Keeping up with the Jones€ has always been a problem.  Even in medieval times many people lived on credit.  It was fashionable to build a moat around a manor or even a farmhouse.  This was a costly business often resulted in debtors getting into trouble.  They would approach a more wealthy friend or a monastery for help, often at considerable cost.  

We do not know what was the cause of the problem for these two landowners from Lindridge. Click to find out what happened.

The Manor, or Estate of Lindridge was made up of several Manors, waterways, including the river Teme and wasteland.  Sometimes the manors were let out to tenants and sometimes they were farmed directly by the Priory. Unfortunately the records are piecemeal and give only part of the story. From them it becomes clear that land tenure was constantly changing.  

Merlin has pieced these stories together from the records - he thinks that they are correct but he can't be sure, its up to you to decide how accurate you think they are.

CLEARED LAND - farms and villages grew up on the cleared land. lick to find out more about life in the farms and villages

The area was still heavily wooded.  Oak Trees made fine timber for houses and coppicing of hazel was part of the local economy. Tracks through the woods would have frequently been rutted wet and muddy  as peasants drove their lords carts through the woods on their way to market and back.

A medieval peasant would have been familiar with his local river and its tributaries.  Everyone took their grain to the local mill and many must have fished the river. Coracles must have been a familiar sight on the river.  These small boats were sometimes used as ferries and sometimes carried goods - perhaps back to and from market.  Other small flat bottomed boats carried grain and materials for local iron workers and charcoal burners.

The Cellerer was the monk who was responsible for making sure that the monks had adequate food and clothing. The harvests from their lands at Lindridge was sent to the Cellerer in Worcester right up to the dissolution of the monastery in 1539.

Worcester Cathedral Priory was the Bishop€s Cathedral and a Benedictine monastery, the home of a community, or convent, of monks.  

From time immemorial (well certainly from Anglo-Saxon times) the Manor, or Estate of Lindridge had been held from the King by the Priors and Monks of the Priory of Saint Mary in Worcester. They were theTenants-in-Chief in this area and held the land directly from the King. Click to find out how this affected the people who lived in Lindridge.

Lindridge was a very large Manor (Estate) stretching from Knighton on Teme to Pensax.  The River Teme was the boundary in the south.  It included several smaller manors (farms) some of which were let out to tenants and others the monks farmed directly ( Home Farms.)

From time immemorial (well certainly from Anglo-Saxon times )the Manor or Estate  of Lindridge had been held from the King by the Priors and Monks of the Priory of Saint Mary in Worcester. They were theTenants-in-Chief in this area and held the land directly from the King.