This is Erdiburn

When the Normans conquered Britain in 1066, they inherited the Anglo-Saxon framework of shires and hundreds as a basis of administration. Generally, the courts of the hundreds met every four weeks whilst the shire court met twice annually. Irthlingborough at that time was in Navisland Hundred which included Finedon as possibly the most important, Burton (Latimer), Woodford, the Addingtons, Barton (Seagrave), Cranford, Kettering, Warkton and Grafton (Underwood).

Putting it in simple terms, following the Conquest all land was owned by the king who rewarded the earls and barons who had supported the invasion with large areas of land which they governed on the king’s behalf and in return were obliged to provide military aid to the king in times of need. They in turn granted land, known as manors to men who fought for them. The lords of manors then let out land of the manor which varied in size from a couple of farms to a vast estate, to villagers. The lands of the manor were divided into two, one part known as demesne belonged totally to the lord whilst the other was let out under strict rules and supervision to the tenantry.

The Domesday Survey taken in 1086 reveals that Irthlingborough, was known as Erdinburn or Erdiburn and consisted of 33 households which placed it in the largest 40% of settlements recorded, and was listed under two owners, both of them being St. Peter’s Abbey at Burch, or Peterborough. The larger manor was made up of 9 villagers, 4 freemen, 8 smallholders and 2 slaves who worked the 15 plough lands. The mill was almost certainly a watermill.

8 villagers and 2 smallholders made up the second manor which also possessed a mill. Altogether the 33 villeins, sokemen, borders and slaves of Erdinburn, together with their women and children would indicate a population at that time of 120 to 150.

The social distinctions¹ recorded in the Survey may briefly be explained as follows;

• Free men or sokemen held land of their own although they also were required to give some fixed and limited service to the lord. If their services were duly performed then the lord had no power to deprive them of their land. They were, in fact, similar to the tenant farmer of the modern day. They were the top stratum of society below the lord of the manor.
• Villagers or villeins were unfree peasants. They held land which they farmed for themselves although they owed service of 2/3 days of work on the lord’s land. They were the wealthiest and most numerous of the unfree peasants but could not leave the estate and went as part of it if the manor was either sold, or leased.
• Smallholders or bordars likewise were unfree tenants of small parcels of land and a cottage (bord being the Anglo-Saxon for cottage). In return for their tenancy, they supplied the lord with threshing, tilling and mowing.
• Slaves, otherwise known as serfs were the total property of their lord. They had no land and could be bought or sold at their lord’s whim. They really were at the bottom of the social scale with no rights whatsoever. They were not allowed to acquire property of any sort but their lives, limbs and the chastity of their women were protected by law.

It has already been recorded that the village formed part of the extensive estate of Peterborough Abbey and it is of interest to record some of the Abbey’s activities here. In c1200 Abbot Akarius ordered the building of a hall at Irthlingborough, which Abbot Alexander later relocated, whilst Abbot Walter later invested in a new cowshed and new stable here. Abbot Godfrey of Crowland then enclosed the eastern boundary of the manor by renewing a stone wall, previously derelict, and put up a new gate in front of the hall at a cost of 69s 11½d.

Life in the village

Life in Erdinburn including collection of rents, or fines as they were known, for the letting of property and land was run by the manor court whose officials were usually elected from amongst the villagers, the chief official being the reeve who was the overseer acting on behalf of Lord of Manor, Peterborough Abbey in Erdinburn’s case.

The Accounts of Godfrey of Crowland, Abbott of Peterborough do inform us that in the year 1300 Ralph of Thorney was bailiff and Ascelin the reeve. We are also introduced to William the mason who had rented a croft near the bridge to Thomas Huet who paid 12 shillings and 10 pence rent². We have also met other villagers including Cecilia de Rypar, John Rose, Robert le Lethe and Ralph in the bakery.

We also meet Ralph Pethoun and his son John and learn of the very interesting and elaborate arrangements made for Ralph’s impending retirement which are set out in ‘Irthlingborough in Sickness and in Health’ published by Irthlingborough Historical Society in September, 2016.

We also learn that Robert le Lethe paid 4d to the Abbey which allowed the requirement for him to perform mowing for one day, harvesting for one day as well as ploughing and harrowing, to be relaxed, and that William Bate paid five shillings for annual recognition that he could come and go without challenge.

Two oxen had been pastured in the common meadow during the year which ensured a profit of 8 shillings for the Abbey whilst pasture from grass and nettles on the side of the cemetery realised six pence. As the land on the water side of the cemetery had been grazed by the lord’s sheep, a mere four pence was charged for animals pasturing on the nettles there.

