©Bryan Phillips Nov 2024

This passage examines the carrying and carting services owed by tenants to Milton Abbey in the early 14th century, highlighting their importance in the medieval economy and the burdens they placed on peasants.

Key points:

• Prevalence of Carrying Services: Large estates, including Milton Abbey with its 13 manors, relied on tenants to transport food and goods, as outlined in detail in custumals. These services likely predated the Norman Conquest.
• Methods of Transport: Carrying could be done on foot, by packhorse, or by cart pulled by oxen or horses.
• Lord’s Travel vs. Monastic Stability: While lay lords often visited their manors and consumed resources there, abbots of large monasteries like Milton were less likely to travel frequently, necessitating the transport of goods to the abbey.
• Efficiency of Nearby Manors: Manors closest to the lord’s residence or the abbey were likely the primary suppliers of bulk foodstuffs.
• Increasing Definition and Potential Resistance: As carrying services became more defined in written records (mostly in the 13th century on monastic estates), peasants may have become less willing to perform these onerous tasks that took them away from their own work.
• Carting Hazards: Carting was a dangerous occupation with risks of broken carts and injuries.
• Significant Labor Demands: Abbeys like Bury St Edmunds could demand hundreds of carrying services weekly from their tenants.
• Milton Abbey’s Transport Needs: Produce from Milton Abbey’s outlying manors, especially grain for the tithe barn and salt from Ower, would have been transported to the abbey, likely by cart or packhorse, given the lack of a navigable river. Salted fish was also likely transported.
• Limited Mention in Milton Abbey Custumal: While the custumal doesn’t detail carrying services, the presence of “Fishway Hill” suggests the transport of fish, likely salted.
• Lay Lords Also Demanded Services: Many lay lords also required tenants to carry goods to market.
• Burden on Villeins: Carrying services demanded the villeins’ time, their own carts, animals, and their upkeep.
• Carting to Local Markets: Grain was often carted to specified local markets within the county.
• Onerous Examples: Some lords, like Alice la Blunde, demanded very frequent and long-distance carrying services.
• Varied Levels of Service: Not all tenants owed carrying services, and the level varied by landholding. Cottars often performed carrying on foot.
• Villein Interaction and Road Maintenance: Carrying brought villeins into contact with others and necessitated maintaining roads.
• Resistance and Decline of Services: Despite legal obligations, villeins often refused carrying services, and the labor shortage after the Black Death made enforcement difficult, leading to commutation for cash or abandonment of these customs.
• Examples from Other Estates: Custumals from the Archbishop of Canterbury’s and Bishop of Chichester’s estates illustrate the diverse and specific carrying services required, including transporting dung, hay, venison, hurdles, writs, letters, fowls, eggs, brushwood, sand, timber, and even wine. Some cottars received perquisites for short carrying services.
• Methods of Carrying: In the early 14th century, options included carrying by foot, packhorse, or cart (pulled by oxen or horses), each with advantages and disadvantages.
• Oxen vs. Horses: Oxen could pull heavier loads, were cheaper to feed and control, and their meat was edible. Horses were faster but their meat was taboo.
• Milton Abbey’s Use of Animals: The Milton Abbey custumal mentions horses for harrowing and as packhorses, but only oxen for pulling carts.
• Regional Variations: Horses were increasingly used for ploughing and carting in East Anglia, but oxen remained dominant in the west country. Sleds were rarely used for carrying.
• Efficiency of Packhorses vs. Carts: Packhorses were less efficient for large quantities but better for small, perishable goods.
• Packhorse Equipment: Packhorse equipment was often primitive, involving a horse and sack.
• Riding Services: The Glastonbury Abbey custumal mentions riding services.
• Limited Information on Animal Proportions at Milton Abbey: The Milton Abbey custumal mentions oxen far more frequently than horses.
• Decline of Horse Use for Heavy Carting: By this time, ox teams were mostly used for heavy loads like stone and timber, with carting replacing pack animals.
• Carrying Beyond the Manor: Some tenants were required to perform packhorse carrying to locations far from their home manor.
• Load Limits for Packhorses: More realistic load limits for packhorses are sometimes specified in custumals.
• Primitive Packhorse Equipment: Early 14th-century packhorse equipment was basic.

