Wharram Percy

1. Wharram Percy

2. Today Wharram Percy church stands isolated in the middle of farmland but 800 years ago it was a bustling farming community of two hundred souls owned by Sir Gilbert Percy. Wharram Percy is one of the many hundreds of “lost villages” of Medieval England. What happened to Wharram Percy?

3. What happened to Wharram Percy? We are not exactly sure why Wharram Percy was abandoned but the most likely reason was the Black Death (Bubonic Plague). Hundreds of villages throughout England were so badly affected by the Black Death between 1348 and 1350 that either their entire population was wiped out or the few remaining survivors fled. As a result villages throughout England fell into decay. There were no accurate censuses in the Medieval period to count the population of England but in 1330 it was thought to be 3 million. In 1351 it was thought to be only 1.7 million. Nearly half the population had died between 1348 and 1351. The Black Death killed rich and poor alike.

4. How was the lost village of Wharram Percy rediscovered? Clue1. A church in a remote country area well away from any village. For a church to have been built there must have been a congregation close by at some time in the past. Clue 2. Local maps named three fields near the church as, Town Street, Towngate and Water Lane. This made people think that there could have been a village there at one time. Clue 3. Documents in the county archives and other sources mentioned Wharram Percy but the maps were not clear enough to locate it accurately.

5. Aerial Photography In the 1940's the use of aerial photography for reconnaissance of enemy developments led to the discovery that aerial photographs could show details of what was just below the ground. This meant the foundations of buildings that had long since disappeared could be quite accurately located. From ground level the bumps in the fields appeared to have no particular pattern but from the air the outline shapes of what appeared to be buildings and field boundaries were clear enough for archaeologists to consider it worth excavating the site to find out more.

6. Archaeological Excavations Excavation uncovered the foundations of buildings which had fallen into decay during the 1300's and proved the evidence of the aerial photographs to be correct. Based on this they were able to produce this map of what the village would have looked like before it was deserted and fell into decay. Because the village fell into decay it gives a clearer idea of the plan of a medieval village than those which exist today and have changed over the years. Written evidence and pictures from many different Medieval sources have made it possible to add the detail about the village and its people that is given in the guided tour.

7. A Walk Around Wharram Percy

8. Today we are going to look at the life of the villagers • We will look at the villeins or serfs. They are born into the village and cannot leave. They are given land to work by the lord of the manor in exchange for them working his land • Also we will look at a freemen, a reeve, a blacksmith and a steward who examples of the other people who live in the villages

9. "Hello, my name is Kitty Redhead. I'm just finishing carrying these pails of milk up to the Manor House. I'm a villein, you see. This morning just as I was going to take my dough up to Ken the Baker's so that he could bake it for me. But the Reeve turned up on my doorstep!

10. “He told me I had to take milk from the dairy up to the Manor for the Lord. As if I didn't have enough work of my own to do. Anyway now you are here I will show you around my village and tell you a little about it."

11. Its smoky inside, there’s no chimney Welcome to our house. I live here with my husband Henry. He's carting the oats from the granary to the mill today as one of his services to the Lord of the Manor. We have two girls, Emily who is 8 and Matilda who is 6. They are out in the wood collecting fallen branches for the fire.

12. Its smoky inside, there’s nochimney The walls are made of Wattle and Daub. That's thin branches of wood woven together and then covered with Daub, a mixture of clay, oxhair and dung. The roof is thatched with straw that we are given by the Lord.

13. Its smoky inside, there’s nochimney Its a bit leaky now but it's the harvest soon and we will repair it then. It's a bit dark inside as there is only one very small window. Only the Manor House and the church can afford glass in their windows. We put up a wooden shutter to keep the draughts out. We built the house with the help of our neighbours John the Carter and his wife Jane.

14. Your eyes will get used to the light in a minute. Yes there's only the one room. A few of the villagers have two rooms in their house. It is a bit crowded especially in winter when we keep our cow at the end of the room. That's right the floor is just flattened earth.

15. As you can see the room is very bare, some small wooden stools, a table and a wooden chest in which we keep all our belongings. That's the water jug on the table. I have to go and fill it about five times a day. It's quite a walk to the stream and back. We all sleep in the corner of the room on a bed of straw. Henry is going to build a bed when he has time so we don't have to lie on the floor. The smoke from the fire in the middle of the room is the worst thing, the children never stop coughing.

16. This is the SKILLET, it's made of bronze. I don't know what we would do without it. Its nearly always over the fire. We make POTTAGE in it, that's our main food but we are nearly always hungry, especially in winter when the food starts to run out.

