26.9.13

Sheepwash or Shipwash

The small and picturesque hamlet of Sheepwash sits astride the River Wansbeck about one mile west of Ashington and four miles east of Morpeth. The crossing over the Wansbeck is made by way of a single-lane, traffic-signal controlled bridge.

Looking SW towards Sheepwash Bridge


Google Map Location of Sheepwash (click to enlarge)

The naming of Sheepwash would seem straightforward enough: a place where the sheep could be dipped to wash the wool and rid it of parasites prior to the sheep being taken to market. Presumably, in medieval times, some kind of enclosure was made across the river channelling the sheep through the water at just the right depth. The 19th century Ordnance Survey maps mark a fording point at this location, so it would seem to match the criteria needed.

1st Ed Ordnance Survey c 1860

But then I read the entry from John Hodgson-Hinde's famous and revered "History of Northumberland". The volumes that make up the HON were published in the early 19th century. Hodgson-Hinde was the vicar of Hartburn. Throughout the article he refers to the hamlet as Shipwash. He must have been aware of the more usual pronunciation of Sheepwash for that is how it is recorded on all of the 17th - early 19th century mapping. And, it is likely, why he felt an explanation was needed as to the usage of the name Shipwash. This is what he wrote:

Of the parish of Shipwash (1), its boundaries, and the ecclesiastical institutions within it, little seems to be known. Its name does not occur in the list of livings within the county assessed to pay the fruits and tenths to the crown in 1291. In the minutes of the institution of Alexander Brown in 1548, and of Thomas Ogle in 1555, it is called the "rectory of Shipwashe." Besides the church there was a hospital here, to the custody of which, bishop Hatfield, 7 May 1379, collated John de Newthorpe, of Pontefract, it then being vacant by the death of William del' Orchard, its last master and keeper. But no remains of either church or hospital are now to be seen here excepting the basin of a large and beautifully formed basin of a stone font, which is used for a trough for the cattle to drink out of in the fold yard of the rectory. The parsonage house stands snugly and delightfully, and has the interest of beauty of its site very greatly enhanced by the winding and woody banks of the river, a fine old bridge of four arches, the mill of Shipwash, and the old mansion of the Bulmans, besides gardens, orchards and shruberies in "gallant trim" and full of beauty and luxuriance. Spitals, such as the one that which formerly existed here, were founded for the benefit of travellers, very commonly at the ends of bridges, or by dangerous washes or fords, or in passes in mountains.
 (1) Small ships can come as far up the river as the bridge here, a circumstance which might occasion the name of the place, a wash having the same signification as a ford... "Washum in old Latin records, a shallow or fordable part of a river or part of the sea, as the washes at Lincolnshire" - (Phillips).

Extract from History of Northumberland Vol II, Hodgson-Hinde

Hodgson was suggesting that the suffix, wash, could be synonymous with ford. We have already established through old mapping, even being marked on Speed's 1610 map, that Sheepwash was a fording point on the River Wansbeck. But could small ships come this far? I made a visit to Sheepwash and noted that the river was quite shallow at this point and only the smallest of boats could sail this far upstream. However, OS indicate that Sheepwash is the limit of the tidal River Wansbeck and I may not have been observing the river at its highest level. I also noticed a weir, cutting diagonally through the river, just west of the bridge. This suggested that the flow of the river had been artificially altered at some stage in the past. The same OS map which marked a ford at this location also showed a corn mill, which no longer exists. The power to drive the corn mill came from water channelled, via the weir, through a mill race, of which there is also no trace remaining.

1830s Tithe Map (click to enlarge)


But even if the river was deep enough for small ships why would it have been significant to add wash, or ford, as a suffix to ship? My guess is that Hodgson may have been wrong in his assumption. The Oxford Popular Dictionary of English Place Names lists a settlement in Devon named Sheepwash and gives the explanation as: a place where the sheep get dipped.

John Speed Map 1610 Indicating a Ford at Sheepwash

It is clear from Hodgson that Sheepwash was a small but significant settlement in pre-industrial times. The Rectory house of the late 17th and early 18th centuries still exists. Pevsner, in the "Buildings of England" series describes a "spectacular ceiling" within the dwelling.  A large number of burials discovered in 1988 just opposite the Rectory, and immediately NW of the bridge, indicate that the long since demolished medieval church was located here. The font mentioned by Hodgson is now located in the grounds of Bothal church. Remains of the medieval bridge can still be found.

