The Evolution Of An English Town by Gordon Home

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THE EVOLUTION OF AN ENGLISH TOWN

Being the story of the ancient town of PICKERING in Yorkshire from
Prehistoric times up to the year of our Lord Nineteen Hundred & 5

BY GORDON HOME

TO ALL THOSE WHO HAVE GIVEN THEIR GENEROUS HELP IN THE COMPILATION OF THIS
BOOK

PREFACE

The original suggestion that I should undertake this task came from the
Vicar of Pickering, and it is due to his co-operation and to the great
help received from Dr John L. Kirk that this history has attained its
present form. But beyond this I have had most valuable assistance from so
many people in Pickering and the villages round about, that to mention
them all would almost entail reprinting the local directory. I would
therefore ask all those people who so kindly put themselves to great
trouble and who gave up much time in order to help me, to consider that
they have contributed very materially towards the compilation of this
record.

Beyond those who live in the neighbourhood of Pickering, I am particularly
indebted to Mr Richard Blakeborough for his kind help and the use of his
invaluable collection of Yorkshire folklore. Mr Blakeborough was keen on
collecting the old stories of hobs, wraithes and witches just long enough
ago to be able to tap the memories of many old people who are no longer
with us, and thus his collection is now of great value. Nearly all the
folklore stories I am able to give, are those saved from oblivion in this
way.

I have also had much help from Mr J. Romilly Allen and from Mr T.M. Fallow
of Coatham, who very generously gave his aid in deciphering some of the
older records of Pickering.

To Professor Percy F. Kendall who so kindly gave me permission to
reproduce his map showing the Vale of Pickering during the Glacial Epoch,
as well as other valuable help, I am also greatly indebted; and I have to
thank Professor W. Boyd Dawkins for his kindness in reading some of the
proofs, and for giving valuable suggestions.

GORDON HOME.

EPSOM, _May 1905_.

CONTENTS

PREFACE.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER I
CONCERNING THOSE WHICH FOLLOW

CHAPTER II
THE FOREST AND VALE OF PICKERING IN PALAEOLITHIC AND PRE-GLACIAL TIMES

CHAPTER III
THE VALE OF PICKERING IN THE LESSER ICE AGE

CHAPTER IV
THE EARLY INHABITANTS OF THE FOREST AND VALE OF PICKERING

CHAPTER V
HOW THE ROMAN OCCUPATION OF BRITAIN AFFECTED THE FOREST AND VALE OF
PICKERING, B.C. 55 TO A.D. 418

CHAPTER VI
THE FOREST AND VALE IN SAXON TIMES, A.D. 418 TO 1066

CHAPTER VII
THE FOREST AND VALE IN NORMAN TIMES, A.D. 1066 TO 1154

CHAPTER VIII
THE FOREST AND VALE IN THE TIME OF THE PLANTAGENETS, A.D. 1154 TO 1485

CHAPTER IX
THE FOREST AND VALE IN TUDOR TIMES, A.D. 1485 TO 1603

CHAPTER X
THE FOREST AND VALE IN STUART TIMES, A.D. 1603 TO 1714

CHAPTER XI
THE FOREST AND VALE IN GEORGIAN TIMES, A.D. 1714 TO 1837

CHAPTER XII
THE FOREST AND VALE FROM EARLY VICTORIAN TIMES UP TO THE PRESENT DAY, A.D.
1837 TO 1905

CHAPTER XIII
Concerning the Villages and Scenery of the Forest and Vale of Pickering

CHAPTER XIV
Concerning the Zoology of the Forest and Vale

* * * * *

Books of Reference

List of the Vicars of Pickering

Index

THE PURPOSE OF THE FOOTNOTES

Having always considered footnotes an objectionable feature, I have
resorted to them solely for reference purposes. Therefore, the reader who
does not wish to look up my authorities need not take the slightest notice
of the references to the footnotes, which in no case contain additional
facts, but merely indications of the sources of information.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Pickering Church from Hall Garth (_Coloured_)

