The Golden Falcon

The Golden Falcon

Chapter IV/1 - Wych

WYNTURESLAND

 

"Walter de Hoddington (family name Cromely), married Agnes Cassy, whose mother was a Catesby and left two daughters, who became coheiresses of the estates - Agnes and Joan.  Agnes married William Russell, Joan married Roger Winter in the reign of Henry VI.  So Russell and Winter divided the lands of Hoddington and many years later the name of Catesby expyringe, Russell and Winter became the heyres of Cassey and Catesby, and Catesby's estate spreading into most part of theys shyr was very large, wherein Winter obteygned the thys priory that he had Hoddington and Catesby.  After this mache with Hoddington, the Winters were graced with worthy marriages as with the ancient Throcmorton, with Ingleby, with Gertrude Talbot, syster of George, earl of Shrewsbury and with the knightly house of Russell of Strengsham.  Since finishing of this wourke, Sir George Winter, knight sprung of these noble and ancient families, is advanced to the degree of baronet." (Thomas Habington - "Survey of Worcestershire").

 

The salt springs of Droitwich were formed when the Malvern and Lickey hills of pre-Cambrian Rock (the oldest type) rose from the primeval ocean.  Worcestershire was the first part of Britain to emerge when the sea shrank into lagoons and later formed salt deposits which stretched from Droitwich to Stoke Prior on the Salwarpe river, 4 miles north east of Droitwich.

 

This area was once covered by thick forests which fossilised into coal deposits.  Even in the Middle Ages the area was still forested, the main forests were the Wyre which reached up to the Bristol Channel, the Royal Forest of Feckenham (mostly cut down by the salt boilers of Droitwich for the furnaces) which extended to the borders of Worcester and Bromsgrove and the Malvern Chase which stretched from the Teme to the Malvern Hills.

 

Rock salt was manufactured in Droitwich since Roman times - the old Upper and Lower Saltways, which were Roman roads, are now the main Worcester and Birmingham motorways which runs east from Droitwich through Fakenham and Alcester (A38 and B4099) past Coughton Court of Gunpowder Plot notoriety.

 

The Saxons also came to dig salt there and the trade was flourishing at the time of the Conquest.  Droitwich was famous throughout Europe because of the healing power of its radioaoctive spa, 10 times saltier than the sea and the most potent on the Continent.

 

The Domesday Book (1086-1195) recorded "salinae" or salt springs (in order of importance) at Droitwich, Worcester (mentioned 25 times), Norfolk, Lincolnshire, Kent, Devon, Sussex, Dorset, Hampshire and Cornwall,.

 

Salt was extracted from brine springs, the most famous of which were in Droitwich, Worcestershire and in Cheshire towns with names ending in "wich"; brine springs were called "wyches" probably after the famous one at Droitwich.

 

In September 1165 a writ attested by John of Oxenford (Oxford) on the king's bailiffs of Wich or they failing on the Sheriff of Worcester ordered that "the monks of Abingdon do continue to have their salt as they had it in time of King Henry".

 

When John de Constance (Coutance), archdeacon of Oxford, became Dean of Salisbury and on 12.6.1166, Thomas a'Becket from Vezelay on the river Cure on the borders of the Nivernois and Burgundy, excommunicated him for communicating with the schismatic Reginald of Cologne and usurping Salisbury.  Joscelin de Bohun, Bishop of Salisbury, was also excommunicated for making John of Oxford, Dean of Salisbury so were Richard of Ilchester, Richard de Luci, Joceline de Balliol, Ranulf de Broc, Hugh de St. Clair, Thomas fitzBernard and Alan de Neville.  Both de Luci and de Broc were involved in Becket's subsequent murder.

 

During the reign of Henry II, John de Wych was employed in the Treasury or Exchequer.

 

The family surnamed Wych seem to have been private ship owners because one of them was paid for transporting the Prioress of Fontevrault from Southampton: "In liberaciones navis Roger de la Wicha ad opus Priorissae de Fonte Ebroldi - 50 shillings per breve Regis" dated 22.5.1177 at Southampton.

