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Roche Abbey holdings: arable and pastoral land (4/7)
At the heart of the Cistercians’ land-economy was the creation of granges, agricultural centres managed by the lay-brothers, from which the land was cultivated and harvested, and livestock reared. The establishment of Roche’s granges was begun about thirty years after the foundation of the house - most of the other Northern houses started this process about twenty years after their foundation. Roche set up in total some sixteen or seventeen granges,(4) but this is only an approximate figure, for it is not always clear what was worked as a grange and, as already explained, we do not have a complete record of the abbey’s holdings. The granges were often at the centre of disputes, and there are several recorded instances of trouble at the abbot’s grange at Armthorpe, the most important of Roche’s possessions. In 1275 the abbot’s forrester of Armthorpe, John, shot an animal in the abbot’s wood, pursued the beast into a warren belonging to the earl of Warenne, and was imprisoned for a year at Conisbrough for trespass. The abbot’s granger, Richard, was also imprisoned but released upon the abbot’s payment of £40.(5) In 1284 the abbot of Roche complained that certain individuals, including the parson of Cudworth, had cut down his trees in the wood of Armthorpe and assaulted his men; in 1423 Abbot William accused Richard Wembrok of Armthorpe of cutting down his trees here and claimed £10 compensation.(6) There was conflict at Barnby grange in the mid-thirteenth century, when the granger and several of the monks were beaten and wounded. The three men accused of the assault twice failed to appear in court, and whilst the reason of their quarrel is not stated, it has been suggested this was over game.(7) |
