Keele University Martin Docksey MA in Local History
Assignment Essay / Map Exercise The Landscape as an Historical Source
Norton in the Landscape
Norton in the Moors is a Parish and was a Manor in the hundred of Pirehill in the County of Staffordshire. It is now a mixture of urban areas and also rural areas, which consist mainly of pasture. Judging by its entry in the Domesday Book it could have been considerably larger than it is at present. Although the status of Norton’s Anglican Church as one of many daughter churches of St Peter’s Stoke, until 1807,[1] suggests it was not itself a major centre in medieval times. In this essay beginning with a 10 kilometre square of modern ordnance survey map.[2]We will endeavour to strip away the more resent history and reconstruct Norton in the Moors and the areas around it, as it may have been in medieval times and perhaps a little before.
The Church
St Bartholomew’s Church at Norton in the Moors was founded before the end of the 12th century and was one of many daughter churches of St Peters Stoke up to the 19th century.[3]There was however a former dedication for this church and extracts from several wills shows that St Nicholas was the dedication in the 16th century.[4]
Boundaries
The 10 kilometres square includes the whole of the parish of Norton in the Moors, and areas to the south, west and east, which may have had significance in medieval times, where Norton in the Moors is concerned. The Explorer map shows the civil parish boundaries, which correspond to the ecclesiastic parish boundaries thought not the former manorial boundaries.[5] The parish boundaries consist of a variety of, ridges of high ground, water courses, roads and possibly the boundaries of former woodland areas. The ridges of high ground would have all been visible from where Norton Hall once stood next to Norton Hall Farm and the Church and it seems likely that the Parish and Manor were originally surveyed from that high vantage point.
Roads
The major roads on the 10k square in Norton in the Moors consist of Norton Lane / Knypersley Road / Ridgeway, which might be expected to have some antiquity, because the name Ridgeway is perhaps indicative of an old, perhaps pre-historic road.[6] There are places along this road however, where the road appears to negotiate an open field system of the medieval period.[7] Following down the length of a furlong/flat and turning 90 degrees left along what may have been a headland and then 90 degrees right down another furlong/flat (D/b). (See aerial Photograph.) This would perhaps give us a date of before the late Middle Ages or earlier for this “Ridgeway”. The other main road that goes through Norton in the Moors is the Newcastle to Leek road. This road was turnpiked in 1765 and would seem therefore, to have been an important route for some time before the 18th century.[8] This road could also be described as winding and again has the appearance of following the open field ploughing, with several curves reminiscent of the “S” or reversed “S” shaped medieval ploughed strips.[9] This road also has an instance where it appears to go left 90 degrees then right 90 degrees along a headland at the main crossroads in Norton (E/e). This road however, may not have been the original road from Newcastle to Leek, there was almost certainly a Roman Road which went from Market Drayton to Buxton via Chesterton or Newcastle and Leek. This road would almost certainly have been on this 10k map but has proved elusive. The A53 Leek road before it gets to Endon is relatively new and this is apparent when looking at some of the older ordnance survey maps, the 1890 map[10] shows “S” shaped curving field boundaries beneath the A53 just as the are beneath the Caldon canal and the railway branch line (F/f). Most of the other roads in Norton and the rest of the 10K square would appear to have been relatively minor and Yates’s map of 1775 shows this to be the case.[11]
Field Systems
What is apparent from the 10k map and even more so on the older OS maps are the variety of the field shapes and sizes. Underlying most of these field shapes however appears to be a broad belt of ridge and furrow shaped, long narrow fields often with curving boundaries. Most of the fields in a broad central belt are medium sized irregular shaped fields typical of early enclosure.[12] This early enclosure may have been as early as the 16th or 17th century, and was done by agreement between the various parties.[13] This type of enclosure was a process of consolidation, grouping together several strips in one persons holding.[14] This ridge and furrow is also picked out by some place name evidence. At Cornhill, The Flatts Road (D/d) leads to Upper Flatts Farm and a footpath continues to Lower Flatts Farm. A Flatt is another name, mostly used in the north, for a furlong, the length of the medieval ploughed furrow.[15] At Norton Green there is Long Butts Farm (F/d), the butts being the end of the ploughed length, where the draught animals would be turned around for the return run.[16] The Acres at Bagnall (I/e) is perhaps a similar indication of ridge and furrow with several strips or sellions being arranged in to acres.[17] An acre being the amount of land a plough team could plough in a day.