 

Another document issued at Winchester read: "Et custamento et conductu thesauri in multis itineribus ad Hantoniam et ad Portsmue et ad Porcester per totum annum 4 shillings 2d per Andream clericum camarae et Johannen de Wicha et William Picot, servientes de thesauro" (Pipe Roll regarding payment for transporting Brabantine (Flemish) and Welsh troops from Southampton, Portsmouth and Porchester).

 

St. Richard de la Wych, Bishop of Chichester (born in Droitwich) was one of the exemplars or patron saints of Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester.  St. Richard had a brine spring named after him where his feast day, on 3rd April, was celebrated for 400 years - his feast of Translation on 16th June was celebrated at Chichester.

 

A mercer, Sir Hugh Wych, son of Robert Wych (d. 1466) was mayor of London in 1444.

 

The borough of Wyche (called Saltwic in AD 716 and AD 888) was created in the reign of Edward I and given the "droit" or right to right to mine salt by Edward I (1272-1307) after which its name was changed to Droitwich and the salt trade continued there until 1880.

 

According to Thomas Habington the family of Winter moved from Caernarfon to Wych (Droitwich), in the Halfshire Hundred of Worcestershire during the reign of Edward II (1307-27).

 

In Droitwich the brine had to be ladled or pumped from the surface pits by special men and carried by others to the different boileries.  Other men collected the taxes on various commodities and the tolls for repairing the roads, there were serjeants-at-mace, constables, officials of the Hundred Court, 2 bailiffs and 12 good men who formed the Corporation which governed the town.

 

Salt was taken down Salt Lane (now Castle Lane) in the city of Worcester to the Severn to avoid the salt tax.

 

Coming from Hereford and the Welsh Marches during the Barons' War, Montfort tried to join his son Henry at Kenilworth, taking the old salt way to Stratford via Alcester which was guarded by Prince Edward (later Edward I).  When the barons were defeated at Kenilworth, Simon was trapped between Edward's army and a loop in the river.  He was killed, his body hacked to pieces and the remains buried under the high altar of Evesham Cathedral by the Cistercians monks.

 

On the coast salt was extracted from a mixture of sea water and peat at places like Lincoln near the local herring fisheries.  The Herring Fair at Yarmouth (which has herrings on its coats of arms) attracted a large number of foreigners.  William de la Pole, a herring merchant of Ravenser, Hull was the first mayor of Wyke-upon-Hull, a trading centre since 1160, which was acquired in 1293 by Edward I from the abbots of Meaux and given its first charter in 1299.

 

Red herring were smoked and white herring packed in salt. within 24 hours of their being caught so salt storage centres and warehouses called "greniers" were near the main fishing grounds.

 

The salt pans operated from the 1st of May (St. Philip's and St. James's day) until Martinmas on the 10th November when animals were slaughtered and the meat salted.  This was done in conjunction with farming.

 

In Cheshire the Wiches or Wichfield in the central area comprised Middlewich, Nantwich and Northwich.  One area was called Wich Malbank after William Malbedeng (Malbone) whose barony survived for 3 generations from 1069.  In 1145 when the Welsh invaded, Randle or Ranulf "Gernons", earl of Chester was seized by King Stephen and the brine pits closed to try and curb the Welsh attacks.

 

The old salt trade tracks or saltways can be traced by place names which contained such words as white, whit (whitman carried loads of salt), wick, week, wich, wych, white house, white wells, white stones, white rocks, White Cross (2 each of last 3 are found in Hereford) and the towns of Sale, Salt Moor, Saltway in Droitwich, Saltley, Salford and Saltash.  The salt ley line, which ended in Droitwich, starts in the Black Mountains, in Monmouthshire and its route can be traced from places named Whitfield House at Hoggs Mountain near Hereford Castle, White House (Tupsley), White Stone (Withington), Westhide Church, Whitwick manor, White House at Suddeley and from Impney Hill, Droitwich onwards, the towns of Kenswick, Knightwick, Duckwick, Henwick Church, Lower Wick, Wick Episcopi, Whitton, Whittington churches, Lower Wych, Upper Wych, Whitlam Hill, Lower Wick and Powick Bridge.  ("The Old Straight Track" - A. Watkins)

 

The Tower of London has two towers named the White Tower and the Salt Tower and at Salt Hill, the trade gave rise to the custom of "Eton Montem" when school boys from Eton College went every third Whit-Tuesday to a hillock on the Bath road to exact "salt-money" from passers-by for the university expenses - the word "salary" (L. "salarium") derives from salt money.

