Turnastone Court Farm Historic Landscape Conservation Plan

Turnastone Court Farm Historic Landscape Conservation Plan

Final Report. March 2005 Prepared by David Lovelace

Contents:

SectionPage

1. Introduction and acknowledgements 2

2.History3

2.1 Medieval history3

2.2 The manor and lands of Turnastone 5

2.3Elizabethan Period and the value of aftermath grazing 5

2.4 Rowland Vaughan, ‘His Booke’ and the earth works7

2.5Poston and Turnastone from Stuart times to the 20th century10

2.6Turnastone and the agricultural context 1800 – 197111

3Grasslands of Turnastone Court Farm17

4 Invertebrates18

5Hedgerows19

6Woodland, wood pasture and field trees21

7Recommendations22

8Further work on the history of Turnastone and Dore Valley24

9.Future Development of Turnastone Court25

10. Details and costings of proposed capital works26

10.1 Hedgerow management, gates and pollarding trees26

10.2 Stabilisation of in-stream historic structures31

10.3 Archaeological investigation33

10.4 Buildings33

11.Revenue options in CSS and Higher Level Stewardship34

Appendix 1 Botanical list for Turnastone Court Farm meadows36

Appendix 2 Moth and Butterfly records44

Appendix 3 Birds recorded 2003 and 200448

Appendix 4 Mammals50

Figure 1Agricultural returns for Dore valley parishes 1901 to 1971 15

Table 1 Farm holdings and livestock densities for16

Figure 2Tree and shrub species composition of the hedges20

Report images are in a file separate from the text for ease of electronic transferTurnastone Court Farm Historic Landscape Conservation Plan

Final Report. March 2005

1. Introduction and acknowledgements

The Historic Landscape Conservation Plan for the 250 acre Turnastone Court Farm was commissioned by the Countryside Restoration Trust (CRT) which purchased the farm in 2003, the objective of which in the first instance was the protection of the farm’s integrity. The CRT wishes to determine the historic, cultural and ecological characteristics of the farm so they can be interpreted, maintained, enhanced or restored. These assets have been created by many centuries of farming and only as a successful working farm can they be sustained and restored in the long term.

This report draws upon the work of those who have come together to draw out the essential historical, ecological and landscape factors that make Turnastone Court farm a special place. This report is to be read in conjunction with the following:

Turnastone Court, Herefordshire, Survey Report by English Heritage. October 2004.

Historical Landscape Management Plan July 2004 second draft by Peter and Cathy Stearne, Green Mark International (GMI).

Turnastone Court Walkover Survey. July 2004 by Archenfield Archaeology

Building Recording of the Farm Buildings at Turnastone Court July 2004 by Archenfield Archaeology

Botanical Survey Report of the Grasslands of Turnastone Court by Alan Foulds

Many people to have contributed to this effort which is part of a longer journey of exploration, interpretation and appreciation of the Dore Valley countryside of which Turnastone Court farm is but a part. Thanks therefore to the Countryside Restoration Trust for saving this farm by outright purchase, a enormous commitment of capital, human energy and trust. To Robert and Chrissy Fraser, the farm’s tenants, who have patiently put up with the presence of many people surveying and studying the land. To members of the Golden Valley History Group who originally highlighted the importance of the farm, who have been researching the history of the Dore valley and its connections with the famous Rowland Vaughan over a number years. To Ian Hart whose personal energy and commitment was crucial to securing Turnastone Court farm and who has continued to supply species data and historical information. To Kathy and Peter Stearne our consultants on the water meadows who are national experts on their history and practical management, Kathy being England’s only female ‘drowner’. To Hugh Sherlock our archaeologist and his team at Archenfield Archaeology, to Neil Rimmington of Herefordshire Archaeology, to English Heritage who gave Turnastone Court a high priority to deploy their surveying resources and experience . To Alan Foulds, Rebecca Collins, Steve Coney and Jeff Rush for their reports on the grassland, mammals, birds and moths respectively.