Introduction

By the early fourteenth century many large estates contained some 12 to 20 manors, generally across two or three counties.(Gras 1926, 4) Milton Abbey would certainly fit in with this, with 13 manors in Dorset, though one, Stockland, was transferred to Devon in 1844. This typical arrangement where the manors had to provide food for the lord and his household ensured that there was plenty of carting and carrying to be done, and the custumal demonstrates these services which villeins had to perform, sometimes in great detail. Carrying could be by foot, packhorse or cart, the cart pulled by ox or horse. These customary carrying services probably originated before the Norman Conquest,(Gras 1926, 4) and the carrying services for the peripatetic medieval kings are given in Domesday Book. Of course, the lord and his household often visited his outlying manors and consumed the food there. This was probably not often the case with the abbot of Milton Abbey or other similar Benedictine estates who was far too important and busy with both religious and political matters, his tenants would not have seem him frequently and if he did appear it would be a great occasion for celebration and blessings. Also if the abbot travelled there were still many monks and the abbey servants left at the monastery who still needed feeding. For efficiency it can be assumed that the nearest manors would have been most used to supply high volume foodstuffs, and this has been shown to be the case of St Paul’s, London which received grain from its manors in Middlesex, Surrey, Hertfordshire and Essex.(Gras 1926, 5) We will examine the carrying services of the Milton Abbey outlying manors to see if this applies here too.

As the carting and carrying services developed and were more precisely defined in the written records of the custumals, mostly during the thirteenth century, and mostly on monastic estates, the peasants probably became more dilatory in performing them because they were onerous and took the peasant away from his home and his land.(Postles 1984, 2) Carrying to the local market also became more prominent in this period, especially for the lord’s grain as the number of markets increased.(Postles 1984, 4) What we do not know is the proportion of carrying that the peasants did for themselves and that which they had to perform for the abbot. Carting was a hazardous occupation as the carts suffered broken wheels and axles and there were many falls during loading and loading and always the danger of being crushed by the cart wheels especially going up or downhill. Many days were spent on carting services, for example at Bury St Edmunds in 1322 that Abbey could exact 616 carryings each Saturday from fourteen customary tenants holding a virgate and 506 carryings from another twenty-three half-virgate holders.(Postles 1984, 10)

Milton Abbey was typical of the larger conventual houses, having been granted several scattered estates. Some of the produce of these estates would be carried to the Abbey, not least the grain crops to be stored in the great tithe barn until the Dissolution put an end to that. Milton Abbey tithe barn was converted into stables used by Lord Milton after he bought the estate in 1852, although maybe the barn had been converted long before. The Tregonwells were using it is as a barn in 1575 when the ‘Battle of the Barn’ was recorded between Lady Elizabeth Tregonwell and her grandson, another John Tregonwell. To see the scale of such monastic barns there is a fine survival in Abbotsbury. Since there was no navigable river near Milton Abbey at least part of these journeys would have been by cart, probably pulled by oxen or perhaps horses. The salt from Milton Abbey’s estate at Ower would be brought to the abbey by cart or perhaps packhorse, and likely salted fish too. Although there was an Abbot’s pond at Milton Abbey this could not have provided all the fish needed by the monks, so that had to be carried, whether this was fresh or salted. Although no carrying services are recorded in the custumal, there is evidence of pilchards and herring as perquisite for works, hence the fish consumed at the abbey were probably mostly salted. Evidence of the route into the old town is the name of ‘Fishway Hill’. It is possible that the carrying services required by Milton Abbey were written before the Norman Conquest, although no records survive of this. The requirement may only then have been to supply the monks’ granary.(Gras 1926)