 

Under the confluence of the rivers Weaver and Dane, called the Condate, lie two thick beds of salt.  This was refined by boiling the brine in salt pans.  Northwich (the Roman Salinę Condate), Middlewich (Salinę) and Nantwich, called the three Wiches, had brine springs where salt was extracted in lead pans by boiling and was later mined as rock salt.

 

James I (1603-25) visited the brine springs of Nantwich on the 25th August 1617, walking to the brine-seth or pit to watch the briners fetch the water out of the well in leather buckets tied to ropes and empty them into troughs which carried the water to the wich-houses.

 

There were 300 salters in Nantwich where white salt was made in a pit situated on the banks of the river Weaver.  The wich houses, standing on the far side of the river, had great barrels set inside, deep in the earth, under which fires were made beneath the lead.  Each house had 6 leads in which brine was boiled and the wallers, usually women, gathered the salt with wooden rakes from the bottom of barrels and put it in wicker baskets or sieves called salt barrows from which the water ran out, leaving the salt behind.  Rules of "walling" restricted the amount of brine which ran into each house.

 

The finest called "white salt", was exported from Cheshire to Ireland through the port of Bristol.  There were different grades such as black, grey and even green and blue salt.  Bristol was a large salt importing and exporting port, exporting from Cheshire and Worcestershire during the 1300s, later importing from Brittany and Gascony and finally from Spain.

 

Salt was discharged in London at the Salt Wharf, west of Queenshithe where salt toll had been taken since 1244 and afterwards at Billingsgate where the fish market was situated.

 

Salt was one of the few known chemicals in the Middle Ages used to prepare leather; in a process called rubbing of chimneys; soldering of junctions of pipes and gutters; the manufacture of distillates from wine; in remedies (pure saline water is still used in medicine today); in embalming and in salting and preserving food such as meat, bacon and fish, butter and cheese.  Animals were slaughtered in the autumn at Martinmas on the 10th November and salted.

 

Salters not only processed or dealt with salt (origin of this surname) but their guild also included barbers, surgeons and dentists.  Barber surgeons let blood and drew teeth as well as shaving - this is why Richard Steele referred to James Salter ("Don Saltero") as "gingivistae" (tooth-drawer).

 

Their guild was one of the livery companies of London.  The old Salters Hall, near All Hallows church in Bread Street Ward, London was burned down in 1539 but rebuilt - Robert Basset, salter and mayor in 1476, Sir Thomas Pargiter, mayor and salter had monuments in the church.  On the other side of Salters' Hall was the church of St. Mildred the Virgin where there were monuments to Thomas Hall (1582), alderman Thomas Collins and mayor Sir Ambrose Nicholas, all salters.

 

Robert Basset, alderman of Aldgate and mayor of London, was a prominent salter who had a house in the parish of St. Mary Colchurch in 1451-32 in London.  He was alderman in 1471 (11 Edward IV) when Thomas Neville, the Bastard of Fauconberg, attacked London, coming up river Thames by the Tower whereupon the mayor and aldermen fortified the banks from Baynard Castle to the Tower where Earl Rivers was Lieutenant.  Bassett ordered the portclose or drawbridge to be raised at Aldgate and chased the rebels to Mile End.

