West Midlands Regional Research Framework for Archaeology, Seminar 6: Atkin
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Archaeology in Worcestershire 1500 - 1750
Malcolm Atkin
Worcestershire Historic Environment and Archaeology Service
matkin@worcestershire.gov.uk
Introduction
In Worcestershire much of the information of this period is still fragmentary and we
are still working towards putting individual pieces of information onto a coherent
context. Attempts at synthesis are largely confined to illustrating an already welldated historical framework. As with elsewhere, work is still hampered by a surviving
erroneous impression that post-medieval archaeology is less important than earlier
periods and in a time of limited resources, not worth the investment Thus, as late as
1996, English Heritage took the decision not to fund work on the post-excavation
work of the post-medieval phases of the major urban excavation at Deansway1. The
potential is, however, enormous. The period gives us as archaeologists the
opportunity to work in partnership with documentary historians and buildings
specialists - offering an opportunity to provide new insights and also test models of
development from earlier periods which rely much more on a single source.
A necessary first step is to improve the baseline of dating evidence. There is a need to
develop the local ceramic type fabric series to provide a basis for study – both in
terms of establishing a chronology and as a record of the industry in its own right.
This is a period in which we see the collapse of what was an extensive local medieval
pottery industry (with antecedents in the Roman period), with changing patterns of
imported material and finally the swamping of the dying industry by the Staffordshire
potteries. In this period of flux it may be that potters were firstly diversifying into the
manufacture of tiles and then clay tobacco pipes. Key assemblages are in Worcester at
Sidbury, Deansway and a small recent excavation on New Street.
This is a period in which excavated records become secondary to the need to record
landscape features from an archaeological perspective. Over 500 new records have
been added to the Historic Environment Record in the last two years as a result of the
farm consultations undertaken by the Worcestershire Historic Environment
Countryside Advisor.
We can also take advantage of the increasing use of GIS to build documentary and
cartographic evidence directly into the Historic Environment Record. Locally, we are
making a start with digitising late 18th Inclosure and 19th century tithe maps and
their ownership, use and land value details onto the Historic Environment Record.2
We are hoping that by building closer links with our local Record Office we can
strengthen the resources available for documentary research. In part this involves
encouraging a new emphasis in research amongst the archive community. It is
therefore unfortunate that there is a national and regional division of responsibility
between Museums, Libraries and Archives agency (MLA) LA and English Heritage.
This is not the least because such a division hampers funding possibilities.
West Midlands Regional Research Framework for Archaeology, Seminar 6: Atkin
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The Dissolution of the Monasteries
The period from c.1500 is a period of great and rapid change. One of the defining
factors of the post-medieval period is the dissolution of the monasteries and its
change in religious and settlement structure. This could create a physical vacuum in
town and countryside. In Pershore and Evesham the monasteries were demolished
piecemeal and still lie as an empty space within the town. Bordesley Abbey was
‘defaced and plucked down’ within two weeks of dissolution. But there may also be
archaeological evidence for the redistribution of land and wealth that the dissolution
caused. This is most visible in the new gentry houses that were built. John
Packington aquired 30 Worcestershire manors and built ‘a very goodly newe house of
bricke’ at Hampton Lovett. His cousin, Humphrey Packington, built Harvington Hall
(brick) out of the same proceeds. As a status symbol, these houses are the first large
scale use of brick in the county.
Towns
Towns saw dramatic change during this period. A movement of population from the
countryside had already begun and this intensified. The population of Worcester rose
from 4,250 to 7,000 from 1563 to 1646. We have an historic framework – provided
by such works as Dyer's 1981 study of Midlands towns, including Worcester, and the
more local work of Pat Hughes reconstructing tenement history of a number of city
streets.3 Work by Pat Hughes on Friar Street, Worcester shows increasing density of
housing. The plot occupied by nos17, 19, 21, 23 and 25 Friar Street (on corner with
Union Street) contained three houses in 16th century. By 1678, rows of cottages had
been built behind 17 and 25 and by 1784 there were 11 dwellings on the site. The
increasing pressure on housing is clearly seen in the cartographic evidence with the
infilling of open spaces and the development of extensive suburbs. Archaeology can
not only test and confirm these sources but also extend the framework provided by
historical sources both for urban topography and organisation. There is an underrated potential in the smaller towns. Based on archaeological evidence and historical
geography, the Central Marches Historic Towns Survey (completed 1996) provided
models of development for the smaller towns that extend the sequence of
development into the post-medieval period and transformed the archaeological
planning framework for such places.
Excavation of individual blocks of properties should allow us to move from
generalities into the particular. There may be evidence for infilling into yards, the
subdivision of the ground plan of existing properties and the insertion of upper stories.
This evidence may not be present in the surviving sample of buildings of the period –
in itself a diminished resource (demolition of buildings in the Lychgate in the 1960s).
The physical evidence may lie in blocked doorways and post-holes along the walls to
create mezzanine floors and therefore depends on excavation being undertaken on
sufficient a scale to be able to place such ephemeral features into a proper context and
also to compare neighbouring properties. The structural evidence can be very
vulnerable to later rebuilding and may be present largely through the distribution of
pits and other dug features. Fortunately, some of the most significant features of the
change in building design come from substantial features that may well survive i.e.
fireplaces or cess pits.