DEFRA field numbers image page 9 and hedgerow numbering image page 10.

2. History

2.1 Medieval Period

The Dore valley was near the western boundary of Archenfield, the semi-autonomous former Welsh province of Ergyng[1]believed to have originated from the Romano-British kingdom of Ariconium. Archenfield’s strategic location at the time of the conquest may explain why Domesday descriptions of its manors are even more terse than usual. Turnastone appears not to be mentioned in the Herefordshire Domesday survey unlike the neighbouring manors of Chanstone (Elnodestone, 3 hides[2]) and Poston (Poscetenetune, 2 hides). The oddly named manor of Wlvetone (2 hides, waste) has been considered[3] a candidate for Turnastone but the most recent edition of Herefordshire Domesday[4] places it near Lyonshall (a village 20km north of Turnastone near Kington). This is almost certainly a confusion with the nearby, and now deserted, settlement of the same name, a sub-manor of Peterchurch at SO356391. Both are historically spelt ‘Linhales’.

Examinations of Inquisitions Post Mortem (IPMs) and other surveys for the 13th and 14th centuries reveal Turnastone as a small active manor with a continuity of possession by the Dansey family.

In 1250 ‘Richard de Anesy alias Danaseye’ held ‘Turneyston’ manor ‘with Linhales pertaining thereto’. The field at SO361389 named ‘Crackadansey’ appears on the 1840 tithe apportionment 500m east of Lyonshall. De Anesy held these manors from Roger de Chandos to whom he owed the following service: “When there shall be a war with Wales, supply 2 footmen, one with a lance and the other with a bow and arrows for 40 days at Snodhull”. Snodhill castle is 6km up the Dore valley from Turnastone. In 1252 there was a dispute between Walter Ragun (whose family was associated with Chanstone) and Walter of Kingston about the possession of a holding in Turnaston[5]. The ‘Book of Fees’ provides that first known mention of land in Turnastone recording that its then sub-tenant Roger Ragun was evicted from half of hide of land there (about 20 hectares). This entry is dated c1250.

In 1315 an IPM of ‘Richard son of Richard Dansy’ listed the manors of ‘Turneston and Lynhales’: which recorded a messuage, 80a arable, 2a meadow, a watermill, 3a of underwood and 23s rent (from sub tenants) held from Roger de Chandos with service of ½ knights fee.

In 1322 Turnastone is listed as one of the Herefordshire manors held by Roger Mortimer of Chirk, uncle to the more famous Roger Mortimer of Wigmore[6]. In this year both Mortimers were imprisoned in the Tower of London their estates having been seized and assessed by the exchequer. Translation[7] of the original survey dated 1322 (PRO SC6/1145) shows that Turnastone had 3 acres of meadow, 1 acre of pasture, 50 acres of arable let to tenants[8], 20 acres of pasture on fallow land, 3s from a water mill and 2s 12d from the fruit and grazing of orchards. Pasture often appears to occupy little or no land in surveys of this period. The contemporary survey of Mortimer’s Wigmore estates in reference (8) reveals that this may be due to ancient grazing rights on nearby hill and marginal land so does not appear as direct income to the lord. This may well be the case for the Dore valley manors (see discussion regarding wood pasture 6.1 below).

The 1348 IPM of Richard Dansey includes the manor of Turnastone (on its own this time) with a messuage, 100 acres land, 3 acres of meadow, 1 acre of wood and 20s rent. The Dansey family also owned two manors in Wiltshire where a Richard “de Daunteseye” is recorded as supplying the crown with wool from those manors (Calendar of Charter Rolls 1341). We know that the wool trade was a lucrative part of the rural economy at this time and wool from the Dore valley was highly prized. It was an important part of the income of Dore Abbey (6km down the valley) which controlled large areas of sheep grazing through its granges (e.g. nearby Morehampton) and extensive areas of surrounding upland pasture[9]. It is thus likely that pasture in Dore valley granges and other manors such as Turnastone was producing wool for tenants such as the Danseys.

