31/08/2024
Where did the money come from to build some of Yorkshire's fine houses, churches & abbeys? Why do places like Masham, Skipton and Richmond have such large market squares or trading areas? It all goes back to the Vikings and something we take for granted and which has far less monetary value now - sheep and wool.
The Vikings brought their own breeds of black-faced sheep with horns. These were the ancestors of Swaledale, Blackface, and Herdwicks. Britain’s woollen industry and wool exports steadily grew. The largest flocks of sheep belonged to the monasteries and abbeys. By the 1100s wool was the driving force of the English economy.
The Woolsack became the seat for the Lord speaker in the House of Lords. King Edward III introduced it as a reminder of England's key source of wealth and sign of great prosperity. It was largely thanks to King Edward III that the wool trade prospered. A great deal of British wool was exported to Flanders to be made into cloth, and then imported back into Britain.
The Flemish weavers were apparently discontent with their working conditions. In 1331 Edward III invited around 50 Flemish master weavers to settle in Britain with the proviso that they must each take on at least one English apprentice. They taught the arts of textile processing and added value to the woollen trade.
Over the next few years the textile industry flourished. The Cisterian monks in abbeys such as Fountains and Jervaulx were renowned for their sheep farming. Sheep were crucial to them: they used wool for clothing and bedding and sold it at market alongside lamb, cheese and butter. They even used sheep skins for parchment.
By 1300, Fountains Abbey & Studley Royal, National Trust was the leading producer and exporter of wool. Their extensive lands stretched over to Malham Moor. Fountains Abbey had an enormous wool warehouse, a fulling mill and dye-vats. The monks at Jervaulx Abbey were the first to produce Wensleydale cheese made from ewes milk. Wool became an increasingly valuable commodity and was traded internationally, with a very strong market in Italy. The richness of the ecclesiastical architecture of the abbeys built during this time can still be seen.
After Henry VIII seized the lands of the monasteries, much of the land was sold off and let to local people. Lowland pastures and arable land were eventually enclosed, leaving the upland hills as pastures for grazing sheep.
Sheep had to be “driven” from farm to market, usually along established routes known as drovers’ lanes. One of the best known is Mastiles Lane near Malham, on land which was owned by the monks at Fountains Abbey. Mastiles Lane was used to move sheep and to trade fleeces and ewes-milk cheeses.
Most goods were carried by packhorse along the twisting steep hills and lanes of the Yorkshire Dales. Some old routes can still be seen such as Craven Old Way running from Dentdale to Ingleton. It’s said that up to 2000 sheep would be driven along some of these routes at any one time.
Some routes had staging posts on the way, as indicated by village names such as Horsehouse in Coverdale. Tan Hill Inn is probably on the site of a stage house.
Goods such as wool and knitted clothing were often traded at markets established on the fringes of the Yorkshire Dales, in places like Richmond where farmers from outside the Dales brought corn.
It’s easy to spot evidence of earlier open air markets, such as the cobbled square in the middle of Grassington or remains of market crosses in Austwick, Askrigg, Clapham and Masham.
Masham has one of the biggest market squares in Northern England. It dates back from medieval times when it was a major sheep trading market, thanks to its proximity to Jervaulx and Fountains Abbey. The Masham Sheep Fair is still held over the last weekend in September (come & visit - you'll find me selling programmes in the trailer in the middle of the square!)
Sheep are said to have been farmed in Skipton since the 7th century and the town’s name comes from the Saxon word for sheep. Skipton’s origins are rooted in its time as an important trading centre for sheep and wool. Legend has it that when Cromwell ordered the removal of the SKIPTON CASTLE roof in 1645, sheep fleeces were hung over the walls and used to deaden the impact from the cannon fire!
