HISTORY AND FUTURE
A very shorthistory
What is a Graveship? There isn't a grave in Holme, is there?
A group of townships administered by an annually elected tenant responsible to the court of the manor of Wakefield to which it belonged. He was the Grave from whom the Graveship was named. There were a number of Graveships within the manor of Wakefield. It’s nothing to do with burials.
So what's a township?
Originally an agricultural community and its land. They remained part of local government until 1974, latterly as electoral wards.
There isn’t much room for farming in our narrow river valleys so the settlements which gave the townships their names were perched on the ridges with the valleys dividing them. On the map the rivers forming boundaries between townships are black, those forming part of the Graveship boundary are green.
And what was the Manor of Wakefield?
It was a large and straggling estate made up of many town-ships. It was formed well before the Norman Conquest. The map shows it wasn’t even continuous. The Graveship of Holme is outlined in green.
When did all this happen?
The townships go back to early Anglo-Saxon settlement, maybe the 500s or 600s. The manor was a royal estate of Edward the Confessor and remained a royal manor under the Norman kings until Henry I granted it to William de Warenne, Earl of Surrey probably about 1116. The Warennes held the lordship by knight service (providing the king with a number of knights) until the last of the line died in 1347, then the Yorkist branch of the Plantagenets. The Tudor and early Stuart kings held it until Charles I sold it into private hands. The Dukes of Leeds were the last lords. Reorganisation of the manor into a few sub-manors (e.g. Thurstonland) and the graveships happened not long after the Warennes acquired it. Our earliest written records date back to the 1260s.
Why Holme?
We don’t know. Domesday (1086) lists the townships in two groups, Holme on the left bank of the river (Holme, Austonley & Upperthong) and Cartworth (Cartworth, Wooldale, Hepworth, Fulstone & Thurstonland) on the right. It’s possible that the left bank initially went to the Warennes’ rivals, the de Laci family and was regarded as some sort of trophy when they regained it. Certainly they always used the name Holme (or its dialect form Holn) in their records. Outside of manorial records the Graveship was called Holmfirth and this name probably goes back at least to 1189.
Field Systems and Boundary Stones
Cook Study Hill
On the outer reaches of the Graveship is Cook Study Hill with it’s tower overlooking the moorland.
The arch to the tower now lives by the pond at Canon Hall.
What did The Grave do?
The Grave appeared at the manor courts which were held every three weeks and presided over by the Steward, the Lord of the Manor’s representative, usually a lawyer. His most important function for the manor was to collect fines. He also acted as a pledge (surety) in many cases and also offered essoins, apologies for non-appearance of requests for deferment of cases on behalf of one of the parties.
The job of grave only lasted for one year and then another man took over. They got paid. But if it sounds like a decent job think again. The pay was poor, the tasks were to collect rents and fines and beside all that the grave had his own living to eke out. At least one was robbed and had to make good what he had lost. A few even paid to get out of the job!
The grave had to be a tenant and was “elected” although the role was attached to specific properties and, at least by the early 1700s was taken in turn. The Manor Book drawn up at this time names 61 properties and the order in which they became due along with several other properties whose tenants were to give them aid, for instance if the tenant was under age.
Why were fines being paid?
For reasons such as grazing animals without permission, stealing and boundary disputes.
Who else was involved?
In addition to the graves a panel of jurors or sworn men drawn from each township would take part at the court. They would “present” offenders, sometimes together with the grave; lay “pains” (by-laws relating to clearing of ditches, not making paths across fields, etc.) or sometimes arbitrate disputes based on local knowledge.
There were also constables who were also appointed for each township annually to keep order. One year’s constable might have been last year’s troublemaker. The constable’s job might be substituted so that one man acted as constable for a number of years.
How do we know all this?
Court proceedings for the Manor of Wakefield were written down and fortunately for us these documents have survived from very early times. They are kept in the collection of the Yorkshire Archaeological Society at Leeds University. Many have been published by the Society, translated from the original Latin where necessary, and most of those are available online. There are various documents giving lists of landmarks outlining the boundaries of the manor. In particular there is a list from the time of Henry V (the victor of Agincourt) included with a map which outlines the boundary.
What about the title "Constable of The Graveship of Holme?
The seven townships all had their own constable responsible for law and order but there was no overall main title role. However in the 1920s the Manor ceased to be and the reason the Constable of the Graveship of Holme exists today is to do with turbary rights.
What are Turbary Rights?
Peat digging permissions. Today the only surviving peat pits are in the Cartworth township. Few people have the right to dig and nowadays even fewer people want to use it as a heat source. In medieval times another use of peat was for roofing material. In order to control the permissions the Constable grants these on an annual basis to those who have a right of claim. Today Jimmy Dickinson holds the title. Before him it was Arthur Quarmby.
