We left Barlick last week at the end of the 14th century in the middle of social change as the adjustments in the status of ordinary people following the disaster of the Black Death and subsequent revolt by the peasants bedded in. In Barlick we were lucky because the Manor was controlled by Kirkstall Abbey and you have to give the Cistercians their due, they knew how to manage estates and get the most profit out of them. We have evidence that one strategy they adopted was a shift away from the historical pattern where the Lord owned all the land and farmed it with peasants who were in truth, little better than serfs. They were tied to the manor and locked into the Chain of Being. Two things happened, a system of what we now call leases was introduced whereby a peasant was allowed to rent land from the Lord and pay an annual 'fine', what we now call rent. This was legal tenancy of land and if a peasant did well enough and the Lord agreed, it could be converted to ownership by paying a sale price. This is how what we now call the Yeoman Farmers developed. I suspect there was another factor, there was a long tradition of weaving woollen cloth for domestic use and any surplus could be sold to clothiers (cloth merchants), we know the trade existed as early as 1311 because we have evidence of fulling mills at Colne, Worston and Burnley in the Clitheroe Court Rolls and these were an essential part of a widespread, organised woollen cloth industry. This meant that many people had a supplementary income that gave a certain amount of independence, income and a cushion against bad harvest years. The evidence for this is that there were very few villages totally deserted after the Black Death in the cloth producing areas, this happened mainly in areas that relied solely on agriculture.
So, by the beginning of the 15th century we're fairly safe in assuming that Barlick was a fairly stable area, peasants enjoying their new status, some making money on the side from domestic textiles and a reasonably benevolent Lord. This doesn't mean everything in the garden was rosy! The 15th century was marred by the Wars of the Roses, the dynastic struggle that started in 1399 and ended at Bosworth in 1485 when Henry VII took the Crown and established the Tudor dynasty. We can't say how the Wars affected Barlick because we have no direct evidence. This is where we have to take a leap of faith. What we do know is that Henry VII was ruthless and quickly imposed new legal systems and tax-gathering on the country. In areas where there were powerful barons he found it expedient to allow them to retain control and once more, this may be where being owned by Kirkstall, apart from minor land sales to minor gentry, Barlick was not oppressed by a landed magnate. Barlick couldn't escape the new legal and tax systems but we have a clue that things weren't going too badly because we know that by the end of the century, pressure on land led to the 'improvement' of the lower parts of the common lands on the moor. This can only be for one reason, the population was rising and more cultivated land was needed to feed it, this is a good indicator for a village that was doing quite well thank you. I don't want to give the impression that it was some kind of Utopia, but in terms of the prevailing conditions of the time, all the evidence points to a community that was thriving.
As always, what I really want to get an impression of is what was everyday life like. Our problem is that we can't ask them and nobody was going round with a tape recorder getting direct evidence so we have to use our heads and plait sawdust. Time and time again we get clues in other areas that communications both in terms of travel and gathering of news, were far better than early historians thought. Young men went off to seek their fortune as soldiers, pack horse trains on the salt roads brought news and commercial contacts in the woollen trade produced intelligence. We can be certain that our old Barlickers were pretty well informed and that around the fireside at night there would be talk and discussion about what was happening in the kingdom. Remember that in terms of religion the Old Faith was still supreme, a Kirkstall monk was in charge at Gill and all Bible readings and services were in Latin. The words would be familiar to the congregation but very few could have had any idea what they meant, they were pure ritual designed for structure, not understanding or any kind of discussion, this was beyond the peasant's pay grade!
However, we have to step back here to the Wars of the Roses. New ideas were abroad, a man called John Wycliffe (1325-1384) was a protege of John of Gaunt and had some revolutionary views about religion and the role of the clergy. He thought the King should have full temporal power and not be subject to higher authority from the Pope. Clergy should not use their office to amass wealth but lead lives of poverty and service. He regarded the monasteries as sects and most important, believed that worship and the Bible should not be in Latin but in plain English. Between 1382 and 1395 he supervised an English version of the Bible based on the Latin text and by 1484 it is believed that Caxton was printing copies of this in Westminster. One year before this a man called Martin Luther was born in Eisleben, Germany.
Closer to home we have the evidence of the Rev. Evan R Lewis writing in 1893 (History of the Baptists in Barnoldswick. It's in the library) that in 1500 there were at least six families in Barlick branded as Dissenters, that is people who were in protest against the existing church. They were: The Mitchells; Higgins; Edmondsons; Hargreaves; Barretts and Greenwoods, all described themselves as Baptists. The fact that they had come to official notice so early means that their deviation must have started long before and even then, have been preceded by a long period of discussion and debate. We may not have direct evidence but I think we can be certain that those long chats round the fire at night were bearing fruit. Non-Conformism had surfaced in Barlick!
John Wycliffe, 1325-1384.
