WAPENTAKES AND HUNDREDS
Posted: 22 Apr 2012, 08:58
WAPENTAKES AND HUNDREDS
Division of England into shires, used for the raising of taxes, was established by the Anglo Saxons on the basis of Celtic clan lands and refined into the county system of the Normans and Plantagenet Angevins. Wapentake is a local division of a shire or county in old English law; the term is used north of the Trent River [the Danelaw] for the territory called a Hundred in other parts of England. The name wapentake comes from weapon and take, an indication that it referred to an area organized primarily for military purposes.
Besides being divided into three Ridings, East, North and West (a Riding being derived from the Norse word “thriding,” meaning a third part) Yorkshire was further sub-divided into administrative areas called Wapentakes, the Danelaw equivalent of an Anglo-Saxon Hundred in most other counties. The word derived from an assembly or meeting place, usually at a cross-roads or near a river, where literally one's presence or a vote was taken by a show of weapons.
STAINCLIFFE WAPENTAKE
The following is taken from ‘The Place Names of the West Riding of Yorkshire. Part VI’ Published by the English Place Names Society [EPNS]. It’s fairly dense text but this is because it is written by academics who are experts in the field. Their criteria is that the evidence must be found in the documents. This leaves aside any speculation and means that what is written is as near as possible good evidence taken from prime sources. It can be trusted implicitly.
“Steinclif Uap' 1166 P, -wap' 1195, 1196 P, 1231 Ass 14d, Stainclive e. 13 Puds, (wap' de) Stainclif(f), -y- 13 Font, 1228 Rip, 1230 P, 1276 RH, 13o3 Aid, Pat et freq to 1471 Fount Pres, -cl' i26o Y1, -Clyf(f)e, -i- 1285 KI, 1303 KF, 1323 Ass 3, -clyve, -i- 1274 Puds, 1105 Y1, 1316 Pat, Staynil 1293 Y1, Stainhill 1295 Ipm.
The wapentake is named from a lost Staincliffe in Bank Newton 55 infra; in the twelfth century the wapentake met at Flasby (48 infra) which is some distance from Staincliffe (12 Font 376). The eastern division of the wapentake includes the upper parts of the valleys of the R. Aire (Airedale iv, 89 supra) and the R. Wharfe (Wharfedale v, 2 supra); this region is very hilly, largely characterised by the green hills and fells of the mountain limestone. There is extensive moorland on the higher ground of the Millstone Grit area which lies to the south and a certain amount of woodland in the valleys. The chief towns in this division are Keighley, Barnoldswick and Skipton. The wapentakes of East and West Staincliffe, lying in the north-west of the Riding on the Lancashire border, together form the district of Craven (infra), which was the name of a wapentake at the time of the DB survey, and East Staincliffe itself included the Honour of Skipton (Honor de Sciptone 1191 RBE, Honore de Skypton in Craven 1285 KI, etc., cf. Skipton 71 infra).
CRAVEN
Cravescire, Crave' 1086 DB, Crau-, Craven(a) 1134-52 Furn, a. 1152 YCh vii, 1154 Selby, c. 1187 Dugd v, 1198 Fount, 1214 CIR, 1218 Percy et passim to 1590 Camd, Cravana 1154 YCh 480, 1175 ib 359, Crau-, Cravene 1166 P, c. 1175 Font, 1202 FF et freq to c. 1416 Fount, Crafna c. 116o Richard of Hexham, Crawyn 1421 Y1, Cravyn 1457 FountBurs, Crayffyn 1537 Test vi. The name was that of a DB wapentake: apart from a group of four or five places in Lonsdale, including Melling, Hornby and Wennington in Lancashire and Thornton in Lonsdale, it corresponded approximately to the later wapentake of Staincliffe, at least to those parts east of the R. Ribble. It was also the name of an archdeaconry and a general regional name which at times formed an affix in many p.ns. like Stainton 55, Bolton 63, Skipton 71, and many other township names in East and West Staincliffe, but none west of the R. Ribble; Sawley 182 is the most westerly township so described. The exact limits of the area are not easy to determine but the eastern boundary between Great Whernside (V, 2 18 supra), Craven Well and Appletreewick Pasture (in Appletreewick vi, 78-9 infra), the R. Washburn (presumably near its source) and Addingham (57 infra) is detailed in 1307 Y1. Several other p.ns. containing the name Craven (Craven Sike v, 219 supra, Craven Wood 8, Craven Cross and Craven Moor 78 infra, Craven Laithe in Middop 172 infra, (Craven Bank & Ridge in Giggleswick 145, Cravenegate in Gisburn Forest 170, Cravens Wath f.n. in Ingleton 248, Craven's Way in Dent 255 infra, etc. and possibly Cranoe Hill 40 infra) are on or near the boundaries of this district. There is no evidence later than DB to show that it extended westward of the R. Ribble or north into Ewcross Wapentake.
