NANTWICH: AN ELEVENTH-CENTURY SALT TOWN AND ITS ORIGINS

J. Oxley, B.A.

T HIS article' falls into two distinct but strongly related parts. The first of these is an analysis of the Domesday

entries for the three Cheshire Wiches in particular examining the evidence for Nantwich. The second is an attempt to place this evidence in an historical context, to postulate when Nantwich might have developed into a salt producing centre of the importance seen in the Domesday folios. This latter part of the article will rely not on hard and fast evidence but rather on an hypothesis extrapolated from work done in more fully documented parts of Anglo-Saxon England.

The Cheshire Domesday Folios though of considerable interest have received relatively little modern analysis. The folios contain the account of the laws of the City of Chester, the area of North Wales (especially the borough of Rhuddlan) and most pertinent to this article the account of the Salt Wiches. 2 This account of the Wiches is unique in all the Domesday Folios. Droitwich, the only other inland salt- producing centre, is described in an entirely different manner. 3 Droitwich was assessed at 10 hides. It is described as a borough, populated by burgesses. Droitwich is described then in the same form as are most boroughs and manors in Domesday. The account of the three Cheshire Wiches contrasts sharply with this account. At Droitwich there is no mention of tolls or laws. At the three Cheshire Wiches the account is given entirely in these terms. What evidence does this account give for the urban origins of the medieval town and what other conclusions may be drawn from the Domesday account? The place to commence is with the Domesday account itself.

The salthouses which were situated in Nantwich and Middlewich paid tolls on salt produced in the following manner: between the Ascension and Martinmas (in 1086 14

2 J. Oxley

May to 11 November) toll was only paid on salt which was sold, (see fig. 1). If it was kept for the proprietors own use then no toll was paid. In addition a toll of 16 boilings was paid each Friday for each salthouse that worked during the preceding week. The demesne salthouses of the king and Earl paid this toll the whole year. The other salthouses only paid this render between Martinmas and the Ascension, that is the Winter to Spring period. The main tolls themselves were paid as shown in fig. 2. There were also penalties for overloading, making false measures, etc. At Northwich there were some light differences from the charges given above in fig. 2. Here the tolls are given for people being 'ex alia scira'. There is also an interesting toll concerning people who sold salt around the county. These people paid a penny for each cart each time it was loaded with salt. If salt was peddled by house, toll was charged at one penny at the feast of St Martin. The tolls given all had to be paid in the proportion of two-thirds to the King and one third to the Earl of Chester.

Rg.l TIMING OF SALT TOLLS AND FRIDAY BOILINGS

MONTHS

TOLLS

FRIDAY

BOILINGS

J F M

all salt pa tolls

A

d

M

~* r

all paid Fr

Boilings

day

J

free

J A S O N O

unless sold

King and Earl only

4 >

The imposition of tolls varied at different times of the year as can be seen from fig. 1. The question naturally arises as to why this should be so? The tolls appear to represent a system finely tuned to the demand for salt, which also paid attention to local conditions with regard to transport. In the medieval period salt was put to various uses. It was used, for instance, in tanning and in soldering. It was however as a preservative and condiment that salt was in greatest demand. Large numbers of animals were slaughtered every autumn and in particular at Martinmas. 4 This point is important to bear in mind with regard to the tolls in fig. 1. It was in the process of

Nantwich: An Eleventh-Century Salt Town and its Origins 3

preserving fish, in particular salting herrings, that salt found its greatest use.

Fig. 2 TOLLS

.. . 2 oxen salt in a cart4 oxen

man from same hundred

per horseload

man from different hundred

per horseload

man on foot from same hundred

for B menloads

man on foot from different hundred

for B menloads

2d

4d

^

2d

1d

2d

The evidence for the integration of fishing and salt production is difficult to obtain even in the better documented periods of medieval economic history. In the time of the Hanse there appears to have been a thriving herring industry in the Sound between Denmark and Sweden. This appears to have been based on the Danish fisheries and salt from Luneburg. 5 The extent to which a similar relationship between fisheries in the Irish Sea and Cheshire Salt can be postulated, at any period, is a matter for speculation. However the trade in the Baltic during the twelfth century was largely an autumnal occupation. At a slightly later date, the emphasis of place changed to the North Sea and the summer became an important time for herring fishing. It would appear that this time, summer and autumn, was the most important period for fishing in the

4 J. Oxley

Irish Sea area. How does this evidence tie in with the evidence of the salt tolls at Nantwich and Middlewich?