It was not just monastic land holders who held their tenants to carrying services, many lay lords of the manor demanded them too, and specifically to carry their goods to market. For example Alan de Chartres, the lord of the manor of Woolley, Huntingdonshire, required his villeins with their own horse and sack to carry his goods to any market within the country whenever he wished. But there are not many surviving records of such lay lord carrying services. It should be noted that all these carrying services not only took the villeins’ own time but they had to supply the cart and draught animals or packhorse and whatever feed and maintenance that required, a burdensome feature of services demanded by lords of their tenants indeed. Carting of grain was often to local markets and the locations of these markets were often specified in the ‘customaries’ of the manors, and destinations were often ‘within the county’. In some manors the services seem to be particularly onerous, for example in the Rotuli Hundredorum of 1274 Alice la Blunde, lady of Snailwell (Cambs.) had one villein who had to cart sixty times per annum a distance of up to twelve leagues, two other villeins who had to cart forty times per annum ten leagues, and eleven other villeins twenty carryings of ten leagues. A league was a variable measure but can be approximated to three miles.(1) Not all tenants were required to perform carrying services, and not all at the same level. Quite often cottars or smaller tenants were excepted from the onerous averagium, carrying with a horse. Carrying service brought the villeins into contact with many other people that they met on their way or at their destinations. Carting required road networks to be maintained to a standard that avoided the destruction of the laden carts.

Although customaries and the Rotuli Hundredorum generally specify the customary carrying services and the lord of the manor could legally demand his due, this does not mean to say that he actually received these services. There are many court rolls which show that the villeins refused to comply, and with the shortage of labour following the Black Death these services became much more difficult for the lord to demand, the previous customs were either ignored or the tenants paid for them to be removed, or they moved to another manor which did not have these customs. 

Other Benedictine estates also specified the carrying services required by custom from their villeins. For example on the manor of Slyndone, in the custumal dated 1285, was one of those Sussex manors held by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the villeins who held half a hide (two virgates), amongst many other customary services:

“…shall carry the lord’s dung for 2 days before Michaelmas with 1 cart outside the lord’s court from dawn to nones. He shall carry 2 cartloads of hay from Shrippen’ [Shripney] to Slyndon, he shall make hay of Shrippen’ for 1 day with 1 man….He shall carry the lord’s venison, when he moves from Slyndon’, to the dwelling place at which he next lodges…..He shall carry 1 hurdle of the fold twice a year from one dunging to another.”(B. C. Redwood and A. E. Wilson (Eds) 1968, 1)

In the same custumal on the same manor a villein holding one virgate on the same manor the destinations are specified::

“He shall do carrying service to  Malling for 4 works, to Terring for 2 works, to London for 8 works, to Guildeford for 4 works, to the port of Wythering for 2 works, to Pagham and Chichester for 1 work. “(B. C. Redwood and A. E. Wilson (Eds) 1968, 2)

Fourteen cottars on the same manor are named and receive a perquisite:

“.. for …short carrying service under 5 leagues she shall have yearly 4 scutella of barley of the aforesaid measure.”(B. C. Redwood and A. E. Wilson (Eds) 1968, 4)

A scutella, or bowl is a measure defined elsewhere in the custumal as being one sixth of a bushel. On the manor of Tangmere the villeins holding half a virgate:

“…shall carry 1 cartload of hay from the park for 1 work, and 2 cartloads of hay from Westmede for 1 work…..shall do carrying service on alternate Saturdays at Lovyngton’ or elsewhere within the manor without counting it a work, and he shall carry to Midhurst, Arundel [or] Emmesworth’, that is to the bridge at those places, without counting it a work. And if he crosses the bridge it will count 1 work. And if in carrying he is delayed out for the night it will count 2 works…. He shall carry half a seam of corn to the mill and from there to wherever the lord is living within the manor for 1 work.”(B. C. Redwood and A. E. Wilson (Eds) 1968, 12)

A ‘work’ is one day’s work for the lord, often from dawn to dusk, but occasionally specified as until nones, that is about 3pm, the ninth hour after dawn.