 

Tenants paid salt rents and a salt wharf was even gifted to a church.  Richard (in 1295) and John de Gloucester were aldermen of London.  John (d.1362), buried at St. Mary de Monte Alto, Monthaunt or Montalt (whose patron was the Bishop of Hereford), gifted a salt wharf for chantries in the church.  His father, John de Gloucester, had a monument at the hospital church of St. Thomas near Thieves Lane, Bridge Ward Without in the Borough of Southwark.

 

In the 14th century a revolution in English economic life diverted salters from their traditional work.

 

The population of Catholic Europe consumed large quantities of fish, especially on Fridays and fast days like Lent.  There were fertile fishing grounds along the continental coasts and the fish consumed was mainly herring from the Baltic, the North Sea, Iceland, Norway, the Channel Isles, Ireland and the Hanseatic ports of Riga and Revel.

 

An important salt production centre was Luneborg in North Germany, others could be found in the Low Countries (Flanders, now Belgium and Holland) and the east coast of England.  In Luneborg salt was obtained from brine springs by boiling the water and the port for the trade was the Hanseatic town of Lübeck.  In the Low Countries (where the trade centred in Flanders) it was obtained from the sea, being extracted from salt-soaked peat called "darink" or "zelle".

 

Western Europe obtained salt from the southern salines of France in small quantities.  This industry grew with the Gascon wine trade and was given fresh stimulus by the marriage of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine in 1152 when vast areas of south west France came under English control.  The Angevin kings gave Gascon merchants and growers commercial protection and a secure English market.  Gascony throve under English rule, Bordeaux doubled its size, Gascon wine was sent all over Europe whilst English viticulture declined.

 

After the Hundred Years' War, Brittany became the chief exporter of salt to England.  It was sent from Guerand or Enguerande, the Bay of Bourgneuf, the Islands of Re and Oleron and Brouage near La Rochelle.  Protestant La Rochelle was involved in the salt and wine trade until Elizabeth I's reign.

 

Breton politics affected the salt trade.  When John II, Duke of Brittany (Edward II's cousin) died without issue, the rivals for his dukedom were John's niece Jeanne (daughter of his brother Guy de Penthievre), wife of Charles of Blois (the king of France's nephew) and the Duke's younger half-brother, John of Montfort (1341) who was Edward's second cousin and husband of Joan of Flanders.

 

This occurred during the English campaign in Picardy so Edward III dragged on and exploited the situation for his own military advantage.  English forces led by Sir Walter Manny were sent to Brittany in 1342, reinforcements under William de Bohun, earl of Northampton and Robert of Artois, followed by Edward himself followed.

 

John of Montfort died in 1345 and his son, also named John, who became Edward III's ward and a lieutenant, was appointed to administer Brittany during his minority in 1347 (he attained majority in 1362).  The Treaty of Bretigny brought Anglo-French hostilities to a temporary halt and John was installed as duke by Edward III.  The war began afresh in 1364 but Charles of Blois was killed in the battle of Auray and John became undisputed heir, acknowledged by Charles V of France.

 

The house of Brittany was closely connected with England.  The duke held the Honour of Richmond, Yorkshire and John II (1286-1305) of Brittany married Edward I's sister Beatrice Plantagenet.  John IV de Montfort was loyal to England through gratitude for assistance which made him a tool in their hands.  John V (1399-1442) granted leases to tenants to build salines and reduced taxes on corn imports by salters of Guerand.  A royal injunction of 1349 forbad English merchants to buy salt from the Bay or elsewere in Poitou except from Henry of Lancaster.

 

Fig.45 - House of Brittany

 

Nomenoė, duke of Brittany > son had the independence of his duchy recognised by Charles "the Bald" of France by the Treaty of Angers 851 AD, was recognised as king of Brittany and given Nantes, Rennes and Retz in return for homage.  Brittany remained independent until the 15th century > Conan II, duke of Brittany (poisoned in 1066) > Hoel, duke of Brittany (1087) > Alain Sergant, duke of Brittany = 1086 Constance, d. of William the Conqueror > Constance of Brittany = (1) Geoffrey Plantagenet, duke of Brittany in 1173 (d. 1186 in Paris), son of Henry II, = (2) Ranulf of Blundeville, earl of Chester (obsp 1232) from whom she ran away, = (3) her lover Guy of Thouars.