17. The quern was a small, hand-operated millstone, for grinding grain. The long pole was pushed around, which turned the top stone. Grain dropped into the hole in the centre, became trapped between the two stones and was ground into flour. Quern The

18. Our main food is pottage a vegetable and herb soup cooked in the skillet. We have this at noon and in the evening with bread made from oats. Its thin and watery but its warming. Sometimes I add nettles to it. Our pig is very important. We fatten him up during the summer and slaughter him in the autumn. We salt the pork to make it keep. We only eat meat one or twice a week and it often runs out before Spring and then we have to go without.

19. Our cow is important for milk and cheese, which I make. We keep her in the house with us during winter. In bad winters the hay runs out and we have to kill her. We have extra meat for a while but go hungry later. We also keep hens which give us two or three eggs each a week. Breakfast is usually just rye bread and water.

20. We grow a few cabbages and herbs in the cottage garden which go into the pottage. In the Autumn we collect berries from the woods. We also collect our firewood in the woods. Sometimes Henry kills a pigeon or a rabbit in the woods but he has to be careful that he is not seen by the bailiff as these are the Lord's property. It's the same with the fish in the river.

21. Ale Vat Our main drink is ale which is made in the village by Alice the brewer. Henry and I drink it with all our meals except breakfast, the children drink milk when we have it or water. Brewing is another of the jobs done by the women. Its hard and dangerous work as you have to carry 12 gallon vats of boiling liquid. Alice has been badly burnt twice. Before she can sell it it has to be checked by the Lord's ale taster who fixes the price and takes some of the ale for the Lord of the Manor.

22. We all wear a tunic and leggings like the one I'm wearing now. In winter we wrap a big hood over our head and shoulders to try and keep up warm. The cloth is coarse wool and it's very itchy. Henry made himself a pair of wooden shoes, I wear cloth wrapped around my feet, its more comfortable. Villeins Clothing

23. Some of the richer villagers buy leather shoes but many, especially children, go barefoot. Henry's prized possession is a sheepskin he wears in winter. We also use it as a bed cover. I always carry a small spindle with me and I make yarn whenever I have a few spare minutes between jobs. We have two sheep on the common. I sell the yarn to Molly the smith's wife who has a weaving loom. We buy cloth from her or the travelling weaver who visits the village. Villeins Clothing

24. This is Molly’s weaving loom. Clay weights hold the warp threads taut. Her husband made it for her. She dyes the wool with berries from the wood.

25. You want to know little about me? Well I was married to Henry when I was 16, that's 10 years ago. My father arranged the marriage, I was given no choice at all. In fact I only saw him for the first time a week before the wedding. My father gave Henry two strips in the fields as a dowry. He's rather nice and kind so I don't regret it. I've had six babies but three of them died before they were a year old and one was stillborn, that's the sad part of my life. I'm expected to help in the fields and cook for him. He doesn't beat me, like many other husbands, if I argue with him.

26. Meet William Jordan, he's a Villein. You don't look very happy William. What's the matter? Its all the work I have to do for the Lord of the Manor. I hardly have the time to look after my own land and grow food for my family. The Reeve has just told me to plough half an acre of the Lord's fields this week. That's 2 acres I've had to do since Michaelmas (29th September). WEEK WORK regular jobs every week. BOON WORKextra work at busy times like sowing and harvest.

27. As well as that I have to hoe weeds every Monday. I have to spend three days in June hay making, three times a year I have to cart grain to another Manor and worst of all the Lord can make me do as much extra work as he wants at seed-sowing time and harvest time. I don't get any pay for all this work. I'm allowed my cottage and just 6 strips of land in the fields and If I annoy the Lord in any way I could be loose it all and have no way to support my family.

28. Harvesting for the Lord of the Manor is our worst time. We've been doing this from dawn (6.00 am) to dusk (10.00 pm) for three days now. It's backbreaking work The Reeve has just said that we have to do two more days this week. Then we've our own crop to harvest.

29. Flailing After the corn has been cut with scythes or sickles we have to flail it to separate the seed from the chaff. This is called winnowing. This is really backbreaking work. We beat the corn with a pole with a leather flap on the end. When we have finished we "glean" that is gather up all the stray seeds from the ground.

30. Meet Ralph Jolibody. He's a Freeman but he's really good fun and we get on well with him even though he is a Freeman and better off than us.

31. Hello. I'm just off to mend the fence round the meadow. The cows are trying to get in and eat the hay grass. How am I better off than Henry and Kitty? Well I've got 15 strips in each field, that's much more than them. This means I can grow more food than I need and sell the surplus at Beverley market. I can afford to pay two men to help work my land. I still have to do some BOON work at ploughing and harvest time, but not as much as the villeins and I don't do WEEK work at all. I pay rent to the Lord instead which gives me much more time for my own work.Best of all is being a Freeman, this means I can leave the village if I want to without the Lord's permission.

