Tidenham including Lancaut: Economic history

ECONOMIC HISTORY:

AGRICULTURE. The earliest evidence about husbandry at Tidenham is provided by a survey of the manor dating from the period between the grant to Bath Abbey in 956 and the lease to Stigand in the mid 11th century; the 30-hide estate then included a large demesne of 9 hides which was cultivated by the services of the tenants. (fn. 1) In 1066 no servi or teams were enumerated on the demesne, then 10 hides, and it was presumably cultivated wholly by the villani who each had a plough-team. (fn. 2) In the late 13th century the demesne included c. 340 a. of arable, over 60 a. of meadow, and various pastures. The demesne arable was then in three divisions for the purposes of cultivation, c. 125 a. lying in a field called Homwode Cliff, c. 125 a. in another called Mikel Hill, and 91 a. divided among four fields, Longfurlong, Clenghorn, Richoldes Marsh, and Hanley Hill; a three-course rotation was followed in those divisions, each being sown in turn with wheat in the first year, oats with smaller proportions of barley and pulse in the second, and lying fallow in the third. A dairy herd of c. 20 cows was also maintained, and milk, butter, and in some years large numbers of cheeses, were sold. A herd of pigs was kept, and in the early 1270s a flock of c. 150 sheep; in the 1290s, however, no sheep were kept. The demesne also included an orchard from which apples were sometimes sold while others were used to make cider. The detailed accounts of stock and produce kept by the reeve at that period included the doves in the dovecot and falcons taken from an eyrie in the Lancaut cliffs. Several labourers were retained at wages and received also portions of produce; those regularly mentioned were two or three ploughmen, two or three drovers (fugatores), one or two stockmen, a dairyman, and a swineherd. The demesne was cultivated mainly, however, by the labour-services of the tenants. About a third of the works owed each year were usually found redundant: in 1291–2, out of a total of 7,085 owed, 2,668 were sold, and a number of works were employed each year on the neighbouring manor of Aluredston. (fn. 3)

The Saxon survey specified the 21 hides of the manor occupied by tenants as 27 yardlands at Stroat, 14 at Milton, and 13 at Kingston, a hide above Offa's Dyke, and part of another hide beyond the dyke let to Welsh sailors. (fn. 4) The hide therefore comprised under 3 yardlands, and if as later at Tidenham, the yardland was equivalent to 36 a. (fn. 5) the hide must have been c. 100 a. From each yardland 12d. rent and 4d. as alms were owed. The services of the geneats on the estate included labouring on or off the estate, riding and carrying, supplying transport and driving herds, while the weekly works owed by the geburs at the various seasons were ploughing ½ a. and fetching seed to sow it from the lord's barn, building and supplying the materials for fishingweirs, fencing and ditching, reaping 1½ a. and mowing ½ a., or other work in the same proportion. The gebur also owed various dues including 6d. and half a sester of honey at Easter and six sesters of malt at Lammas, and he had to give three swine out of the first seven he had and the tenth after that and pay for the mast eaten by the swine; he also had to plough and sow with his own seed 1 a. for churchscot (cyrcscette). (fn. 6) In 1066 the tenantry of the manor were 38 villani each with a plough, and 10 bordars; 3 villani and their lands were alienated from the manor before 1071 but by 1086 there were an additional 12 bordars. (fn. 7)

By 1306 large numbers of free tenancies had been created, c. 140 in all, but most were of only a few acres and over a third were held by tenants who also had customary holdings. The relatively few large ones, which included one of 1½ yardland and 25 a., others of 2 yardlands, and 1 yardland and 28 a., and six of ½ yardland some with a few additional acres, were presumably enfranchised customary holdings, while most of the small ones were probably parcels taken in from the waste of the manor. Two of the freeholds owed a pair of gilt spurs and another four barbed arrows, (fn. 8) although the cash value was apparently usually taken instead by the late 13th century. (fn. 9)