The Domesday account provides two important facts. First there was a different toll on salt sold in summer/autumn than in winter/spring. Second there was a tax on salt production of 16 boilings per week when a salthouse was in use during the winter months.

The differential toll for the summer months would suggest that the holders of salthouses were being allowed the profits of their tenure. They were able to put the salt to their own use without having to pay tolls on it. Salt that was sold however was subject to toll. This would appear to tie in neatly with the herring season outlined above, in that there would be the greatest demand for salt in this period. The fact that demand for salt was highest during the summer can be seen from the amount of salt imported in the period 1390 1495. At Bristol the average amount imported in winter was 160 quarters, in summer 1600 quarters; at London the figures were 725 in winter and 2600 in summer. 6 While this must in part reflect the method of salt production on the Atlantic coast of France it also must reflect demand for salt in this country. It is also true that there was a rise in the number of beasts being slaughtered in the autumn, which would lead to an extra demand for salt in order to preserve the meat.

This hypothesis raises a serious problem with regard to the levying of taxes. It is undoubtedly true in taxation history that where demand is highest, then taxes are levied with according strictness. 7 It is possible that the volume of traffic in salt being sold was such that a higher revenue during the summer-autumn months was maintained. The exemptions must have amounted to only a small fraction of the total salt produced. Why then were the tolls and Friday boilings most exacting during the winter months? The postulated fall in demand during the winter months may have led to the 'authorities' attempting to gain as much revenue as possible from the production and sale of salt during this period. There may also be the hint of an attempt here to regulate traffic on the roads to Nantwich during these winter months. In the heavy clay areas of the Weald in Kent and Sussex it would appear that carts were required to carry materials to repair the roads, though this evidence is of a much later date. 8 It is possible that the situation at Nantwich was similar, as the town lies on a sea of boulder-clay. At Nantwich the attempt at regulation was made through taxation.

The Domesday account also gives an insight into the ad-

Nantwich: An Eleventh-Century Salt Town and its Origins 5

ministration of these tolls, and of the penalties imposed for evasion. The account states that if any man so overloaded his cart the axle broke or was able to be apprehended within a league of the Wiches then he had to pay 2s to the King's officer or the Earl's officer. 9 The implication is that these officers were resident in or at least worked from the Salt Wiches. It is possible these officers were the bailiffs charged with the administration of the demesne salthouses in Nantwich. They might have been solely in charge of regulation and administration of the tolls. At Middlewich where there were no demesne salthouses and Northwich where this situation is uncertain this must certainly have been the case.

As recorded in 1086 and in operation at the time of Edward the Confessor there is a picture of three valuable salt producing centres. Nantwich was rendering £21 T.R.E. (i.e. 1066); Middlewich £8 and Northwich £8. These centres possessed a system of tolls that reflected the demand for salt and perhaps also the need to regulate traffic on the roads. The differing scales of tolls show that the traffic of salt covered a wide area and that there was an itinerant class of salt traders-cum-pedlars operating, certainly from Northwich, and in all likelihood from the other two Wiches. Perhaps most interesting of all, these tolls and penalties were administered by resident officials. This description provides the foundations of an hypothesis that sees these centres, and in particular Nantwich, as urban rather than, to quote Tait, "little manufacturing enclaves". 10

Nantwich is described as being surrounded on each side by a certain stream and on the other by a certain ditch. Within this boundary forfeitures could be met by a fine of 2s or 30 boilings of salt, except for murder and thefts which carried execution as a penalty. Inside this boundary stood 8 salthouses, divided two-thirds to the King and one-third to the Earl. There was also the demesne salthouse of Earl Edwin's manor of Acton. In addition there were an indeterminate number of salthouses held by 'plurimi homines patriae\ [> The number of these salthouses is omitted in the text. Can this number be reconstructed from other entries? In the Cheshire Domesday folios there are 3 manors which are described as having salthouses 'in Wick'; Weaverham 12 , Frodsham 13 , Hartford 14 : 3 with 'domus' or 'domus wasta' 'in WicK; Halton 15 , Wincham 16 , Tatton 17 ; one, Claverton, is described as having a salthouse 'in Norwich' 1 *; and one, Iscoyd, has a salthouse but the location is unspecified 19 : and

6 J. Oxley

finally Acton by Nantwich is described as having one salthouse 'in WicK, which is known to have been in Nantwich. 20 That makes 9 manors in all, with 15 salinae or domus between them. How many of these can be associated with Nantwich? On geographical grounds it seems reasonable to ascribe the 7 salthouses of Weaverham and the 1 of Hartford to Northwich. For the same reason the salthouses of Frodsham, Halton, VVincham and Tatton are associated with Northwich. The position of the salthouse listed under Iscoyd is uncertain though it was probably at Dirtwich, a minor salt spring south of Malpas. This leaves only the salthouse at Acton that can be securely placed in Nantwich. It is equally possible of course, that the above salinae or domus were situated in either Middlewich or Nantwich instead of being concentrated as suggested above in Northwich.