Pickering From The North-West

Rosamund Tower, Pickering Castle

Kirkdale Cave

Hyaenas' Jaws

Elephants' Teeth

Bear's Tusk

Pickering Lake in Ice Age

Newtondale in Ice Age

Pickering Lake, Eastern End

Scamridge Dykes

Pre-Historic Weapons

Leaf-shaped Arrow Head

Lake Dwellings Relics

Remains of Pre-Historic Animals from Lake Dwellings

Skeleton of Bronze Age

A Quern

Urns in Pickering Museum

Sketch Map of Roman Road and Camps

The Tower of Middleton Church

Ancient Font and Crosses

Saxon Sundial at Kirkdale

Saxon Sundial at Edstone

Pre-Norman Remains near Pickering

Saxon Stones at Kirkdale

Saxon Stones at Sinnington

South Side of the Nave of Pickering Church

Norman Doorway at Salton

Norman Work at Ellerburne

The Crypt at Lastingham

Norman Font at Edstone

Wall Paintings in Pickering Church

The Devil's Tower, Pickering Castle

Wall Painting of St Christopher

Wall Painting of St Edmund and Acts of Mercy

Wall Painting of Herod's Feast and Martyrdom of St Thomas A Becket

Effigy of Sir William Bruce

Effigies in Bruce Chapel

Holy Water Stoup in Pickering Church

Sanctus Bell

Cattle Marks

Section of Fork Cottage

Details of Fork Cottage

Pickering Castle from the Keep

Pre-Reformation Chalice

Font at Pickering Church

Alms Box at Pickering Church

House in which Duke of Buckingham Died

Maypole on Sinnington Green

Inverted Stone Coffin at Wykeham

Magic Cubes

Newtondale, showing the Coach Railway

Relics of Witchcraft

A Love Garter

Horn of the Sinnington Hunt

Interior of the Oldest Type of Cottage

Ingle-Nook at Gallow Hill Farm

Autographs of Wordsworth and Mary Hutchinson

Riding t' Fair

Halbert and Spetum

Old Key of Castle

Pickering Shambles

The Old Pickering Fire-Engine

Market Cross at Thornton-le-Dale

Lockton Village

The Black Hole of Thornton-le-Dale

Hutton Buscel Church

Sketch Map of the Pickering District

INTRODUCTION

Every preface in olden time was wont to begin with the address "Lectori
Benevolo"--the indulgence of the reader being thereby invoked and, it was
hoped, assured. In that the writer of this at least would have his share,
even though neither subject, nor author, that he introduces, may stand in
need of such a shield.

Local histories are yearly becoming more numerous. In few places is there
more justification for one than here.

I. The beauty of the scenery is not well known. This book should do
something to vindicate its character. There is no need on this point to go
back to the time of George III.'s conversation at the levee with Mrs
Pickering's grandfather. "I suppose you are going back to Yorkshire, Mr
Stanhope? A very ugly country, Yorkshire." This was too much for my
grandfather--(the story is told in her own words)--"We always consider
Yorkshire a very picturesque country." "What, what, what," said the King,
"a coalpit a picturesque object! what, what, what, Yorkshire coalpits
picturesque! Yorkshire a picturesque country!"[1] Only within the last few
months one of us had a letter refusing to consider a vacant post: the
reason given being that this was a colliery district. There is no pit to
be found for miles. Many can, and do, walk, cycle, or motor through the
Vale. Others, who are unable to come and see for themselves, will, with
the help of Mr Home, be in a better position to appreciate at its true
worth the charm of the haughs and the changing views of the distant Wolds,
and of the russet brown or purple expanse of the upland moors.

[Footnote 1: "Memoirs of Anna M.W. Pickering."]

II. The stranger on a visit, no less the historian or antiquary, has till
now often been puzzled for a clue, and ignorant where to turn for
authentic data, would he attempt to weave for himself a connected idea of
the incidents of the past and their bearing on the present. There has been
no lack of material buried in ancient records, or preserved in the common
oral traditions of the folk: but hitherto no coherent account that has
been published. Speaking for ourselves, we are glad the task of dealing
with the "raffled hank" of timeworn customs and obscure traditions as well
as the more easily ascertained facts of history is falling to the author's
practised pen. For the future, at any rate, there should be less
difficulty in understanding the manner of life and method of rule with
which past and present generations belonging to the Town of Pickering have
been content to dwell.

III. "Foreigners"[1] are sometimes at a loss to understand the peculiar
spirit of those who in York, for instance, are known as "Moor-enders."
This spirit shows itself in different ways; but perhaps in nothing so much
as the intense attachment of the townsmen to their birthplace. This local
patriotism is no whit behind that to be found in Spain--"seldom indeed a
Spaniard says he is a Spaniard, but speaks of himself as being from
Seville, Cadiz, or some forgotten town in La Mancha, of which he speaks
with pride, referring to it as 'mi tierra.'"[2] Our readers will learn
there is some reason for this attachment; and may, like some of us, who
tho' born elsewhere claim adoption as citizens, fall under the witchery of
its spell.

[Footnote 1: C.R.L. Fletcher in his "History of England" tells us that
townsmen of the thirteenth century were wont to brand their brethren in
all the neighbouring towns as "foreigners." Those we call foreigners, they
called aliens. The expression itself was made use of not long ago at a
meeting of the Urban Council.]