There are about 70 other descriptions of carrying service in this custumal of just the 17 Sussex manors of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Although there were markets and fairs on some of these manors there is no mention of carrying to a market, nor to the home manor of Canterbury.

On the Bishop of Chichester’s manors in Sussex the carrying services required of villeins was quite different. They had to carry the Bishop’s writs and letters, fowls and eggs, brushwood, hedging, sand from the beach and wood for shipbuilding. One freeman holding just a house and a croft on the manor of Cacham (now Cakeham) had to put 60 cartloads of stone where the bailiff told him. One villein:

“…shall cart with a fellow of the same holding with a wain as long as the Bishop’s corn has to be carted in harvest. He shall pack [cart] every day to Chichester, Aldyng bourne, Wynton and Gyldeford if needed; and shall cart timber from Fytelworth and palings from the woodland” to fence the park of Aldyngbourne. …. and shall cart straw to Chichester Fair.”(Peckham, W. D. 1925, 3)

On the manor of Cacham again the villeins holding half a hide (2 virgates) had to work every day except Saturdays and holydays and:

“In summer he shall cart, if needed, 2 cartloads of brushwood from Aldyngbourne, and shall be quit of 4 works….He shall go packing on Saturday and Sunday to Chichester; if he packs elsewhere he shall be quit of a work. When needed, he shall cart the Bishop’s corn in harvest all day with his own wain, and be quit of his work. He shall cart timber to Aldyngbourne park…He shall cart straw to Chichester Fair…He shall cart the Bishop’s dung with his own wain… .”(Peckham, W. D. 1925, 4)

How did this villein have time to tend to his two virgates? Some villeins on the manor of Cacham had to go much further, although they did get paid:

“[they] shall cart 4 casks of wine from Suthamton or from Portesmuth, and have 2s. If need be, they shall ferry the Bishop at his food; they shall also ferry his messengers.”(Peckham, W. D. 1925, 10)

And this may have been by boat – it was about 25 miles by road to Portsmouth and 40 miles by road to Southampton.

All was not plain sailing for the Bishop of Chichester however, he could be challenged in the manor court for claiming services which may never had existed. Inserted and dated 1315 at the end of the custumal of Cakeham there is a description of the claim by several tenants that they, nor their ancestors had never carted the lord’s dung, Naturally, the Bishop claimed that they had to his “grave loss”. This was put to the jurors at the courts of the manors of Selsey and Cakeham and  they “say upon their oath that (neither) the aforesaid nor their ancestors, ever carted, or were bound by custom to cart, the lord’s dung, therefore they remain in peace, free from claim for this carting.”(Peckham, W. D. 1925, 12)

The custumals of these thirteen manors are undated but probably in the last half of the thirteenth century.(Peckham, W. D. 1925, xii) There are only two mentions of carting to a fair or market, that of Chichester and only to deliver straw or hay. Also there are only two mentions of carrying wool, and in the custumal of the Archbishop of Canterbury’s manors in Sussex there is only one mention of carrying wool, but that is an onerous one for the five virgaters who had to carry from the manor of Loventon to London, although they did receive two bushels of oats each for their eight days service.

Thus the customary carrying service was onerous and closely defined. It varied from manor to manor and also between the different land holdings. Some carrying services were specified to use a cart whilst others, usually the cottars, were by foot but maybe with a packhorse, conversely there is evidence that the carrying was to be done on foot, as each of the cottagers at Colne in

Somersham, Hunts, holding five acres apiece, were of such lowly status as tenants that they owed carrying services on foot.(Langdon 1983, 285)

Cart, horse and ox

from Luttrell Psalter

In the early fourteenth century there was a choice of carrying methods: by human foot with a load on the back, with a pack horse and leader, with one or more oxen pulling a cart, or by one or more horses pulling a cart. Each had their advantages and disadvantages. Central Dorset is a hilly countryside with many climbs and descents, although most hill routes are on chalk, so mainly dry roads and tracks, summer and winter. The ox has many advantages – it can pull a heavier load, it is cheaper to feed, it requires less breaking-in, it will not run away so it is easier to control, it does not need iron shoes on its hoofs, its meat can be eaten at the end of its life. The ox was used for ploughing and pulling a cart. The horse has the advantage that it is 50 percent faster, but its meat was taboo in England and was never eaten in normal circumstances as far as is known.

