Medieval Settlement Research Group Annual Report 16, 2001 Medieval Fishing and Settlement on the Sussex Coast Mark Gardiner (School of Archaeology and Palaeocology, Queen' s University of Belfast) The presenl Sussex CQastline between Selsey Bi ll on the west and Hastings on the cast, a distance of about 100 kms, is now almost entirely built up with a succession of holiday resorts and retirement towns. By conlrast, the medieval coastline was almost entirely undeveloped, and few settlements were located immediately beside the sea. Th.is did not mean that medieval communities turned their backs upon the sea, but maritime resources were only o ne element in the ir economy whi ch was otberwisc largely dependent upon agricul ture. The coast and the o pe n sea beyond were a reso urce - like meadow, woodland or common - whic h were actively used to contribute 10 a diverse economy. that there were relatively few areas which were unsuitable for d rawing up boats. The band of coastal cliffs from Brighton to Eastbourne, and the cliffs east of Hastings as far as Pett were largely devoid o f landing places. For tbe remainder, boats could be dra wn up over the gently shelving beaches and up on to the shingle. The numerous rivers also provided landing p laces for ships and boats. Yet if there were few geographical limitations on the location of fis hing bases, there were definite preferences. The area between Worthing and Brighton appears to have been particularly favo ured. There were ports of some size at Pende, Shorebam and Aldri ngton, and concentrations of boats at Hove and Brighton.6 Equally, the area from Bulverhythe eastwards into Ke nt seems to have had oumerous fi shing bases and a string of harbours. Some ind ication of the nature of the use of the coast is given in a surviving file of admiralty inquests, mainly of the fifteenth century, covering the eastern end of Sussex and Kent. The court, whose j urisdiction was limited to the area bclow high-water mark, met on the seashore to inquire into find alls - goods and sea-mammals washed up or fo und at sea - and also into fish ing 'engines' or fi xed nets set up on the coast or w ithin estuaries. 1 Amongst the items presented in the court were an empty barrel found floating at sea worth l/.d and an anchor found on the foreshore worth 3d . The discovery upon the shore of porpoises and fi sh descri bed as remae suggest that littoral commlmities kept an attentive watch, since these would have been of little value if allowed to putrefy.2 Shellfish were also collected from both ro<;ky and sandy coasts. For exam ple, large numbers oflimpet shells were found on an isolated late medieval fann at Bullock Down, high on the Down land above Eastbourne coast, possibly, as suggested by the excavator, gathered to feed to pigs kept in a sty. Limpets (Patella vulgala) require rocky conditions, but the cockles (Cardium edufe) found in a midden in the medieval churchyard at Broomhill near Camber imply the presence of a sandy foreshore . Oysters are commonly found, not only on excavations at coastal sites, but also further inland. A case in 1386 records the use of a drag at an estUary near Cooden in east Sussex to collect oysters and mussels on a large scale. l We can postulate a num ber of different relationships between the fishing bases, which were often isolated buildings fo r storing fi shing tackle, known locally as 'shops', and the nearby settlements where the fishermen li ved. 1 The firs t four types represent examples of inhabited settlements at the fishing base; the fina l two have more d istant settlements. I . A small number of settlements developed around the sites of fi shing bases, the hamlet of Saltcote Street near Rye being a particularly good examp le. This lay on a road, now called New England Lane, to the ferry across the Rye estuary. Documentary sources identi fy it as a centre for fi shing in the fifteenth century and uup ub lished archaeological excavations have revealed a considerable quantity o f lead net-weights.! A further example may have been the nearby hamlet on Iham Hill which preceded the foundation of the town of New Winchelsea in the late thirteenth century and inc luded a payment of herring for the rents resolute. 9 2. Some fi shing bases developed into p orts w ith pe rmane nt settlements as a conseque nce o f the economic opportunities o ffered by both fi shing and trading. Bulverhythe near Hastings was both a fi shing centre and a port, thougb was evidently in decline in the fifteenth century.l0 On a grander scale, the town o f Brig hton seems to have begun a s a fi shing settlement and later a p lanned settlement was laid out beside the coast. As a consequence, the c hurch dedicated to St N icholas, the patron saint of sailors, lay higher up on the downland outside the medieval town. Brighton was evident:,ly a centre for fi shing from the late eleventh century when Domesday Book records that it paid a render of herriug. 11 Fishing was widely practised from the Sussex coast and estuaries in the medieval period using both fixed nets and boats. Not all areas were suitable fo r fi xed nets or k iddles, though the estuar ies and also the sharp ly shelving coast on the south side of Oungeness in the adj oining county of Kent undo ubtedl y were. Later practice suggests that kiddles may have taken the fonn of [lets hung from poles set between high- and low-water mark. A rental of c. 1300 coveri ng Dungeness records tbat there were nine plots used for kiddles, each paying 2S.4 Fish.ing from boats was more widespread, numerous settlements along the coast providing bases for fi shing vessels, many of which arc listed in a record of 1385 when a loll was imposed on fish landed to provide for the construction o f the town wall for Rye.' The list suggests 3 . Some villages lay on the edge of an estuary, including