We might expect these ridge and furrow selions and acres to have been arranged in to a typical, often three field system, arranged around and perhaps including the manorial demesne. In the case of Norton in the Moors however, the situation is somewhat complicated because of the dual lordship. This dual lordship was in place before the Norman Conquest[18] and persisted until the 19th century.[19] So this broad belt of ridge and furrow may have been arranged in six or more large open fields. Three or four communal open fields arranged around Norton Hall, Norton Hall Farm and St Bartholomew’s Church and three or more open fields arranged around Norton Green Hall where the other Lord of Norton was seated.[20] The other possibility is of just one very large open field system, with both lords involved in the one communal scheme. Some evidence for this being the case exists in the 19th century, with the long thin fields of that period belonging to both Lords and others being intermingled.[21]
This situation is further confused by a number of dispersed satellite settlements within the parish of Norton in the Moors, which also appear to have practiced this method of farming, though perhaps on a smaller scale. A list of Satellite settlements deduced from toponymes[22]in early 14th century taxation records[23] includes, Whitfield (D/d), Ridgway (E/c), Heakley (F/e), Baddeley (G/e), Bank Hey (D/f) and Stonehouse (F/b).[24] Most but not all of these satellite settlements appear on the 10k map as hamlets. It may have been that these dispersed settlements were the norm in early medieval times but became more centralised as the medieval period when on. All of these open field type systems and similar open field systems in the adjacent manors of Endon (HI/c) and Bagnall (J/e) and their satellites give us an east/west broad belt of almost seamless open field systems. This proliferation of communal arable farming would most likely have been driven by population growth and climatic change and is often attributable to a period around the end of the 13th century.
Despite the urban nature of large areas of the 10k square, the strip fields may still be seen in pattern some of the older streets, such as northern Burslem (C/f) in particular and this is confirmed by older ordnance survey maps that pre-date the houses.[25] The older maps also pre-date most of the large scale mining and the reclamation that followed.
Whilst no parliamentary enclosure maps appear to be available for Norton in the Moors, some evidence for this type of enclosure is available in the form of place names. In the north of Norton parish, Judgefields and Judgefields Lane (E/b to F/b), suggest some parliamentary type enclosure took place and would have been authorized be two justices of the peace. The fields in the area of Judgefields also appear larger and more angular, in keeping with later 18th and 19th century enclosure, drawn up by land agents and surveyors. Similar fields are to be found just outside Norton parish to the south, in areas with very irregular shaped encircling boundaries often tree lined on the older maps.[26] These areas could have been woodland, heath or common in medieval / early modern times and this would also be in keeping with parliamentary type enclosure.[27] These areas of woodland, heath or common could have been the dependencies and large areas of woodland referred to in the Domesday Book entry for “Nortone”.[28]
In contrast to parliamentary enclosure there are many small, often tiny, irregular fields along the ridges of high ground at Brown Edge, Ball Edge and Baddeley Edge, which could have been very early perhaps pre-medieval fields but a cursory glance at the court baron of Lord Norton in the 18th and 19th centuries shows these fields to have been created by squatting and encroachment on his waste during these later centuries.[29] Some pre-medieval fields may exist in the Bagnall area as we may see later.
Crops and Commodities
There is some place name evidence for the crops that may have been grown in the medieval period, these place names include Cornhill (D/d), Corn Hayes (I/c), Ryecroft (E/e) and Peascroft. Peascroft (Avenue) is named after a former colliery of that name as is Pinfold (Avenue) but it is likely that Peascroft is derived from Priests Croft being near to the former rectory site.
Salt has always been a vital commodity and the place names Salthouse Farm (J/j) and Salter’s well Farm (H/f) perhaps indicate where salt was produced and or distributed possibly in medieval times.
Mills
Mills would have been very valuable and of considerable importance in medieval times. These mills would have been owned by the Lord of the Manor and would have a monopoly on the grinding of all kinds of grain. There would have been several mills in the 10k square, the most obvious one being the one at Milton (F/g). This mill seems to have had a curious effect on the Norton parish / manor boundaries, producing a tongue of land stretching southward to the site of the mill. The original site was most likely were the river Trent was joined by Foxley Brook, on the tip of the tongue. The way in which this mill is situated suggests that Norton once extended further south.
