Medieval Box Vill Alan Payne September 2024
We all think we know what a village is but it is difficult to define: A clustered human settlement or community larger than a hamlet and smaller than a town .. often located in rural areas.[1] It is easier to list what villages aren’t – not an extended farmstead, nor a cluster of farms, nor a territory based on church or manorial organisation. A village often has a central heart, such as a crossroad, or a road frontage or a village green. It also needs a desire for communal self-identification: where we feel we belong.
Origins of the Vill
The concept of a vill (village) developed in the Anglo-Saxon period as a unit of land. Villata (translated as vill or village) was an area of administration covering residents who developed a community when the manorial area declined. The original purposes of the vill was to manage various local administrative functions: keeping the peace, implementing communal agricultural policy, and contributing militia soldiers to the county's and the country's war needs.
The vill was entirely separate from the lords' manorial areas (based on land ownership) and the parish area (based on church tithes). It was run by local worthies: wealthy virgate holders, the reeve, jurors, churchwardens, and the constable. As the lord's influence through the manorial court waned, these people took up responsibility for regulating local fields and co-ordinating agriculture.[2] By enforcing strict morality and conformity, the vill officials brought order to the administration of the local area.[3] After 1334 it was responsible for assessing and collecting local taxes.[4] The vill regulated the quality of ale and bread, woodland usage, crop rotation and roaming livestock. Control by elders was necessary because landholdings and communal grazing rights had become unduly complex by inheritance and the vagueness of local customs.
There is no such thing as the start of Box vill because it evolved naturally rather than by creation. Nor were the boundaries of the vill static. When properties became uninhabitable, houses were built on other sites expanding the settlement. We still see this at Ashley where the cluster of properties around Ashley Manor in the Allen maps has since been replaced by more roadside development. Spencer’s Farmhouse appears to be very old but it is possible that The Barton, set a right-angle to Ashley Lane, has earlier origins. Often house plots reveal much older sites and have remained more static than the actual buildings. We see this at The Old Jockey where the S-bend in the medieval ridgeway probably underlies earlier houses in this location. Sometimes even whole villages shifted location and Shockerwick, once part of Box, has now been transferred into the orbit of Bath.
Development of Box Vill as a Community
There are no documetary references to the vill in Box. Indeed, the word Box does not appear in the Domesday Book and first use of the name as Bocza is in 1144. But there are Domesday references to 5 villani (unfree peasants) in the main Hazelbury text and 2 at Ditteridge. It is likely that some of these people lived in properties grouped around the water mills which existed on the Box Brook. References to quarrying in the early Norman period also indicate collective initiatives at settlements grouped around the quarry areas. But there is no indication of a community nor of local, village administration in the feudal period.
After 1348 lay lords were not resident in Box for generations. It would be feasible to suggest that the communal Box vill extended its authority at that time. Communal decisions were constantly needed about crops, inheritance of commonland rights, and the settlement of disputes. It is probable that the community needed to act together taking the role of the lord’s agent (previously a leading tenant) and the manorial court (thereafter made of notable villeins). By the time of the Allen maps, control had shifted to these authorities from the lord of Box manor, who himself had moved out of central Box to Hazelbury Manor.
The concept of a vill (village) developed in the Anglo-Saxon period as a unit of land. Villata (translated as vill or village) was an area of administration covering residents who developed a community when the manorial area declined. The original purposes of the vill was to manage various local administrative functions: keeping the peace, implementing communal agricultural policy, and contributing militia soldiers to the county's and the country's war needs.
The vill was entirely separate from the lords' manorial areas (based on land ownership) and the parish area (based on church tithes). It was run by local worthies: wealthy virgate holders, the reeve, jurors, churchwardens, and the constable. As the lord's influence through the manorial court waned, these people took up responsibility for regulating local fields and co-ordinating agriculture.[2] By enforcing strict morality and conformity, the vill officials brought order to the administration of the local area.[3] After 1334 it was responsible for assessing and collecting local taxes.[4] The vill regulated the quality of ale and bread, woodland usage, crop rotation and roaming livestock. Control by elders was necessary because landholdings and communal grazing rights had become unduly complex by inheritance and the vagueness of local customs.
There is no such thing as the start of Box vill because it evolved naturally rather than by creation. Nor were the boundaries of the vill static. When properties became uninhabitable, houses were built on other sites expanding the settlement. We still see this at Ashley where the cluster of properties around Ashley Manor in the Allen maps has since been replaced by more roadside development. Spencer’s Farmhouse appears to be very old but it is possible that The Barton, set a right-angle to Ashley Lane, has earlier origins. Often house plots reveal much older sites and have remained more static than the actual buildings. We see this at The Old Jockey where the S-bend in the medieval ridgeway probably underlies earlier houses in this location. Sometimes even whole villages shifted location and Shockerwick, once part of Box, has now been transferred into the orbit of Bath.
