Fed up with the Rain?
Spare a thought for Box in 1314, the wettest year ever when it rained
and rained.
It was a disaster that triggered The Great Famine over the following decade.
Alan Payne, February 2014
Left: photo of By Brook (Carol Payne)
Spare a thought for Box in 1314, the wettest year ever when it rained
and rained.
It was a disaster that triggered The Great Famine over the following decade.
Alan Payne, February 2014
Left: photo of By Brook (Carol Payne)
I keep hearing on the news that 2014 is the wettest February on record. But it is far from being the wettest year ever. By an amazing coincidence, that title belongs to a time exactly 700 years ago which dramatically affected life in the village.
By the 1300s the climate in Box was changing. Every year between 1260 and 1290 there were good harvests, but the warm period was ending, heralding the advent of the so-called Little Ice Age with colder winters and wetter summers. The downturn triggered a decade of disastrous, European-wide corn failures starting in 1315, which we now call the Great Famine.
The seriousness of the Great Famine can be seen from contemporary accounts in Winchester.[1] Conditions were wet in the winter of 1314; the hay did not dry, rivers and ponds overflowed. The grain harvest in 1315 was very poor with insufficient seed for planting in the autumn. Rain fell again that winter and the next summer; grain prices tripled; peasants sold their precious oxen; and starvation increased. The period of wet years continued for a decade and wet ground brought outbreaks of foot rot in animals, pests and plant disease.[2]
By the 1300s the climate in Box was changing. Every year between 1260 and 1290 there were good harvests, but the warm period was ending, heralding the advent of the so-called Little Ice Age with colder winters and wetter summers. The downturn triggered a decade of disastrous, European-wide corn failures starting in 1315, which we now call the Great Famine.
The seriousness of the Great Famine can be seen from contemporary accounts in Winchester.[1] Conditions were wet in the winter of 1314; the hay did not dry, rivers and ponds overflowed. The grain harvest in 1315 was very poor with insufficient seed for planting in the autumn. Rain fell again that winter and the next summer; grain prices tripled; peasants sold their precious oxen; and starvation increased. The period of wet years continued for a decade and wet ground brought outbreaks of foot rot in animals, pests and plant disease.[2]
Box was in Severe Economic Decline |
By the early 1300s, the village's economic growth which had lasted for a century was slowing down. Medieval Box didn’t experience a boom in cloth and sheep farming that other Wiltshire areas enjoyed. Nor was it a centre of trade, lacking a market approved by royal charter. It was rooted in the old manorial agricultural system and traditional land use. The Tax List of 1332 showed Wiltshire to be the fourth wealthiest county in England but Box was declining compared to other Wiltshire locations.[3]
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Box's taxable value in 1332 (excluding church land, cottagers and those under a certain level) amounted to £3.7s.11¾d. Box had grown less than neighbouring villages: less than Colerne which was valued at £4.17s.6¼d, and less than Bremhill, Corsham, Kington St Michael, Lacock and Nettleton.
There were signs that the economy was unsustainable. The economy was heading for the cliff edge even before the weather problems. There was a shortage of land at a time when too many people cultivated their daily food needs. Farming methods were inadequate to increase productivity and no more land was available. Box’s land area was unable to support its growing population, which was as large in 1348 as it was in 1700.[4]
This deteriorating situation wasn't sudden; it had existed for a century before the end of the feudal period. We can see how the national economy had moved on; in 1100 coinage in circulation was £37,500 but by 1320 this had increased to over £1 million.[5] But Box's feudal agricultural and administrative structures hadn't moved forward and there were no solutions to the problems that the weather had thrown up.
Ultimately the answer came with the Black Death of 1348. Let us hope that the rain of 2014 does not have the same dramatic results !!
There were signs that the economy was unsustainable. The economy was heading for the cliff edge even before the weather problems. There was a shortage of land at a time when too many people cultivated their daily food needs. Farming methods were inadequate to increase productivity and no more land was available. Box’s land area was unable to support its growing population, which was as large in 1348 as it was in 1700.[4]
This deteriorating situation wasn't sudden; it had existed for a century before the end of the feudal period. We can see how the national economy had moved on; in 1100 coinage in circulation was £37,500 but by 1320 this had increased to over £1 million.[5] But Box's feudal agricultural and administrative structures hadn't moved forward and there were no solutions to the problems that the weather had thrown up.
Ultimately the answer came with the Black Death of 1348. Let us hope that the rain of 2014 does not have the same dramatic results !!
References
[1] Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, Times of Feast, Times of Famine, 1972, George Allen & Unwin, p.46
[2] Christopher Dyer, Making a Living in the Middle Ages,2002, Yale University Press, p.229, 254
[3] Derek Parker and John Chandler, Wiltshire Churches: An Illustrated History, 1993, Alan Sutton, p.32
[4] Christopher Taylor’s commentary on WG Hoskins, The Making of the English Landscape, 1988, p.96
[5] Christopher Dyer, Making a Living in the Middle Ages, 2002, Yale University Press, p.101
[1] Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, Times of Feast, Times of Famine, 1972, George Allen & Unwin, p.46
[2] Christopher Dyer, Making a Living in the Middle Ages,2002, Yale University Press, p.229, 254
[3] Derek Parker and John Chandler, Wiltshire Churches: An Illustrated History, 1993, Alan Sutton, p.32
[4] Christopher Taylor’s commentary on WG Hoskins, The Making of the English Landscape, 1988, p.96
[5] Christopher Dyer, Making a Living in the Middle Ages, 2002, Yale University Press, p.101