The fragmentation of holdings had produced four main classes of customary tenants by the late 13th century: in 1289 there were 4 tenants holding ½ yardlands, 56 holding 9 a. (i.e. ¼ yardlands), 9 holding 6 a., and 14 cottars; there were also 3 cottars described as free and customary, and 3 customary tenants of Lancaut. During the year the half-yardlander owed 6 days' work every other week exclusive of the festival weeks of Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost, the quarter-yardlander owed 6 days every fourth week, and the holders of 6 a. owed one day each week; during the period from the beginning of October to the end of July one of the days owed in a week by the first two groups was a plough-work, estimated as in the Saxon survey at ½ a. A distinction was made between plough-works done before Christmas which were valued at 2½d. and those done after which were worth 2d., and the other works were worth ½d. between the beginning of October and late June, 1d. during the period of the hayharvest from late June to the end of July, and 1½d. in the corn-harvest months August and September. The boon-works included those known as chirched by which the half-yardlander ploughed ½ a. at wheat-sowing, and reed by which he ploughed 1 a. at the sowing of oats, and he had to reap that 1½ a. at the harvest; the quarter-yardlander did half those services. All of the tenants in the first three classes owed 4 boon-works in the hay-harvest; at the cornharvest boon-reapings without food provided were apportioned at 4 by each of the half-yardlanders, 6 by the quarter-yardlanders, 8 by the holders of 6 a., 3 by the cottars, 2 by the three free and customary cottars, and 8 by the customary tenants of Lancaut, while all the tenants owed one boon-reaping with food provided. (fn. 10) In addition a number of ploughing and reaping works were owed by the tenants of six smaller estates held from Tidenham manor: they were 4 tenants of Beachley manor, one tenant of Robert son of Pagan, 3 tenants of the Prior of Farleigh at Wibdon, 4 tenants of Waldings manor, 5 tenants of John Blount, and 4 tenants of Hugh le Harliter. Reaping boon-works on the Tidenham demesne were also owed by the tenants of Aluredston. (fn. 11) The services owed by the half-yardlander in 1289 suggest that the gebur of the Saxon survey held the full yardland: the works known as chirched apparently represented one half of the church-scot service of the gebur, for some reason diverted to the lord of the manor, while the half-yardlander also did half the weekly plough-service of the gebur.

A considerable proportion of the works done by the customary tenants in the late 13th century were used on other than the purely agricultural tasks such as ploughing, threshing, haymaking, harvesting, and fencing; they might also be required, as in Saxon times, to collect materials for weir-building, to repair buildings, or lay snares for wild animals on the chase, and they were frequently employed in carrying fuel, provisions, or building materials to Chepstow castle. (fn. 12) In 1294–5 the tenants were involved in preparations for the Earl of Norfolk's campaign in Wales, collecting rods to make 'hurdles' for boats going to Swansea, and carrying oats to the army at Newport. (fn. 13) Other services apart from labourservices owed by the customary tenants at that period included the gift of a hen, called wodehen, at Christmas and 5 eggs at Easter, and toll on horses bought or sold and for brewing, while the Saxon dues for pannage of pigs had been commuted to 1d. for each pig of a year old, and ½d. for one of half a year. (fn. 14)

In 1584 Tidenham manor had 31 free tenants, 40 copyholders, and 6 tenants at will. There were 7 copyholds in Stroat, 7 in Milton, 3 in Lancaut, 9 in Bishton, and c. 13 in Sedbury; they were made up of units described as 'tenements of land', and individual holdings varied between half and three tenements. (fn. 15) Some of the copyholds of the manor were enfranchised before 1650, (fn. 16) but in 1662 there were still 28 copyholds for up to 3 lives with 19 copyholds let at rack-rent and 26 leaseholds. (fn. 17) The typical tenure on Waldings and Beachley manors in the 17th century was by lease for three lives, often with additional rents of hens or capons owed and sometimes a cash payment instead of a heriot. (fn. 18) In 1656 Waldings manor had 16 free tenants and 11 leaseholders, while Beachley manor had 9 free tenants, 6 leaseholders and a single tenant at will. (fn. 19)

