PROVINCIAL ENGLAND
By the same author * THE MIDLAND PEASANT THE MAKING OF THE ENGLISH LANDSCAPE LOCAL HISTORY IN ENGLAND
Morwenstow Churc h : an isolated church typical of th e south-west TI lt, l/t i ti~h Tru tri and JIflli,lan A fsf/ofl",m
Provincial england ESSAYS IN SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY by w. G. HOSKINS Reader in Economic H istory in the University of Oxford LONDON MACMILLAN & CO LTD NEW YORK ST MARTIN'S PRESS 1963
Copyright W. G. Hoskins 1963 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1963 978-0-333-06895-3 MACMILLAN AND COMPANY LIMITED St Martin's Street London WC 2 also Bombay Calcutta Madras Melbourne THE MACMILLAN COMPANY OF CANADA LIMITED Toronto ST MARTIN'S PRESS INC New York ISBN 978-1-349-00468-3 DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-00466-9 ISBN 978-1-349-00466-9 (ebook)
To Generalize is to be an Idiot. To Particularize is the Alone Distinction of Merit. WILLIAM BLAKE
PREFACE I N this book I have gathered together a number of essays which have been published in various places during the last dozen years or so. They have two things in common : they are concerned entirely with various aspects of English social and economic history, and they are devoted to what might be called the Provinces of England. Hence the title of the book. Some of these essays were published in places difficult of access for interested readers, and some are now difficult to obtain at all. Two essays have not hitherto been published. Of these, that on 'T he Highland Zone in Domesday Book' was written especially for this book. The other, on 'The Rediscovery of England' was first given as three talks in the Third Programme of the British Broadcasting Corporation, and I am indebted to the Corporation for permission to publish them here, slightly amended in style but not in substance. For permission to publish the essays which have already appeared in print elsewhere I am grateful to various editors and publishers : to the Wool Education Society for 'Sheep Farming in Saxon and Medieval England', originally published as a pamphlet in 1955; to the Council of the Royal Historical Society for 'English Provincial Towns in the Early Sixteenth Century', originally published in the Transactions of the Society for 1956; to Longmans, Green & Co. Ltd. for 'An Elizabethan Provincial Town: Leicester', which first appeared in Studies in Social History: A Tribute to G. M. Trevelyan (1955); and to the editors of Past and Present for 'The Rebuilding of Rural England, 1570-1640', which appeared in thatjournal in November 1953. To the editor of Agricultural History I am obliged for permission to reprint 'The Leicestershire Farmer in the Seventeenth Century', which first appeared in thatjournalin 1951. Four of the essays originally appeared in the Transactions ofthe Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society. These were 'Croft Hill' (1950), 'The Origin and Rise of Market Harborough' (1949), ' Seven Deserted Village Sites in Leicestershire' (1956), and 'The Population of an English Village, 1086-1801' (1957). For permission to reprint these essays I am grateful to the editor and committee of the Society, as also for the loan of the blocks of the line-maps illustrating the essays on Market Harborough and the
vni Preface deserted villages. The Ordnance Survey have also given permission for the reproduction of the latter maps. Finally, Messrs. Longmans have kindly lent the three blocks which illustrate the essay on Elizabethan Leicester. w. G. HOSKINS
CONTENTS PREFACE PAGE vii I SHEEP FARMING IN SAXON AND MEDIEVAL ENGLAND 1 II THE HIGHLAND ZONE IN DOMESDAY BOOK 15 III THE ORIGIN AND RISE OF MARKET HARBOROUGH 53 IV ENGLISH PROVINCIAL TOWNS IN THE EARLY SIXTEENTH CENTURY 68 V AN ELIZABETHAN PROVINCIAL TOWN : LEICESTER 86 VI SEVEN DESERTED VILLAGE SITES IN LEICESTERSHIRE 1I5 VII THE REBUILDING OF RURAL ENGLAND, 1570-1640 131 VIII THE LEICESTERSHIRE FARMER IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 149 IX CROFT HILL 170 X THE POPULATION OF AN ENGLISH VILLAGE, 1086-1801: A STUDY OF WIGSTON MAGNA 181 XI THE REDISCOVERY OF ENGLAND 209 INDEX 231
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Morwenstow Church: An isolated church typical of the south-west frontispiece Cotswold sheep country: Taddington} High Street, Marlborough facing page 4 A landscape of dispersed farms: Cadbury (Devon) 21 Westcott Barton, Marwood: A Domesday demesne farm } Ingarsby, Leicestershire: The site of the village swept away 45 in 1469 Stamford: From the river meadows } Lavenham: A late medieval cloth town The Blue Boar Inn, Leicester 100 The Mitre and Keys Inn, Leicester 108 Colly Weston, Northamptonshire: Rebuilding of the early} seventeenth century 133 Henley-in-Arden: Rebuilding of the sixteenth century MAP LIST OF MAPS PAGE I South-West England 19 II Domesday Manorof Bowley 22 III DomesdayManor of Rashleigh 24 IV Gallens Green 26 V Sampford 28 VI Domesday Manorof Honeychurch 32 VII A Devonshire Hamlet and its Fields 38 VIII Chittlehampton 42 IX Market Harborough and its Countryside 55 X Leicester in 1525 facing 114 XI Baggrave 118 XII Cold Newton 120
xu List of Maps XIII Stretton Magna 122 XIV Hamilton 124- XV Ingarsby 126 XVI Lowesby 128 XVII Quenby 129