16.9.13

Fox Cover

Greenwood's 1828 map of  Northumberland  shows a large amount of features marked as fox covers. They are regularly spaced throughout the landscape and are about ten acres in size. Where features are mostly not shown on such small-scale mapping Greenwood clearly thought them to be an important items in the landscape to give them such prominence. My curiosity was also aroused as to what these features could be as Fox Cover is the name used by a pub near Ashington, which stood on land at the edge of a plantation, but not deliberately labelled as a fox cover in any mapping.

Greenwood 1828. Fox Covers around Ponteland area. (click to enlarge)


To someone brought up in an urban environment it seemed strange that an area be set aside to protect foxes, which are generally considered to be pests, if that is what the function of fox covers where?
Fox Cover Pub Ashington

A friend suggested that they are also known as fox coverts and pointed me towards a phd paper by Jane Bevan published in 2011: Foxhunting and the landscape between 1700 and 1900; with particular reference to Norfolk and Shropshire.

I quickly discovered that fox covers, or coverts, where, indeed, to protect the supply of foxes. They range in size from 2-20 acres and they are sown with prickly gorse, or thorn bushes, or even small trees. It was a secluded area which provided safety to the foxes in the rearing of cubs and a supply of rabbits and suchlike animals which foxes preyed upon. The coverts were spaced so as to ensure the fox could be found easily, but it wasn't so close to another covert that the fox could easily go to ground. It also had to be in reasonably open land to ensure a good run for the hunting pack.

During medieval and early-modern times areas of land, as coverts, were set aside for hunting. These were the deer parks and forests established by the aristocracy, where the restricted access was protected by law. Foxes at this time were a low-priority quarry for hunters and would largely only be pursued when deer was not available. But the hunting of foxes was still considered a "feast of fun" rather than a utilitarian task. However, Henry III (reigned 1216-1272) did give permission to a monastic institution to hunt foxes on his park land probably because of a fox worrying sheep.

Bevan states that it was rare to keep a pack of hounds for hunting prior to the 18th century. But, there was a steady move towards hunting on horseback and not just for pest control purposes but recreation. At the same time their was a gradual move from the hunting of deer to foxes, because a large amount of land used for holding deer was being lost for other uses. This process is known as assarting. Deer were also becoming more tame and the use of the gun more frequent.

During the 18th century a great change in the land use of Britain was taking place that some have labelled the "privatisation of the countryside". I'm referring, of course, to the enclosure of open lands that were once farmed in common by the tenants of a village. The enclosure process involved tenants being allotted individual plots of land which then had to be fenced or hedged, the boundaries of which leading to the field systems that we mostly see today. Often individual farmsteads were being established throughout the countryside. Bevan's study was, however, based on counties in the Midlands and much of Northumberland had already been enclosed by private agreement prior to the 18th century. More areas of waste or woodland were now being assarted to cater for the rising demand for land.

This meant that the cover and shelter foxes had once enjoyed in woodland or waste was being eroded and with it the numbers of foxes. This came at a time when there was an increasing demand for foxes from the hunting elite.

The new fencing and hedges proved a problem to hunters. The older generation sought to move their hunting activities to locations that were still relatively open, whereas the younger generation took up the challenge and learned to jump obstacles. Hounds and horses also evolved to meet the changing conditions.

Hedges and crops were being damaged by packs in this "newly-privatised countryside" and compensation was often being paid out to farmers. But enclosure often meant the small-scale farmers selling up and moving out unable to meet the high cost of hedges. Land was often given over to the profitable pasturing of sheep. Landlords had a tightening grip on these new tenants ensuring a protection to the supply of foxes and free passage across farms.

Fox Covert, Throckley Common, Northumberland. 2009 © Andrew Curtis (used under creative commons license)

Many of these new "gentlemen farmers" were socially mobile and aspired to join the hunting elite anyway. It was worth accepting some damage and inconvenience to enjoy a better standing with their landlords: the aristocratic hunting elite. There was increasingly less of a division between the aristocracy and the farmers who "knew their place" and they were becoming more welcome to the hunt, once the preserve of the upper classes, as their co-operation was needed.

However, a legal case of 1810 established that a landholder, or farmer,  had the right in law to stop a hunt crossing their land. Previously it was accepted by hunters that they had the right to freely roam the countryside that had been open and common land. And it was, of course, almost impossible to stop a pack of hounds in full flight in pursuit of the fox. Despite this fox hunters were still willing to pay out compensation rather than lose the sport.

But the more co-operative farmers were willing to allow fox covers to be established on their land. Foxes were often imported to populate these coverts as numbers had dwindled to very low levels.

Foxes remained a pest so it does seem a paradox that breeding grounds were established on farmland when the foxes could worry the farmers livestock. The farmer was compensated for his losses. But hunting was a major recreation activity and great deals of money was spent in enjoyment of the sport.

Thanks to Stephen Rickett for help with this article.