The fields in which the arable of the demesne lay in the late 13th century were evidently open fields, as the closing of the demesne land there after sowing was recorded; (fn. 20) by 1584, however, Clenghorn (which lay south of the junction of the Gloucester– Chepstow road and Sedbury Lane) and Longfurlong were merely closes of the manorial demesne, (fn. 21) and none of the other fields was recorded later as an open field. Of the others Hanley Hill lay on the east of the main road between Tidenham village and Wibdon, (fn. 22) and Mikel Hill in the same area if it was represented by the close called the Great Hill in 1618. (fn. 23) Homwode Cliff and Richoldes Marsh are likely to have also been in the same area, bordering the Severn, and they perhaps included the Wharf north of Pill House which was called the lord's marsh in 1630; (fn. 24) in 1810 the Wharf, which had apparently long been meadow-land, belonged wholly to the lord of the manor but was also subject at certain seasons to commoning rights, perhaps a survival from a former status as an open field. (fn. 25) The Wharf may, however, have always been a common pasture, the rights in it being allotted after reclamation from the river. In the Middle Ages other arable may have lain south-east of the Broad Stone where some ridge and furrow was visible in 1969.

In the late 16th and early 17th centuries a large number of open fields was recorded in the parish. In the Beachley peninsula were St. Treacles field at Beachley Point, (fn. 26) Mead field, Down field, and Ewens field, all to the west of Beachley village, (fn. 27) and Little field lying between the road and the Severn just south of Offa's Dyke. (fn. 28) In Sedbury were Sedbury field, (fn. 29) and Popley field near Pennsylvania. (fn. 30) Open fields in the east of the parish included Rudgeley (or Okenstub) field between Cross Hill and Boughspring, Oldbury field and Hoball (or Woball) field, lying near Wibdon to the west of the main road, and East field also near Wibdon. (fn. 31) In the west there were open fields at Netherhope, Wallhope, Mopley field north of Tutshill, Little Plunton field south-west of Woodcroft, (fn. 32) and Otall field at Bishton. (fn. 33) An open field in Lancaut was mentioned in 1549. (fn. 34) The main common meadows were Tidenham Mead by the Severn south-east of Wibdon, and Sedbury Mead, otherwise called Broad Mead, lying by the Wye west of Buttington. (fn. 35) In 1584 the tenants of Tidenham manor had rights of common in Tidenham Chase and were allowed to gather firewood there and take great timber for repairing their houses; they complained that their commoning rights had also extended over various woods adjoining the chase which the lord of the manor had recently inclosed and leased to individuals. They also claimed to intercommon with the men of Woolaston in the Woolaston commons adjoining their own, but they refused to admit the reciprocal claim of the men of Woolaston to intercommon in Tidenham, and the manor court was again seeking to exclude the men of Woolaston from the Tidenham commons in 1701. (fn. 36) The court was also concerned in the earlier 18th century with outsiders cutting wood and gorse on the chase and other commons. (fn. 37) It specified the parish commons in 1747 as Beachley Green, Tutshill Common, Woodcroft Common, Spittlemesne Common, Tidenham Chase, Ban-y-Gor Cliff, and Lancaut Cliff. (fn. 38)