By (1) >:

A. Arthur Plantagent of Brittany (murdered by his uncle King John)

B. Eleanor (d. August 1241 imprisoned in England).

 

By (3) > Alice of Brittany = Peter Mauclerc of Dreux, count of Brittany (gt. gr. son of Louis "le Gros") >:

(a) John, earl of Richmond (1306-34) > John (d. 1285) "the Red" = Blanche (d. 1283),

     d. of Theobald IV (d. 1253), count of Champagne and King of Navarre > John (1285

     -1305), duke of Brittany, earl of Richmond = Beatrice Plantagenet, d. of King Henry III.

(b) Arthur II (1305-12) = (1) Mary of Limoges = (2) Yolande of Dreux, d. of Beatrice

     of Montfort l'Aumary & widow of Alexander III of Scotland >:

     1. By (1) > John III (obsp 1341)

     2. By (1) Guy of Penthievre > Jeanne = Charles of Blois, nephew of Philip VI

     3. By (2) John of Montfort >: John IV > Francis I, duke of Brittany >

         Francis II, duke of Brittany (d.1488) > Anne = Emperor Maximilian

        (repudiated) = (2) Louis XII of France in 1491.

 

When Charles VII of France threatened Poitou in 1451 with the salt tax called the "gabelle", Brittany became a refuge for the salters of Poitou, some of whom had already fled to Enguerande in 1383.  Many Gascon families settled in Bristol when Aquitaine was lost to the French.

 

Noble Breton and Poitevin families who lived on the shores of the Bay dominated the salt trade.  They sought incomes, paid dowries, granted annuities and devised pious requests with salt.  The most famous Bay Fleet in 1449 was the Hanseatic League merchants' convoy which included Dutchmen and Flemings and was formed to protect shipping from piracy.

 

The Winters probably first settled in that part of Droitwich (consisting of Upwich, Netherwich and Middlewich) known as Wynturesland in a bend of the river Salwarpe until the manor of Huddington came to them after marriage with one of the two coheiresses in 1483 and probably inherited the Cooksey salt springs.

 

Hugh Cokesay (Cooksey), John Brekenoke (Brecknock), Piers Bowman "the king's beloved clerk" and Hugh Cooksey are mentioned in the records of the London Exchequer in 1445:

 

"Et de xx.li receptis, die et anno praedictis, de diversis dominis, militibus et aliis per manus dicti Johannis Brekenoke ad vices, dicto anno xxiij (23 Henry VI - 1445) videlice, una vice, de venerabili in Christo patre, episcopo de Coutaunces, vj li. alia vice de domino Jacobo Ormonde, vj.li. xiij.s  iiij.d. et tertia vice de Hugone Cokesay milite, vij.li vj.s  viii.d pro eskippamento hominum et equorum suorum in comitiva marchionis Suffolciae transeuntum et redeneuntium, ultra certum numerum per consilium domini regis illis appunctuatum sicut ibidem."

 

(This is a receipt given by John Brekenoke for various sums of money from lords, knights and others in 1445, one sum being from the Bishop of Coutances, another from James, Lord Ormonde and a third from Hugh Cokesay for a shipment of men and horses to and from France from the county of the marchioness of Suffolk by order of the king's council who were appointed for that purpose).

 

John de Brekenoke held the manor of Nesles or Druels, Bledlow in the Risborough Hundred of Buckinghamshire in 1458, Horsenden in the same Hundred (1458-9), Edlesborough in the Aylesborough Hundred (1458), Saunderton St Mary in the Desborough Hundred (1451), an appurtenant of Weston Turville (where the manor of Weston Butlers was inherited by the Winters), Saunderton St. Nicholas (1459, Saunderton Grange (in the tenure of Thomas Winter at the Dissolution) and Bromes, Bromynes or Browns manor in Saunderton in the Desborough Hundreds (1459).

