One thing we know about the Norman invaders is that they were smart cookies and pretty good at administration especially in matters of property ownership. So it's a bit surprising that when we look closely at the grant of the Manor of Barnoldswick we find some quite fundamental problems. The first one crops up when the Perambulation was done to fix the boundaries of the gift to the Cistercians. Remember that in those days there were no maps and so it was essential for the boundaries of a piece of land to be 'perambulated', in simple terms the Lord walked round with his scribes and physically followed the boundary which they write down as they progressed.
We are lucky because as this was part of the legal title to the manor, the record of the perambulation survives. The bit that interests us is : 'By the stream called Blackbroc (Black Brook, County Brook) and up the moor to Gailmers (now submerged under Whitemoor reservoir) and so directly to Ellesagh (roughly were Lister Well is) across Blacko moor and up Oxgill to Alainsete (the summit of Burnt Moor) and thence to the ancient ditch between Middop and Coverdale (the line of what is now called Coal Pit Lane)'. Incidentally, whenever you see a summit named 'seat', this is where the party paused during a perambulation while the scribes drew a depiction of the land around, their version of a map. Percy's Seat above Skipton is another one.
All well and good you might think but there is a big problem. When the party reached Blacko Hill they should have turned right along the Black Dyke because this was the boundary between the Royal Forest of Blackburnshire and Barnoldswick. Remember we were always a frontier manor. By going forward to Oxgill and back towards Weets, de Lacy included Admergill which was not his to give away. This mistake led to a court case which lasted 200 years until in 1340, after a court case lasting over 13 years between Queen Isabella and the Abbey of Kirkstall, it was judged to be the property of Kirkstall. Despite this Isabella retained Admergill in the royal forest and another court case started in 1374. By 1395 Richard II had enough confidence to grant Admergill to one William, son of Robert de Redcliff as a vaccary (stock Farm). There is more but we have flagged up the problem.
There was a separate problem. Henry de Lacy was not the chief lord of the grant he had given, which he held of Hugh Bigod, Earl of Norfolk, by a yearly payment which had lapsed for many years, and about which de Lacy had said nothing to the Abbot of Fountains. At a later period this led to trouble, and the temporary dispossession of the monks of their lands in Barlick.
Call me suspicious if you will but there is something funny going on here. What we have to do is try to work out what it was.
Henry should have turned right here along the Black Dyke.
