The Evolution of an English Town Part 13

On the first page of the register dated 1704, the vicar, "M. James Musgrave," gives a list of "things belonging to the churich--a surplus, a Hud, a challis, a patton, tow-flaggons [these are of pewter and are kept in the church], a putter Dubler, a Tabill clorth, on napkin. A dubler for christening."

During this period the Duchy records show that Pickering Forest was still being robbed of its oaks, some of them being used to repair the defences of Scarborough Castle during the Civil War.

"Wee are informed that there were x.x.x^tie Trees or } thereaboutes cut downe in Newton dale within the } said fforest and carried to Scarbrough Castle by } 20 0 0"

Order from Sir Hugh Cholmley then Gouernor of } the same, to the value of }

Some of the other entries at the same time are given below.[1]

"Wee are informed that divers olde trees are cut downe } within the fforest of Pickeringe in a place called }lib.

Deepdale and h.e.l.ley Greene by Robert Pate by the } 6 0 0 Appointment of Mathew ffranke Esquire to the } value of }

Likewise wee are informed that John Ha.s.sell gent } hath cut downe diuers trees in Dalbye within the } 19 0 0 said fforest to the value of }

Wee are likewise informed that Beatrice Ha.s.sell widdow } hath cut downe diuers trees in Dalbye Hagges } 12 0 0 within the said fforest, to the value of }

Wee are likewise informed That seuerall Tennantes of } Goatland haue cut downe two hundred Trees and } more within the fforest in the North part of } 30 0 0 Newtondale and Gillwood to the value of }

And that Robert ffranke gent did take Composicions and summes of money of seuerall of the said Tennants of Goatland for the same wood.

And allso we are informed that there hath bene cut } downe Two hundred Trees in Haughe Hagge } within the said fforest, And that the said Trees were } l. s. d.

cut downe and Carried away by the poore people of } 40 0 0 Pickeringe in the yeares 1647 and 1648 to the } value of }

[Footnote 1: From a thin foolscap book containing, inter alia, the findings of the Juries of the Courts Leet, etc., in the possession of the Rev. Arthur Hill of Thornton-le-dale.]

From the same book we discover that

"George Grayson holdes by Copie of Court Roll one Cottage in Pickeringe and one Garth thereunto belonging, dated the 11th of Aprill 1659 And was admitted Tennant thereof by John Syms then Steward and paid ffine 0 0 4"

This is of considerable interest in view of the fact that the Grayson family are still tenants of the Duchy.

Tenants are mentioned as holding property in "Smiddiehill" and "Hungate Greene," and the entry given below is interesting on account of the mention of the market cross that has completely disappeared.

"Jane Moone widdow holdes one Messuage and one parcell of waste ground in Pickering neare to the Market Crosse and was admitted Tennant thereof by John Sym, now deputie Steward, by Copie dated the 22d of November 1659: And paid ffine for per Admittance ... 0 8 1"

Many of the small houses of Pickering must have been built at this time.

One near the castle gateway has a stone in the gable end bearing the initials E.C.W., and the date 1646, another with a thatched roof on the south side of Eastgate, dated 1677, is now fast going to ruin. The roofs were no doubt at that time chiefly covered with thatch, and the whole town must have been extremely picturesque. The stocks, the shambles, and the market cross stood in the centre of the town, and there were none of the unpleasant features that modern ideas, unchecked by a sense of fitness and proportion, bring in their wake.

The castle, we have seen, was in a far more perfect state than at the present time, but the church must have appeared much as it does to-day.

The circular wooden pulpit is Georgian, and thus the one that preceded it has disappeared. Two of the three bells that still hang in the tower bear the date 1638. The treble bell is inscribed "Praise the Lord," and sounds the note G sharp. The middle bell gives F sharp and the inscription is "Soli deo gloria." Hanging in the bellcote of the schools adjoining the church is the small bell dated 1632 that was removed from the Bruce Chapel in 1857 when the schools were built. Before that date children were taught in the Bruce Chapel.