 

Wrardisbury or Remenham manor in Wraysbury in the Stoke Hundred was given to John Brecknock (1463) by Edward IV.  It had been held by Christiana (grand daughter of Geoffrey de Marisco, justiciar of Ireland) one of the Ridlesford heiresses who surrendered her lands in the Connaught, south Kildare to the king in 1281.  Brecknock died in 1476 and his widow Elizabeth in 1489.  Sybil, grand daughter of John Brekenoke and wife of Thomas Stonor, held the manor afterwards (the Winters married into the family of Stonor).  Richard, Duke of York secured for John Brekenoke, the office of Treasurer of the Household to Henry VI and he was also the King's Receiver for Cornwall.  Sybil Stonor was the daughter of David Brecknock, John's son.

 

The manor of Dagnal Spigurnell, Edlesborough in the Cotterton Hundred, was held in 1450 by Brecknock (d. 1475) and his first wife Letitia who had 2 daughters, Alice and Margaret (who died 2 years after her father).  Margaret de Brecknock married Sir William Lucy (d. 1492) and the manor passed to Edmund Lucy (his son and heir by Margaret) who married Alice de Brekenoke.  It then passed to Thomas Lucy (in 1512) who died in 1525 and to his son William Lucy.  Alice de Brekenoke's daughters and coheiresses were Alice and Margaret, wives of Thomas Cavendish and Richard Quadring.  There is a brass of John Brekenock and his wife Elizabeth, sister of Sir John Francis (1488) at Wraysbury church.  This shows a knight standing on a greyhound under a canopy.  Over his head are the arms of Brecknock "A chevron between 3 bears gambs, impaling a chevron between 3 eagles displayed".  John Brecknock, Treasurer to King Henry VI & High Sheriff of Buckingham (1440) died on 1.9.1475 and his 2nd wife, daughter of Robert Francys of Co. Derby died in March 1488.

 

Hugh Brekenock, prior of Snelshall, was elected in 1503 and died in 1529.  The advowson of Amersham was alienated in 1348 to Brecknock Priory (where a John Winter is recorded) by the 11th earl Bohun who was lord of Brecon.

 

Two inquisitions postmortem of Dionisia, wife of Hugh Cokesay, show she held saltsprings at Droitwich which were ultimately inherited by the Winters of Huddington.

 

Inquisitions postmortem (6th Henry IV No.77 and 50th Edward III No. 20), listed the manors of Hunningham (Warwickshire), Dogepole, Franketon, Isabell Castell (Shropshire), Kidderminster, Witley, Timberhough, Stanford, Estham, Purshull, Winterford, Elmbridge, Salwarpe, Sapey Richard, Upthorpe, Aldermaston, Cooksey, Caldwell, Orleton, Overton, Netherton, "Bastwoodstockton", Sutton Sturmy, Parchey in Kidderminster, Harpeley, Purshull (Worcestershire) and "Wich viginta et una bullar plumboz aquae salsae et una salina" and "Wicha bull' septam plumbae aquae salsae", (twenty one lead boileries for brine and a saltspring & 7 lead boileries for brine in Droitwich).

 

Another inquisition (No. 49 dated 38 and 39 Henry VI) of Alesia, widow of Hugh Cokesay (held Upton Warren in 1406-7), knight, wife of Andrew Ogard listed Buckenham Castle, Old and New Buckenham, (formerly property of the d'Aubigny, earls of Arundel), Buckenham Lathys, Tyberham, "Gryhaght", 2 parts of a manor in Wymondham, Norfolk, Hunningham and Willey in Warwickshire, Weaverthorp manor in Yorkshire, Walton-on-Trent and Eyton-in-Dovedale in Derbyshire, Little Bookham and Bromley, Surrey, Cherseworth (Cheeseworth), Seggewyck (Sedgewick) in Sussex, Lee in Lincoln, "Timberhongell", Cookesey, Goldcote, Upthorpe, Aldermarston and "Wyche reddit et bullar imb." in Worcestershire.