32. This is Adam the Reeve He is a villein like most of us. There are times when we don't like him at all and will be quite nasty to him, but if I'm honest he is only doing his job and I think he does it well really. He is very fair and is good at talking to important people which is why the villagers choose him to be Reeve.

33. His job is to meet with the Lord's Bailiff and decide on the services each of us villeins has to do during the year. He has to get us up to go to the fields at dawn and then he checks that we do our work properly. If we don't he will report us to the Bailiff and we will have to go to court and be fined or put in the stocks. If the Bailiff thinks he is not making sure we work hard he will be punished by the court. He does his fair share of work.

34. The Blacksmith Hello. I'm Walter the Smith. I'm a Freeman and I rent the Smithy from the Lord for 10 shillings a year. I spend most of my time repairing plough shares, harrows, and the like for the villagers. If they can't pay me in money I take some flour or eggs or ham as payment. Like Ken the baker and the miller I am much better off than most of the villagers. I moved to Wharram Percy because the Lord trains many excellent Knights. I get lots of interesting and satisfying work making and repairing weapons here. I trained with an expert sword maker in York who has made weapons for King Richard. I always make sure that I don't let the villagers down when they need help as we must help each other to survive. Visit the Iron works

35. About 5 times a year I hire the Ox cart from Paul the Carter and go to Beverley about 15 miles away to collect iron ingots (blocks). The iron ore is dug out of a pit nearby and put into the furnace mixed with burning charcoal. The molten iron runs into moulds where it solidifies. The charcoal is made in the nearby wood by slowly burning wood under huge earth mounds. The charcoal burners are running out of wood which will be a big problem. The Iron Works at Beverley

36. We all have to take our corn to the Lord's mill for grinding into flour. William the Miller would keep some of the flour he made as payment. He would pay the Lord of the Manor his rent for the mill in flour. The thing I think is unfair is that the miller always takes the same amount of flour no matter how good our crop is. This means when the harvest is poor we often go short of food in the winter. From the Wharram Percy Manorial Court Records William Bigge and Gilbert Meadows were both found guilty of having millstones in their houses and not using the Lord's mill. They were both fined 9d and had the millstones confiscated.

37. Simon Lightfoot The Steward I'm Sir Gilbert's Percy's chief official. He has spent much time abroad fighting with the King. Sir Gilbert has 20 Manors like Wharram Percy. I visit each Manor four times a year. I am in charge of the Manorial Court where charges against people are heard and payments to the Lord are collected. Today I am seeing William Jordan the Bailiff to instruct him on the work to be done on the land before Michaelmas. He is the Lord of the Manor's chief official in Wharram Percy.

38. Extract from the Manor Records Simon Lightfoot The Steward 20 villagers paid Maltsilver of 20d for the year This is instead of making malt for the Lord's Brewery. 10 shillings rent from Ken the Baker for his use of the bread oven in the village.

39. Farming Methods

40. The Three Field or Open Field System The village's farmland is divided into three big open fields. This year wheat and rye are being grown in the north field. Oats, barley, peas and beans in the Home field and the south field is being left fallow. This means nothing is planted, grass is allowed to grow and the cattle graze on it. This allows the soil to recover from crop growing. Next year the crops will all move round one field. The Lord keeps most of the land for himself but all the villagers are allowed some strips of land in each field. They are spread around the field so that we get a share of the best and the poorest land.

41. As well as the fields we have a hay meadow to make winter feed for our animals. All our cattle graze together on the common land near the river during the summer or in the meadow after the hay has been cut.

42. Ox-plough Strip Farming The three field system divided the fields up into strips. These were about 6 yards wide and 220 yards long (5 x 200 metres). The oxen needed a rest after they had pulled a plough for 220 yards (a furlong) or "furrow long", and 6 yards width was wide enough for the plough to go up turn and come back down. These fields were completely open, no hedges, with narrow paths between the strips.

43. Strip Farming When we have done our BOON work ploughing or harvesting for the Lord we all help each other with our ploughing and harvesting. As we can't afford oxen or a plough we club together and hire them from the bailiff. This makes our work much easier. Last year there were so many arguments about ploughing into their neighbours strip the Lord put up boundary stones. Robin Stoutfellow was fined 6d for this at the Manor Court. More about the Manor Court another time

44. Homework • Choose to be one of the following: • a female villein • a male villein • a villein child • a reeve • a freeman (anyone in particular eg smith or a miller or just a free man) • Thinking about things like: What do I eat? What do I wear? Where do I live? What do I do? • Write about half a page (+ pictures if you like)