This presents a problem in the interpretation of the Nantwich entry. It is possible that salthouses were not regarded as items taxable at the tenurial centre, but were taxed through tolls at source. Why then are the above salthouses included in the account? It is possible that the salthouses that appear listed under the rural manors had in fact been farmed out. This would mean that they were producing revenue at the manor itself. Iscoyd is specifically stated as being worth 24s, a sum that looks suspiciously like a rent paid for this particular salthouse. Whichever way the salthouses mentioned in the text itself are viewed, there must surely be a large number that are omitted altogether. Recent work on Domesday as evidence for settlements shows that settlements or manors appurtenant to large estates were omitted. 21 It seems reasonable therefore to suggest that the number of salthouses in Nantwich cannot be reconstructed. This also precludes any attempt to estimate the size of the settlement at Nantwich from documentary evidence alone.

The archaeological evidence for the eleventh century in Nantwich is at present minimal. This is more of a reflection on the sites that have been available for excavation rather than minimal occupation in that period. Two recent excavations have been undertaken, one on the suggested site of the medieval castle behind the Crown Hotel in High Street, the other on a site in Wood Street (see fig. 3). The Crown Hotel site lies well to the south of the area that was the Domesday nucleus of the town. This nucleus lay in an area that is known as Snowhill (a corruption of the name of one of the streets previously to be found in this area in the

Nantwich: An Eleventh-Century Salt Town and its Origins 7

medieval period, Snore hyll). 22 This area was formerly called Beaverhold. The other excavation took place in Wood Street, on the west bank of the Weaver, and showed fairly conclusively that this area was not colonised before 1200." Neither here nor on the Crown Hotel site was any evidence, apart from a few sherds of late Saxon pottery, forthcoming for Saxon (Mercian) occupation. 24 Archaeologically the case for a late Saxon settlement remains to be proven. A study of the topography of Nantwich has failed to reveal any trace of the ditch mentioned in Domesday, even though it would appear that this continued as a feature into the late twelfth century. 25 This study does point to two interesting features. The first of these is that the market place is immediately adjacent to the Domesday nucleus where the salt pit was situated. If this represents the primary site of the market area then one can begin to discern the possible extent of the Domesday settlement. If this hypothesis is correct, it would also suggest the secondary nature of the site of the church. The second feature to notice is the fact that the road pattern in the Snowhill area has been lost. The first edition O.S.6 in. maps point to a situation where post-medieval rebuilding had

8 J. Oxley

largely destroyed the pattern of medieval salthouses. 26 It is probable that this pattern was of itself inherently liable to easy obliteration. The evidence from the excavations in Wood Street points to a pair of salthouses, of which only one even seems to have been built in a substantial fashion. 27 Though the plots themselves appear to have been well demarcated the buildings were insubstantial and in all likelihood for industrial purposes only. Thus, as the salt industry declined and buildings fell into decay, large derelict areas would appear because there was no residential element present. Such a situation would have lent itself to 're-planning', made easier by the concentration of land ownership in the hands of a few wealthy landlords. This would therefore account for the loss of the street plan and of street names in this area. The topographic evidence would appear to lend little weight to any arguments about the size of the VVich in the Domesday account, apart from perhaps suggesting that it encompassed an area from the Weaver through Snowhill to the Market place.

In 1086 and before 1066, the evidence points towards a well regulated demarcated (if not defended) market centre that was established as the centre of a feudal Barony. One may go further and suggest that Nantwich was fulfilling the role of a central place in Warmundestrou (Nantwich) Hundred, that it possessed a diversified economic base, and if one accepts that salt production was continued throughout the year then there was also a resident population living within or nearby Nantwich. Anglo-Saxon and medieval arch­ aeologists have often pondered over the criteria that might be used to test for urban status. Twelve such criteria have received general acceptance for such use>

1. defences2. a planned street system3. a market4. a mint5. legal autonomy6. a role as a central place7. a relatively large and dense population8. a diversified economic base9. plots and houses of urban type

