Local abbey was poor relation, Teesdale Mercury

Local abbey was poor relation

Apr 30, 2008

FROM the time of the Conquest in 1066 - and for the next 500 years - landholders both great and small gave to the church and other religious institutions large tracts of land and other possessions. The reasons for this phenomenon are not fully understood. What is known, however, is that there was a Europe-wide religious revival soon after the Conquest resulting in many monasteries being founded. In our area, many of the grants of land related to the foundation and support of these monasteries.

We have one of these monasteries in Teesdale - Egglestone Abbey. You would think, wouldn't you, that people would have supported their local monastery in the same way as local schools and hospitals are favoured nowadays. However, that didn't happen. Egglestone Abbey remained poor throughout its history. Instead, the great and the high-ups gave to the big monasteries such as St Mary's, at York, and Rievaulx and Guisborough. 

One of the earliest grants to a monastery was from Guy de Balliol to St Mary's Abbey at York. It dates from between 1112 and 1122. He gave the church at Gainford plus two bovates of land and the tithe of his desmesne there, plus the church of Stainton with the same additions as at Gainford. 

I don't know which Stainton is meant. As far as I am aware there has never been a church at the Stainton to the north of Barney - maybe it wasn't Stainton but Staindrop that he meant. 

Names of places were often spelled rather freely on old charters. Guy de Balliol's desmesne was the land in his personal hand - it wasn't farmed by any of his tenants. A bovate of land measured about 15 acres, so two bovates was not enormous. It was the common size of a villager's farm.  

This grant of Guy de Balliol was confirmed by his nephew, Bernard de Balliol - he was the Balliol who built Barnard Castle. 

The grant dates from between 1132 and 1153. 

Bernard added the chapel of Barnard Castle to the list but didn't mention Stainton - another historical puzzle. 

At a later date, Bernard continued his progression up the dale and added the church of Middleton-in-Teesdale to his grants to St Mary's at York. 

Of course, when these magnates granted a church somewhere they weren't actually giving away the stone building. Instead they were giving away the tithe that parishioners paid to the rector of the church each year.

The generosity of the Balliols didn't just extend to St Mary's Abbey in York. Other monasteries benefited as well. 

Between 1161 and 1167, Bernard de Balliol, son of the original Bernard, turned his attention to Rievaulx Abbey, near Helmsley, a Cistercian Abbey founded in 1132 by Walter l'Espec. 

At the time of this grant, Ailred was abbot of Rievaulx. Ailred has always been regarded as Rievaulx's greatest and holiest abbot and was later canonised as a saint. 

This may have been the reason that Bernard supported this particular monastery. His grant reads: "Grant by Bernard de Balliol to the monks of Rievaulx...of pasture for 60 brood mares in his forest of Teesdale, 6 score beasts, 12 cows, 2 bulls, in Eggleshope and Hudeshope by bounds within Middleton in Teesdale and 2 bovates there..." 

There is to this day a piece of ground known as ‘Monks Moor' in the area described in this charter. Later, Bernard granted Rievaulx permission to establish a stud in Teesdale and a cattle ranch at Ettersgill. I wonder if these grants changed the character of the upper dale by increasing its use for pastoral farming. 

Egglestone Abbey, although somewhat ignored by the great landholders of the dale, wasn't entirely neglected. For example, right at the beginning of the 13th Century, Helen de Hastings gave her right of patronage of Startforth Church to Egglestone Abbey. This was a relatively small grant and was typical of gifts to the abbey.

Another grant to Egglestone Abbey was a direct result of the Battle of Neville's Cross in 1346. After the battle, the Neville family gave the magnificent Neville screen to Durham Cathedral in thanksgiving for the English victory. 

In contrast to this, Sir Thomas de Rokeby, who commanded another of the army divisions at the battle, gave Great Ouseburn church to Egglestone Abbey. However, this grant was given specifically to "compensate for depradations done to the abbey by the English army". Egglestone Abbey suffered greatly during the extended Scottish wars and was always poor. 

Sometimes it was the hospitals run by the monasteries that were supported by local families. One such hospital was that of St Peter at York. 

John, the son of Asculf de Bowes, gave one carucate of land in Bowes to this hospital and confirmed the gift of his predecessors of the church of Bowes. 

His grant appears to be a large one. This gift to the hospital was the cause of a dispute between the hospital and Alan, rector of Startforth, in about 1173. The disagreement involved the tithes of Boldron and lands in this parish. Alan eventually agreed that the tithes belonged to the church of Bowes and therefore to the hospital. 

Nevertheless, Alan was awarded half of these tithes and the hospital agreed to pay him a pound of incense a year for life. 

Do you think that from then on, Startforth Church always used incense at the services? In the same document, the lands between Startforth and Bowes were described as being divided by a ditch. 

It comes as a surprise to find that these charters sometimes give us a glimpse into the landscape of the dale over 800 years ago.

First published in the Mercury, April 23, 2008