THE GAWAIN POET'S LANDSCAPES

The Cheshire side of the border was in the Manor of Macclesfield, the Keeper of Macclesfield forest was Sir John Chandos. The Staffordshire side of the border was in Leekfrith, a private forest, which once belonged to Dieulacres abbey. The area around Flash and Knotbury, where it seems the Boar was hunted, would have been in Alstonefield Frith, Lord of these lands in the late 14th century was Sir James Audley of Heighley.

Macclesfield Forest, in Cheshire, originally included Leek and Alstonefield Friths, both once known as Malbanc Frith, see English Heritage – Peak District By John Barnatt & Ken Smith -1997. Malbanc Frith was a private forest originally given to William de Malbanc by his cousin the Earl of Chester, Hugh Lupus. William’s son, Hugh de Malbanc, founded Combermere abbey in 1133, of which Dieulacres was a filial dependancy, a daughter-house.

The abbot of Dieulacres had purlieus/hunting areas, within the forest of Leek Frith. The abbot, was allowed to hunt with his own servants for no more than three days a week in his own woods in a purlieu.

Topographical names in the Gawain poem from the Boar Hunt

Bitwene a flosche in þat fryth and a foo cragge;

In a knot bi a clyffe, at þe kerre syde,

Þer as þe rogh rocher vnrydely watz fallen,

Þay ferden to þe fyndyng, and frekez hem after;

Þay vmbekesten þe knarre and þe knot boþe,

Place names and landscape suggested in the above text:-

Bitwene a flosche (Flash) in þat fryth (Alstonefield Frith) and a foo cragge; (Wildboarclough/Shutlingsloe)

In a knot (Knotbury) bi a clyffe (Turn edge), at þe kerre syde,

Þer as þe rogh rocher vnrydely watz fallen,

Þay ferden to þe fyndyng, and frekez hem after;

Þay vmbekesten þe knarre (the Knar) and þe knot (Knotbury) boþe,

Modern English Translation:- Between a pool in that wood and a forbidding crag. In the middle of a wooded mound beside a cliff at the side of the marsh, where the rough hillside had fallen in confusion, the hounds went to the dislodgement, with the men after them. The men cast about both the crag and the wooded knoll,

Explanation of names:-

Frith (a) Leekfrith parish is a few miles north of Leek and includes the Roaches. Frith is a Saxon term signifying a woody vale, lying between two hills, and such this was till the monks destroyed the wood, and improved the land by erecting three granges; New Grange, Roch and Swythamley. – From the History of the ancient parish of Leek in Staffordshire By John Sleigh.

Frith (b) enclosure, forest, wood, also in the sense of enclosed land, enclosure, park for hunting, forest, wood, cf. Old English friðgeard, ‘an enclosed space, lit. ‘peace-yard’ or ‘safety yard’, and Middle Swedish fridgiärd, an enclosure for animals; private forest [used locally, e.g. in Derbyshire, Duffield Frith]; very old [imported] Celtic word for forest. – From, Forests and Chases in England and Wales, c. 1000 to c. 1850 A Glossary of Terms and Definitions.

Frith (c) fyrhth(e), ‘land overgrown with brushwood, scrubland on the edge of forest’ (adjective gefyrhth sometimes found in charter boundaries), most frequently in modern forms as Frith and Thrift. The meaning explains the word’s adoption into Welsh, where in the fourteenth century ffridd meant ‘barren land’ (Gelling and Cole, p. 224). Modern Welsh fridd, plural friddoedd, is used of land at a certain altitude, above the belts of good arable. The mid-eleventh-century document known as Gospatric’s Wriot, which deals with land tenure in Cumberland, refers to rights on weald, on freyth, on heyninga: this could be translated ‘in forest, in heathland, in enclosed arable’ (Gelling and Cole, pp. 224-5; cf Duffield Frith 1332, earlier Forest/Chase, and Chapel en le Frith in Peak Forest).

Frith (d) & Flash Bitwene a flosche in þat fryth – If Flash* in the parish of Quarnford, is the poet’s ‘flosche’ in that frith, ‘þat fryth’ must have been Alstonefield Frith – The townships of Fawfieldhead, Heathylee, Hollinsclough, and Quarnford lay in what was called the forest of Alstonefield in 1227. The forest was known variously as the forest of Mauban and Malbank Frith by the early 14th century. From: ‘Alstonefield: Introduction’, A History of the County of Stafford: Volume 7: Leek and the Moorlands (1996). Alstonefield Frith was on the north-east border of Leek Frith, Black Brook being the boundary between Leekfrith and Alstonefield. Both ‘Alstonefield Frith’ and ‘Leek Frith’ were once part of the Forest of Macclesfield, until given to the Malbancs by the Earl of Chester, see – Peak District: Northern and Western Moors By Roly Smith, Andrew Bibby.