10. social differentiation11. complex religious organisation12. a judicial centre

Nantwich: An Eleventh-Century Salt Town and its Origins 9

If at least half of these are met then one may legitimately postulate the presence of a town. 28 Nantwich meets at least five, probably more, of these criteria. Certainly less than fifty years later in the 1 ISO's there were people being described as burgesses living in Nantwich. 29

Nantwich when viewed with the village of Acton also appears to suggest itself as a hybrid variety of the primary town described by Alan Everitt. 30 Nantwich and Acton certainly share the seven characteristics of the primary town. 31 It may well be that this combination of important village with a subsidiary settlement with a strong economic base represents an important source for urban development, especially when one considers the polyfocal nature of the early development of some towns. 32

Nantwich in the eleventh century can be seen then as a developed urban centre of indeterminate size, a point made to provide an alternative view to that of Tails' 'little manufacturing enclaves'. 33

The question that now poses itself is that of the origins and antiquity of this eleventh century settlement. It is with regard to this question that the second part of this article is concerned.

The question of the age and importance of settlements in the south of England is much easier to answer than when asked of settlements in the north-west. Evidence in the form of Anglo-Saxon wills and charters, references in chronicles and archaeological work is abundant in the south. Also there has been no lack of historians and archaeologists willing to exploit them. Discussion of the history of settlement and the development of settlement patterns has, until fairly recently, concentrated on evidence from the Midlands and south of the country. 34 Now, however, this imbalance is being redressed. Following on from work done by Jolliffe in the 1920's, Glanville-Jones and others have begun to assess and interpret settlement patterns and especially patterns of administrative units in the landscape. 35 This work, when seen alongside recent studies by professor G.VV.S. Barrow and David Michelmore, has given a pointer to what forms the administrative landscape might have taken prior to the impact, through accretion or fission of these units, of the Anglo-Saxons in the south and midlands. 36 Their work has particularly important implications for Cheshire since in that county the settlement by Mercians was at a relatively late date. 3 The pre-Anglian units of land division would then be much closer chronologically to the first documentary

10 J. Oxley

evidence, Domesday. This may therefore increase their chances of survival and recognition. It is within the pattern of administrative units that evidence for the primary and secondary nature of settlements will be found. In order to pursue this aspect in detail and especially in relation to the question posed above this discussion will be confined to Nantwich (Warmunderstrou) Hundred.

fig.4 DOMESDAY TOWNSHIPS IIM

WARMUMOeSTROU HUNDRED

BtonnTey C Au»cer-«on

BB^dlloy

Cheriay

J Wistaston 1 Cappenhal

13 Hatharto

14 Wolghvrc

/ B^n.

Nantwich: An Eleventh-Century Salt Town and its Origins 11

In the Domesday folios there are 35 places recorded as being in YVarmundestrou Hundred, (see fig-4). This compares with the medieval listings of townships that contributed to the Mize, which gives a figure of 63 in all. 38 The Domesday figure excludes the later additions to the Hundred of Church Minshull, Hassall and Alsager. It also includes the township of Tittenley which is now in Shropshire. Within the 35 named settlements there are certainly some concealed vills. For instance Shavington is described as being two manors held T.R.E. (1066) by Godwine and Dot. 39 In the Mize lists the township is called, as at present, Shavington-cum-Gresty. Surely Gresty here was the unnamed manor. The same is true of the Domesday entry for Copenhale. 40 In Wybunbury parish there are five places mentioned in Domesday, T.R.E. as consisting of more than one manor; one of these named vills, Basford was comprised of 3 manors. 41 In Acton parish the situation was somewhat more complicated. The parish as recorded in the 1st edition 6 " Ordnance Survey maps and on the Tithe map consisted of 17 townships. Of these 17 only seven are mentioned in Domesday. Of these seven, one, Poole, has two entries and another Worleston, is described as being comprised of three manors. The township of Acton however is assessed at eight hides and may thus include within this assessment some of the omitted townships, if not all of them.

In the nineteenth-century parish of Wrenbury only three townships are omitted from the Domesday account. Again it is probable that two of these, Woodcot and Sound, are accounted for by the fact that Firth and Broomhall are each described as two manors. It is possible therefore to assume that the majority of townships listed in the Mize and traceable on the Tithe and 1st edition 6" Ordnance Survey were in existence in the eleventh century. 42

Can these townships be fitted into an administrative system that may be used to help form an hypothesis concerning the hierarchy of settlement in the area? Further might this hypothesis then provide a clue to the date of the emergence of Nantwich as an important centre of settlement?

