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Abstract
Although by the 1830s–40s it is unlikely that any of the 150 fields named ‘Hempland’ or similar in the tithe surveys for the counties of Lancashire, Westmorland and Cumberland, were actually then growing hemp, nevertheless these field-names are a useful source for a study of its cultivation in the region. This paper shows that although such cultivation is found back to the early medieval period, it expanded in the early modern period, moving in some places beyond cultivation for consumption on the farm where it was grown, to commercial growth for the rope-making and sail-cloth industries, before losing out in the eighteenth century to imports from the Baltic. The distribution of ‘Hemp…’ field-names, and information from other sources, reveals that cultivation was restricted to the lowlands of the region, notably in proximity to the mosslands, and almost entirely avoiding the Lake District and hilly regions to the east. Where grown for household use, the fields were generally small, often half an acre or less, and were often directly attached to the homestead: while documentary evidence shows it was mainly female household members who were responsible for the cultivation and processing of the hemp, and for turning it into cloth and cord.
Notes
1 D Walker, ‘The Dates of Human Impacts on the Environment at Ehenside Tarn, Cumbria’, Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society (TrCWAAS), 3rd ser., 1 (2001), pp. 7–16.
2 Margaret Cox et al, ‘Early Medieval Hemp Retting at Glasson Moss. Cumbria in the Context of the Use of Cannabis Sativa During the Historic Period’, TrCWAAS new ser., 100 (2000), pp. 131–150.
3 Henry Sweet, The Student’s Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon (Oxford, 1911), p. 86.
4 John Todd, The Lanercost Cartulary (Cumbria County Record Office MS DZ/1) (Surtees Society, 1997), p. 254.
5 Elizabeth Lamond (ed), Walter of Henley’s Husbandry (London, 1890), pp. 62–63. Note that the reference to ‘the court’ seems to relate to the land over which the relevant manorial court (and hence the provost), has authority.
6 Petrus Crescenti, De Omnis Agriculturae Partibus (Henricus Petri, Basel, 1598), Liber III, p. 75.
7 H. Godwin, ‘The Ancient Cultivation of Hemp’, Antiquity, 41 (1967), pp. 42–49.
8 Charles Stevens, The Countrey Farme (London, 1606), p. 8. First published in French as Maison Rustique, by Charles Estienne (Paris, 1570).
9 John Wilson, Our Farm Crops, vol. 1 (London, 1859), pp. 326–327.
10 24 Hen VIII. C.4 An Acte concerning sowing of Flaxe and Hempe (1532–3).
11 33 Henry VIII c.17 An Acte for Contynuaunce and Confirmacon of certen Actes, (1541–2).
12 William & Mary 1691, c.3, An Act for the better ascertaining of Tythes of Hemp and Flax (Rot.Parl pt1, no 3).
13 Wm Harrison, ‘Description of Britain’ in Holinshed’s Chronicles, vol 1 (1587).
14 John Fitzherbert, The Boke of Husbandry (London, 1530), fol. 49.
15 Thomas Tusser, Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry, London (1573/1638 edn). Fimble was regarded by early writers as the female plant, and carl the male, though later writers put it the other way round. All agreed though that fimble, harvested first (and hence known as Summer Hemp, produced the finest fibre for spinning, while carl, or seed-hemp (also known as Winter Hemp) had coarser fibre. In fact, the plants which bore stamens have taller stems (up to two metres), and ripen earlier, than the plants which bore pistils (and hence seeds), with the former being male and the latter female.
16 Stevens, Countrey Farme, p. 8.
17 Stevens, Countrey Farme, p. 8.
18 Walter Blith The English Improver Improved, or the Survey of Husbandry Surveyed (London, 1652), p. 249.
19 Blith, English Improver, p. 251.
20 Blith, English Improver, p. 253.
21 ‘Parliamentary Proceedings of Lords and Commons for 1791’, Gentleman’s Magazine, 61.1 (1791), p. 543.
