We know that the grange was still operating in 1300 and almost certainly as a leasehold to a lay person as this was the easiest way for Kirkstall to manage the estate. However, these were troubled times. Famine, pestilence and the depredations of the Scots were so bad that Bolton Priory had to abandon the site at Bolton Abbey temporarily and major orders like Jervaux abandoned granges. Fountains Abbey appealed to the General Chapter at Citeaux for permission to cut their losses and abandon granges establishing independent villages in their place. After inspection this was allowed. Neighbouring Sawley Abbey complained about “The cruel and inhuman depredation of the goods of the monastery and the burning of its ‘places’ by the Scottish armies”.
Barlick was not immune to these threats but as far as we can tell survived, only to be hit after 1348 by the Black Death which killed between a third and half of the local population. This had another knock-on effect. Labour shortage meant that the whole management structure that supported the Manorial System was shattered. The cure Kirkstall adopted was to allow more holdings to be leased by the tenants and this created a new class of farmers who, in many cases, want on to become what we later term as ‘Yeoman Farmers’. There was also a new threat, the growth of the Domestic Textile industry meant that some cottagers, former serfs and peasants, had an independent source of income which Kirkstall couldn’t control.
All these factors combined and contributed to a weakening of Kirkstall’s absolute hold on the Manor which never recovered. This decline continued for almost 200 years during which sales and leases nibbled away at the Abbey’s holdings in Barlick but the grange seems to have survived under private tenancy. We know this because when, in September 1540 Kirkstall was dissolved, the remainder of their holdings in Barlick, described as “le halle demeynes” was farmed by Richard Banester by an indenture granted by the late abbot and convent. This was the end of the almost 400 year old history of the Barlick Grange. As near as we can tell its final shape was very much like the current Calf Hall Farm.
So there you are, you now know as much about Barlick Grange as I do, I have no doubt that other evidence will surface as I continue to dig into the history and when I do I’ll let you know. In future, if someone mentions a grange in Barlick you won’t be surprised!
One stray fact that I tripped over in the undergrowth explains a parallel matter that has puzzled me for years. I have come across farms called Craven Laithe, one at Appletreewick and another at Blacko. I learned that this is a common use of the word ‘laithe’ meaning barn and was applied to detached monastic properties, not run as granges but used for storing tributes and tithes for the mother house. The one at Blacko was almost certainly associated with Sawley Abbey.
The tithe barn at Bolton Priory today.