There can be little doubt that, to quote M. Gelling "the ecclesiastical parishes of the English countryside correspond in many cases to land-units of the Anglo-Saxon period". 43 This has been given substance through the careful appraisal of boundary descriptions given in Anglo-Saxon charters and comparison of those with parish boundaries. In the south many parochial centres had their origins in the fact that they

12 J. Oxley

were important administrative centres of estates in the seventh century. This was the period during which the initial stage of Parish formation, the creation of minsters, was underway. 44 What happens when this model is applied to the Cheshire evidence?

, 5 PARISHES ANTWICH HUNDRED

SHttOPSHIF

In the area in question, Nantwich Hundred, there were in the nineteenth century twelve parishes (see fig.5). The majority of these can be shown however to have originated as dependant chapelries of three major parishes. Barthomley seems to have been a parish from at least 1086, when it is described as possessing a priest. Church Coppenhall and Wistaston parishes, along probably with Audlem were chapelries of the parish of Wybunbury. 45 Church Minshull, Wrenbury and probably Baddiley parishes along with Nantwich were dependent chapelries of Acton parish. 46 Marbury and Wirswall were both dependant chapelries of the parish of Whitchurch, Shropshire. In Domesday, T.R.E. Marbury, Norbury (a township in Marbury parish) and

Nantwich: An Eleventh-Century Salt Town and its Origins 13

Wirswall are described as berewicks of Earl Harold's manor of Westone, VVhitchurch. 47 In this case the parochial organisation can be seen to be related to the estate organisation. The model described above appears then to have some relevance to the Cheshire evidence. This argument would suggest that the area covered by the parish of Acton and its dependant chapelries of Church Minshull, Nantwich, Baddiley and Wrenbury also formed an estate in the pre-conquest period. Unfortunately the tenurial evidence as outlined for VVhitchurch is of little use here. Earl Edwin held Acton, assessed at 8 hides. Church Minshull, Wrenbury, Baddiley are all described as manors and not as Berewicks, and Nantwich is only mentioned as a centre of salt production. 48 If Acton Parish had indeed once formed a discrete estate the process of fission had by 1086 removed the most obvious pointers. The fact that Domesday only records priests at Acton Barthomley and Wybunbury suggests that these may have been primary parochial centres and thus estate centres.

There are however some pointers to be found. The Domesday entry for Broomhall in Wrenbury parish states that 1 virgate of its 2 virgate assessment lay in the township of Poole, in Acton parish. 49 This connection between Wrenbury parish and Acton parish is strengthened by the observation that the township of Sound straddles the parish boundary. Sound township is not mentioned in Domesday and it is possible that it emerged after Domesday. The Township of Newhall probably an early thirteenth century creation by the Audley family, lying as it does within three parishes really only makes sense if it is seen as an amalgamation of two or possibly three pre-existing townships. 50 Wrenbury parish is particularly interesting in that it contains another township that is divided between two parishes. In this case however the township in question, Dodcote cum Wilkesley, can be shown to be the demesne lands of the Cistercian monastery of Combermere. 51 It is probable again that this township was two separate units before 1133 but became administratively one unit after the foundation of Combermere. Wrenbury parish could be seen as the main obstacle to the hypothesis that Acton parish with its dependant chapelries represented a Mercian estate. It contains townships part of which lie in Audlem parish, and townships with such place-names as Woodcote and Newhall which are suggestive of post-conquest colonisation. However, with half of the townships being described in Domesday, together with the above arguments,

14 J. Oxlej

it seems safe to postulate that this represents an area delineated and attached to an estate centre at Acton. The antiquity of the overall settlement pattern in the area can be seen to be affirmed by place names such as Combermere. 52 Such an hypothesis does not of course preclude later colonisation within this area; the argument is that the area was meted out at an early date, not that it was being fully exploited. 53 That there was an overall early administrative unity in the Acton parish area may also be seen at the micro- topographic level with very small detached portions of townships occurring throughout the parish, though these may also be due to a myriad of other reasons. 54 If this overall hypothesis is accepted, how does it relate to the questions posed concerning the pre-conquest position of Nanrwich?

