Page:VCH Staffordshire 1.djvu/322

 A HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE mining districts of Silverdale and Apedale on the west. Newcastle is therefore a residential rather than an industrial and manufacturing town, and may be regarded as a suburb for the whole of the pottery district. 101 The rainfall varies greatly in different parts of the county, being especially heavy in the hilly moorland regions of the north and north-east. But, taken as a whole, the climate is too damp for corn growing, and both climate and soil are better adapted for pasturage, the central part of the county being composed largely of marls intermixed with a sandy, gravelly soil, found largely also on the borders of the southern coalfield. The rich alluvial deposit of the river valleys produces excellent grass, and even the limestone uplands produce, as Dr. Plot observed in 1686 a short but fine and sweet pasture, and large oxen. Much more [he adds] can they breed and feed cattle in the rich meadows that adorn the banks of Trent, Blithe, Terne, Churnet, Hamps, and Manifold, and more especially on the famous Dove banks. 11 With the exception of a tract of light land round Stafford, and extending thence through Lichfield to Tamworth, dairy-farms are the rule, Uttoxeter being specially famous for its dairy produce, which is sent thence daily to London and other parts of the country. 12 Corn is grown to some extent on the drift plain which lies to the west of the pottery coalfield, but more and more arable land is being turned into pasture, as corn becomes less and less profitable, and the demand for dairy produce increases with the growth of industrial populations in the districts adjoining the agricultural area. The poverty of records for the period between the Domesday Survey (1085) and the opening of the twelfth century makes the student of social history in Staffordshire peculiarly grateful for any indication of the life of the people at this time. One very valuable record for a part of the county is to be found in the Burton Chartulary 13 containing the early surveys of the manors belonging to that monastic foundation, and a number of documents concerning the relationship between the monks and their tenants. The date of the surveys has now been conclusively fixed between the years iioo and ii33, u whilst the other documents refer to times as late as the reign of Edward II. The surveys show that the tenants on the Burton manors were divided into three main classes, consisting of those who paid rent for their land, and in addition performed certain fixed agricultural services ; others who held their land in return for fairly arduous labour services, with food contributions and an occasional payment, such as d. at Martinmas ; and finally a third class of cottars who held a cottage and a croft in return for one day's work per week on the lord's land. Among the last class may be placed the ' bovarii,' a few men on each manor who looked after the lord's oxen for the plough-team, and in return for these services possessed a cottage and a small plot of land. I0a W. Gibson, ' North Staff Coalfield,' Memoirs of the Geolog. Surv. of End. and Wales, iqoc, pp, 220 11 Rob. Plot, The Nat. Hist, of Staff. (1686), 107. 11 In Leland's day Uttoxeter was famous for its dairy produce. See his I tin. (3rd ed. Hearne, 1769), vii, 26, where he says 'the men of the town useth grazing, for there be wonderful pastures upon Dove ' " The Will. Salt Arch. Stic. Coll. v, pt. i. 14 Engl. Hist. Rev., 275 et seq. ; J. H. Round, The Burton Abbey Surv. 2 7 8