22 Letter from ‘Mercator’ to ‘Mr Urban’, 7 Jan 1808, Gentleman’s Magazine, 78.1 (1808), pp. 27–28.
23 John Whyte, ‘Hemp’, in Communications to the Board of Agriculture, vol. IV (London, 1895), p. 187.
24 John Wilson, Our Farm Crops, vol. 1 (London, 1859), pp. 325, 329.
25 Wilson, Farm Crops, pp. 337, 339.
26 William Camden, Brittania (London, 1637), p. 819. The identification of the location as probably being on the Solway Plain, (having crossed the Solway by ferry rather than ford), was made by Canon James Wilson, ‘The passage of the Border by Aeneas Sylvius in the winter of 1435–6’ TrCWAAS new ser., 23 (1923). pp. 17–28. This cites the original Latin source, published in 1584, as saying the one hundred women were sitting round the fire ‘cannabumque mundantes’ – and cleaning hemp. This word was translated by Camden’s translator, Philemon Holland, with the unusual dialect word ‘hitchell’, which is related to the word ‘heckle’ meaning a carding instrument for dressing hemp (Wright, English Dialect Dictionary, vol. III (London, 1905) p. 149.
27 Angus J L Winchester (ed), Thomas Denton: A Perambulation of Cumberland 1687–88 (Surtees Society, 2003), p. 228.
28 John Lucas, History of Warton Parish (1710–40) ed. by Andy Denwood (Lancaster, 2017).
29 Frank Tyrer, The Great Diurnal of Nicholas Blundell, Volume Two, 1712–1719. (Record Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, 1970), p. 222. Strick Hemp here means a handful or bundle of dressed hemp, ready for spinning. See Wright, English Dialect Dictionary, vol. V, p. 814.
30 Tyrer, Great Diurnal, pp. 132; 227.
31 Caesar Caine, ‘The Borough Court of Egremont’, TrCWAAS new ser., 17 (1917), pp. 48–74.
32 Caine, ‘Egremont’, pp. 57–58.
33 Rev J Whiteside, ‘Paines made at Shap’, TrCWAAS new ser., 3 (1903), pp. 150–162.
34 J. D. Marshall, ‘The Domestic Economy of the Lakeland Yeoman, 1660–1749’, TrCWAAS new ser., 73 (1973). pp. 190–219.
35 William D. Shannon, ‘Sleech Salt Making from the Solway to the Mersey in the Medieval and Early-Modern Period’, Northern History, 60.1 (2023), pp. 28–51.
36 Francis Grainger, ‘Agriculture in Cumberland in Ancient Times’, TrCWAAS new ser., 9 (1909), pp. 120–146.
37 Christopher Morris (ed.), ‘The illustrated journeys of Celia Fiennes c.1685–c.1712 (London, 1982),’ p. 169.
38 J D Marshall, ‘Kendal in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries’, TrCWAAS new ser., 75 (1975), pp. 188–257.
39 Barbara Pidcock, ‘The Spinners and Weavers of Swarthmoor Hall, Ulverston, in the Late 17th Century’, TrCWAAS new ser., 95 (1995), pp. 153–167.
40 Michael Wright, ‘Hand-loom Weaving in Warton through the Centuries’, The Mourholme Magazine of Local History, 3 (2002–03), pp. 12–17.
41 Angus J L Winchester (ed.), England’s Landscape: The North West (London, 2006), p. 116.
42 F J Singleton, ‘The Flax Merchants of Kirkham’. Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, 126 (1976), pp. 73–108.
43 Singleton, ‘Flax Merchants’. pp. 73–108.
44 Singleton, ‘Flax Merchants’, pp. 96, 98.
45 John Holt, General View of the Agriculture of the County of Lancaster (London, 1795), p. 70.
46 A. Pringle, General View of the County of Westmoreland (Edinburgh, 1794), p. 313.
47 John Whitaker, The History of Manchester in Four Books (London, 1771), p. 381.
48 M. Turner, ‘Arable in England and Wales: Estimates from the 1801 Crop Return’, Journal of Historical Geography, 7.3 (1981), pp. 291–302.
49 William James Garnett ‘Farming of Lancashire’, Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, 10 (1849), pp. 1–51: Jonathan Binns, Notes on the Agriculture of Lancashire with Suggestions for its Improvement (Preston, 1851).
