anything untoward occurring, as any crowd in the city was likely to contain cut-purses and other rogues. They wandered about looking at the animals and the antics of the crowd, enjoying the occasion.
The same area was used on other days of the week as the livestock market, being close to Newgate and providing easy access to the slaughter-yards at the Shambles. Despite farmers regularly bringing wagons to clear the manure from the ground for them to use as fertiliser, the party had worn stout shoes which were soon mired.
Alan saw a large bay charger that he liked the look of and watched its race. It proved not to be the swiftest of the animals, but had a smooth action and ample stamina. After its race it recovered its breath quickly and fidgeted only moderately as it received its post-race rub-down from its groom. Alan had the saddle replaced, adjusted the stirrup straps and inserted the bit before taking the horse through its paces. Its smooth action made the ride pleasant and on dismounting Alan struck a deal with the owner. He handed over his earnest-money deposit, arranging to have the animal delivered to his stable on Monday when the balance of the money would be paid.
The next morning Robert rode for the Welsh border. Several days later Alan and Anne, with their escort and the newly acquired horse, traveled through the Great Forest to overnight at Norton near Chelmsford after a journey of 42 miles, and then the further 36 miles to Thorrington the following day.
CHAPTER SIX
Thorrington and Wales Early June 1068
At Thorrington the bucolic pursuits of agriculture were in full swing. The crops had been sown months before, had germinated and were growing. Fields had turned bright green with the new growth. Now the men were ploughing the fallow land. Small groups of three or four men walked behind the heavy wooden mouldboard ploughs pulled by four straining and bellowing oxen, shouting encouragement or goading the beasts with whips or sharp sticks as required. The light soil in Tendring Hundred allowed the use of half-teams of four oxen, compared to the heavier soils elsewhere which required eight beasts.
Cows had calved, sheep lambed and pigs farrowed, the young trotting at the heels of their mothers or gamboling nearby.
Ditches were being cleared and sheep shearing commenced, which would continue for several months. The woman were gathering fruit and making preserves for use during the winter- pickling, drying, making jams and chutneys. Most of this activity would continue through the warmer months as different fruits ripened, but the first apples were already ripening and suitable for placing in barrels for storage in cool places. Later would come the other varieties of apple, and pears, quinces, plums, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, blackcurrants and redcurrants. Generally the villagers didn’t preserve food in honey, which was usually sold as one of their few ‘cash crops’, but with her access to imports that were relatively inexpensive to her Anne would also, in addition to the local traditional methods of drying or making jams, arrange preservation of fruit with olive oil or candying with sugar.
Alan’s trusted lieutenants the Normans Hugh and Roger had been given the manors of Great Oakley and Bradfield respectively to administer- not enfeoffed but appointed as seneschals. At Staunton were the other Normans, Robert as seneschal and Warren training the local men as archers and spearmen, with the Englishman Leofwine leading the ten huscarles and Ledmer commanding the ten Wolves mounted men-at-arms permanently stationed on the Welsh border.
At Thorrington in Tendring Hundred the Welshman Owain of Cardiff was responsible for training some of the fyrdmen of Alan’s manors to use the longbow, and the Englishmen Brand commanded ten huscarles. Edric, Ainuf and Acwel each commanded a troop of ten Wolves, one troop of which was stationed at each of Thorrington, Great Oakley and Bradfield. Barclay, Aethelbald and Oswy commanded squads of part-time archers who had undergone a period of training with Owain in the use of the longbow, but whose members were scattered amongst the manors under Alan’s control. There were five squads of English foot-soldiers spread amongst Alan’s eight manors, not as highly trained or well equipped as the huscarles, but each with helmet, sword or spear, shield and a waist-length byrnie vest of chain-mail, and who had each undergone a period of basic training and continued to train regularly at least twice a week.
On arrival at Thorrington Alan called a meeting of his officers to be held the next day at noon. Messengers spurred their horses as they departed, to try to reach their destinations and deliver their message before dark. Alan ate an early meal, hurriedly prepared by Otha the cook from whatever was on hand. Given they were hungry from their journey there was no complaint at the simple fare.
Alan spent most of the evening in discussion with the Welshman. “Owain, I don’t want to insult you, but some of us will be marching to fight on the Welsh border in a few days. I don’t want to put you in a position where you have any personal conflict between your duties and your loyalties, and I propose to have you here in Thorrington continuing to train bowmen, although many of those in my employ will be in the west. I trust that this is acceptable to you?”
Owain looked uncomfortable and fidgeted a little on his seat at the small table in Alan’s office just off the Hall. “I understand you’ll be going to Chester and fighting against Bleddyn in Gwynedd? I’m from Cardiff in the south, a hundred miles from where you’ll be campaigning. Indeed the men of the north are as foreign to my people as those of Herefordshire, or more so. Bleddyn is from Gwynedd and means little to me. I’d have no difficulty in going with you to Rhos in the north and being your man.
“To give a brief history of Wales, our land is divided into parcels of a hundred households, or a
“In times of a strong king there is less raiding along the border- but when the king decides to cross the border the warriors number in the thousands, not dozens. Welshmen are nearly all warriors, although not with the formal training that you give your men. They move fast in attack and are deadly in ambush. Because of their disposition and lack of training as a unit they don’t fare well in battles where the opponents are face to face. They know that, and avoid such confrontations.
“FitzOsbern will go into Wales wanting to force a battle. That won’t happen. There’ll be ambushes and night raids, and a man with a bow behind every bush. Villages will be abandoned ahead of his troops, with no people present and the livestock that constitutes wealth in Wales driven away and hidden. FitzOsbern will burn the villages, but a wattle and daub thatched cottage takes only days to rebuild.
“The Welsh made a different choice to the English, after the Saxons pushed us out of the lush lands of what is now Herefordshire. We chose to inhabit the bare and windswept hills, raising cattle and sheep, rather than living on the lowlands and tilling the land. The south and north coasts have arable land and there are a number of river valleys that would support more agriculture, but our rulers have chosen to live in the uplands. The valleys and coastal lands are inhabited and used by those who are seen as inferior. The swamps in the main remain undrained and the vegetation uncleared. Most of the arable land is still oak forest or swamp, or covered in briar and gorse. Moving over the hills and the mountains is difficult, but no more so than moving through the tangled undergrowth in the valleys. There are only two significant towns, Cardiff and Caernafon, both with about 2,000 souls. In the main, my people live in the hills in small villages, hamlets and isolated farms.
“This makes it difficult to subjugate the land, or more particularly the people. It also ensures its perpetual poverty. The English took from us what is now Hereford and Cheshire, lands of rolling hills suitable for agriculture.
