The Borough of Scarborough formed in the 12th Century
Coast Boroughs
Scarborough was probably not the first port borough on the
Yorkshire coast, for Bridlington had some status as a port,and
perhaps burgesses too while the port of Whitby received a
grant of burgage from King Henry 1.Both quickly came under
the domination of monasteries.
Scarborough was not the only baronial early borough linked
with a port, for Skipsea Hythe and probably Yarm appear early
enough, the former probably created by one William of
Aumale, who was decisive in building Scarborough castle and
was perhaps decisive in starting the Norman borough at
Scarborough. Scarborough became the sole royal port borough
in Yorkshire, apart from York , from 1157, untill King Edward
II bought Wyke on Hull .
The Crown Estate
The inland Manor of Falsgrave, of which the site of
Scarborough was a part, had passed from the Earl Tosti to
William the Conqueror and remained with the Crown into the
reign of Henry 1. King Henry built a motte and bailey castle
near his Manor of Pickering. Both manors had extensive
outlying sokes .King Henry created several royal forests, and
secured the deer in neighbour forests. The forest of Pickering
was ext ended eastwards to include Dic east and Dic west ,
which became the wapentake of Pickering Lythe ,co-extensive
with the Forest of Pickering .
Within these districts, was the manor of Falsgrave.It may be
that that the King’s close and queens’ close at Falsgrave
represent the manor site and take name from these early
times,for Kings had no links with Falsgrave after 1256. The
Kings’ bridge across Scalby beck below Raincliff might link the
manor via an otherwise unimportant rural route to Scalby Hay,
an early royal deer preserve,one of only three in the entire
forest of Pickering ,this one administered in an east bailliwick
of the forest. However, the reason for such a route is by no
means obvious.
Before Scarborough
Icelandic sagas,(written down in the 13-14C from old stories)
tell of a raiders base formed by one Scarthi and 11C raids
upon a sandside settlement at Scarborough.If they contain any
truth ,the settlement , if there was one , has no continuity with
the Norman borough,which was not initially at
Sandside. Another site at the south cliff is called Swarborough
but nobody supposes it was founded by a Swarthi. Writers in
the 13-14c could easily imagine that early landings involved
the later Scarborough.
Norman boroughs do not normally have names ending in
“Borough” and places that do have that name ending are only
exceptionally Norman boroughs. They are Roman or other early
earthwork sites. Excavation has revealed that the great Rock
did have not only Iron age and Roman occupation but an 11th
century chapel and burial ground of unknown function.
-(YAJ.22 p243) An early Writer thought 935-6 Egill came ashore
near Scarborough
Early Norman days
An 18th century writer said “I hard ther of an old mariner ,
that Henry 1 gave grete privilege to the Toun of Scardeburgh”.
It is possible but no evidence sustains the legend.
Henry 1 had his Pickering Castle, founded Pickering Forest and
gave the old Earl of Northumbria’s manor house there to the
York church.York, Pickering & Knaresborough were then the
northern centres of Crown power. He did nothing about
Falsgrave, where
socage rents continued to be gathered by royal officers.
Eustace Fitzjohn a Crown justiciar and administrator was
almost certainly custodian of the local Crown lands for King
Henry 1 since he granted away Scalby church with its chapels
within Falsgrave soke to Bridlington Priory.in the 1130’s.
When King Stephen held the throne, the Scots allied with
supporters of the Empress Matilda, including Eustace Fitzjohn
, invaded norhern England. They were defeated by the northern
barony led by William of Aumale. lord of Holderness, at the
Standard battle fought on Cowton moor near Northallerton in
1138. Fitzjohn lost his offices.
William of Aumale
William of Aumale was lord of Holderness from 1127.Soon
after the Standard battle, he was termed Earl of York. He was
later said to have ruled like a king in Yorkshire. He gained
custody of the Crown estates including the manors of Pickering
and Falsgrave, the castles at Pickering, York and
Knaresborough . He chose to build a new castle on the
promontory rock of Scarborough , within the manor of
Falsgrave. The Bridlington canon William of Newbrough would
write that Aumale saw the natural advantages of the site and
by a costly work increased its natural strength , by enclosing
all the plain upon the rock with a wall and by building a tower
at the entrance .This at least will have created some sort of
building site community .
An open question is whether Aumale started a borough.He
had other boroughs in his own demesnes at Skipsea near his
castle (by 1160-75) and at Hedon(chartered 1160-70) .