In Archbishop Sharp's ma.n.u.scripts (page 106) preserved at Bishopthorpe there is a detailed account of the parish of Pickering. It is dated 1706, and is given under the heading of "Dean of York's Peculiars." There are numerous abbreviations, but the meaning is plain in most instances.

"_Pickering Vic. St Peter and St Paul_.

"1706. No Papist.

"A[nno] R[egni] Edw. I. 13. The Manor, Castle, Forest of Pickering were given to Edmund E. of Lancaster and so became thenceforward part of that Dutchy. The Church of Pickering was by Hen. I. given to the Deanery of York, w^th the soke thereof and all the chappells and t.i.thes belonging. It is let at the rent of 100 li.

"The Vicarage consists of a house &c. And the t.i.the Hay of Garths w^ch may yield 7 or 8 Load in a year to the vicar, and all the small t.i.thes of the Parish. Besides an augmentation of 20 li p an. made since the Restauration.

"This is a large parish in which are 2 Chappells neither of them endowed as the minister Mr Newton tells me, but he allows 5th to a neighboring minister to serve the one and the other he goes to himself. This vicarage, of the D^ns Collation is val in my B at 28 li. It is I hope worth 60 li [not above 40 K.B. 8. 3. 9. T 16-40b.] _The Deans Tenant pays 20 li of it._

"Within this Parish are the Towns of Newton upon Rocliff, Blansby Park, Kinthorp. Here also is Dereholm Grange and Loft Maress Grange. 1707. 41 (indistinct) John Pickering Vr.; 1715 Robert Hargreaves, Vicar; 1740 Sam^l Hill Vicar.

"1745. George Dodsworth.

"1706 Papists 9. S. D.

"The Chappell of Goteland. 1716 4 0 0

"Being distant above 8 miles from the Parish Church was by Dean Scot A.D. 1635 allowed the privilege of Sepulture for the inhab. Saveing to the Mother Church all its dues 1706 Certifyd by ye (indistinct) to the Dean to be worth 4 0 0 Arising out of Surplice Fees and Voluntary Contribution William Prowde, Curate 1722 Jonathan Robinson, Curate."

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Maypole on Sinnington Green. The centre of many village festivities in the past centuries.]

The country folk were in much the same state in regard to their morals and superst.i.tions as in the Georgian Era described in the next chapter, but it is of great interest to know that efforts towards improvement were being made as early as the year 1708. The following account given by Calvert of an attempt to stop the May dance at Sinnington would show either that these picturesque amus.e.m.e.nts were not so harmless as they appear at this distance, or else that the "Broad Brims" were unduly severe on the innocent pleasures of the time. The account is taken by Calvert "from one Nares book."

[Ill.u.s.tration: An inverted stone coffin of much earlier date used as a seventeenth century gravestone at Wykeham Abbey.]

"In the year 1708 there did come a great company of Broad Brims for to stop the May Dance about the pole at Sinnington, and others acting by concert did the like at Helmsley, Kirby Moorside and Slingsby, singing and praying they gat them round about the garland pole whilst yet the may Queen was not yet come but when those with flute and drum and dancers came near to crown the Queen the Broad Brims did pray and sing psalms and would not give way while at the finish up there was like for to be a sad end to the day but some of the Sinnington Bucks did join hands in a long chain and thus swept them clean from the pole. At Slingsby there was a great dordum of a fight, but for a great while the Broad Brims have set their faces against all manner of our enjoyment."

Fine examples of the carved oak cabinets, chests, and other pieces of furniture of this period still survive in some of the houses of Pickering.

The cabinets generally bear the date and the initials of the maker, and the I.B. to be seen on some of the finest pieces from this district are the initials of John Boyes of Pickering, whose work belongs chiefly to the time of William and Mary.

CHAPTER XI

_The Forest and Vale in Georgian Times, 1714 to 1837_

With the accession of King George the First in 1714 we commence a new section of the history of Pickering, a period notable in its latter years for the sweeping away to a very large extent of the superst.i.tions and heathen practices which had survived until the first quarter of the nineteenth century.

The town had probably altered very little in its general appearance since the time of the Restoration. Most of the roofs were thatched; the castle was probably more dismantled within the outer walls, but the church of the Georgian period must have been almost identically the same as during the century that preceded it, and as it remained until the restoration in 1879.