Little evidence has been found of the inclosure by private agreement which evidently proceeded steadily in the south of the parish during the 17th and 18th centuries. By 1810 no uninclosed arable remained, although there had still been some in Penny Westone (west of Wibdon), (fn. 39) Okenstub, Hoball, and Oldbury fields in 1741, (fn. 40) and in the five Beachley fields in 1788; (fn. 41) the only uninclosed and intermixed land then remaining was 64 a. of meadow in Tidenham Mead. (fn. 42) Some of the wealthier proprietors of the parish promoted an inclosure of Tidenham Chase in 1775 but the scheme failed, apparently from lack of support, (fn. 43) and inclosure of the chase was finally completed in 1815 under an Act of 1810, which covered Tidenham, Woolaston, and Lancaut. The award also inclosed Tidenham Mead, six smaller commons in Tidenham and Lancaut, and various small parcels of roadside waste, and extinguished the rights of common in the Wharf; it also re-allotted some ancient inclosures. The largest allotment in Tidenham Chase went to the Duke of Beaufort who received 87 a. as lord of the manor and c. 140 a. as a proprietor, a number of the larger proprietors received allotments (none more than 30 a.) for their commoning rights, while 107 a. in the east of the chase (Poor's Allotment) were awarded in trust for the poor; other allotments went to the various tithe-owners, by far the largest being 104 a. (Parson's Allotment) awarded to the vicar. About 380 a. on the west of the chase were sold to cover the expense of the inclosure. Of Poor's Allotment 57 a. was to be used as an animal pasture and 30 a. for a potato garden by those occupying property of a ratable value of £10 or less; (fn. 44) at the time of the inclosure that category included 26 parishioners each of whom was allowed to put a horse, a cow, and 6 sheep in the pasture. (fn. 45) In 1969 Poor's Allotment was managed by a committee of the parish council which had let 35 a. to farmers and allowed animals to be pastured on the remainder in return for payments which were used to cover the maintenance; the common was also then subject to rights of the Nature Conservancy. (fn. 46) The inclosure Act confirmed to the holders all encroachments made on the common land before 1789, which paid no rent to the lord of the manor, but provided that those which paid rent were to be allotted to the lord, who was also to receive all encroachments made after 1789 except those which belonged to other freehold estates in the parish. (fn. 47) The Duke of Beaufort agreed to allow the occupants of the many cottages thus awarded to him to stay on with leases for three lives but many of the cottagers refused those terms, claiming that the cottages belonged to them; about 60 of 162 cottagers in Tidenham and Woolaston were still refusing to take the leases c. 1819 when the duke's agents threatened the chief dissidents with ejectment. (fn. 48) There is some earlier evidence of opposition to the inclosure of the chase; in 1813 a building there, which belonged to the duke and other promoters of the inclosure and was then occupied by a soldier of the Radnor militia, was set on fire. (fn. 49)

The farm-land of the parish has been predominantly meadow and pasture from at least the late 18th century. (fn. 50) Of the five largest farms on the Duke of Beaufort's estate in 1769 Day House (255 a.) had no arable, while Pill House (242 a.), Sedbury farm (225 a.), Tippets farm (122 a.), and Chapel House farm (109 a.) each had between 1/5 and⅓ arable; the estate included six other farms of 30–100 a. and a number of small holdings. (fn. 51) Only 748 a. of arable were recorded in the parish in 1801 when it was growing mainly wheat and barley with smaller acreages of oats, turnips, potatoes, peas, and beans. (fn. 52) Orchards were evidently numerous in the early 19th century, and in 1813 seven of the farms on the manor estate had cider-mills. (fn. 53) There had been an increase in the arable by 1843 when the 3,757 a. of tithable land (which was roughly the same as the area under cultivation in 1801, the tithes of the chase having been commuted by the inclosure award) included 1,567 a. of arable. (fn. 54) In 1901 there was 1,146 a. of arable in Tidenham and Lancaut compared with 3,257 a. of pasture. (fn. 55) In 1856 there were 26 farms in Tidenham and Lancaut; (fn. 56) by 1939 the number had been reduced to 18, of which 8 were over 150 a., (fn. 57) and there were about the same number in 1969. The parish contained very little arable in 1969 and the land was used mainly for dairying or stockraising.

FISHERIES.

