Development of Settlement

The mention of both Gatten and Westcott in the thirteenth century although fleeting may mean that there was some form of settlement on the periphery of the forest. If so there is no subsequent mention of either until the fifteenth century.

Gatten first occurs in the early C13th when Corbet granted a “cultura” there to Haughmond Abbey. The ford of “Westcota” is mentioned in about 1240 as part of a boundary and this suggests that there was a hamlet at Westcott but there is no further mention until it occurs as a pasture in 14– when it was let to six tenants.

By the early C15th the forest was rented out as pastures. Westcot is mentioned in the Gatten forester’s account in 1424-5 (Society of Antiquaries SAL/MS/560), Iocenshaye (Yokeshaye), Gatten and the “logg close” in 1437-8 and in 1446-7 Marehay, and “Middelhurste” (not identified) are added (SA6000/6173). The subsequent dwellings at Near and Far Gatten, Marehay, Westcott and the deserted site of Yokeshay (demolished in the later C19th) clearly owe their origin to these pasture walks. As these pastures were remote from any villages it must be presumed that there must have been dwellings and this was certainly the case of the demesne dairy and cattle farm at Gatten in 1446-7 (Ibid..).

By the mid seventeenth century farms were well established. In 1649 the royalist Sir Henry Lingen faced with heavy fines by the Parliament for his delinquency attempted to recoup his position by making new leases on his estates. Sara Sanky, her son Humphrey and daughter-in-law Eleanor took Yockeshay, Thomas Phillips took Lower Pawlett, and John Yopp took the “Holleyes” (NLW> Chirk Castle 1679,1680, 1682). A few years later Timothy Middleton set Lower Gatten to John Jones (Ibid. 13339). There was a cottage at the Snape by 1751 (SA112/7/12).

Economy

The mention of hays and a park in the thirteenth century suggests either enclosures for deer or stock rearing. On the adjacent Buildwas Abbey granges at Kinnerton and Ritton, sheep, cattle and goats were being reared in 1291 and a similar economy was practised on the Haughmond Abbey estate in Stitt and on the northern end of the Longmynd at their manor of Boveria where there was at one period a stud.

The Earl of Arundel had 19 oxen, 1 bull and 17 cows at Kinnerton in 1350 although the exact nature of the enterprise is uncertain (VCH. Shropshire, IV, 92). At Capsall later in the bailiwick of Heath on the western side of the Stiperstones the Earls of Stafford had a dairy farm. Sir John Burgh still had a demesne dairy herd and followers at Gatten in 1446-7, consisting of 30 head as well as a herd of wild cattle (animalia silvestria) consisting of 1 bull, 21 cows, 4 oxen, 10 bullocks, 16 steers and 8 calves (SA6000/6173). These were probably white park cattle.

The dairy herd at Pollardine belonging to a chantry foundation at Westbury in 15 consisting of 24 cows and a bull was probably typical of other enterprises at the time. Subsequent evidence is thin but stock rearing, dairying and sheep were the main enterprises.

The tenants of Paulith and Yockes Hay had permission to cut holly for fodder in their leases in 1691 and presentments are found for this on the court rolls of the adjacent manor of Pulverbatch in the sixteenth century (SA 146/7 ; VCH VIII). The same is true of leases in the adjacent manor of Shelve from 1649 (SA3651/B/2/4/1, lease to Howell Watters). Leases on the estate from at least 1649 were for 99 years or three lives the lessee paying a large entry fine and a small annual rent. The tenants owed a heriot at each death of a best beast or a variable sum from £1 to £5 depending on the size of the farm.

In 1691 there were several leases that included two fat hens, capons or geese in the rents and at Westcott the landlord reserved the right to choose ”Two of his best cheeses” or 6s (SA146/7).

In Shelve the tenant of the White Grit farm and one other farm which were regarded as dairies in 1649 paid one of their best cheeses made in the month of June as part of their rent (SA 3651/B/2/4/1: SA1037/2/17, SA1037/9/75-76).

Westcott was one of the best farms in 1691 paying an entry fine of £210, an annual rent of £25. Westcott still retains a sunken dairy with wide cheese shelves and the same sort of dairy survived at Near Bank Farm (Paulith) until c.1980.

In Habberley Office in 178 all farms had cattle and cheese was made (SA / / ). Large numbers of sheep were kept in the later seventeenth century on townships adjacent to the Longmynd and the New Leasows farm was said to have a good sheep run there in. Although direct evidence is lacking the rents for sheep on the Stiperstones Common were said to be included in the Gatten rents.

The tenant of Westcott certainly had sheep there in the late eighteenth century. Tenants in the joint lordship on the western side of the common kept substantial numbers of sheep in the period 1747 –1762 rising exponentially from 252 to 405 and were charged a headage payment (SA ) and all farms in Habberley Office in 178 paid tithe on sheep (SA / / ). Some tenants there grazed sheep for others (SA P / / ). The breed is most likely to have been the hardy, horned black faced “Longmynd” sheep which became extinct in the early 19th century (Plymley, General View of the Agriculture of Shropshire,(1803), 260; VCH.Shropshire, IV, ).

Poultry were also kept and hen rents were specified in some 17th century leases. The tenant of Gittinshay owed two fat geese at the option of the landlord in ( SA / ). All the farms in Habberley Office were credited with a goose in the 178 tithe survey. Unfortunately the 1798 survey of the manor does not record land use and as the township was tithe free there is no tithe map from which the amount of arable can be calculated.

Evidence from the tithe survey of 178 in the adjacent township of Habberley Office in Worthen parish demonstrates that oats, barley and wheat were grown with some clover and limited acreages of meadow and there is no reason to doubt that the same was true in Gatten. Unfortunately none of the surveys indicate the arable acreage and as Gatten was tithe free there are only the occasional field names such as Rye Stubble, Vetch and Clover Pieces that indicate possible land use (Gatten estate archive, survey 1798).

The frequent use of leasow names suggests convertible husbandry and it is unlikely that given the acidic nature of the land that arable husbandry could be maintained for more than a few years without reversion to grass. Thomas Hill tried to encourage the use of lime (SA 112/ / ). The acreage return for Ratlinghope in 1801 enumerates 221 acres oats, 86 acres of wheat, 49 acres of barley and 42 acres of roots (TNA/HO/67/12/197). Achdeacon Plymley recorded in 1793 that the parish had “some dairies, with the breeding of sheep and cattle, are the principal purpose to which this parish is used” (SA 6001/6863 f. 138 verso).

In the later 20th century many of the pastures in the upper part of the valley were drained, ploughed and reseeded including the slopes above the Brook Vessons where some woodland clearance was undertaken. Lower down the valley on the promontory occupied by Marsley farm in Habberley parish there was mixed farming with arable until the early 1990’s and still continuing.

When Thomas Hill bought the estate in 1751 his steward, Thomas Bell considered that it was capable of improvement. The rental was then worth £ . By 1809 a London surveyor, John Claridge, said that the value was £972 “upward”. He had been employed by Lord Berwick to suggest improvements. His fee was 1s. in the pound of rental but as his journey was more than 100 miles he charged £22.16s.9d. for travelling and time making a total of £78.4s. 9d.. A rather expensive way of getting advice which might have been had nearer home at a lower rate! (SA112/6/50/308).