The Knight's Tale

Despite the idealised image portrayed in Victorian fairytales (not to mention the mediaeval romances of ‘La Morte d’ Arthur’ and ‘Charlemagne’) implying that knights of the Middle Ages fought with valour to right social injustices, in reality they were often far from benevolent. (Actually I can think of several far more accurate descriptions for their behaviour, but this is a family site so I’ll keep them to myself.) Most were corrupt and self-serving, bearing scant loyalty towards their own workers, the crown or even their fellow aristocrats.
Take Sir Adam Banastre, for instance, whose notoriety achieved new depths, even by fourteenth century standards. Yes, I know we’ve probably written about Sir Adam before somewhere, but he’s a favourite of ours so we’re going to write about him again. If you’ve any complaints address them to ‘somebody who cares’ c/o ‘If you can get better history than this for free somewhere else then be our guest’ Street.
Banastre owned what is nowadays Thornton Hall Farm towards the eastern end of Woodhouse Road in Little Thornton. What’s left of the farm is illustrated below. (I’ve gone to a lot of trouble drawing up these pictures to inject a bit of culture and sophistication into this board. Again, if you don’t particularly like them, the address to complain to is mentioned above.) Before Thornton Hall was rebuilt at its present location, this was the site of principle manor house, perched on the hill overlooking the early mediaeval village of Thornton (or to give it its Saxon name, Torenton).
There was a reason for this location. Norman aristocrats had, in effect, stolen the land from and murdered a great many Saxons during the invasion. Understandably the peasants carried a bit of a grudge, especially against such notorious thugs as Banastre. Manor houses on hilltops, where the Saxon villages could be kept in a constant line of sight, were constructed more for defensive purposes than they were for idyllic views.
Nothing remains now of the original hall, of course, the present structure being mainly of Victorian construction. However, some of the walls on the outskirts of the property (such as the one illustrated below) retain sections of earlier stonework. Actually, this particular wall (which belongs to the out house alongside the stile leading to Bucks Lane) was probably part of the grange owned by Cockersand Abbey. It certainly fits the location of that building as mentioned in documents from the mediaeval period.
The wall surrounding the garden belonging to the farm cottages is also made from a mixture of pebbles and lime mortar, typical of early mediaeval constructions and almost certainly dating back to Banastre’s reign.
Want a picture of the wall? (You might as well, because it’s not going to get much more exciting than this.) Banastre himself, much like his father, seems to have been permanently in trouble with the law, stealing turf, causing fights, arguing, trespassing and generally making a nuisance of himself, behaving with as much regard for civility as you’d expect from a typical spoilt brat. The Lancashire court rolls are peppered with his misdemeanours. On one occasion, for example, he and his dad (along with a number of other aristocrats) had become so blasé about legal proceedings they even failed to turn up at court to answer the charge of poaching. Needless to say, unlike common peasants, neither was hanged but instead fined twenty shillings for none-attendance of court.
As well as Thornton Hall, Banastre owned other lands around Thornton, Staynall and Singleton; lands that, despite his obvious trespasses into other properties, he didn’t want to share with anybody else.
Unfortunately Lancaster Abbey also owned the field illustrated below near Thornton Hall, on which they’d erected their tithe barn. (No…obviously the tithe barn isn’t there now. And, yes, it is a bit of a basic drawing. What did you expect? It’s a field. There’s only so much artistic merit that a rather boring patch of grass surrounded by an even more boring barbed-wire fence can achieve.)
Anyhow, monks had been crossing Banastre’s land, which irked him somewhat. The grange (mentioned a bit earlier in this article) being right on his doorstep was probably annoying enough, but having a herd of tonsure-sporting, wheat-carrying, bible-bashing transvestites traipsing up and down your driveway all day would have been extremely irritating.
Especially for a spoilt brat.
So Sir Adam, once again, took the law into his own hands.
Naturally matters span out of control. Following a complaint from the Prior of Lancaster, Edward the First was called in, setting up a royal commission to investigate, and it soon transpired that: “…Adam Banastre, knight…and certain other malefactors and disturbers of our peace, took the said Prior at Poulton with force and arms and brought him therefrom to Thornton, and imprisoned him there and maltreated him and assaulted his men and servants there, and beat, wounded, imprisoned and maltreated them…and did other enormous things to him to the grave damage of the said Prior.”
Once again Banastre received a fine and was forced to sign a pledge allowing the monks to cross his land in future.
Interestingly enough, these ‘rights of way’ are still in existence nowadays. The illustration below shows the one that runs along the west side of Tithe Barn Field from Woodhouse Road. (It is there…honest. Worth checking out if you’ve got nothing better to do this weekend perhaps.)
Banastre’s reign of terror didn’t last, however, and where the King’s law failed his peers managed to succeed. Following a quarrel between Adam and Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, a fight was arranged in the Ribble Valley. Banastre’s men were soon overpowered and, while attempting to hide in a barn, Sir Adam was discovered, dragged outside and beheaded.
Which short, sharp curtailment of his antics brings an equally short, sharp curtailment to this article.