 

Hugh Cooksey's inquisition No. 54 dated 30 Edward III mentions the manors of Hunningham in Warwickshire, Kingsmede, Kynton in Shropshire and the Welsh Marches, Kidderminster, Wickly, Nether Sapey, Goldecote, Stockton, Caldwell, Cooksey, Wych, Purshull, "Wychebaut". (Wychbold), "Elmerigge" (Elmbridge), Salwarpe, "Timberengle" (Timberhongle), Upthorpe, Overton and Orleton, Worcestershire.

 

Another inquistion dated 24 Henry VI No. 36 for Hugh Cooksey. knights mentions Weaverthorpe manor in Yorkshire, Hunningham and Willey in Warwickshire, Eyton-in-Dovedale, and Walton on Trent in Derbyshire, Lee in Lincoln, Little Bookham and Bromley in Su/rrey, Billington, Cheeseworth, and Sedgewick in Sussex, Cooksey, Witley, Caldwell, Timberhongle, Goldicote, Upthorpe and "Wyche 21 bullar' plumbor aquae salsae et salinae ac. 26s. 8d reddit ibm."  (21 lead boileries for brine and a salt spring).

 

In 15 Edward II  Walter Cooksey held Goldicote in Worcestershire and his son Walter (4-5th Henry VI No. 43) "Parthes" in Kidderminster and Kidderminster, Worcestershire.

 

According to earlier inquisitions the spring and manors of Wychbold and Elmbridge as well as those in Shropshire, had belonged to Adam and Thomas de Elmbridge.

 

No. 18, 2 Edward II - Adam de "Elmrugg" (Elmbridge) in Worcestershire "Elerugg hamlet extent" in Worcestershire and Tylleshope "maner extent", Boreford "fec. cur in" Shropshire.

 

No. 37 Edward III - Roger and Agnes Elmbridge held the manors of "Mawen Nichol, Riseburie, Delewe, Elmerigg villat y manor de Whichbaude" (Wychbold) in Herefordshire.

 

No. 43, 40 Edward III for Roger Elmbridge lists "Wyche sex bullar' plumborum" (six lead boileries in Droitwich) in Worcestershire, Sanecombe in Hertford and Fakenham Aspis in Suffolk.

 

No. 21 Richard II - Elizabeth "Ellingbridge", wife of Roger held "Ellingbridge" in Worcestershire.

 

The Winter arms appear on the old painted glass windows of the Raven Hotel, part of which included a 400-year-old timbered manor house.  The glass, first installed in the old Exchequer House (erected in 1581 and destroyed in 1825) is now at Huddington.

 

The arms in the Exchequer House were the royal arms and 18 shields with 130 quarterings of county families, most of whom resided within a few miles of Droitwich and had interests in the salt industry as shares in the brine supply, a boilery or two "phatts" or vats were a better investment that land or property.

 

Most of the men represented by their coats of arms held office as bailiffs.   The two windows on the north side included arms of Winter (George Winter was bailiff in 1571 and 1572) and the south window those of Russell, Lyttleton and Talbot.  The 13th shield is Russell with the quarterings (1) Cumin from the Astley shield (2) "a cross ingrailed azure" (Peverell) (3) a "pile ermine" (4) Cromeley ["azure, 3 fishes naiant palewin or"] (5) Golofer ["barry wavy, argent and gules, upon a bend sable, 3 besants or"] (6) possibly Furnival (+) from the Talbot coat (7) Russell (8) Hoddington ["gules, a saltire argent within a bordure sable, charged with 8 mullets or"] (9) "ermine, a fesse or" (10) Cassy ["argent, on a bend gules, 3 round buckles or"] (11) Cooksey ["azure, 3 cinquefoils or] (12) "argent, on a bend engrailed cotised sable [3 mullets of the first]" (Thurgrin).

 

(+) Alice, widow of lord Talbot of Goodrich, was d. of Thomas Neville, Lord Furnival (d.1433) by Ankaretta, d. of John, lord Strange of Blackmere, near Whitchurch, Shropshire.

