Whilst most of the website remains the same, after all so does Burntwood's history, below is 'The Burntwood Chronicle'.

'The Burntwood Chronicle' will change regularly with different pieces of history for Burntwood.

The name Burntwood or ‘Brendewode’, derives from the burning of a heath in Cannock Forest by the vill of Hammerwich; a presentment of the incident was made at the forest proceedings in 1296. This is the first mention of Burntwood in history.

England was no more urbanised in 1296 than in 1086. There were more and larger towns, but there were three times more people.

The process of assarting - bringing new land into cultivation - was in progress by the 12th Century. The lords of the manors, and the Crown in the case of the forests, often permitted such encroachments in return for fines and rents; often the lords themselves were responsible for the process. In 1155 Henry II granted Bishop Durdent 1,500 acres assarted around Lichfield and out of Cannock Forest during the troubled reign of Stephen; the bishop seems to have paid £100 for the grant.

The main crops grown were wheat, rye, barley, oats, peas, and occasionally beans. Cattle were supported on the heaths of Cannock forest. The bishop had substantial herds on his manors there in 1298. Pigs too were important both to the lords and the peasants, with the forest providing pannage (feed in the form of acorns).

The main method of farming in medieval Staffordshire, was open arable fields and meadows; the farmers within a manor had strips scattered in three or more fields, similar allotments in the meadows, and pasture and timber rights in the uncultivated land beyond. Crops were rotated annually, each field or part of it having a different crop on each sowing, or else being left fallow; after the crops had been gathered the land was given over to grazing.

The manorial structure which went with open-field farming consisted of a lord, free tenants paying him rent, villeins or unfree tenants owing extensive labour services on the lord’s own land as well as rents and dues, and a labouring class which was landless or nearly so.

Services owed at various times of the year by villeins in the 13th Century would include:- reaping, mowing, hoeing, carrying hay and wood, gathering nuts, and looking after the lord’s animals. It was by then, however, becoming customary on many manors for the lord to take cash instead of services from his villeins.

On the bishop’s manors of Cannock and Rugeley in 1298 there were no unfree tenants; on the other hand nearly two-thirds of the tenants were holding 5 acres or less, largely land assarted from the forest.

Staffordshire suffered during the famine which swept Europe between 1315 and 1317. The Black Death reached Staffordshire in 1349, there was a second outbreak of plague in 1361.

Before 1400 there were examples of land lying out of use, arable being used as pasture, and farm buildings fallen into ruins. As a result concessions were made to tenants to encourage repairs and improvements. The lord’s difficulties encouraged peasants to claim greater freedom. In the 1370’s it was stated that the services due to the nuns of Farewell, near Lichfield, had not been performed since 1349.

Landlords attempted to recover their losses by leasing out more and more of the land which in the 13th Century they had cultivated for profit. Those who continued to farm had to pay higher wages. Stock farming increased too.

Another factor modifying early medieval farming was the gradual inclosure of the common arable and pasture and their conversion to individual use. Both lords and tenants were involved in the process in Staffordshire by the 13th Century, often provoking violent opposition from those who wished to continue in the enjoyment of their common rights. A government inquiry of 1517 shows in Staffordshire that since 1489 only 488 acres had been inclosed, most of it for pasture, and little evidence of eviction was recorded.