Just a few hundred yards further downstream was Abbey Mill (F/h), no doubt contemporary with the Abbeys foundation. Endon Mill would also have been in operation in medieval times as would each of the other manorial mills. It is doubtful that other mills such as Whitfield, Knypersley and Peck Mill on the 10k square are medieval in origin. In the area covered by the 10k Map no mills are mentioned in the Domesday Book.[30]
The Park
There is an area on the older ordnance survey maps called The Park adjacent to the main crossroads at Norton (E/e); and this is likely to have been a medieval dear park rather than an 18th or 19th century estate park. The lords of Norton in the Moors in the 18th and 19th centuries were mostly absentee landlords and the creation of an estate type park of that period is unlikely. The areas around where Norton Hall and Norton Green Hall stood show no signs of an 18th/19th century estate type development and Norton was very much in the “open village” type mould. So this park is likely to have been a medieval deer park. This hunting Park and a similar one at Endon (J/d) seem to have been short lived, as by the later medieval period arable farming seams to have been taking place in the areas called The Park. Long narrow fields are in the area of the park on Edwin Heatons 1771 map of Norton[31] and ridge and furrow type stripes in evidence on the ground as the snow melts. Perhaps this conversion to arable farming was forced on the people of Norton and Endon by the combination of population growth and climatic changes of the late 13th.
Woodland
There are numerous place names referring to Trees, woodland and woodland clearance within the 10k square. The types of trees in the place names include Birches Head (E/h), Birch Wood (E/h), Light Oaks (H/f), Smallthorn (D/f), Ash Bank (H/j), Hollywood (H/e), Thornyedge (J/f) and Chestnut Farm (C/a). Woodland is also much in evidence in the place names in the area in and around Norton in the Moors. Names like Wood Lane (J/e), Hough Wood (H/e), Hollin Wood (F/a), NorthWood (E/i), Woodhead (G/g), Eaves Lane (Eaves = on the edge of the wood)[32](G/h), Dunwood (J/a) and Burslem (lem = Lyme possibly meaning ‘elm-tree region”) (B/g).[33]Woodland clearance is also present in place name form, Woodcock Hurst (I/b), Clough House (J/d), Hollinhurst (J/c) and Long Shutts (I/g). The picture as far as place names is concerned is one of increasing woodland as you go east, away from the areas that are now urbanized but this may not have always been the case.
The Domesday Book said that “Nortone” had woodland 3 leagues long and 2 leagues wide and this could have amounted to 13 square miles of woodland.[34] This is much too much to be within the parish/manorial boundaries as we know them now, and they must have represented some of the “Nortone” dependencies referred to in the Domesday Book and out side the present parish/manorial boundaries. The areas to the south and south east are the most likely places to find this woodland. The band of late parliamentary type enclosure in the vicinity of Burslem / Sneyd / Northwood, was perhaps known as Snyed Wood in 1223.[35]Hulton/Bagnull/Carmountside some of which is encircled by continuous irregular boundaries on the older 6 inch Ordnance Survey maps fits the bill for the woodland associated to Carmount Hay or Park also in the Hulton Abbey charter.[36]
The Monastery
Hulton Abbey(F/g) was a small Cistercian monastery built and financed in the early 13th century by the Audley family, who were Lords of the Manor in one half of Norton at that time.[37]Founded in 1219 and dedicated to the blessed virgin, the white monks lived by the strict rule of St Benerdict. [38] Hulton Abbey and its granges may have had a significant roll in the economy of the area in its early years. The Abbeys holdings included fish ponds and a mill along the Trent valley in addition to large swathes of arable and pasture land. The monks of this “reforming order”[39] in the early years after foundation would have required peace and solitude, perhaps in a wooded / moor land environment. Most of the monastic estates would have been organised in to self contained Granges and run by Lay Brothers.[40] The Abbeys endowment amounted to ten carucates/hides, nominally 2400 acres of land and included two water mills, a tannery, and the Lordship of Hulton, Lands at Rushton [Grange], Normacot [Grange], Mixon, the wood of Snyed, and a Hey or Park at Kenermont.[41]