Fisheries played an important part in the economy of the parish from the late Saxon period when the survey of Tidenham manor listed 65 basket-weirs (cytweras) in the Severn and 36 in the Wye, and also 4 hackle-weirs (haecweras) on the Wye; the former have been identified with the weirs made up of putchers on a wooden framework and the latter with those in which wattle fences are used in conjunction with nets or putchers to create a fishtrap. Maintenance of the weirs was a prominent item in the services of the geburs of the manor: as part of their weekly works they had to supply 40 large rods or a fother of small rods, and 'build 8 yokes for three ebb tides', which it has been suggested involved the construction of wattlehedges of varying heights to match changes in the tide-level; the geburs were also required to supply a ball of good net-yarn at Martinmas. The lord of the manor took every alternate fish and every rare fish of value from all the weirs on the manor, and when the lord was on the estate no tenant was allowed to sell a fish without informing him. Sturgeon, porpoises, and herrings were specified as among the fish taken, (fn. 58) and the terms of the lease of the manor to Archbishop Stigand suggest that the fisheries were then prized mainly for their catch of herrings (fn. 59) rather than, as in later centuries, for salmon. In 1066 a total of 56½ fisheries was recorded on the manor: in the Severn there were 11 demesne fisheries and 42 held by the villani and in the Wye 1 demesne fishery and 2½ of the villani. William FitzOsbern alienated 2 of the Severn fisheries and 2¼ of those in the Wye, but his son Roger created 2 new ones in the Wye. Walter de Lacy received 2½ of the alienated fisheries, (fn. 60) and in 1199 Lanthony Priory held them by gift of Hugh de Lacy. (fn. 61) In 1306 only 1 demesne fishery was recorded on the manor while 60 were held by the tenants. (fn. 62) The demesne fishery, situated below Chepstow castle, was perhaps Man Weir for which the customary tenants were frequently called on to supply rods and timber in the late 13th century. (fn. 63) The other fisheries were all listed as free tenancies but most may in fact have been held by customary or leasehold tenure, for subsequently the bulk of the fishing rights in both rivers was claimed by the lords of the manor and few fisheries owned by others were recorded.

The Wye fisheries adjoining Tidenham and Lancaut included seven weirs built at intervals across the river. (fn. 64) In 1969 they appeared only as rocky shallows and had apparently been long disused but presumably they were earlier built up higher or supplemented with wood or wattle structures in order to create narrow races in which fish could be trapped. The three highest up the river, Plum Weir, Stow Weir, and Wall Weir all existed in the earlier 12th century when they featured in grants by the de Clares to Tintern Abbey. Plum Weir and Stow Weir were then annexed to an estate at Penterry (fn. 65) on the Monmouthshire side of the river and it is possible that it was only the half of each weir adjoining that bank that was granted and that the other halves remained in the possession of the lords of Tidenham manor, for the fisherman of Plum Weir received a payment in produce from the manor in 1280; (fn. 66) only a share of Wall Weir, belonging to Woolaston manor, was included in the de Clare's grant. Another weir in the Wye called Ithel's Weir, presumably Coed-Ithel Weir adjoining St. Briavels parish, (fn. 67) was granted away from Tidenham manor before 1289 (fn. 68) and also belonged to Tintern Abbey in 1478. (fn. 69) In 1537 Plum Weir, Wall Weir, and Ithel's Weir were regained by the lords of Tidenham when they were included in a grant of Tintern Abbey's possessions to the Earl of Worcester, (fn. 70) and Plum Weir and Wall Weir were marked with Stow Weir on a map of the Duke of Beaufort's property in 1769. (fn. 71) The fishery of Ban-y-Gor Weir, which had been leased from Tidenham manor but was in the lord's hands in 1289, (fn. 72) was probably that below Ban-y-Gor Rocks which was recorded as Hook Weir in 1520. (fn. 73) The name of Chit Weir, the lowest of the seven, presumably preserves the Saxon term for the basket-weirs; it was recorded as belonging to Tidenham manor in 1542. (fn. 74) Walter's Weir at Lancaut may have been the fishery which Nicholas Walter was operating in 1517 when he was proceeded against for withholding the tithes of salmon. A man described as the farmer of the prior's weir who was involved in the same tithe dispute (fn. 75) was presumably holding the weir at Lancaut which with a weir-house was among the former possessions of St. Kynemark's Priory, Chepstow, in 1577; (fn. 76) it was probably Liveoaks Troughs Weir which lies just below a stretch of the river known as Prior's Reach. Five other weirs on the Wye belonged to the Tutshill Farm estate from 1655 but in the mid 18th century Francis Davis's right to use them was challenged by the tenant of the Duke of Beaufort's Wye fisheries. (fn. 77) No fixed fisheries were included in the duke's Wye fisheries adjudged privileged engines in 1866, but only 23 boats using stop-nets between Chepstow Bridge and the mouth of the river. (fn. 78)