50 Frank W. Garnett, Westmorland Agriculture 1800–1900 (Kendal, 1912), p. 127.
51 Rev Mr Hodgson, ‘Westmorland as it Was’, in The Remains of John Briggs (Kirby Lonsdale, 1825), p. 203.
52 Cumberland Farm Life: Memorandums of Old Times (Whitehaven, 1869), pp. 9, 16, 17.
53 Joan Thirsk, Alternative Agriculture: A History (Oxford, 1997).
54 Kenyon Gibson, ‘Hemp in the British Isles’, Journal of Industrial Hemp, vol. 11.2 (2006), pp. 57–67.
55 John Field, A History of English Field-Names (London, 1993); Angus J. L. Winchester, Lake District Field-Names: A Guide for Local Historians (Lancaster, 2017); Paul Cavill, A New Dictionary of English Field-Names (Nottingham, 2018).
56 All these examples come from tithe apportionments from Lancashire, Westmorland or Cumberland. Note that throughout this paper the pre-1974 county names and boundaries are used.
57 William D. Shannon ‘“An excellent improver of the soil”: Marl and the Landscape of Lowland Lancashire’, Agricultural History Review, 68.2 (2020), pp. 141–167.
58 ‘Some field-names have been shown to survive for over eight hundred years’, Cavill, Dictionary of Field-Names, p. v.
59 Roger J. P. Kain & Richard R. Oliver, The Tithe Maps of England & Wales: A Cartographic Analysis and County-by-County Catalogue (Cambridge, 1995).
60 The Genealogist, https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/.
61 David Mills, The Place Names of Lancashire (London, 1976), p. 139; Eilert Ekwall, The Place-Names of Lancashire (Manchester, 1922); p. 197.
62 James Stockdale, Annales Caermoelenses (Ulverston, 1872), p. 592; see also Pat Rowland, David Shore, Phil Rowland & Jennifer Gallagher, ‘A Note on aspects of the flax and hemp industry on the Cartmel peninsula in the 17th to 19th centuries’, Transactions of the Cumberland & Westmorland Antiquarian & Archaeological Society 3rd ser., 21 (2021), pp. 263–272.
63 Gibson, ‘Hemp in the British Isles’ p. 61.
64 J. Aikin, A Description of the Country from Thirty to Forty Mile Round Manchester (London, 1795), p. 315.
65 Aikin, Description, p. 302.
66 M A Atkin, Medieval Land-use in the Ancient Parish of Kirkby Kendale’, TrCWAAS 3rd ser., 12 (2013), pp. 117–137.
67 Cavill, Dictionary of Field Names, p. 202.
68 Pat Rowland et al, ‘A note on aspects of the flax and hemp industry’ on the Cartmel peninsula in the 17th to 19th centuries’, TrCWAAS (3rd series), vol. 21 (2021), pp. 263–272.
69 Rowland et al, ‘Aspects of the flax and hemp industry’, p. 269.
70 G P Jones, ‘The Witherslack Survey 1736’, TrCWAAS new ser., 69 (1969), pp. 205–220.
71 Jones, ‘Witherslack’, p. 210.
72 Cox, ‘Hemp retting at Glasson Moss’, p. 147.
73 G E Moser, ‘Kendal Parish Church Registers’, TrCWAAS old ser., 3 (1878), pp. 49–63.
74 Stockdale, Annales Caermoelenses, p. 387. Crook Wheel is still marked on the current Ordnance Survey map (1:25000), west of Cark, just before the River Eea reaches the Bay.
75 Oxford Archaeology North, Ulverston Rope Walk, Cumbria: Evaluation Report (Cumbria County Councik, 2005).
76 The East Prospect of Whitehaven in the County of Cumberland, engraved by R. Parr, from a painting by Matthias Read, 1738. A copy can be seen online via the British Library, King George III Topographical Collection Flickr account at Maps K.Top.10.24.a.
77 OAN, Ulverston Rope Walk, pp. 9–10.
78 Rev W S Sykes, ‘Notes on Kirksanton ‘Tenter-runs’ and other South Cumberland sites’, TrCWAAS new ser., 24 (1924), pp. 242–246.
79 Rev T N Postlethwaite, ‘Some papers from Bardsea Hall Muniment Chest’, TrCWAAS new ser., 20 (1920), pp. 154–172.
80 The Victoria history of the county of Lancaster, vol. 3, p. 261; vol. 4, pp. 23, 30, 323; vol. 8, p. 307, 348n.