Kervremont
Norton under Kervremont[42] was another name for Norton in the Moors or some part of it, in Anglo-Norman times and it is obviously referencing Norton to a hill (mont) that is higher or perhaps more important (under). Nearby Bucknull has also been referenced in the same way as under Kervremont and Kervremont could have been a regional centre in Anglo Norman times and before. This regional centre may have been a subdivision of Pirehill Hundred or a large Anglo-Saxon estate. In phonetic terms Kervremont sounds like the modern day Carmountside (F/g) and may have been the hill above Carmountside. The prefix Car is an interesting one and could have derived from Caer the Celtic name for hill fortress. Yates’s map of 1775 shows Carmount to be on the high ground near Wetley Moor. On the 10K square in this general area is Kerry Hill (H/g) and if the name Kerry was some kind of corruption of Berry, it would suggest an Anglo-Saxon fortress and or administrative centre. This situation may also tell us about the origin of the name Norton being derived from North-tun[43] and Norton also North of Kerry Hill. It could be that a strange amalgam of Caer-Berry may have resulted in the name Kerry. Kerry Hill is likely to have been the regional capital or caput[44] to which Norton, Bucknall and perhaps many other local places would have belonged, possibly for many thousands of years. The photographs tend to confirm this, with many earthwork type scars on the land around Kerry Hill that look like pre-medieval field boundaries. The area around Kerry Hill also includes places called Luzlow and Blacklow Farm, which could have been Bronze Age barrows fossilized in place name form.
The area covered by the 10k square has had a rich history in recent centuries and it would seem that removing those recent layers of the historical palimpsest only serves to uncover yet more riches. It would seem that using the landscape as an historical source has no limits were this part of North Staffordshire is concerned.
Bibliography
Michael Aston, Interpreting the Landscape, Landscape Archaeology in Local Studies, B T Batsford Ltd, 1985
Michael Aston, Monastaries in the Landscape, Tempus Publishing, 2000,
S A H Burne, The Vanished Hunting Grounds of North Staffordshire, North Staffordshire Journal of Field Studies, vol 21, 1981,
WH Duigan, Notes on Staffordshire Place Names, Oxford University Press, 1902,
Robin Glasscock Ed, Historic Landscapes of Britain from the air, Cambridge University Press, 1992,
M W Greenslade, A History of Stoke upon Trent, Reprinted from the Victoria County History of Stafford, 1985,
WG Hoskins, Fieldwork in Local History, The University of Leicester, 1967
James Jack, The History of the Church and Parish of Norton in the Moors, No Date,
John Morris, Domesday Book, Staffordshire, Phillimore, 1976,
Helen Philips, Hulton Abbey a Guide to Stoke on Trent’s Medieval Monastery, City Museum Field Archaeology Unit, No Date
Alan Pointon, A Brown Edge History, Churnet Valley Books, Staffordshire, 1998,
B K Roberts, in Discovering Past Landscapes, Croom and Helm, 1984
Robert Speake, The Old Road to Endon, Department of Adult Education, The University of Keele, 1974,
Christopher Taylor, Roads and Tracks of Britain, J M Dent and Sons Ltd, 1979,
Christopher Taylor, Fields in the English Landscape, J M Dent and Sons Ltd, 1975,
Christopher Taylor, Fieldwork in Medieval Archaeology, B T Batsford Ltd, 1979
John Ward, History of the Borough of Stoke on Trent 1843, republished by SR Publishers Ltd, Wakefield, 1969,
Hulton Abbey, History and Archaeology, City Museum and Art Gallery (Stoke on Trent),