Nothing at all had been raised from the sale of straw for thatching during the year because part of the area normally used for this purpose had been used for the lord’s draught animals whilst the other part had been mixed with dung. It is also interesting to read that 5d was spent during the year purchasing withies for securing animal pens, 6d for mending the sheep pens with sticks and 13d was paid to men spreading dung.

What would seem to be a disproportionate 10 shillings and 6 pence was laid out on ointment for the sheep when just 6d was paid to two boys for driving the flock to the fen. Washing and shearing 165 sheep cost 16½d but the shearers were encouraged in their work with four pence worth of ale before the animals were marked with bitumen at a cost of 3d. Two dozen hurdles were bought for 2 shillings and 2 pence with a further 2d spent on poles with which to prop the hurdles up. The sheepfold was then roofed by a roofer and his assistant who charged 7d. A further expense was 2 shillings and a halfpenny for the roofing of the hall, byre and kitchen³, with a further tuppence for batons to anchor down the roof.

The cost of roofing the Grange, byre and sheepfold in 1308, together with the chamber next to the Hall door was 5 shilling and 9½d, the withies for fixing the roof costing 3d, the cost of purchasing 9 cartloads of cement for the same being 4d whilst a further 2d was spent on the purchase of 60 spike nails for mending the gate to the Grange and other gates on the manor. A further six pence was spent in repairing a wall towards Richard Plom.

It is interesting to read that 20 shillings was rendered from the farm of the windmill(s) in 1308. In 1310 a millstone and canvas for the windmill cost 20 shillings – what a great shame that no clue as to its location was recorded!

We also learn that 10 shillings was received from Hugh of Kettering which allowed him to have an oven in his property at the head of the village and bake his own bread whilst staying there. Bread for everyone else would have been baked in the manorial oven – at a charge!

At that same time Thomas Huvet was relieved of 10 shillings for marrying his daughter Cecilia outside the manor. Miriella, daughter of Robert Lethe had ‘married herself’ outside the manor bringing a demand for three shillings and four pence. The same applied in the case of Alicia, daughter of Robert Trewe whilst William, son of Walter got away with paying just two shillings when his daughter Alicia likewise pledged her troth elsewhere.

We have already seen that a strict social hierarchy was maintained in the C14th and a similar distinction was observed with regard to remuneration for work, often recorded as annual stipends;

The Abbots of Peterborough⁴ relied greatly on homages and acts of fealty. In 1308 Richard, son of Stephen in Irthlingborough, owed the duty of providing a horse and groom to carry flour for the Abbot for 40 days in time of war.

Cuisine⁵ at the time of the Conquest was much as it had been for four hundred years and was not to change much for a further four hundred. Cereals were the most important staple of the poor and native plants. Carrot, parsley, chervil which was similar to parsnip and smallage (celery) were augmented by the plants introduced by the Romans over a thousand years earlier such as broad beans and peas which were not eaten fresh, but dried.

They were then ground and with a few lentils mixed with the brown bread and ale and made into pottage. This was universally used as a ‘pack-up’ for men working on their doles in the fields which in Irthlingborough could easily be a good mile or two from home with the confines of the parish extending from the boundary with Little Addington to the River Ise at Wellingborough.

Beetroot, cucumber probably of the ‘apple’ type, lettuce, dandelion, radish, sorrel, Swiss chard, turnip, cress and watercress which grew prolifically in several streams in the village were also valuable crops. There were orchards in the village and hedge-side berries were everywhere. The glut of summer and autumn were preserved and honey, jams, and preserved eggs, purchased new laid at 6d per hundred⁶ helped to enliven the Winter diet.

The local rivers were teeming with fish, particularly eels which were often used as a source of currency when paying dues to Peterborough Abbey, and eel pasties were a particular favourite. Until recent times evidence of fish ponds could be identified in Coneygeres. Such ponds allowed fish caught in the summer to be stored ready for easy netting in winter.

Elaborate nets were made to catch eels, and also adapted for the catching of songbirds and rabbits which were highly prized. Cod and herring were eaten in large quantities near the coast but until the coming of the railway in 1845 it was only the dried or smoked versions which reached as far inland as here.

Meat was expensive and for the lower classes was restricted to chickens and domestic fowls which they bred themselves, and possibly pork. Game, of course, required hunting which immediately put it out of reach of all but the nobility. Then known as coneys, rabbits had been introduced into Britain by the Normans for the purpose of providing meat which was considered a great delicacy, and also fur for trimming clothes.

Licences were granted for the establishing of domestic warrens in which the animals were kept and bred. At that time one rabbit was worth more than a workman’s daily wage so it is hardly surprising that the warrens were zealously guarded by warreners.