Nantwich was a chapelry of Acton. A relationship between the Salt Wiches and nearby important settlements has been advanced by several people. 55 This sees VVitton as the 'wich- tun' for Northwich, Newton for Middlewich and Acton for Nantwich. The parochial centre for Northwich was at Weaverham, and for Nantwich at Acton. Middlewich however, has its own parochial centre, and was the centre of Midlestvic Hundred in Domesday. This has important implications for the position of Nantwich. When the administrative units outlined above were used as the basis for parochial organisation Acton was the centre chosen because it was the administrative centre of an estate. It was also probably the most important settlement in the area. The hundredal meeting place was Warmundestrou, the site of which is unknown. It is possible that the township of Burland may have been a possible site, being comprised of much common land. Neither the parochial organisation nor the hundredal organisation was centred on or called after Nantwich. This contrasts strongly with the position of Middlewich. Why is this so? At the time when this administrative organisation was establishing itself, Middlewich was the pre-eminent centre in that area whilst Acton was in Nantwich Hundred. The hundred of Middlewich took its name from the pre-eminent settlement. At a comparable time Nantwich was in no such position. If this parochial and hundredal organisation was evolving in this area between the late seventh and ninth centuries, then Nantwich must be seen to post date this.

Nantwich must therefore be late Saxon in origin perhaps beginning to establish itself in the tenth century. Such an hypothesis is given further credibility by the archaeological

Nantwich: An Eleventh-Century Salt Town and its Origins 15

evidence from Nantwich itself and elsewhere. There is little or no evidence as yet for late Saxon occupation, no evidence for Norse or Danish involvement in the area and evidence that would suggest at most a small villa, or perhaps squatter settlement here in the Roman period. 56

Middlewich contrasts starkly with this. Though there is no evidence for late Saxon occupation, there is the likelihood of some Danish involvement here. There is a concentration of Scandinavian place names in the River Dane Valley. The practice at Middlewich of dividing salthouses into 4 and 8 pan divisions as opposed to 6 and 12 at Nantwich and Northwich may also point to a Danish influence.

The contrast between the two settlements in the Roman period is even more striking. Middlewich has been positively identified as the Roman "Salinis". 51 Previous writers had identified this place name with Nantwich largely on the evidence of the Domesday accounts. 58 Excavations on the site of the Roman settlement at Middlewich led the excavator to postulate the possibility of a site in the region of 50 to 70 acres. 59

In the medieval period Middlewich was a manor of the Earl of Chester. This may reflect on the fact that where hundredal manors have been identified in the west of the country they were often associated with royal estate centres in the Anglo-Saxon period. 60 Acton was held in the time of Edward the Confessor by Edwin, Earl of Mercia and thus may also be seen as a 'royal' centre.

The evidence therefore suggests that while Nantwich was attached to an estate centre of some antiquity, the urban settlement itself is of late Saxon origin. The analogy with Middlewich would suggest that Middlewich itself was of considerable antiquity. Further, Middlewich must have been in decline for some time by 1086. In the twelfth century Warmundestrou Hundred was reorganised around the Barony of Nantwich and centred on Nantwich itself. This involved the addition of 3 townships formerly on the periphery of the old hundred. A baronial castle had been built at Nantwich emphasising the shift in administrative importance from the Saxon estate centre of Acton to Nantwich. Middlewich hundred was disbanded completely. Three of the townships being transferred to Nantwich, one to Eddisbury and the whole was re-named Northwich Hundred. In the case of Nantwich Hundred this re-united in one hundred the portions of Acton and Barthomley parishes that had been in Middlewich Hundred (Church Minshull and Alsager).

16 J. Ox ley

This re-organisation may be further explained by reference to another region in the north-west. In Cumbria, through an examination of the way in which Norman Baronies were 'imposed' on the area to produce a set of compact fiefs, Prof. Barrow has shown that these were in fact based on existing secular divisions. 61 These divisions, he has gone on to show, are very similar to the Welsh petty kingdoms that were adopted wholesale during the Norman penetration of Wales during the late eleventh and early twelfth century. He thus proposes a Celtic origin for these large fiefs. Might a similar position be detectable in Cheshire? Cheshire was a large compact earldom, entirely devoid of terra regis, in which were found compact baronial fiefs. It is possible that the estate organisation of the Mercian period follows earlier land divisions which may to some extent have re-emerged as the compact baronies of Domesday.