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A series of fires that swept many towns in the early 16th century encouraged a wave
of improvements in building construction. Archaeology can illustrate and provide
technical details of documented ordnances for improvement. There should be
evidence for the use of tiled roofs on a widespread scale (with a consequent increase
in demand from that industry). We might also expect open hearths to be similarly
replaced by brick fireplaces and chimneys. Documentary evidence also points to a
greater effort to improve sanitation – by the regular clearance of rubbish – which
ultimately leads to that great archaeological source of information – the rubbish pit.
We should perhaps also look for evidence of the activities of the saltpetre men – given
widespread powers to enter buildings – domestic, agricultural and even churches to
excavate for saltpetre. They were accused of not back-filling their excavations and
this may provide one explanation of the shallow scrapes and removal of floor levels
often seen in buildings. Churches, far from being exempt through any sign of respect
were a favoured target – as the congregation of the time had a habit of relieving
themselves in their pews. Within the broad pattern of development, the destruction
caused by the Civil War may provide a stratigraphic benchmark for such
developments (i.e. in the clearance of suburbs of stripping of deposits within a town
for defence works). This is, however difficult to identify in practice (see paper by
author on the Archaeology of the Civil War in this series).
Any identified changes need to be placed within a social context. For Worcester there
is a good surviving series of 16th century probate inventories for the wealthier
properties. 200 are currently being placed on a database. We should be looking to
excavate a documented household so that this can serve as a benchmark for
understanding other house of that class and also of poorer quality house. Such work
will also enable comparisons to be made with other less well-documented centres.
I have been essentially talking about a continuity of development in an established
town but the period also saw extraordinary bursts of growth in some towns. Bewdley
developed as a major inland port with riverside development. At the end of the period
(1635), Kidderminster began its rapid growth as a mill town making carpets. In 1753
Lord Foley built 200 new houses and laid out new streets. But we have only isolated
fragments of features of this period.
Industry
Some industries continued from medieval period. The medieval timber-lined ‘great
brine pit’ in Droitwich continued in use until the 18th century, with new pumps
installed by the 16th century. New brick salt furnaces were also constructed. There
was a new intensity of the development of industry in North Worcestershire. Coal
mining began in West Worcestershire in the late 13th century, based on village
centres such as Mamble, Bayton and Pensax. The coal was used for household fuel
and brick making. The high sulphur content also made it useful for preserving hops.
These early mines were typically bell-pits and remains can still be seen in the fields
around Mamble in the form of a raised spoil heap with a circular hollow in the
middle. We might also expect to find the settings for windasses, horse gins or haul
roads – but there has yet to be a survey to establish the presence of such remains.
Pensax was an important centre of the industry. The Lords of the manor, the Dean and
Chapter leased the mining rights to the City of Worcester and the first barge load to
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Worcester was brought down the Severn to the city in 1570. In 1610 Pensax supplied
coal to Droitwich for salt-boiling.
The 16th century saw the landscape of north Worcestershire being transformed by the
development of the coal and iron working industries. Forests were being ruthlessly
exploited, coal mining increased in scale. Every stream that could be used drove the
water wheels, and dams were made across villages to create pools to form a 'head of
water'. 16th century saw a great expansion in the use of water power for a variety of
industries. From the late 16th century in the region, blast furnaces began to replace the
smaller-scale smelting processes, supplying cast iron and pig iron to specialist smiths.
Waterways were improved and used to transport the products. In 1620 Dud Dudley
estimated that 20,000 smiths were at work within 20 miles of Dudley. By 1636 on the
Stour, Richard Foley controlled five furnaces, nine forges forges, three slitting mills
(to cut bar iron into rods) and docks, warehouses – all served by a complex transport
network. In 1665 Andrew Yarranton claimed to have made the River Stour navigable
from Stourport to Stourbridge in order to serve the industry. The Foley works on the
Stour in the late 17th century were the heart of a regional enterprise which was in turn
the largest producers of metal in England. As a consequence, this area is of great
importance for understanding the broader development of the iron working industry.
In 1619 Dud Dudley perfected the use of pit coal to make iron in a modified furnace
and acquired a royal patent. He claimed this would save 30,000 loads of wood p.a.
But coal was only widely used outside Shropshire from the mid-18th century..
Unfortunately, we have the historical context for such developments but as yet have
only isolated archaeological finds that can merely illustrate these known facts. Further
survey work and an excavation of one of these works is needed.
These moves towards a more industrialised society did not occur in isolation but
developed out of an agricultural framework. Some industries relied on seasonal
labour whilst, before the widespread use of coal, all relied on fuel that was essentially
an agricultural crop. The important nail and scythe industries were often combined
with farming.
A new industry in England from the late 16th century was that of making clay tobacco
pipes. Pottery workers may have capitalised on the moves in the early 16 th century to
extend the use of tiled roofs and moved into this industry. In the late 16th century did
the same people diversify into clay pipes – possibly as a part-time or seasonal
occupation as they saw increasing competition from Staffordshire?
