24. The village in the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries
From 1428 to 1616 a Lacon was Lord of Harley Manor. Other than this there is little evidence of village life other than what is contained in the Manorial Rolls.
The Manorial Rolls are held in the National Archives, Kew. They record business carried out in the Manor Court before a Steward.
The Manor was the principal administrative unit of medieval estates. Until 1723 manor records were likely to have been hand written in Latin, making reading difficult.
The business recorded usually dealt with local matters. For example, Copyhold land transfers, managing the open fields, settling disputes between individuals and manorial offences.
The attempt by John de Bruyn to aquire the landholdings of Robert de Harley in 1323, as mentioned previously, is something of an exception.
The fifteenth and sixteenth centuries saw several recurrences of the plague, so it must be assumed that this was a period of slow and halting recovery for the village.
Economically the situation must have declined. There is a note that even by 1597 the average peasant wage was still only one third of what it had been one hundred years before.
The old village centre at Domas was most probably deserted and it is unlikely that the dwellings were replaced elsewhere as the rebuilding of Harley only took place in the early 17th century. Harley may have been depopulated for some time. The record is blank.
By 1536 – 1600 the hamlets of Blakeway, Domas and Rowley had shrunk to single farms.
This is how they still stand to this day, apart from a single more recent house in Domas, combining two former cottages.
Nationally, between 1536 and 1541 Henry VIII dissolved the Monasteries and the Abbeys,
1600 The Great Rebuilding marked what seems to have been a long awaited revival of the fortunes of Harley, as part of the national revival.
This was a time when a number of new houses were built in the period 1600 to 1650. The method of construction was – timber framed crucks for gables and cross dividing walls; timber framing of a lesser structural form for front and back walls, infilled with wattle and daub, with timber ground beams laid on undisturbed sand at ground level for foundations, all under a thatched roof.
This was the way in which, my family’s house, the original Glebe Cottages, nos 1 and 2, on the Domas Lane were built. The roof was raised at some later date by modifying the crucks, in order to create more space on the upper floor. Originally these were probably Alms houses.
There was no running water, water being obtained from a well in the garden, no indoor toilets and no bathroom. Outside at Glebe Cottages, there was a bread oven, a dry composting toilet, and a pigsty. This was how it was found in 1973.
Until the 18th C the houses in the village stood on the roads to Wigwig and Domas and on the west side of Mill Bank.
The Old Rectory standing opposite and on the west side of the church, is the oldest surviving house in the village. The original house on the south side, was timber framed and was probably built before 1612. A brick extension was added between 1805 and 1823 by Rector John Gibbons, in Georgian style, giving the appearance of two completely different houses standing together.
A document prepared by Richard K Moriss & Ass. Historic Buildings Consultants, dated Sept 1996 describes the Old Rectory as a large multi period house. There are five major and two minor parts ranging in date from the late medieval to the early 19th C
The medieval section which is the largest central area is a two storey two bay structure with attics. It is accessed via the present front door. The document says
Dating this medieval part precisely is difficult. The construction using studs, braces, posts, and beams suggest a late medieval date, perhaps the second half of the 15th C (1450 – 1499). It is possible, but unlikely, that this was a single free standing dwelling, more likely it was one wing of a larger dwelling.
The reference to a larger dwelling means that it was an earlier, older building which existed prior to 1450 or thereabouts.
So, it seems possible that that this original larger building may well have existed prior to 1291 (the date of completion of the Norman church), when it was argued that the site was occupied by a Saxon church. There is no evidence that it was a rectory in the Saxon period, but speculatively it may have been the residence of the Saxon Priest.
Forge Farm House to the west of the Domas Lane, not far from the church, appears to be the oldest of the existing farm houses. It is a brick cased timber framed house probably built in the 1600 to 1650 period. The timber framed house would have come first with the brick encasement being added later.
No 3 Harley very near to the church is one of several timber framed thatched houses, the others standing on the west side of Mill Bank, were also built in the same period ie. 1600 to 1640. Two of these houses still survive intact with one extended. It is likely that other modern houses along the west side of this road are standing on the sites of previous timber framed houses.
The Iron Forge
An Iron Forge was erected just north of the Harley Brook around 1607, about a mile south west of the village. Nearby woodlands were cleared to provide charcoal. In 1638 when it was leased to William Boycott and William Fownes, the forge comprised a chafery, an upper and lower finery, and houses for the finer and the hammerman. The Lessor was the Lacon estate.
In 1658, it was leased to a Stourbridge copper worker, and had fallen into decay by 1664. At this time the two houses on site were let to a Cardington dyer, on condition that he erected a fulling mill.
Charcoal burners rings were found in several fields to the north of the Forge by Jim Brookshaw who farmed the land.
The Forge has recently been enlarged and converted into a dwelling house.
Harley, Kenley and Sheinton parishes were actively engaged in the iron industry during the 16th and 17th centuries. The furnaces used charcoal as fuel and power for the blast was supplied by waterwheels driven by the Hughley – Harley – Sheinton brook. These furnaces went out of use after Abraham Derby discovered the use of coke as a furnace fuel to replace the much more expensive charcoal. The Corfield family had ironworks, forges and furnaces in Coalbrookdale which they released to Abraham Derby in 1716. The Corfield family also held Pitchford and Sheinton forges at the same time.
The bulk of the scattered Glebe lands, was seen to comprise some 34 acres in 1679 according to the Lichfield Diocese Terrier.
It was exchanged for a compact holding around the Rectory between 1805 and 1832 probably arranged by the Rev. John Gibbons, and in 1842 comprised 52 acres and two cottages, possibly Glebe Cottages nos 1 and 2.
The Glebe was leased in the late 18th century but the Rector was farming the greater part of it in 1841. Most of it was sold in 1918. Victoria County History