Development of Box Vill as a Community
There are no documetary references to the vill in Box. Indeed, the word Box does not appear in the Domesday Book and first use of the name as Bocza is in 1144. But there are Domesday references to 5 villani (unfree peasants) in the main Hazelbury text and 2 at Ditteridge. It is likely that some of these people lived in properties grouped around the water mills which existed on the Box Brook. References to quarrying in the early Norman period also indicate collective initiatives at settlements grouped around the quarry areas. But there is no indication of a community nor of local, village administration in the feudal period.
After 1348 lay lords were not resident in Box for generations. It would be feasible to suggest that the communal Box vill extended its authority at that time. Communal decisions were constantly needed about crops, inheritance of commonland rights, and the settlement of disputes. It is probable that the community needed to act together taking the role of the lord’s agent (previously a leading tenant) and the manorial court (thereafter made of notable villeins). By the time of the Allen maps, control had shifted to these authorities from the lord of Box manor, who himself had moved out of central Box to Hazelbury Manor.
The Market Place area in Allen's 1626 map (courtesy Wiltshire History Centre)
Where Was the Court of the Vill?
There is no obvious location for the holding of the village court, although it is likely that a site would have been in central Box. The Allen maps of 1626 and 1630 show how few properties existed in the centre. Several larger buildings existed as isolated farmsteads in the hamlets, unlikely to be suitable as a regular court. The significant central residences in the early seventeenth century were around Box Church and in the Market Place. Outside of these residential areas were woodlands needed for timber and grazing of pigs and there was little development to the east and south of the present village because this area was all part of the communally-owned Box Fields.
The Allen maps show an unusual building to the west of the Manor House which appears to be described as WALL. This appears to be the village lockup for animals (the Pound). The Manor House shown on the map in 1626 was redeveloped by the Speke family in about 1602 and any earlier medieval property obliterated. It is possible that the court vill met in this earlier building.
There is no obvious location for the holding of the village court, although it is likely that a site would have been in central Box. The Allen maps of 1626 and 1630 show how few properties existed in the centre. Several larger buildings existed as isolated farmsteads in the hamlets, unlikely to be suitable as a regular court. The significant central residences in the early seventeenth century were around Box Church and in the Market Place. Outside of these residential areas were woodlands needed for timber and grazing of pigs and there was little development to the east and south of the present village because this area was all part of the communally-owned Box Fields.
The Allen maps show an unusual building to the west of the Manor House which appears to be described as WALL. This appears to be the village lockup for animals (the Pound). The Manor House shown on the map in 1626 was redeveloped by the Speke family in about 1602 and any earlier medieval property obliterated. It is possible that the court vill met in this earlier building.
The development around Box Church (courtesy Wiltshire History Centre)
Another possible building was Box Church itself, the only communal property in central Box, The area around Box Church on the Allen maps clearly shows the importance of this area with a grand church edifice and fields marked as owned by the vicar and a separate field and house owned by the parson to the east of the church. In upper rooms of the north aisle was the Church Ecclesiastical Court (now demolished). The responsibilities of the Church Court included marriage, wills, inheritances and, more than these aspects, the moral responsibility for individual misbehaviour and communal information.
There appear to be few private residential buildings in central Box capable of being the village court, Properties there were partly limited by flooding of the ByBrook where fields in the west were called Stickings (Stichnges) and to the east by Fogham (marshy, water meadows), In the south-east, housing was limited by the usage of Box Fields (common land) and to the south by The Leys (pasture land). In the north, the lord of the manor controlled the land with Home Farm and Horsemead. It is also possible that the location of the vill court was not a dedicated building. It could have been held in different private houses and that these changed as the principal tenant altered.
There appear to be few private residential buildings in central Box capable of being the village court, Properties there were partly limited by flooding of the ByBrook where fields in the west were called Stickings (Stichnges) and to the east by Fogham (marshy, water meadows), In the south-east, housing was limited by the usage of Box Fields (common land) and to the south by The Leys (pasture land). In the north, the lord of the manor controlled the land with Home Farm and Horsemead. It is also possible that the location of the vill court was not a dedicated building. It could have been held in different private houses and that these changed as the principal tenant altered.
These are the options for the location of the court of the vill. We do not know if there was a specific building in which the village authorities met, if they used local houses, the church or even the manorial court. If we were to speculate, there is a much-later reference in the 1840 Tithe Apportionment map (plot 187c, next to Miller’s on the High Street) was called Parish Pound owned by Box Parish Authorities. Could this be the location of the earlier village meeting place?
References
[1] Wikipedia, Village - Wikipedia
[4] Christopher Dyer, Everyday Life in Medieval England, 1994, p.4
[2] Christopher Dyer, Everyday Life in Medieval England, 1994, Hambledon Press, p.7
[3] John Hatcher, The Black Death, 2008, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, p.2-6
[1] Wikipedia, Village - Wikipedia
[4] Christopher Dyer, Everyday Life in Medieval England, 1994, p.4
[2] Christopher Dyer, Everyday Life in Medieval England, 1994, Hambledon Press, p.7
[3] John Hatcher, The Black Death, 2008, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, p.2-6