Emergence of Box Village Alan Payne Date
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 needs 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 Villages
The concept of a village developed entirely separately from the manorial structures. The villata (translated as vill or village) was an area of administration covering the people resident in the centre and scattered farmsteads in surrounding hamlets, which developed when the manor declined. The original purpose of the village was to keep the peace and contribute soldiers to the militia and after 1334 it was responsible for assessing and collecting taxes.[2]
The vill 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 agricultural co-ordination.[3] By strict morality and neighbourly intrusion, the officials of the vill brought order and conformity to the administration of the local area.[4] They 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 complex by inheritance and the vagueness of local customs.
There is no such thing as the start of Box village because it evolved naturally rather than by creation. Nor were the village boundaries static. When properties became uninhabitable, houses were built on other sites expanding the village and sometimes even whole villages shifted location. We still see this at Ashley where the cluster of properties around Ashley Manor in the Allen maps has now been replaced by roadside development.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.
Development of Box Village
There is conflicting evidence about a settlement in the Box valley at the time of Domesday. The word Box does not appear in the Domesday Book but we can assume that a group of properties did exist at the 2½ water mills which existed on the Box Brook. References to quarrying in the early Norman period indicate other settlements grouped around the quarry areas. We also have the first reference to the word Box (Bocza) occurs in 1144 but there is still no indication of a community and none of a local administration.
After 1348 lay lords were not resident in Box for generations. It would be feasible to suggest that the communal Box village developed at that time, when decision-making about crops, inheritance and disputes were resolved by the community acting together as the lord’s agent (usually a leading tenant) and as 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 the manor (who himself had moved out to Hazelbury). The Allen maps of 1626 and 1630 show how few properties existed in Box. Of those which are marked, many are isolated farmsteads in the hamlets. The significant residential developments are around Box Church, in the Market Place, and (to a lesser extent) around Ashley. There was little residential development to the east and south of the present Box Post Office because this area was all part of the communally-owned Box Field.
RISE of peasantry
The concept of a village developed entirely separately from the manorial structures. The villata (translated as vill or village) was an area of administration covering the people resident in the centre and scattered farmsteads in surrounding hamlets, which developed when the manor declined. The original purpose of the village was to keep the peace and contribute soldiers to the militia and after 1334 it was responsible for assessing and collecting taxes.[2]
The vill 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 agricultural co-ordination.[3] By strict morality and neighbourly intrusion, the officials of the vill brought order and conformity to the administration of the local area.[4] They 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 complex by inheritance and the vagueness of local customs.
There is no such thing as the start of Box village because it evolved naturally rather than by creation. Nor were the village boundaries static. When properties became uninhabitable, houses were built on other sites expanding the village and sometimes even whole villages shifted location. We still see this at Ashley where the cluster of properties around Ashley Manor in the Allen maps has now been replaced by 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.
Development of Box Village
There is conflicting evidence about a settlement in the Box valley at the time of Domesday. The word Box does not appear in the Domesday Book but we can assume that a group of properties did exist at the 2½ water mills which existed on the Box Brook. References to quarrying in the early Norman period indicate other settlements grouped around the quarry areas. We also have the first reference to the word Box (Bocza) occurs in 1144 but there is still no indication of a community and none of a local administration.
After 1348 lay lords were not resident in Box for generations. It would be feasible to suggest that the communal Box village developed at that time, when decision-making about crops, inheritance and disputes were resolved by the community acting together as the lord’s agent (usually a leading tenant) and as 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 the manor (who himself had moved out to Hazelbury). The Allen maps of 1626 and 1630 show how few properties existed in Box. Of those which are marked, many are isolated farmsteads in the hamlets. The significant residential developments are around Box Church, in the Market Place, and (to a lesser extent) around Ashley. There was little residential development to the east and south of the present Box Post Office because this area was all part of the communally-owned Box Field.
RISE of peasantry
The Market Place area in Allen's 1626 map (courtesy Wiltshire History Centre)
We can also see how restricted residential housing was in central Box from the field names surrounding those areas: to the east Box Fields, to the south The Leys, westwards Stickings (Stichnges) and Ash Mead, and in the north Home Farm and Horsemead. The houses themselves were sited away from the By Brook clear of the floodplain and the roads developed to service the houses. We can see the wetland areas in the fieldnames Stichnges, Fogham (marshy, water meadows). Outside these areas were woods needed for timber and grazing of pigs.
The settlements both sides of the Market Place look suspiciously like shops. The building next to the Manor House is large and appears to be described as WALL. It is possible but unproven that this was the site of the village lockup for animals (The Pound) or for people (The Blind House).
The settlements both sides of the Market Place look suspiciously like shops. The building next to the Manor House is large and appears to be described as WALL. It is possible but unproven that this was the site of the village lockup for animals (The Pound) or for people (The Blind House).
The development around Box Church (courtesy Wiltshire History Centre)
The area around Box Church 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 cmmunal information. There are several buildings in this area, many apparently houses but not surrounded by their own land and possibly specialist artisan cottages. Both the importance of common worship and existence of non-farming service areas also centralised this area for those living in the hamlets.
The properties in the hamlets are clearly different to the central areas with individual cottages set in their own grounds and several fields with strip lynches carved out of enclosed land. The lynches are just visible on the left of the map of Ashley and the red dots seem to imply communal grazing land. But Ashley had no church, no consecrated burial ground and no history of administration like the Church Court, other than the manorial court.
The road system also focussed the centre of Box as an administrative location. The area around the Manor House was central to the east-west route from the Box Common Fields to Ashley Lane and approximately at the crossroads of the north-south road we call Mill Lane and going up to Middlehill and the Fosse Way and south to Chapel Plaister and the medieval ridgeway road. Several tracks lead from Kingsdown to the central village for this purpose. These routes offered access to markets in local towns and animal markets vital for the survival of medieval villages.
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. However, there is a reference in the 1840 Tithe Apportionment map (marked in red) to 187c (next to Miller’s on the High Street) was called Parish Pound owned by Box Parish Authorities. Could the village meeting place be around this area?
The road system also focussed the centre of Box as an administrative location. The area around the Manor House was central to the east-west route from the Box Common Fields to Ashley Lane and approximately at the crossroads of the north-south road we call Mill Lane and going up to Middlehill and the Fosse Way and south to Chapel Plaister and the medieval ridgeway road. Several tracks lead from Kingsdown to the central village for this purpose. These routes offered access to markets in local towns and animal markets vital for the survival of medieval villages.
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. However, there is a reference in the 1840 Tithe Apportionment map (marked in red) to 187c (next to Miller’s on the High Street) was called Parish Pound owned by Box Parish Authorities. Could the village meeting place be around this area?
References
[1] Wikipedia, Village - Wikipedia
[2] Christopher Dyer, Everyday Life in Medieval England, 1994, p.4
[3] Christopher Dyer, Everyday Life in Medieval England, 1994, Hambledon Press, p.7
[4] John Hatcher, The Black Death, 2008, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, p.2-6
[1] Wikipedia, Village - Wikipedia
[2] Christopher Dyer, Everyday Life in Medieval England, 1994, p.4
[3] Christopher Dyer, Everyday Life in Medieval England, 1994, Hambledon Press, p.7
[4] John Hatcher, The Black Death, 2008, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, p.2-6