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Peat digging continued through the centuries
© Courtesy of English Nature
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The peat cutting industry in Broadland |
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Early in the Saxon period the increasing density of settlements in eastern Norfolk necessitated intensive agricultural exploitation of the upland of the region. While certain resources were in plentiful supply, fuel, in the form of wood was not, and it was around this time that peat cutting began to develop.
By the time of Domesday, around 1086, East Anglia was the most densely populated part of Britain, with a prosperous economy founded upon a stable agricultural regime. At this point, water levels in the Broadland estuary would have been sufficiently low to enable widespread exploitation of the wetlands, but very little wood was to be found on the Broadland uplands and much of the remaining floodplain woodland would have already been cleared for timber and particularly for firewood. Peat cutting, or 'turbary' provided a readily available alternative.
The work
Peat extraction was a very hard and unpleasant task; the deeper, more compacted peat has a higher calorific value and is a superior fuel to that unearthed from the surface layers, but the effort of cutting blocks of peat from pits which were constantly filling with water would have been enormous.
Some people would have been cutting fuel for their own individual domestic consumption, however much of the peat, or 'turf' was likely to have been from demesne turbaries, which were owned by the church or by the manor. The peat produced in these turbaries was sometimes used within the manor or priory, but a large proportion was sold.
The modern Stalham Hall |
Wage labour was used, but for the most part the turbaries are likely to have been worked by bond tenants as part of the mandatory labour service owned to the lord of the manor. For example, the bond tenants of Stalham Hall in the 13th Century owed their lord 23 days labour per annum in the turbaries, and were likely to have been required to work in the fields in addition to this. Records made in 1328 indicate that the tenants were required to undertake 14 days labour in the pits, or to pay 14d. in lieu.
Words: Dr J M Parmenter MIEEM
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