- PENNY ELLIS -
THORALBY
THROUGH TIME
Newbiggin in the Lordship of Middleham, 1100 – 1660
Newbiggin is the most recent settlement in Bishopdale, having been established in the 12th or 13th century. It is a linear village on the south side of the valley that stretches along either side of an ancient road that ran from West Burton to Kidstones Pass and thence to Buckden in Wharfedale. The section between West Burton and the east end of Newbiggin has long since degenerated into a track called Ox Pasture Lane, while the section from the west end of the village to Kidstones Pass has been out of use for so long that it has disappeared almost completely. Access to the village is now via two lanes that connect it with the main road through Bishopdale.
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​The photograph below shows the East End of Newbiggin. The house on the far left of the photograph is The Grange. Notice the hay pikes on the hillside behind the village. The large white building right of centre is Eastburn Cottage and Farm.
Newbiggin Mill
[This section is under construction]
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Newbiggin Mill probably dates from the origin of the village in the 12th or 13th century. The earliest definite reference to it can be found in an Inquisition Post Mortem of the property of Robert de Tateshale in 1298, which included a mill, probably a corn mill, at Newbiggin worth 26s. 8d. He also owned a corn mill and a fulling mill at Thoralby, a third of a corn mill at Aysgarth and a third of a mill at Thornton Rust. It was usual for medieval corn mills to be owned by the lord of the manor, who enforced soke rights to oblige his tenants and others beholden to the manor to grind their grain at his mill. Newbiggin Mill was established on Mill Beck just above Mill Scar (see map below) in a climatic period known as the Medieval Warm Period, during which the growing of oats, rye and possibly even wheat would have taken place in Bishopdale because the climate was more favourable to arable farming than it is today.
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​Around 1350, the Medieval Warm Period began to give way to a colder and wetter period known to meteorologists as the Little Ice Age. This would have made it impossible to continue growing grain in marginal areas such as Newbiggin, so it is likely that Newbiggin Mill ceased grinding sometime in the late 14th or early 15th century along with several other manorial mills in the Yorkshire Dales. Newbiggin Mill, situated on Mill Beck, is probably the best preserved of these medieval mill sites.
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A field survey undertaken by Stephen Moorhouse identified the sites of the fall-trough or launder, which was a wooden trough leading to the mill pond, the mill building on its millrace or leat, the miller's house, a possible drying kiln and other buildings probably used for grain storage. The leat leading to this wooden launder extracted water from the opposite side of the beck to the site of the mill pond and mill building, so a launder would have been used to carry the water over the beck to the mill pond. This type of system was quite common in medieval mills because it provided some protection to the mill from flooding. When floods occurred, the miller could remove the wooden launder to keep the flood water away from the pond and mill building or, if he left it in place, the launder, which was easily replaced, would be washed away before any significant damage was done to the mill. An abandoned track, known as a hollow way, has been identified leading from the mill to East Farm at the eastern end of the village. This would have provided a gentler access than finding a way through the crag just below the mill.
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The photographs below are from an article by Stephen Moorhouse in "The Archaeology of Yorkshire, An assessment at the beginning of the 21st century", edited by T.G. Manby, Stephen Moorhouse and Patrick Ottaway.
Plate 71: Abandoned medieval water powered corn-mill on the Mill Beck at Newbiggin, Bishopdale, showing the large square stone revetting across the beck (on the left) and the leat outlet (on the right).
Plate 71: Abandoned medieval water powered corn-mill on the Mill Beck at Newbiggin, Bishopdale, showing the large square stone revetting across the beck (on the left) and the leat outlet (on the right).
Plate 73: Newbiggin medieval corn-mill, Bishopdale. Looking across the Mill Beck, with the head of the falltrough leat in the foreground and the mill pond on the other side of the beck. The long since removed falltrough would have spanned the beck, carrying the water to the pond and hence to power the mill.
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1856 O.S. showing Millbeck Bridge, Mill Scar & Millbeck Spring, add site of Mill
Medieval Ridges and Furrows in Newbiggin Township
By the 13th century, the open field system of arable crop rotation was common throughout the country. Feudal lords usually owned all or most of the land in the village and the peasantry had to work without payment on the lord’s land, known as demesne land, for between two and four days a week depending on their status. In return for this they were granted strips of land rent-free in two or more open fields. These open fields can often be identified today by the ridges and furrows that separated them from one another. Examples can be seen near Thoralby, West Burton, Eshington and Croxby, but the clearest and most extensive examples are in Newbiggin Township.
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Some of these open fields were very extensive: for instance, the wide expanse of ridges and furrows visible in the bottom photo were all part of Newbiggin’s East Field. The early ploughs were pulled by teams of up to eight oxen and pasture was often set aside for these valuable animals separate from the common pasture. The lane heading east out of Newbiggin is still called Ox Pasture Lane and some of the fields to which it leads are still known as Ox Pasture. The crops grown were wheat, oats, barley and rye, but oats predominated in this area because they could cope better than the other grains with our wet climate. The ploughed fields were above the flood plain, which was used as a water meadow.