[Footnote 2: R.B. Cunninghame Graham, "Hernando de Soto."]

May the venture to compass these ends succeed, to use an old saying, "ez
sartin ez t' thorn-bush."[1]

[Footnote 1: It used to be the custom for the parson to collect the tithe
by placing a branch of thorn in every tenth stook; he choosing the stooks
and sending his cart along for them. R. Blakeborough, "Yorkshire Humour
and Customs."]

E.W.D.

The Vicarage, Pickering.

_25th September_ 1904.

THE EVOLUTION

OF AN

ENGLISH TOWN

CHAPTER I

_Concerning those which follow_

"Brother," quod he, "where is now youre dwellyng,
Another day if that I sholde you seche?"
This yeman hym answerde, in softe speche:
"Brother," quod he, "fer in the north contree,
Where as I hope som tyme I shal thee see."

_The Friar's Tale. Chaucer._

In the North Riding of Yorkshire, there is a town of such antiquity that
its beginnings are lost far away in the mists of those times of which no
written records exist. What this town was originally called, it is
impossible to say, but since the days of William the Norman (a pleasanter
sounding name than "the Conqueror,") it has been consistently known as
Pickering, although there has always been a tendency to spell the name
with y's and to abandon the c, thus producing the curious-looking result
of _Pykeryng_; its sound, however was the same.

In his Chronicles, John Stow states on the authority of "divers writers"
that Pickering was built in the year 270 B.C., but I am inclined to think
that the earliest settlements on the site or in the neighbourhood of the
present town must have been originated at an infinitely earlier period.

But despite its undisputed antiquity there are many even in Yorkshire who
have never heard of the town, and in the south of England it is difficult
to find anyone who is aware that such a place exists. At Rennes during the
great military trial there was a Frenchman who asked "Who is Dreyfus?" and
we were surprised at such ignorance of a name that had been on the lips of
all France for years, but yet we discover ourselves to be astonishingly
lacking in the knowledge of our own little island and find ourselves
asking "why should anyone trouble to write a book about a town of which so
few have even heard?" But it is often in the out-of-the-way places that
historical treasures are preserved, and it is mainly for this reason and
the fact that the successive periods of growth are so well demonstrated
there, that the ancient town of Pickering has been selected to illustrate
the evolution of an English town.

I have endeavoured to produce a complete series of pictures commencing
with the Ice Age and finishing at the dawn of the twentieth century. In
the earlier chapters only a rough outline is possible, but as we come down
the centuries and the records become more numerous and varied, fuller
details can be added to the pictures of each age, and we may witness how
much or how little the great series of dynastic, constitutional, religious
and social changes effected a district that is typical of many others in
the remoter parts of England.

[Illustration: Pickering from the North-West.]

Built on sloping ground that rises gently from the rich, level pastures of
the Vale of Pickering, the town has a picturesque and pleasant site. At
the top of the market-place where the ground becomes much steeper stands
the church, its grey bulk dominating every view. From all over the Vale
one can see the tall spire, and from due east or west it has a surprising
way of peeping over the hill tops. It has even been suggested that the
tower and spire have been a landmark for a very long time, owing to the
fact that where the hills and formation of the ground do not obstruct the
view, or make road-making difficult, the roads make straight for the
spire.

With few exceptions the walls of the houses are of the same weather-beaten
limestone as the church and the castle, but seen from above the whole town
is transformed into a blaze of red, the curved tiles of the locality
retaining their brilliant hue for an indefinite period. Only a very few
thatched roofs remain to-day, but the older folks remember when most of
the houses were covered in that picturesque fashion.

Pickering has thus lost its original uniform greyness, relieved here and
there by whitewash, and presents strong contrasts of colour against the
green meadows and the masses of trees that crown the hill where the castle
stands. The ruins, now battered and ivy-mantled, are dignified and
picturesque and still sufficiently complete to convey a clear impression
of the former character of the fortress, three of the towers at angles of
the outer walls having still an imposing aspect. The grassy mounds and
shattered walls of the interior would, however, be scarcely recognisable
to the shade of Richard II. if he were ever to visit the scene of his
imprisonment.

Since the time of Henry VIII. when Leland described the castle, whole
towers and all the interior buildings except the chapel have disappeared.
The chief disasters probably happened before the Civil War, although we
are told, by one or two eighteenth century writers, as an instance of the
destruction that was wrought, that after the Parliamentary forces had
occupied the place and "breached the walls," great quantities of papers
and parchments were scattered about Castle-gate, the children being
attracted to pick them up, many of them bearing gilt letters. During the
century which has just closed, more damage was done to the buildings and
in a short time all the wooden floors in the towers completely
disappeared.