It may be relevant that Aumale founded Thornton Abbey in
Lincolnshire c1139 for Augustinian canons of St Mary from
Kirkham Priory .They received a passage over the river Humber
at Paul, a toft in Hedon near its bridge, an interest in Filey and
appear to have briefly had some interest in Scarborough
church, a new church apparently sited on high ground for
ease of access from the castle, although outside it, but surely
only justified by the borough that was formed mostly lower
and to the south of it.(F3.41-2).
Aumale was eventually buried in the church of Thornton .Some
might conclude that Aumale started Castle, borough and
church. The borough founding period was as much 1130s as
1150’s . The only other event recorded in secondary sources in
various ways in these periods was that c1153 vessels in the bay
were robbed by king Eysteyn of Norway(Sh 676).Several
fishing vessels at Scarb were destroyed in the bay (Ch 105) and
property (Baker 324).Also the 1151 Viking raid on Hartlepool
and Whitby by Eysteinn Haraldson, King of Norway. These
events have yet to be traced to a source.
King Henry 11’s castle
King Henry 11 ousted Aumale from the royal demesnes and
took over the Castle. In 1157 he began castle works. He
compensated him witha grant of Driffield. .The King’s
spending on the Caste was considerable over several years. His
keep was 55ft square, with walls 10-15ft thick, 90 ft high.
Spending was...................
1164 £86.11.4
1168 £57.1.3 at the view of Ansketil Malecake of Pickering
1169 £13.11s on turris (keep)
This was sufficient to generate a good deal of local secondary
spending.
The castle was not a local administrative centre for Henry II, It
may have been for Aumale. The bailliwick of Scalby remained as
a unit in Pickering Forest. Early royal Sheriffs invested in the
borough -Bavent,and Ralph son of William who was lord of
Flixton in 1166.
King Henry 11’s borough-the first decade.
At some time 1157-63, Henry II granted a borough charter in
which he specified 4d and 6d rents for burgage plots, to go to
the Crown towards paying a town farm or rent which stood at
£20 p.a.in 1163-4. He gave all the liberties enjoyed by the
city of York. It was only in 1163 not 1157 that the Sheriff
started to account for payments of the farm. (At Wakefield,
tofts of one acre paid 6d, while Pontefract had some paying 1s)
Recorded payments and events included-
-1158 Red Book 22s or 20sScarborough merchant
-1159-60 Eskdale boar legend refers to knights taking refuge
in Scarborough
-1163 First town farm of £20 paid into the exchequer at
Michaelmas. The Sheriff began to account yearly for £20 and
for £6 increase of Scalby mill.
-1163 Complaint that a rural dean blackmailed a burgess of
Scarborough
-1163 Charter given to weavers of York( by H2 at Pickering )
exempted weavers of Scarborough. Malton, Beverley. Kirby,( ?)
Thirsk from York rayed goods monopoly
-1165 August “There was a great tempest in the province of
York during the same month.(as two comets).Many people saw
the old enemy taking the lead in that tempest’. He was in the
form of a black horse of large size and always kept hurrying
towards the sea , while he was followed by thunder and
lightening and fearful noises and a destructive hail. The
footprints of this accursed horse were of a very enormous size,
especially on the hill near the town of Scardeburch, from which
he gave a leap into the sea, and here, for a whole year
afterwards, they were plainly visible, the impression of each
foot being deeply graven into the earth”.(Melrose chronicle.
p13)The Devil had turned up
-1165 -Town contributed 20 marks to the army in Wales.
- Mich 1168 -town farm was increased £10 p.a to £30 . and
Scalby mill £4
OTHER ARTICLES
• The Yorkshire smuggler - the smuggling of contraband
• The port of Scarborough in the late 15th Century
• Coastal erosion in the 19th Century around the North Bay and Scarborough Castle area
• The 200 year history of scarboroughs RNLI
• Seabathing in scarborough - an article by John Rushton
• Harwood Brierleys description of Scarborough harbour at the opening of the 20th century
• Carrying Coal to the Yorkshire Coast - John Rushton
• Shipping Ironstone down the coast by John Rushton
• Havens on the North Yorkshire coast. An article on scarboroughs maritime history by John Rushton
• Scarborough ships in the baltic - an article by John Rushton
• Thomas Crimlisk - First of the Crimlisks
• Fighting the Scots in Scarborough Waters in the early 16th century. John Rushton
• The national RNLI and the Scarborough lifeboat of 1861.
• The early years of the Scarborough Lifeboat
• The smuggling along the Yorkshire coast - Cloughton Wyke
• Gristhorpe man - the reaction of victorians - John Rushton
• A sea shanty about a storm on the Scarborough coast
• Watching for ships by the harbour walls in Scarborough
• The need for canals in the scarborough area - discussions in the late 1700's
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