The name is usually assumed to be of Celtic origin; in IPN 21 Ekwall suggests that it may be connected with Welsh craf 'garlic' and be similar to the Italian p.n. Cremona, which Holder 1158 associates also with Welsh craf, Irish creamh. The theory implies the lenition of Brit cram- to craf-, but there is no difficulty in this (cf. jackson 488 ff).”
So, what can we glean from this splendid evidence? First, that Craven was an earlier wapentake but by the time of DB [Domesday] the present division of East and West Staincliffe was introduced. The most usual reason for a revision like this is that the original area was too unwieldy and was split into two to make it more easily administered. As for Staincliffe. I am intrigued by the suggestion that this is named after a lost name in the Bank Newton/Stainton area. [There is a group of farm names between Bank Newton and West Marton; Little Stainton, Stainton Hall and Stainton House. The etymology of the name is almost certainly ‘stain’ (stone) and ‘ton’ (farmstead) – stony farmstead (the land is in a valley bottom and on boulder clay and does contain a lot of erratics) and nothing to do with the personal name ‘Stain’ which was the name of a person who is mentioned in DB as holding three carucates.]
The evidence for Staincliffe at Bank Newton is from Yorkshire charters, 1208, vii, p. 150. according to the same deed it was near Stainton. Etymology of the PN is most likely ‘steinn’ and ‘clif’ - Rock cliff’. This makes sense as the location of the lost Staincliffe is almost central to the two later wapentakes.
If Flasby was the original meeting point for east Staincliffe it was almost certainly the moot place for the earlier Craven. It seems strange to us nowadays to find that such an obscure place was so important but we must remember that the factors that dictated the location; distribution of population, ease of access dictated by topography, existing roads and tracks and defensible considerations, were totally different 1500 years ago when these divisions were put in place.
We can therefore place Barnoldswick firmly in the early wapentake of Craven and the later divisions of East and West Staincliffe. Indeed, if the lost Staincliffe at Bank Newton/Stainton was important enough to be used as the administrative name for the areas the Barnoldswick was very close to both the centre and the administrative core at Flasby.
SCG/19 August 2006
Division of England into shires, used for the raising of taxes, was established by the Anglo Saxons on the basis of Celtic clan lands and refined into the county system of the Normans and Plantagenet Angevins. Wapentake is a local division of a shire or county in old English law; the term is used north of the Trent River [the Danelaw] for the territory called a Hundred in other parts of England. The name wapentake comes from weapon and take, an indication that it referred to an area organized primarily for military purposes.
Besides being divided into three Ridings, East, North and West (a Riding being derived from the Norse word “thriding,” meaning a third part) Yorkshire was further sub-divided into administrative areas called Wapentakes, the Danelaw equivalent of an Anglo-Saxon Hundred in most other counties. The word derived from an assembly or meeting place, usually at a cross-roads or near a river, where literally one's presence or a vote was taken by a show of weapons.
STAINCLIFFE WAPENTAKE
The following is taken from ‘The Place Names of the West Riding of Yorkshire. Part VI’ Published by the English Place Names Society [EPNS]. It’s fairly dense text but this is because it is written by academics who are experts in the field. Their criteria is that the evidence must be found in the documents. This leaves aside any speculation and means that what is written is as near as possible good evidence taken from prime sources. It can be trusted implicitly.
“Steinclif Uap' 1166 P, -wap' 1195, 1196 P, 1231 Ass 14d, Stainclive e. 13 Puds, (wap' de) Stainclif(f), -y- 13 Font, 1228 Rip, 1230 P, 1276 RH, 13o3 Aid, Pat et freq to 1471 Fount Pres, -cl' i26o Y1, -Clyf(f)e, -i- 1285 KI, 1303 KF, 1323 Ass 3, -clyve, -i- 1274 Puds, 1105 Y1, 1316 Pat, Staynil 1293 Y1, Stainhill 1295 Ipm.