The Court Baron of Lord Norton, Microfilm Copy,
Periodicals
Court rolls of the manor of Tunstall, in North Staffordshire Field Club Transactions 1924 vol 56
Subsidy Roll 1327, CHS vol VII, 1886,
Subsidy Roll 1332, CHS vol X, 1889,
William Yates, A Map of the County of Stafford, 1775, Collections for a History of Staffordshire, 4th Series, vol XII, The Staffordshire Record Society, 1984
Edwin Heatons, Estate Map of Norton in the Moors, 1771, Stoke on Trent Archives, HL/SRM14
A copy of the court serveigh of William Sneyd lord of the copyhold within the manor 1695 Stoke on Trent Archives, S.P.815 o/s
Ordnance Survey Map, First Series, 1836,
Ordnance Survey Map,
Tithe Map, Norton in the Moors, 1838,
Ordnance Survey, 1st Edition Drawings, 2 inches to the Mile 1836
[1] M W Greenslade, A History of Stoke upon Trent, Reprinted from the Victoria County History of Stafford, 1985, 188
[2] Ordnance Survey, Explorer, 258, 1:25,000, 10Kilometre Square centring on Grid Reference SJ90510
[3] James Jack, The History of the Church and Parish of Norton in the Moors, No Date, 1
[4] James Jack, 2
[5] A copy of the court serveigh of William Sneyd lord of the copyhold within the manor 1695Hanley Library S.P.815 o/s
[6] Paul Hindle, Roads and Tracks for Historians, Phillimore, 2001, 3
[7] M Turner, in Discovering Past Landscapes, Croom and Helm, 1984, 148
[8] Robert Speake, The Old Road to Endon, Department of Adult Education, The University of Keele, 1974, 144
[9] M Turner, in Discovering Past Landscapes, Croom and Helm, 1984, 145
[10] Ordnance Survey Map, Six inch to the Mile, 1890,
[11] William Yates, A Map of the County of Stafford, 1775, Collections for a History of Staffordshire, 4th Series, vol XII, The Staffordshire Record Society, 1984
[12] B K Roberts, in Discovering Past Landscapes, Croom and Helm, 1984, 149
[13] Christopher Taylor, Fields in the English Landscape, J M Dent and Sons Ltd, 1975,120
[14] Christopher Taylor, Fields in the English Landscape, J M Dent and Sons Ltd, 1975, 114
[15] David Hey, The Oxford Dictionary of Local and Family History, Oxford University Press, 1997, 86
[16] David Hey, 30
[17] David Hey, 173
[18] John Morris, Domesday Book, Staffordshire, Phillimore, 1976, 11/19
[19] Ward, 533
[20] Ward, 533
[21] A Plan of Norton Green Estate situate in the Parish and Monor of Norton in the Moors belonging to Alfred Hales esq, Staffordshire Record Office, D538/6/3/5
[22] David Hey, 201
[23] Subsidy Roll 1327, CHS vol VII, 1886, and Subsidy Roll 1332, CHS vol X, 1889,
[24] This students previous essay, “Nortone Terrae et Soc”, MA in Local History, Keele, 2004
[25] Ordnance Survey, 1st Edition, 6inches to the mile, http://www.old-maps.co.uk/
[26] Ordnance Survey Map, 6inches to the Mile, 1891
[27] Christopher Taylor, Fields in the English Landscape, J M Dent and Sons Ltd, 1975, 122
[28] John Morris Ed, Domesday Book Staffordshire, Phillimore, Chichester, 1976,11/19
[29] The Court Baron of Lord Norton, Microfilm Copy, Stoke on Trent Archives,
[30] John Morris, 11/19
[31] Edwin Heaton, Plan of the Parish and Manor of Norton in the Moors, 1771, Stoke on Trent Archives, HL/SRM14
[32] The Oxford Dictionary of Place Names, oxford University Press, 2004
[33] The Oxford Dictionary of Place Names, oxford University Press, 2004
[34] John Ward, 533n
[35] S A H Burne, The Vanished Hunting Grounds of North Staffordshire, North Staffordshire Journal of Field Studies, vol 21, 1981,173
[36] Ward, Appendix II, ii
[37] Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, Published by the Public Record Office, Vol VI, No 476
[38] David Hey, 44
[39] John Cannon, 110
[40] John Cannon Ed, The Oxford Companion to British History, revised edition, Oxford University Press, 2002, 210
[41] Helen Philips, 2
[42] John F Moxon, Old North Staffordshire, Keele University Library, 1972,
[43] Anthony Poulton – Smith, Staffordshire Place Names, Countryside Books, Berkshire, 1995. 88
[44] Michael Aston, Interpreting the Landscape, Landscape Archaeology in Local Studies, B T Batsford Ltd, 1985, 35