Stories are told of the Parliamentary troops being quartered in Pickering
church, and, if this were true, we have every reason to bless the coats of
whitewash which probably hid the wall-paintings from their view. The
series of fifteenth century pictures that now cover both walls of the nave
would have proved so very distasteful to the puritan soldiery that it is
impossible to believe that they could have tolerated their existence,
especially when we find it recorded that the font was smashed and the
large prayer-book torn to pieces at that time.

[Illustration: Rosamund Tower, Pickering Castle.]

Pickering church has a fascination for the antiquary, and does not fail to
impress even the most casual person who wanders into the churchyard and
enters the spacious porch. The solemn massiveness of the Norman nave, the
unusual effect of the coloured paintings above the arches, and the carved
stone effigies of knights whose names are almost forgotten, carry one away
from the familiar impressions of a present-day Yorkshire town, and almost
suggest that one is living in mediaeval times. One can wander, too, on the
moors a few miles to the north and see heather stretching away to the most
distant horizon and feel that there, also, are scenes which have been
identically the same for many centuries. The men of the Neolithic and
Bronze Ages may have swept their eyes over landscapes so similar that they
would find the moorlands quite as they knew them, although they would miss
the dense forests of the valleys and the lower levels.

The cottages in the villages are, many of them, of great age, and most of
them have been the silent witnesses of innumerable superstitious rites and
customs. When one thoroughly realises the degrading character of the
beliefs that so powerfully swayed the lives of the villagers and
moorland-folk of this district, as late as the first twenty years of the
nineteenth century, one can only rejoice that influences arose
sufficiently powerful to destroy them. Along with the revolting practises,
however, it is extremely unfortunate to have to record the disappearance
of many picturesque, and in themselves, entirely harmless customs. The
roots of the great mass of superstitions have their beginnings so far away
from the present time, that to embrace them all necessitates an
exploration of all the centuries that lie between us and the pre-historic
ages, and in the pages that follow, some of these connections with the
past may be discovered.

CHAPTER II

_The Forest and Vale of Pickering in Palaeolithic and Pre-Glacial Times._

The Palaeolithic or Old Stone Age preceded and succeeded the Great Glacial
Epochs in the Glacialid.

In that distant period of the history of the human race when man was still
so primitive in his habits that traces of his handiwork are exceedingly
difficult to discover, the forest and Vale of Pickering seem to have been
without human inhabitants. Remains of this Old Stone Age have been found
in many parts of England, but they are all south of a line drawn from
Lincoln to Derbyshire and North Wales. In the caves at Cresswell Craggs in
Derbyshire notable Palaeolithic discoveries were made, but for some reason
these savage hordes seem to have come no further north than that spot. We
know, however, that many animals belonging to the pre-glacial period
struggled for their existence in the neighbourhood of Pickering.

[Illustration: A plan and section of Kirkdale Cave.]

It was during the summer of 1821 that the famous cave at Kirkdale was
discovered, and the bones of twenty-two different species of animals were
brought to light. Careful examination showed that the cave had for a long
time been the haunt of hyaenas of the Pleistocene Period, a geological
division of time, which embraces in its latter part the age of Palaeolithic
man. The spotted hyaena that is now to be found only in Africa, south of
the Sahara,[1] was then inhabiting the forests of Yorkshire and preying on
animals now either extinct or only living in tropical climates. The waters
of Lake Pickering seem to have risen to a sufficiently high level at one
period to drive out the occupants of the cave and to have remained static
for long enough to allow the accumulation of about a foot of alluvium
above the bones that littered the floor. By this means it appears that the
large quantity of broken fragments of bones that were recent at the time
of the inundation were preserved to our own times without any perceptible
signs of decomposition. Quarrying operations had been in progress at
Kirkdale for some time when the mouth of the cave was suddenly laid bare
by pure accident. The opening was quite small, being less than 5 feet
square, and as it penetrated the limestone hill it varied from 2 to 7 feet
in breadth and height; the quarrying had also left the opening at a
considerable height up the perpendicular wall of stone. At the present
time it is almost inaccessible, and except for the interest of seeing the
actual site of the discoveries and the picturesqueness of the spot the
cave has no great attractions.

[Footnote 1: Dawkins, W. Boyd. "Early man in Britain," p. 103.]