 

Little remained of the Winter shield; one was the Hoddington quartering and another of the Hungerfords' "sable, a fesse charged with a mullet" and the inscriptions read "Mr George Winter (1580)".

 

The Raven Hotel (named after John Corbett, the salt king in 1879 whose coat of arms was "or, a raven sable") was once part of the manor of St. Andrew, patron saint of the Crusaders, led by the Flemings and many Flemish Crusaders, settled in England, named churches in the East Midlands after him.  The oldest and central part of the building is the manor house of Wych, later known as St. Andrews House, a timber framed structure with oak beams blackened with age, dating back to Elizabethan times.

 

The old Exchequer (built in 1580-1) stood on the site of what is now the town hall and was a timber building at the junction of four streets, lying to the north of St. Andrews church, was not the first one.  The first was built in 1215 when the town was given its first charter from King John at Bridgnorth a few weeks after he signed the Magna Carta at Runnymede.  The king sold his all his royal rights or "droits" in Wych to the burgesses for the sum of £100 per annum to be paid in two sums of £50 at Michaelmas and Easter.  This sum, the Fee Farm, was paid for 600 years to the king or his nominee (often the queen).  The raising of the Fee Farm was the main business of the bailiffs and burgesses, fees were also paid to the sheriff, the earl of Warwick (£20) and the Bishop of Worcester (100 shillings).

 

The "Salsa" or Salt Rolls show the burgesses, subject to the salt tax for the payment of the Fee Farms, who received their full travelling expenses when they took the Royal Fee Farm to wherever the nominee was residing and also had a stipend of 20 shillings each annually.  The Droitwich records contain Royal Letters Patent granting tolls to be levied for the paving of the town, writs from the sheriffs on leases of boileries, regulations regarding bailiffs, proceedings of the Hundred Court of Wych, rules on the working of pits (especially the Great Pit at Upwich called St. Richard's Pit), documents about lawsuits, personal matters, quarrels and business transactions.

 

Amongst the bailiffs was Adam Clerk, John Cassy senior and John Cassy junior (in 1377).  John Cassy was Chancellor of the Exchequer and was buried with his wife at Deerhurst.  Peter Cassy held pasture within the bounds of Droitwich, the boundaries of which are described in 1456 as going up to the church of St. Augustus, Dodderhill and "so up to Wynturesland on the north and Lenchesland on the south."  There was also a Cokesayland and a Cassyland there.

 

The Droitwich Exchequer or Checker House was designed on the Royal Exchequer or "Scaccarium" in London and had a table on which the money was counted.  This table was either covered with a checked cloth or else the top was painted with black and white checks for convenience in counting the coins.  It was so important that the second seal of the borough was "gules, 2 lions passant or, pierced by a sword point down argent with hilt & pommel or, impaling quarterly 1 & 4 checky argent and sable" and 2 & 3 gules, two salt peels (ladles or saltbarrows) or" (a saltbarrow was a conical basket for straining water out of the brine).  The inscription read "Sigillum commune ville Wychie" (the common seal of the city of Wych).  The chequered seal of was later adopted as that of the Statute Merchant of the town of Droitwich.

 

Robert Winter of Huddington, the Gunpowder Plotter, owned salts springs in Droitwich and when he, his brother Thomas and half-brother John were executed, Sir Thomas Overbury (who was later poisoned in the Tower of London) was granted "the lease of bulleries (boileries) of salt water with cribs, stalls and other appurtenances in Droitwich, Worcestershire, parcel of the possessions of Robert Winter, attainted" in September 1607.  The brine springs must have come back into the family of Winter at some time for they were in the possession of George Winter who became a baronet on 29.4.1642 when he still owned 2 bullaries of salt in Droitwich worth £144 per annum.

 

After the Conquest of 1066, Droitwich was held by Odo, Bishop of Bayeux who gave it to Urse d'Abitot (Beauchamp), sheriff of Worcester (brother of one of the Despencers who were stewards of the earl of Chester) from whom it passed to the Beauchamp, earls of Warwick and the Pauncefoots who inherited it from William Beauchamp.

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