The Milton Abbey custumal mentions both horse and ox, the former to be used for harrowing and in just one instance as a packhorse, with no occasion for pulling a cart, nor ploughing. Oxen are the only carting animals recorded. Although in some other custumals the horse is mentioned, for example on the estate at Knapwell, Cambs around 1195 each virgater was required to find two horses to carry provisions to Ramsey Abbey, although this may have been by using packhorses. Packhorse carrying services are sometimes specified, for example on three of the Burton Abbey estates villeins owed such service around the year 1114.(Langdon 1983, 75-78) Note that horses had been used since the Anglo-Saxon period to provide customary carrying services, probably as packhorses, although they were by no means common.(Langdon 1983, 23) Carting heavy loads such as stone, lime, iron and wood was mostly done by ox team at this date.(Langdon 1983, 147) and using a two-wheeled cart with spoked wheels. Carting was replacing pack animals at this time.

Carrying services by packhorse are frequent in many surveys and custumals and many peasants had to perform them. However, carrying by packhorse was only half as efficient as carrying by cart so that when large amounts of goods was required, such as bringing in the harvest or taking grain to market, carting was preferable. For small amounts of goods, especially perishables packhorse was preferable.(Langdon 1983, 148) At Berkhamsted, Herts, in 1356 each tenant was required to take seed from the barn to the fields. Often carrying beyond the home manor was specified as at 

Longbridge Deverill, Wilts, c.1235-40, tenants had to supply pack-horse service when needed to any place within fifteen leagues (say 45 miles) of the manor. Many such services specified packhorse carrying of the lord’s grain to market, with the amounts recorded such as at Chisenbury, Wilts, c.1230, where virgate holders were to carry to market one quarter of wheat or an equivalent load of other grains. This amount of grain would have weighed about 500 lbs, so much more that one packhorse could carry, we must assume that several were used. Sometimes more realistic loads for packhorses are given, such as at Borley, Essex, in 1308, where the loads for horses carrying up to 12 leagues (say 36 miles) from the manor were limited to two bushels of salt, say 50lbs each, or three bushels of wheat, rye, peas, or beans, or four bushels of oats. These loads were obviously much less than those which could be carried by a cart. Although we should remember that this may have been compensated for to some degree by the greater speed of the packhorses than a cart.(Langdon 1983, 285)

In the early fourteenth century It seems that the equipment for packhorses was primitive. Most

records simply refer to a “horse and sack”, as indicated by medieval illustrations, the normal usual method of packing was to simply to tie the filled sack at the neck and throw it across the back of 

the animal, perhaps tying it down with ropes if necessary.(Langdon 1983, 286)

In a Glastonbury Abbey custumal of about 1235 Robert Tac, a virgater of Burton, near Marnhull, Dorset, had to ride to the hay-making at Sturminster Marshall,(Langdon 1983. 287) a distance of about 18 miles. Perhaps he galloped! Horses were useful for harrowing because one could pull it at a good pace, much faster than an ox of course, but where heavy ploughing teams were needed the ox had the advantage.(Langdon 1983, 288) There is no doubt that ox teams were a shared resource since no one peasant had sufficient oxen to assemble a large team. 

There are no mentions of riding or carrying letters in the Milton Abbey custumal, and it is hard to judge what proportion of horses to oxen were used on the abbey demesne or used by the peasants, except to say that there are 6 mentions of horse and 87 mentions of ox. From other custumals of this period it seems that horses were replacing ox for ploughing and carting services to some extent in East Anglia, but this trend was not strong in the west country. There are rare mentions in other custumals of a carrying being done with a sled, and evidence that mixed teams of horse and ox were used for ploughing though not for carting.