In 1327 Sir Simon de Drayton was granted free warren at Drayton in nearby Lowick, Islip and at Irthlingborough from which comes the name Coneygere Field. Permission to establish a domestic warren was the equivalent to a hunting licence for a given area of woodland⁷.

Another delicacy was the meat of the dove and pigeon. For centuries doves had been recognised as a valuable source of not only food but of manure, and feathers for mattresses. In the Middle Ages only manorial lords could keep these birds which were housed in dovecotes. In later centuries this law was relaxed.

The little building standing in the grounds of The Limes in Station Road, formerly the home of Dr. Robb was once the coach-house but inside are to be found the nesting ledges dating from when the building also served as a dove-cote. They have been beautifully restored and preserved.

When an archaeological assessment and trial excavation was carried out on gardens in Lime Street in May, 2001 the foundations of a circular stone dovecote were found. There is no doubt that other dovecotes also existed here as can be seen in the advertisements for the more substantial houses in the village which we will come to in due course.

At that time all cooking required the direct use of fire and for the lower classes this meant that almost everything went into a stew pot which did mean that little was wasted, and that did include fats which were considered far more beneficial to one’s well-being than is the case today.

Ovens were expensive to construct and restricted to the upper classes and in some villages only possessed by the lord of the manor. Bread for the community would often be baked in such an oven, at a price.

It is also interesting to record that the oven in the kitchen serving Irthlingborough College in 1400 is still in situ although probably never having been used since the suppression of the College on 1st April, 1548.

Preserved foods such as bacon, cheese and sausages really were special treats and we must remember, of course, that this was an age before sugar was produced and before potatoes had been introduced into this country. One would expect therefore that people of those times had teeth in very good condition but the evidence revealed during the excavations of, and around All Saints Church in Coneygeres in 1965⁸ proved otherwise, with lots of the skeletons displaying dental irregularities, tooth decay and abscesses.

Fresh water was available from the many wells and springs in Irthlingborough but water was seldom drunk and most people, including children drank ale, even for breakfast. Water was required for cooking and preserving so efforts were made to avoid contamination by regulating the washing of clothes in streams.

The washing, or dipping of sheep was performed where Tunbrook crossed the road to Addington. On 13th August, 1901 five year old Henry Partridge became the third child in twenty years to drown in the deep and muddy waters of the wash-pit. A month later the pit was still left unfenced by farmers so the Council ordered that it be filled in immediately.

The most common men’s Christian names of that time included John, William, Robert, Richard, Ascilin and Henry whilst Alice, Agnes, Mathilda, Emma and Margaret the most common for women.

We have already met with a small number of the inhabitants of 1300 Irthlingborough earlier in our story and note that many managed with just a Christian name. However, with taxation being introduced at levels greater than had formerly been known, something more than just a personal name was required in order to accurately identify the appropriate individual.

Many would have been listed on taxation returns through bynames and although these are not necessarily local, they may well have been – Richard le sawyere, William Molend (miller), Asceline Koc (cook), Richard Pisch (fisher), Henry Tannour (leather worker), Geoffrey Capell (chaplain), John Prepositi (reeve) and Thomas Porcar (swineherd). We have, of course, already met and been introduced to William the mason, Cecilia de rypar and Ralph in the bakery.

A large number of taxpayers would have been recorded in a manner somewhat similar to the present day with Christian and in many cases, a descriptive surname – John Wytelok, Roger Syngwell, John Flaun, Thomas Makeshar and Hugh Herun being fine examples.

Many were able to adopt locational names such as William ad font (lives near the well) and Cecil ad torrente. Others may well have included at the Cross, in the lane, at the town’s end and on the hill whilst others may well have been identified from their place of birth such as Alice de Hargrave, William de Adingtone, John de Haruden and Julian de Hecham.

© Irthlingborough Historical Society – May 2025

The above may be used on condition that all sources are acknowledged

1. With acknowledgement to ‘Finedon Otherwise Thingdon’ John L.H. Bailey ↩︎
2. One shilling equals 5p of modern money and sixpence 2½p – and 20 shillings equalled £1. ↩︎
3. I would imagine that these are the manor buildings alluded to earlier. ↩︎
4. The White Book of Peterborough – edited by Sandra Raban ↩︎
5. Wikipedia Medieval Cuisine ↩︎
6. The Accounts of Godfrey of Crowland, Abbott of Peterborough 1299 – 1321. In 1300 500 eggs were sent to the Abbey at a cost of 6d per 100. ↩︎
7. Wikipedia ↩︎
8. 31st July to 18th December, 1965 led by Gwen Brown ↩︎