Walter Dansey’s IPM of 1370 included “Turneston and Cheyneston (Chanstone)”: a messuage and 2 carucates (approximately 80 hectares) of land held from Thomas Chandos lord of Snodhull and rent of 40s a year from his tenants. At Chanstone 20 acres of land were held from John Ragoun. Dansey’s sisters were his heirs, so with no male inheritors the Dansey name ceases to be further associated with Turnastone although they remain at Kingstone about 7 km to the east.

40 years later in 1411[10] there is grant of the charter of “the manors of Puston and Turneyeston” to John ap Harry and his wife Elizabeth. One of the witnesses includes Thomas Dansey of Kingstone. This is probably the first documentary reference to the ap Harry family’s association with Poston and Turnastone. John ap Harry[11]’s descendants continued to hold Poston manor including Turnastone Manor which includes that part of what is now Turnastone Court Farm in Turnastone Parish until 1635.

2.2 The manor and lands of Turnastone[12]

The land of the ‘manor of Turnastone’ was distinct from the ‘lands of Turnastone’ which were left by Miles ap Harry the grandson of John ap Harry’s younger brother Gruffydd . Miles ap Harry died in 1488 leaving a large estate including “my lands and tenements in the fees of Turnastone and Vowchurch”. Miles’s great grandson Symond ap Harry died c1574 and left “my mansion house & lands in Vowchurch, Turnastone, St Margaret’s & Bacton” to his daughter Jane and son-in-law Griffith Jones. The mansion house in question was ‘The Moor’ Vowchurch which was later renamed ‘Whitehouse’ around 1600. So it is that these ‘lands in Turnastone’ are probably those in Turnastone parish which became part the Whitehouse estate, and what are now the land of Dolward and Cothill farms. The field ownership details given in the 1840 tithe survey preserved this separation of ownership as all the fields of the present day Turnastone Court Farm in Turnastone parish[13] were part of Poston Manor. Documents subsequent to the 15th century, which referred to the ‘manor of Poston’ or land therein, therefore included the smaller and, henceforth subsumed, manor of Turnastone.

The present day Turnastone Court Farm occupies the land of this manor of Turnastone but not the ‘lands of Turnastone’. In 1840 it was farmed by John Probert and included, as now, Weeths Meadow and Weeths Orles in Vowchurch even though they were in different ownership (Newton Dickinson, the principle land owner in Vowchurch and Turnastone including Chanstone farm, Chanstone Mill, Sherger farm, Poston farm, Poston Mill and Hill Farm). The lands of present day Turnastone Court farm in Turnastone parish were owned by Dame Eliza Gratwiche Boughton.

2.3 Elizabethan Period and the value of aftermath grazing.

In September 1587 James Parry (4x great grandson of the above John ap Harry), from a debtors’ prison, obtains a writ to remove his own wife Joan and all her tenants from Poston so that he might benefit from the revenue. The writ was revoked early the following year leaving the tenants to claim damages for loss of access to their agreement land from late summer to the new year which of course included the aftermath grass keep. The chancery depositions[14] of witness statements give an insight into Elizabethan farming at Poston and Turnastone.

Thomas Phee aged 48 and yeoman of Peterchurch was one of Joan Parry’s agents (it was customary for witness statements to be in the third person): “all her tenants in his knowledge were likewise expulsed & lost their later math grass & profits of the mill of Poston and further he says that the said Mrs Parry left behind her in the barn of Poston at the time of her expulsion about five bushels of oats, two loads of hay and certain loads of straw the which one Watkyn Morgan servant to the said James Parry took to his master’s use and further where Mrs Parry had set certain pastures to one Mr. Willyson about the time of her expulsion the said sheriff’s men finding the cattle of the said Mr. Willyson grazing upon the said pasture drove the same cattle & impounded them in this deponents fold”. (Spelling is changed to modern form.)