Both
archaeological and documentary work needs to be undertaken to establish if this was
an urban or rural occupation. Two kilns are documented (but not discovered) in St
Nicholas’s parish, Worcester in 1690s. More work on the documentary evidence is
required but archaeology is likely to provide the most significant advances through
the excavation of kiln sites.
Important as these industries were, we have to recognise that our appreciation of them
is founded on the fact that they leave physical traces and we can therefore get a
distorted view of the local economy. The most widespread industry in the county
during the period, textile manufacturing, has left little physical trace. This is despite
the assertion that there were 2,000 ‘capmen’ making monmouth caps in the 17th
century in Bewdley. There may be evidence of loom rooms in upper floors, wash
houses, dyeing vats or in the long thin tenement boundaries of tenteryards.
West Midlands Regional Research Framework for Archaeology, Seminar 6: Atkin
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New patterns of landholding and agriculture
There has been increasing building recording on farms and barns over the past five
years. Much of this is at the level of simple photographic surveys but in all 153
recording conditions were applied under PPG15 and PPG16 in 2002 (as opposed to 95
below ground archaeological investigations). But we are not yet at a stage at which
synthesis has been undertaken. The surveying and excavation of houses needs to be
up into the context of its farming landscape. The period sees changes from arable to
pastoral with continued desertion of villages, movement of populations to the
construction of new farms on larger, centralised holdings and the enclosure of fields.
This occurred in piecemeal fashion from 1664 with Malvern Chase and then occurred
on a larger and more systematic scale with the Parliamentary enclosures of second
half of the 18th century). This was all designed to meet increasing demand for grain
and meat – especially in the towns. By1794 the county could be described as ‘in
general inclosed’.
One significant feature was the improvement of lowland pasture by creation of water
meadows. In the 1690s, Thomas Foley invested £500 in new water works at
Chaddesley Corbett. Work has recently begun on a survey and assessment of water
meadows. The typology is being developed although most systems are of a simple
nature in the county. This is a prelude to providing greater protection and also
opportunities for restoration grants. For example, there is a documentary reference to
a recently discovered 16th century watermeadow complex at Shelsley Beauchamp,
Worcs. A deed of 1579 refers to:
”All and as much of the arable and meadow lying in the ‘Nether Field’ of
William Pirry, Husbandman, which a stank or pool-head lately erected by
John Nott, stands on, and as much of the Nether Field as may be drowned
or covered with water by reason of the said stank”.
The system survives intact with sluices, carrier channels and drains and will hopefully
be taken into Countryside Stewardship.
The exploitation of Woodland is also poorly understood. This has become a symbol of
an ‘ancient’ landscape but in reality was a crop where the extent of woodland
frequently changed in extent.
Social and political change
One of the most dramatic events of the period is the English Civil War of 1642 1651. This will be considered in more detail elsewhere in this seminar. Here I will
confine myself to some particular Worcestershire aspects.
A great deal of historical research on the period has been undertaken in the county.4
The archaeological evidence remains limited and is mainly concerned with identifying
defences. At Worcester we can see evidence for the refurbishment of medieval
defences. Evidence of newly-constructed defences at Evesham have recently been
discovered. Surprisingly, little evidence has been found for the wholesale clearance
of the suburbs or the clearance of land within the town to build defences. As far as the
latter is concerned the evidence mainly lies in the absence of layers relating to the
period. Bridges were regular targets of both sides. Pershore bridge was part
West Midlands Regional Research Framework for Archaeology, Seminar 6: Atkin
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demolished in 1644 and was repaired after Civil War. There has not been an
opportunity for the detailed finds recording needed to advance the study of battlefield
archaeology (as at Naseby and Marston Moor) as might be applied at the still largely
intact battlefield site of Ripple or the 1651 camp site at Spetchley. One of the
consequences of the war was a deterioration of the transport system.. But although the
Dean and Chapter complained that the destruction in the Worcester suburbs had been
so complete that they could no longer identify their property boundaries, the county
quickly recovered.
Worcestershire was a conservative county as far as developing building styles but
there are many large 18th century country houses. Hanbury Hall, built 1701 is one of
finest Wren buildings.
Throughout this paper, I have stressed the need for integrated research. One might
ask where the resources for this might come from. In part, local authorities already
contain a great reservoir of expertise. But this is constrained within their own areas
and practices. Conservation Officers are hard pressed simply to maintain day to day
casework without being able to undertake strategic surveys. The local authority
Record Offices also contained skilled historians – yet their ethos is not directed
towards research of their own. This is something that is being considered in a review
of the operations of the heritage services in Worcestershire (Historic Environment,
Archaeology, Museums and Archives) which we hope will lead to closer, joint,
working at a project level if not to a closer structural relationship.
1
2
3
4
Dalwood H. and Edwards, R., Deansway Excavations (CBA, 2004)
http://www.worcestershiremaps.org.uk
Dyer 1981
Atkin, M. Worcestershire Under Arms (Pen and Sword, 2004)