3, M36-7).

[lxxxviii] E.R.O. D/CT 405, 405A, plots no. 781-2, 793-4; E.R.O. T/B 71/2, 10 Dec.1619 (also transcript in E.R.O. T/B 71/1).

[lxxxix] E.g. see O.Rackham, The History of the Countryside, Dent, 1986, pp.156-8; J.Gyford, Domesday Witham, Janet Gyford, 1985, pp.4, 7-10, 12, 16; note that Warwick Rodwell also gives Half Hides, partly in Witham, as having been one of the Rivenhall manors at Domesday, but in fact it seems to have been freehold of Witham/Chipping manor, i.e. manor no. 130 (W.J.Rodwell and K.A.Rodwell, Rivenhall: investigations of a villa, church and village, 1950-1977, Chelmsford Archaeological Trust and British Council for Archaeology (C.B.A. Research Report no. 55), 1986, pp.172, 174, and W.Rodwell, The Origins and Early Development of Witham, Essex; a Study in settlement and fortification, Prehistoric to Medieval, Oxbow Monograph 26, Oxbow Books, 1993, p.93; Half Hide(s) is also mentioned in medieval surveys of Witham manor, e.g. B.A.Lees (ed.), Records of the Templars in England in the twelfth century, O.U.P., 1935, p.4 (in 1185); E.R.O. D/DBw Q1 (in 1413-4); also see J.L.Fisher, ‘The Leger Book of St.John’s Abbey, Colchester’, Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, N.S. xxiv, p.99 (although an account of tithes, and not a manorial survey, this seems mainly to deal with places in the manors of Witham, Newland and Cressing.

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