A fishery in the Severn at Lyde Rock to the north of the Beachley passage was bought by John Philpot in 1573, (fn. 79) and other Severn fisheries belonged to the estate which William Batherne sold to Alexander James in 1620, (fn. 80) to the Madocke family's estate in 1599, (fn. 81) and to Waldings manor in 1696. (fn. 82) In 1820, however, the Duke of Beaufort was apparently claiming all the fishing rights in the whole stretch of the river adjoining Tidenham. The tenant of the duke's fishery then complained that there was so much poaching that he was unable to make any profit from it as the poachers undersold him in the markets. (fn. 83) At that period the chief part of the fishery was in Beachley Bay where there were both putcherweirs and boats using stop-nets. (fn. 84) In 1837 the tenants of the fishery had erected in Beachley Bay 14 hedges of stakes, containing over 1,700 putchers, and were proceeded against by the conservator of the duke's fisheries for hindering the progress of the salmon upstream to their spawning-grounds. (fn. 85) In 1866 the duke's fishery on the Severn at Tidenham included 754 putchers just south of Slimeroad Pill and 375 at Lyde Rock, as well as 9 boats using stop-nets in Beachley Bay and 4 boats operating near Pill House. (fn. 86) The inhabitants of Beachley included a number of full-time fishermen throughout the 19th century. (fn. 87) During the later 19th century the Duke of Beaufort's Severn and Wye fisheries were leased by Miller Bros. of Chepstow who exported salmon to London, Bristol, and elsewhere. (fn. 88) In 1969 the putcher-weir on the Severn near Slimeroad Pill was still in operation, and stop-net-fishing continued in the Wye.

INDUSTRY AND TRADE. Although considerable numbers of the inhabitants of Tidenham formerly found employment in the fisheries, river trade, shipbuilding, quarries, and other non-agricultural occupations, farming predominated. In 1608 46 men employed in agriculture were listed and 26 employed in trades, (fn. 89) and in 1831 121 families were supported by agriculture and 44 by trade. (fn. 90) In 1969 a majority of the working population found employment in Chepstow.

The water-borne traffic of the Severn and Wye employed a section of the inhabitants of Tidenham from 1608 when six sailors were living in the parish. (fn. 91) In the 1830s five mariners and three pilots were recorded at Beachley, (fn. 92) and pilots lived in the village until the early 20th century. (fn. 93) A mariner of Stroat owned sloops in 1808. (fn. 94) In the early 19th century boatmen, some of them presumably employed on the passage boats at Beachley, formed one of the largest groups of non-agricultural workers in the parish. (fn. 95) There was probably much small trading by water to the pills along the Severn; in 1663 the Tidenham manor court threatened with fines anyone taking carts to meet boats on the Severn at any place but the common pills, (fn. 96) and in the early 19th century manure and coal were among merchandise landed at the pills. (fn. 97) The Wye was much used as a waterway in the 19th century for the export of stone, timber, and bricks from the parish. (fn. 98) As a participant in the trade of the rivers Tidenham was naturally dominated by the neighbouring port of Chepstow and inhabitants of the parish recorded as owning shares in ships in the late 18th and early 19th centuries were mostly in partnership with Chepstow merchants. (fn. 99) Ship-building was recorded at Tidenham from 1591 when a shipwright of Stroat was mentioned, (fn. 100) and there was a shipwright living at Beachley in 1602. (fn. 101) In 1841 there were two shipwrights at Beachley and two ship-carpenters at Tutshill. (fn. 102) The 20th-century shipyard at Beachley is mentioned above. (fn. 103)