At the top of the market-place stood the stocks at the side of the old stone-built shambles that disappeared in 1857, having for many generations formed a background to the groups of buyers and sellers in the steep and picturesque street. We can people the scene with the quaint costumes of the eighteenth century; knee-breeches and long waistcoats are to be seen in every direction, the three-cornered hat and the wig tied with a black ribbon are worn by the better cla.s.ses. The wives and daughters of the squires and lesser gentry reflect in a modified form the fashions prevailing in London, and to be observed in actuality among the gay crowds that thronged the Spa at Scarborough, a.s.suming and discarding the hooped-petticoat according to the mode of the moment. We can see the farmers of the Vale and those from the lonely dales discussing the news of the week and reading the scarce and expensive newspapers that found their way to Pickering. How much they understood of the reasons for the great European wars and alliances it is not easy to say, but when the reports came of victories to the British armies, a.s.sisted although they may have been by paid allies, the patriotic feelings of these Yorkshiremen did not fail to manifest themselves in a heavier consumption of beer than usual.

We can hear the c.h.i.n.k of gla.s.ses and the rattle of pewter tankards in the cosy parlours of the "White Swan," the "George," and the rest; we can hear as the years go by the loud cheers raised for Marlborough, for Wolfe, for Nelson, or for Wellington, while overhead the church bells are ringing loudly in the old grey tower. These were the days of the highwaymen, and even as late as 1830 a postman was robbed near the moorland village of Lockton, on his way to Whitby. The driver of the mailcart at that time used to carry a large bra.s.s-mounted cavalry pistol, which was handed to him when he had mounted his box by one of the two old ladies who acted as the post-mistresses of Pickering. It is not much more than ten years since the death of Francis Gibson, a butcher of East Ayton, who was over a hundred years old and remembered the capture of the last highwayman who was known to carry on the old-time profession in the neighbourhood. He was tracked to an inn at East Ayton where he was found sleeping. Soon afterwards he found himself on the road to York, where he was hanged.

The road across Seamer Moor between Ayton and Scarborough was considered sufficiently dangerous for those who travelled late to carry firearms.

Thus we can see Mr Thomas Chandler of the Low Hall at West Ayton--a Justice of the Peace--having dined with some relations in Scarborough, returning at a late hour. The lights of his big swinging barouche drawn by a pair of fat chestnuts shine out on the white road; the country on either side is unenclosed, and masked men may appear out of the shadows at any moment. But if they are about they may have heard that Mr Chandler carries a loaded pistol ready for emergencies, for they always let him reach his house in safety.

To the simple peasants highwaymen were probably considered of small account in comparison to the apparitions that haunted many parts of the lonely country. Nearly every part of the moor had its own wraith or boggle, and the fear of these ghosts was so widespread that in many cases the clergy were induced to publicly lay them, after which were seen no more.

To record the advent of these strange beliefs is impossible, for who can tell how or when they originated? We can only describe them at the time of their destruction. Chaucer, writing in the fourteenth century, seemed to imagine that belief in elves and fairies had received its death-blow in his own time, for in "The Wife of Bath's Tale," he says--

"In tholde dayes of the Kyng Arthour, Of which that Britons speken greet honour, All was this land fulfild of farye.

The elf queene with hir joly compaignye Daunced ful ofte in many a greene mede.

This was the olde opinion as I rede,-- I speke of manye hundred yeres ago,-- But now kan no man se none elves mo, For now the grete charitee and prayeres Of lymtours, and othere hooly freres, That serchen every lond and every streem, As thikke as motes in the sonne beem,-- Blessynge halles, chambres, kichenes, boures, Citees, burghes, castels, hye toures Thropes, bernes, shipnes, dayeryes,-- This maketh that ther been no faryes."

Five hundred years, however, had to pa.s.s before the most implicit belief in hobs, wraiths, and boggles was to disappear, and even at the present day those who have intimate a.s.sociations with the population of the North Yorkshire moors know that traces of the old superst.i.tions still survive.