This hypothesis would see the parochial and administrative organisation of the county reflecting Celtic in­ stitutions around which the Mercians had moulded their estate organisation. This pattern of administrative units could then be seen extending back beyond the seventh century. The arguments put forward by Michelmore also suggest a similar antiquity for the township divisions. 62

Nantwich emerges from this study then, as a highly organised and well regulated urban or proto-urban settlement in the eleventh century. It was the most valuable in monetary terms of the three Wr iches. Through an examination of the parochial and administrative organisation of Nantwich Hundred in the light of models proposed for other parts of the country, Nantwich has been placed in an historical context for the date of its emergence as an urban centre. This may have coincided with the Aethelflaedan policy of 'burh' construction in the area. There can be little doubt that the forces that acted to develop Nantwich were economic ones. Nantwich would appear, from these arguments put forward, not to have developed as an important centre before the tenth century.

NOTES

The author wishes to thank Mrs J.I.Kermode for her guidance and Mrs R.McNeil-Sale for her information with regard to her excavations in Nantwich.J. Tait ed. The Domesday Survey of Cheshire, Chet. Soc. M.S. 75, (1916), pp 216-225, for the account of the Salt Wiches.

Nantwich: An Eleventh-Century Salt Town and its Origins 17

3. V.C.H. VVorcs. Ill, 1913, p.72ff; E.K. Bern. The Borough of Droitwich and its Salt Industry 1215-1700', University of Birmingham Historical Journal 6, no. 1 (1958). These give a summary of the evidence for Droitwich.

4. A.R. Bridbury, England and the Salt Trade (1955), p.xv5. J.R. Coull, The Fisheries of Europe: an Economic Geography (1972), p. 72.6. Bridbury, pp. 174-175.7. For instance the establishment of the Wool Staple to facilitate the

regulation and taxation of wool exports.8. V.C.H. Kent, III (1932), p. 372.9. Domesday Survey of Cheshire, p. 223

10. ibid, p.40.11. ibid, pp 219-221.12. ibid, pp. 101-103.13. ibid, p. 105.14. ibid, p. 191.15. ibid, p. 169.16. ibid, p. 193.17. ibid, p. 199.18. ibid, p. 229.19. ibid, p. 121.20. ibid, p. 151.21. P.H. Sawyer, From Roman Britain to Norman England (1978), pp. 136

138.22. C.R.O. DWN/I/22, DWN/2/46.23. R. McNeil-Sale et al. Wood Street Salt Works, (1980), p. 16.24. Ex inf. R. McNeil-Sale.25. Charter of Thomas Basset in G Barraclough ed. Facsimiles of Early

Cheshire Charters (1957), p. 13; also Bodleian Library Dods. Ms. 31, f. 131.

26. O.S.6" Map, sheet no. LVL13., 1876.27. Wood Street Salt Works, p. 10.28. C.M. Heighway, The Erosion of History, Archaeology and Planning in

Towns (1972), sect. 3.8 to 3.10; M Biddle 'Towns', in D.M. Wilson ed. The Archaeology of Anglo-Saxon England (1976), p. 100.

29. W. Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum, 5 (1825), p. 323: "similiter concede eisdem monachis ct omnibus buigensibus seu tenentibus dictae villae communem pasturem. . . ."

30. A. Everitt, 'The Banburys of England', Urban History Yearbook, 1 (1974), pp.28-38.

31. ibid, pp.30-36.32. M.W. Atkin and A. Carter, 'Excavations in Norwich 1975-76. The

Norwich Survey 5th Interim Report' Norfolk Archaeology, 36 (1976), pp. 191-194.

33. Domesday Survey of Cheshire, p.40.34. See DJ. Bonney, 'Early Boundaries in Wessex', in PJ. Fowler ed.

Archaeology and the landscape: essays for L. V. Grinsell ( 1972), pp. 168-186; C.C. Taylor, Tolyfocal settlement and the English Village', Medieval Archaeology, 21 (1977), pp. 189-193; C. Pythian-Adams, Continuity Fields and Fission: the making of a Midland Parish, Leicester University Dept. of English Local History, Occ. Papers 3rd series, 4 (1978).

35. J.E.A. Jolliffe, 'Northumbrian'institutions', E.H.R. 41 (1926), pp.l- 42; G.RJ. Jones, 'Multiple Estates and Early Settlement', in P.H. Sawyer ed. Medieval Settlement (1976), pp. 15-40.

36. G.W.S. Barrow, 'The pattern of Lordship and Feudal Settlement in

18 J. Oxley

Cumbria', Jnl. Med. Hist. \, no. 2 (1975), pp. 117-138; D.J.H. Michelmore 'The Reconstruction of the Early Tenurial and Territorial divisions of the landscape of Northern England', Landscape History, 1 (1979), pp. 1-9.