Not long after it was stumbled upon by the quarrymen Dr William Buckland
went down to Kirkdale, and although some careless digging had taken place
in the outer part of the cave before his arrival, he was able to make a
most careful and exhaustive examination of the undisturbed portions,
giving the results of his work in a paper read before the Royal Society in
1822.[1] Besides the remains of many hyaenas there were teeth or bones of
such large animals as the elephant, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, horse,
tiger, bear, urus (Bos primi-genius) an unknown animal of the size of a
wolf, and three species of deer. The smaller animals included the rabbit,
water-rat, mouse, raven, pigeon, lark and a small type of duck. Everything
was broken into small pieces so that no single skull was found entire and
it was, of course, impossible to obtain anything like a complete skeleton.
From the fact that the bones of the hyaenas themselves had suffered the
same treatment as the rest we may infer that these ferocious lovers of
putrid flesh were in the habit of devouring those of their own species
that died a natural death, or that possibly under pressure of hunger were
inclined to kill and eat the weak or diseased members of the pack. From
other evidences in the cave it is plain that its occupants were extremely
fond of bones after the fashion of the South African hyaena.

[Footnote 1: Buckland, The Rev. Wm. "Account of an assemblage of fossil
teeth and bones ... at Kirkdale."]

[Illustration: Jaws of Kirkdale (above) and Modern Hyaena (below). The
Kirkdale Hyaenas were evidently much more powerful than the modern ones.]

Although the existing species have jaws of huge strength and these
prehistoric hyaenas were probably stronger still, it is quite improbable
that they ever attacked such large animals as elephants; and the fact that
the teeth found in the cave were of very young specimens seems to suggest
that the hyaenas now and then found the carcase of a young elephant that
had died, and dragged it piecemeal to their cave. The same would possibly
apply to some of the other large animals, for hyaenas, unless in great
extremes of hunger never attack a living animal. They have a loud and
mournful howl, beginning low and ending high, and also a maniacal laugh
when excited.

[Illustration: Teeth of young Elephants found at Kirkdale.]

It might be suggested that the bones had accumulated in the den through
dead bodies of animals being floated in during the inundation by the
waters of the lake, but in that case the remains, owing to the narrowness
of the mouth of the cave, could only have belonged to small animals, and
the skeletons would have been more or less complete, and there are also
evidences on many of the bones of their having been broken by teeth
precisely similar to those of the hyaena.

We see therefore that in this remote age Britain enjoyed a climate which
encouraged the existence of animals now to be found only in tropical
regions, that herds of mammoths or straight-tusked elephants smashed their
way through primaeval forests and that the hippopotamus and the woolly or
small-nosed rhinoceros frequented the moist country at the margin of the
lake. Packs of wolves howled at night and terrorised their prey, and in
winter other animals from northern parts would come as far south as
Yorkshire. In fact it seems that the northern and southern groups of
animals in Pleistocene times appeared in this part of England at different
seasons of the year and the hyaenas of Kirkdale would, in the opinion of
Professor Boyd Dawkins, prey upon the reindeer at one time of the year and
the hippopotamus at another.

Following this period came a time of intense cold, but the conditions were
not so severe as during the Great Glacial times.

[Illustration: Canine tooth or tusk of a Kirkdale bear (Ursus spelacus)]

CHAPTER III

_The Vale of Pickering in the Lesser Ice Age_

Long before even the earliest players took up their parts in the great
Drama of Human Life which has been progressing for so long in this portion
of England, great changes came about in the aspect of the stage. These
transformations date from the period of Arctic cold, which caused ice of
enormous thickness to form over the whole of north-western Europe.

Throughout this momentous age in the history of Yorkshire, as far as we
can tell, the flaming sunsets that dyed the ice and snow with crimson were
reflected in no human eyes. In those far-off times, when the sun was
younger and his majesty more imposing than at the present day, we may
imagine a herd of reindeer or a solitary bear standing upon some
ice-covered height and staring wonderingly at the blood-red globe as it
neared the horizon. The tremendous silence that brooded over the face of
the land was seldom broken save by the roar of the torrents, the
reverberating boom of splitting ice, or the whistling and shrieking of the
wind.

The evidences in favour of this glacial period are too apparent to allow
of any contradiction; but although geologists agree as to its existence,
they do not find it easy to absolutely determine its date or its causes.

Croll's theory of the eccentricity of the Earth's orbit[1] as the chief
factor in the great changes of the Earth's climate has now been to a great
extent abandoned, and the approximate date of the Glacial Epoch of between
240,000 and 80,000 years ago is thus correspondingly discredited by many
geologists. Professor Kendall inclines to the belief that not more than
25,000 years have elapsed since the departure of the ice from Yorkshire,
the freshness of all the traces of glaciation being incompatible with a
long period of post-glacial time.

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