The wapentake is named from a lost Staincliffe in Bank Newton 55 infra; in the twelfth century the wapentake met at Flasby (48 infra) which is some distance from Staincliffe (12 Font 376). The eastern division of the wapentake includes the upper parts of the valleys of the R. Aire (Airedale iv, 89 supra) and the R. Wharfe (Wharfedale v, 2 supra); this region is very hilly, largely characterised by the green hills and fells of the mountain limestone. There is extensive moorland on the higher ground of the Millstone Grit area which lies to the south and a certain amount of woodland in the valleys. The chief towns in this division are Keighley, Barnoldswick and Skipton. The wapentakes of East and West Staincliffe, lying in the north-west of the Riding on the Lancashire border, together form the district of Craven (infra), which was the name of a wapentake at the time of the DB survey, and East Staincliffe itself included the Honour of Skipton (Honor de Sciptone 1191 RBE, Honore de Skypton in Craven 1285 KI, etc., cf. Skipton 71 infra).
CRAVEN
Cravescire, Crave' 1086 DB, Crau-, Craven(a) 1134-52 Furn, a. 1152 YCh vii, 1154 Selby, c. 1187 Dugd v, 1198 Fount, 1214 CIR, 1218 Percy et passim to 1590 Camd, Cravana 1154 YCh 480, 1175 ib 359, Crau-, Cravene 1166 P, c. 1175 Font, 1202 FF et freq to c. 1416 Fount, Crafna c. 116o Richard of Hexham, Crawyn 1421 Y1, Cravyn 1457 FountBurs, Crayffyn 1537 Test vi. The name was that of a DB wapentake: apart from a group of four or five places in Lonsdale, including Melling, Hornby and Wennington in Lancashire and Thornton in Lonsdale, it corresponded approximately to the later wapentake of Staincliffe, at least to those parts east of the R. Ribble. It was also the name of an archdeaconry and a general regional name which at times formed an affix in many p.ns. like Stainton 55, Bolton 63, Skipton 71, and many other township names in East and West Staincliffe, but none west of the R. Ribble; Sawley 182 is the most westerly township so described. The exact limits of the area are not easy to determine but the eastern boundary between Great Whernside (V, 2 18 supra), Craven Well and Appletreewick Pasture (in Appletreewick vi, 78-9 infra), the R. Washburn (presumably near its source) and Addingham (57 infra) is detailed in 1307 Y1. Several other p.ns. containing the name Craven (Craven Sike v, 219 supra, Craven Wood 8, Craven Cross and Craven Moor 78 infra, Craven Laithe in Middop 172 infra, (Craven Bank & Ridge in Giggleswick 145, Cravenegate in Gisburn Forest 170, Cravens Wath f.n. in Ingleton 248, Craven's Way in Dent 255 infra, etc. and possibly Cranoe Hill 40 infra) are on or near the boundaries of this district. There is no evidence later than DB to show that it extended westward of the R. Ribble or north into Ewcross Wapentake.
The name is usually assumed to be of Celtic origin; in IPN 21 Ekwall suggests that it may be connected with Welsh craf 'garlic' and be similar to the Italian p.n. Cremona, which Holder 1158 associates also with Welsh craf, Irish creamh. The theory implies the lenition of Brit cram- to craf-, but there is no difficulty in this (cf. jackson 488 ff).”
So, what can we glean from this splendid evidence? First, that Craven was an earlier wapentake but by the time of DB [Domesday] the present division of East and West Staincliffe was introduced. The most usual reason for a revision like this is that the original area was too unwieldy and was split into two to make it more easily administered. As for Staincliffe. I am intrigued by the suggestion that this is named after a lost name in the Bank Newton/Stainton area. [There is a group of farm names between Bank Newton and West Marton; Little Stainton, Stainton Hall and Stainton House. The etymology of the name is almost certainly ‘stain’ (stone) and ‘ton’ (farmstead) – stony farmstead (the land is in a valley bottom and on boulder clay and does contain a lot of erratics) and nothing to do with the personal name ‘Stain’ which was the name of a person who is mentioned in DB as holding three carucates.]
The evidence for Staincliffe at Bank Newton is from Yorkshire charters, 1208, vii, p. 150. according to the same deed it was near Stainton. Etymology of the PN is most likely ‘steinn’ and ‘clif’ - Rock cliff’. This makes sense as the location of the lost Staincliffe is almost central to the two later wapentakes.
If Flasby was the original meeting point for east Staincliffe it was almost certainly the moot place for the earlier Craven. It seems strange to us nowadays to find that such an obscure place was so important but we must remember that the factors that dictated the location; distribution of population, ease of access dictated by topography, existing roads and tracks and defensible considerations, were totally different 1500 years ago when these divisions were put in place.
We can therefore place Barnoldswick firmly in the early wapentake of Craven and the later divisions of East and West Staincliffe. Indeed, if the lost Staincliffe at Bank Newton/Stainton was important enough to be used as the administrative name for the areas the Barnoldswick was very close to both the centre and the administrative core at Flasby.
SCG/19 August 2006