37. On this aspect of the English arrival (sic) in Cheshire, see, J. McN. Dodgson, The English Arrival in Cheshire', T.H.S.L.C. 119, (1967), pp. 1-37; D.Sylvester 'Cheshire in the Dark Ages', Ibid. 114 (1962). pp. 1-22; J.D.' Bu'lock, Pre-Conquest Cheshire 383-1066 (1972), pp. 16-

38. For a list of Ancient parishes and townships see D. Sylvester and G. Nulty, The Historical Atlas of Cheshire (1958), pp. 36-38. For a Mize roll held in a local collection see John Rylands Library, Tatten Ms. 345.

39. Domesday Survey of Cheshire, p. 155.40. ibid. p. 163.41. ibid, p. 155.42. A conclusion supported by Michelmore's work in West Yorkshire,

D.J.H. Michelmore, pp.2-3.43. M.Gelling, Signposts to the Past (1978), p. 191.44. See, 'Dorchester, V C H Oxfordshire. 7 (1962), p.52; 'Banbury', VCH

Oxfordshire, 10 (1972), p.6. For an example of a parish boundary being an estate boundary, see D.VV. Rollason, 'The date of the Parochial Boundary of Minster in Thanet', Arckaeologia Cantiama, 95 (1979), pp.7-17.

45. 1373. See G. Ormerod, History of Cheshire, 2nd ed. T. Helsby ed. 3, (1882), p.326; Wistaston achieved independence 1299 to 1300, ibid, p.334; Audlem is not recorded as having a priest in 1086, but is recorded as a parochial centre in the 1291 Ecclesiastical taxation, ibid, p.468.

46. Church Minshull was a parochial chapelry of Acton and possessed burial rights. It did not achieve full independent status, until the eighteenth century, ibid. pp.336-341; \Vrenbury was another parochial chapelry, the vicar of Acton retaining the right of the curacy until 1809, ibid, p.396; Baddiley does not appear as a parish in the 1291 taxation, and may have originated from a domestic hapel of the Praers family, ibid, p.458; Nantwich is named as a chapelry of Acton in the foundation charter of Combermere Abbey, c. 1133, see Dugdale, 5 p.323. Throughout the medieval period Nantwich is generally referred to as a chapelry.

47. Domesday Survey of Cheshire, p. 153.48. ibid, p.221.49. ibid, p. 155.50. J.McN. Dodgson The Place Names oj Cheshire, 3 (1971), p.101. A

hamlet in Newhall township. Aston is mentioned in Domesday. The township of Newhall straddles the parishes of Acton, Wrenbury and Audlem. If it is seen as a later amalgamation then the boundaries in this area make much more sense. The problem of why part of an estate centred on Acton included land in the unconnected parish of Audlem does not then arise.

51. VV. Dugdale. 5, p. 323.52. Dodgson, The Place Names of Cheshire, 3, pp.92-94.53. See arguments advanced in P.H. Sawyer 'Anglo-Saxon Settlement:

the Documentary Evidence', in T. Rowley ed. Anglo Saxon Settlement and the Landscape, British Archaeological Reports 6 (1974), pp. 108- 119 and P.H. Sawyer ed. Medieval Settlement, 2nd ed. (1979), pp. 1-8.

Nantwich: An Eleventh-Century Salt Town and its Origins 19

54. There are 6 detached portions of Baddiley in Burland township, C.R.O. EDT/77 (1841 Tithe Map). See also D.J.H. Midielmore, p.4.

55. Bu'lock, Pre Conquest Cheshire, 383-1066, p.67.56. See above n.23. For the burgeoning urbanism during the late Saxon

period, see C. Platt, The English Medieval Town (1976), p.24. For a specific town, see J.H. Williams, 'Northampton', Current Archaeology, 79 (1981), pp.250-254.

57. J. Mc.\. Dodgson. The Place Names of Cheshire, 2 (1970), p.238.58. I.A. Richmond arid O.G.S. Crawford, 'The British Section of the

Ravenna Cosmography', Archaeologia, 93 (1949), pp. 1-50, an identification followed by M. Gelling, Signposts to the Past, p.34.

59. J.D. Bestwick, 'Excavations at the Roman Settlement of Middlewich (Salinae) 1964 to 1974', Cheshire History Newsletter. 8, (1975). pp.8-9.

60. H. Cam, "Manerium cum Hundredo: the Hundred and the Hundredal Manor' in H. Cam, Liberties and Communities in Medieval England, (1944).

61. G.VV.S. Barrow, pp.117-138.62. D.J.H. Michelmore, pp.2-4.