Among the natural resources of the parish clay, limestone, wood, and coal found on Tidenham Chase (fn. 104) have all been exploited. Two potters who were presented for digging earth in the GloucesterChepstow road in 1596, (fn. 105) and two others recorded in 1608, (fn. 106) may have worked the pottery-kiln discovered during road-widening by Stroat House in 1957. (fn. 107) By 1793 there was a brickyard at Tallard's Marsh in Sedbury where tiles were also being made in 1838. (fn. 108) Another brickyard, also sited on the Wye for easy distribution of its products by boat, was in operation on the promontory west of Chepstow Bridge by 1815. (fn. 109) Both yards continued production until the late 19th century. (fn. 110) In 1584 the tenants of Tidenham manor reported that there were no stonequarries in the manor, (fn. 111) but in later centuries stone was extensively quarried. In 1750 an order was made for a quarry at Tutshill to be filled in because of the danger to travellers, (fn. 112) and the widespread use of stone for building suggests that by the late 18th century there were a number of quarries in the parish. Five quarries were allotted for road-mending in 1815, (fn. 113) and by the late 19th century there were many small quarries, notably in the chase area, much of the stone having evidently been used in the numerous limekilns of the parish. (fn. 114) In the later 19th and early 20th centuries the Wye cliffs near Lancaut and Tutshill were extensively quarried and the stone exported from the parish by trows or barges. (fn. 115) Two large quarries sited to make use of the railway, on the Wye below Dennelhill Wood and in Coombesbury Wood near Tidenham church, were being worked in 1969. Timber from the woods along the Wye has also been exported. A timber-merchant of Stroat owning shares in sloops and a trow in the 1820s was probably connected with that trade, (fn. 116) and another timber-merchant of the parish died in 1825. (fn. 117)

A small group of metal-workers in the parish in 1608 included two smiths, two nailers, a cutler, and a wire-drawer. (fn. 118) A firm of nailers at Stroat ceased business in 1765. (fn. 119) There were three or four smiths in the parish during the 19th century and there were still two working in the 1930s. (fn. 120) Other craftsmen listed in 1608 were three tailors, a sieve-maker, a weaver, a carpenter, a thatcher, and a shoemaker. (fn. 121) Carpenters were later fairly numerous: six carpenters, four sawyers, and a cabinet-maker were recorded between 1813 and 1822 (fn. 122) and in 1879 there were five carpenters, one also a wheelwright, (fn. 123) at Tidenham; a carpenter was still at work there in 1939. (fn. 124) Shoemakers were recorded until 1906. (fn. 125) Members of the Tyler family followed the trade of mason between 1787 and 1914. (fn. 126)

A mill built on Tidenham manor between 1066 and 1086 (fn. 127) was perhaps that called South Mill which Walter Marshal granted, with suit of multure of all the tenants of the manor, to Tintern Abbey in the 1240s. (fn. 128) A mill on the demesne of Beachley manor was mentioned in 1312 (fn. 129) and presumably stood in Mill field near Badams Court. (fn. 130) Neither mill has been found recorded later, and in 1584 the tenants of Tidenham manor said that they could remember there being only one mill in the lordship, a windmill. (fn. 131) They were presumably referring to the windmill which stood overlooking the Wye above Chapelhouse Wood. It had perhaps ceased working by 1769 when it was called the old windmill. (fn. 132) By 1815 the mill had perhaps been adapted as a folly, for a small house standing near-by was then called Folly House, (fn. 133) and a local tradition that the ruined mill had been a look-out tower later evolved. (fn. 134) The base of the mill, a circular tower of thick rubble masonry, ruined and ivy-covered, remained in 1969.

In 1294 the Earl of Norfolk granted John ap Adam the right to hold a weekly market and an annual fair on his manor of Beachley, (fn. 135) but no later reference to either market or fair has been found.