Griffith Jones of Monnington labourer of 30 years: “the then sheriff of the county of Herefordshire by virtue of such a writ shortly after Michelmas in the 29th year of the Queen’s reign did expulse the said Mrs Parry out of the said Manor of Poston & Tregoydyvor & that she & all her tenants lost the later math of Turnastones Meadows and other commodities they might have had if they might have enjoyed the premises accordingly for the whole year…”. Turnastone Meadow was the long meadow bordering the River Dore just north of Turnastone church (SO356368) on the 1840 tithe map. Since these hedges appear recent “Turnastones Meadows” in Elizabeth’s time may have referred to all the meadow land north of the church between the Dore and Trench Royal.

The value of the aftermath grazing along the Dore valley is explained by Walter Daunce, Yeoman, of Madley “… all her tenants were expulsed and lost their later math, grass and pasture growing upon the premises the later part of the said year and he says that he took that year the pasture of the Brick Close (SO353371 and next to Turnerstone’s Meadows) and Crabbe Meadow of Mrs Parry for that year for £? [parchment is damaged otherwise we would have a value per acre] rent for himself and his friends and they enjoyed the same the Whitsun week and they had no more grazing there upon the Crabbe Meadow but the Whitsun week only and for the Brick Close he thinks that Mr Willyson being his co-partner enjoyed the same a fortnight long and further this witness says that they spared the same pastures for a second spring by reason thereof there was upon the same pasture as good grass being a second spring as was at the first but before this witness and his co-partners could have the benefit of the said second spring where upon they detained from Mrs Parry some of the rent..”

Details of the physical act of removal were graphically described by James Prosser of Arcteston a 29 year old labourer; “…that Richard Bridges and Anthony Burne esquires (about one day before the said sheriff came to Poston to remove Mrs Parry) coming thither to Poston they came into the barn of Poston where this witness was threshing oats for Mrs Parry, and turned him out of the barn forbidding him to thresh there any more and this witness went and told his mistress thereof, who caused him to go into the barn again to thresh and to shoot the doors fast upon him at which time one Watkyn Morgan, James Parry’s man, sent for Bridges and Burne from the house of Robert Vaughan esquire where they were at dinner to come again to expulse this witness out of the barn who came and sent he thither and Watkyn Morgan breaking open the doors before them did let them in to this witness who was then and there by them beaten and the said Bridges with a wan that he had in his hand gave him such a blow upon his head that there remained the print of it a fortnight after. And throwing the corn that he had threshed from the floor to the moat expulsed this witness…”.

The main conclusions from this document concerning the lands at Turnastone in the years just before Rowland Vaughan had control of Poston and Turnastone are:

(1) Aftermath grazing on meadows along the Dore was considered a valuable commodity and was claimed to be as good as the first seasons growth. Tenants were prepared to come some distance to have the tenancy of the fields and to pasture their stock (e.g. Monnington on the north side of the river Wye).

(2) Land at Poston (including, of course, the manor of Turnastone) was let on a year by year basis, the tenants being a wide variety of people from yeomen to labourers and this seems to have been a well established practice and part of the local farming scene.

(3) There is no mention of water management.

The importance of the conclusions (1) and (2) relates to the question of what were the incentives for capital works to improve productivity on the land of the Dore valley (at least the Poston/Turnastone part of it) that was already sufficiently productive to attract a wide range of tenants.

As to (3) it may be that some form of water management of the meadows was such common practice so that it was not considered worthy of comment (see GMI 2004). A century later meadow land at Poston manor was still worth 4 times per acre more than arable (see 2.5 below) the same ratio as in the 14th century (see footnote 8).

However such a violent ‘take over’ of an estate, which included the physical ejection or threat to tenants and livestock, might also have interrupted the essential work of maintaining any system of water management either directly or because there ceased to be an incentive by the ejected beneficiaries. One may have excepted some comment from the witnesses about this (there are over 10 witnesses and their statements fill over 7 sides of parchment).