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Feudal Landowners & Tenants

Medieval
1066 AD-16th century
33-16 generations ago

This period approximates with the feudal organisation of society. At the time of the Domesday Book in 1086, the Peak District was subdivided between large Royal estates and several powerful lords, and a large part of the region was within the Royal Forest of the Peak.

Finding Clues

Pilsbury castle was a Norman baron's stronghold

A number of castles were built in the Peak District. Peveril Castle at Castleton was the only one in the region built in stone and home to William Peveril, a bastard son of William the Conqueror. Pilsbury near Hartington was the home of the De Ferriers from the late 11th century until its abandonment in the 13th century when the family transferred to Hartington. There were also impressive stone halls such as Haddon, to the south of Bakewell, and Padley, near Hathersage.

Strip lynchets at Priestcliffe preserve part of the Medieval open field

The villages and strip fields of the more agriculturally fertile parts of the Peak District, on the limestone plateau and Derwent Valley, were extensive. These had been created before the Norman Conquest and continued to develop. Each village was surrounded by an open field which was divided into strips marked as ridges and furrows. Strips were allotted to commoners living in the village. They were used for arable crops in the summer and pasture in the winter. Beyond this were unenclosed heathland commons used for pasture and other common rights such as stone quarrying and peat cutting.

Edale is a typical landscape of dispersed farmsteads and hamlets

On the Staffordshire Moorlands and the Dark Peak there were dispersed farms and hamlets. There were usually no open fields associated with the farms but there were extensive common on the moorlands. Sheep farming was a significant part of the economy in these areas of dispersed farms while elsewhere arable and cattle were also important.

There may have also been small settlements carved out of moorland commons . One exists at Lawrence Field, Hathersage. A small enclosure dated to the 11th-12th centuries AD contains a long house, outbuilding and numerous clearance cairns and linear piles of cleared stone. It was surrounded by open common land. It is unknown whether this was a legitimate or illegal attempt at settlement on the common.

Communication and transport was undertaken via packhorse routes that were rights of way between major towns and markets. They were well-defined through farmland but usually branched into numerous lines on the moorland commons. These often survive today as eroded hollow-ways which can be seen snaking across the moors. Traditional goods included lead, millstones, agricultural produce, salt from Cheshire and industrial products such as sickles and scythes.

Walls preserve the Medieval layout of Cronkstone Grange

Monastic granges were established across the Peak District from the late 12th century onwards, but were particularly common on the higher parts of the limestone plateau. These lands were granted to religious houses by landowners who hoped to ease their passage into heaven by such gifts. Usually it was their least productive land that they granted.

From the 14th century onwards walls begin to enclose village open fields into strips

During the middle of the 14th century the Black Death, cattle pestilence and climatic deterioration had a grave impact on rural society. This caused the abandonment of some of the smaller villages and the shrinkage in size of others. Arable-based communal agriculture declined, as did cattle farming, while sheep farming became more important.

Open fields began to be enclosed in piecemeal fashion over time and associated with particular farms rather than farmed communally. The new walls often fossilized the pattern of communal strips, and are still a distinctive characteristic of the landscape around many villages on the limestone plateau today. Some land was emparked, taken out of tenant holding by the lord of the manor such as at Chatsworth Park and Haddon Fields.

Lead mining was the major industry of the region. Lead ore is found within limestone and much of the plateau is crossed by lead rakes, often several metres wide, extending up to hundreds of metres deep. Rakes often run across the landscape for several miles, sometimes discernible on the surface as a line of disturbed ground, including old shafts and waste hillocks. Much smelting took place on the East Moors on boles which utilised the natural updraught above valley sides and woodlands in the Derwent Valley for fuel. Two Medieval lead hearths have been excavated in the Upper Derwent. Some coal mining and quarrying also took place.

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