those in the chalk valleys where the springs emerge at a low altitude . Fishing bases were therefore close to the settlement in any case. Southease in the Ouse valley is a possible example. '2 6 4. Minor settlements may have developed at fishing bases w hieh were peripheral to main centre of Occupation, Eastbourne being a possible instance. The main settlement was located around the parish church in Boume valley, but there may have been a minor settlement on the coast at South Cliff, where the chapel of St Gregory was located.13 suitable for the fishennen nearby. This may have been the situation at Broomhill near Camber w here the creek marked by the Wainway Channel offered numerous sites for mooring fish ing boats. Excavation has shown that fi shing was practised from a number of settlements in the vicinity.15 The outline given here is sufficient to indicate that the relationship between fis hing and settlement remains to be explored in detail. However, there is a fundamental problem in pursuing archaeological evidence in areas such as Sussex wi th 'soft' coastlines which have been much eroded since the Middle Ages. The opportunities for locating coastal settlements and fishing bascs in the fie ld are likely to be more restricted than in areas with more resistant rocks, such as those studied by Fox in Devon. 5. Fox has shown that in south Devon it was common for fishing huts to be locate quite separately from the main settlement. This was also the case at Dungeness which was used by fishenn en from the town ofLydd, a few miles distant. l4 6. The final possibility is that there was no single fishing base, but that vessels were drawn up at various places along an inlet, presumably at sites which were most P(ublic) R(ecord) O(ffice) EI01l67123. E(ast) S(ussex) R(eoord) O(ffice) AMS 2287 is 3 stray from the I'RO file. For the background to the file, see Select Pleas in the Courl ofAdmiralty 2, ed. R.G. Marw.en (Selden Society! I, 1898), xxii. PRO E101f67123, mm. 18, 3 1; M.F. Gardiner, The exploitation of sea-mammals in medieval England: bones and the ir social context, Archaeological Journal 154 (1997), 173-86. P.L. Drewctt, The cxcavation of the later medieval farm in Kiln Combe, in P.L. Drewett (ed.), The Arc/weology of Bu{/ock Down. Eastbourne. East Sussex: The Development ofa Landscape (Sussex Archaeological Society monograph I, 1982), 164, 18 1-2; unpublished excavations at Broomhill church; Seleel Cases of Trespass from Ihe King's (A)urls 1307-1399 2, ed. M.S. Amold (Selden Society 103, 1987),277-9. PRO E I 0 1/67/23, mm. J5, 45, 53; CuslUmals of Battle Abbey. in Ihe Reigns of Edward I and &!ward 11. 1282-1312, ed. S.R. Scargill-Bi rd (Camden Society new series 41, 1887), 50; PRO E315/S7. f. 35v. Calendar of Patem Rolls 1381-85, 588. Victoria County History of Sussex 6, i, 33-4, 47; Calendar of Close Rolls 1227-31, 199; Calendar of Pa/em Rolls 1292-1301, 584; Thir/een CUSlUlllals of the Sussex Manors of/he Bishop ofChichester, ed. W.O. Peckham (Sussex Record Socicty 31, 1925),84; for Brighton see note I1 below. ; The local term for buildings for storing fishing gear is preseIVed in Fishshf)p Farm in Selsey and in ฀฀฀฀nineteenth-century place-name Shops Dam in South Lancing. I ESRO RYE 6013 . • W.M. Honum, The founding of New Winchelsea, Sussex Archaeological Coffections 88 (1949), 26. ,. ESRO SASlCOfBn2; BL Add Roll 31579; PRO El 2214712. " For fishing at Brighton in the early fifteenth century, see Arundel Castle Muniments A 363; Domesday Book i, 26b. ,1 Domesday Book i, 17b. For laler fishing activity at Southease, see C.E. Brent, Rural employment and population in Sussex between 1550 and 1640, Sussex Archaeological Collect ions 114 (1976), 32. 13 PRO ruSTI194IA, Ill. I L I ' H.S.A. Fox, The Evolution of the Fishing Village: Landscape and Society alollg the SoUlh Devon Coast. /086- 1550 (2001); M.F . Gardiner, A sensol.al fishermen's setllemetll at Dungeness, Kenl, Medieval Seulemem Research Group Annual Report I1 (1996), 18-20. 11 ESRO RYE 99/5; L. Barber, Medieval rural settlement and economy at Lydd: preliminary results from the excavations at Lydd Quarry, in 1. Eddison, M. Gardincr and A. Long (eds), Romney Marsh: Environmental Change and Human Occupa/irm in a Coastal Lowland (1998), 103-4. Medieval and Later Coastal Settlement and Infrastructure in Scotland by Paula Martin (Department of History, University of Dundee) Scotland has plenty ofcastles, but few domestic medieval remains, a hilly interior, few navigable rivers, and a long coastline. Before the nineteenth century roads were poor, and most goods were moved by sea. Scottish royal burghs were self-governing, with a monopoly on foreign trade until 1672. Al most half were established in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, including the main east coast ports ofInvemess, Aberdeen, Perth, Dundee, Edinburgh and BelWick. Another twenty per cent represent a second wave of foundations in the sixteenth century. Of these, almost all were coastal, many ofthem around the Firth of Forth. Like earlier burghs, these were built on the raised beach, but soon expanded down at sea level, or deve loped a separate scatown. They rep resent the heyday of Scottish North Sea trade, before the Acl of Union ill 1707. After this the focus of trade moved west, 10 America and the West Indies. Glasgow, created a royal burgh in 1611 , soon grew rich on the tobacco trade. Most burghs were small, with a population of under 1000. Those on the coast contained enough fishermen to supply the rest of the town. If numbers dropped, fisher families were imported. Commercial sales of fish involved either proximity to a large market, or dealing with the Dutch busses which processed fi sh at sea. For most coastal burghs the first harbour works, simple breakwaters, date from the sixteenth century. It was often the nineteenth 7