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. |