Quarnford was farmed by the Black Prince, it appears though that Sir James Audley was lord and receiver (of rents) in Quarnford. Quarnford township was held by Hugh Despencer, until his execution in 1326. In 1327 Quarnford was assigned to Sir Roger Swynnerton, along with Despenser’s share of Alstonefield manor and his manor of Rushton Spencer. In 1338, Sir Roger was stated to hold what was described merely as pasture on the moors in Quarnford, for which he paid a chief rent (an annual sum payable on some freehold property to the original freeholder) of two arrows a year to James, Lord Audley, lord of Aenora Malbank’s share of Alstonefield. From: ‘Alstonefield: Quarnford’, A History of the County of Stafford: Volume 7: Leek and the Moorlands  (1996), pp. 49-56. URL: Alstonefield: Quarnford

* We know from the Alstonefield Registers that “Le Flashe” was a recognized settlement by 1538.

Flash/’Flosche’ – a pool or swamp – could be a reference to what is now called ‘Panniers Pool’, a packhorse crossing at Three Shire Heads. ‘Flosche’ however, was most probably a reference to the one time badly drained marsh/swamp area of ‘Flash’ village itself.

kerre, knot – The poet’s Kerre is derived from kjarr according to, ‘The Alliterative Revival’ By Thorlac Turville-Petre, as follows: The boar hunt is one of the most dramatic scenes of the poem. The boar is first tracked down ‘In a knot bi a clyffe, at þe kerre syde’,(1431). kerre/Ker/kjarr/carr, ‘a marshy thicket’, is a frequent place-name element in the Danelaw; also land which is badly drained and prone to flooding, often colonised by alder. Knot, ‘hillock’, is found in place- names in the north-west, but its only literary use as a topographical term is in Gawain. The place the poet must be referring to is now called Knotbury.

cragge – Crag – Steep rugged rock or peak. Wildboarclough was originally known as  ‘Crag’ probably a reference to the steep-sided, 506m peak of Shutlingsloe with its conical Gritstone summit, see Peak District: Northern and Western Moors By Roly Smith, Andrew Bibby.

Wildboarclough township was described as “a bold mountainous district” by Samuel Bagshaw in 1850.

The Georgian mills at Wildboarclough were called Crag Mills, there is also a Crag Hall and a Crag Inn at Wildboarclough, all recalling the original name of this place. It has also been suggested that the “clough” of Wildboarclough, was derived from the Saxon term “clod”, a hill or rock, Wildboarclough would then be interpreted as “Hill of the Wild Boar”. Cloughs are usually however deep valleys, but this deep valley was once named after its surrounding crags, perhaps more specifically Shutlingsloe so “clod” or cloud, meaning hill, is not improbable.

Exactly between Wildboarclough/Crag and Flash lies Knotbury and Knar and the thorny hillside of Turn Edge (see below), as the poem describes, these were “Bitwene a flosche in þat fryth and a foo cragge;”.

Ralph W. V. Elliott, ‘Hills and Valleys in the Gawain Country’: In the parish of Wildboarclough at the heart of the real Gawain country the word “crag” occurs in several names, and only a short walk to the south is an example of an almost horizontally projecting crag, the Hanging Stone near Swythamley Park in the North Staffordshire moorlands, such as could aptly be described in the Gawain-poet’s words as “a foo cragge” (Gaw 1430).

It is intersting that R.W.V. Elliott notes that in the parish of Wildboarclough the word “crag” occurs in several names without mentioning that it was once the name of this place, he was perhaps not aware of this? The Hanging Stone near Swythamley Park, is too far south, Knotbury and Knar can only loosely be considered as being located between Hanging stone and Flash. Also, the poet does not consider the crag as just a ‘crag’ but a ‘forbidding crag’, perhaps indicating something larger and more imposing, than the Hanging stone.

“a foo cragge” foo – forbidding, also wicked – The poems of the Pearl manuscript, edited by Andrew and Waldron.

“There is a strong oral tradition that Shutlingsloe and nearby Wildboarclough were notorious centres of Witchcraft. Folk lore also claims that both were places where ancient cults were perpetuated.” – A Year of Walks in Cheshire By Clive Price. If Clive Price’s Folk lore and oral traditions are correct, “foo” meaning wicked, may have been a suitable description for the area once named ‘Crag’.

clyffe – cliff, ridge, hillside – same meaning for edge.

In a knot bi a clyffe, at þe kerre syde,

Þer as þe rogh rocher vnrydely watz fallen,

‘In a knot (Knotbury) by a cliff (Turn Edge) at the Carr side, there as the rough rocks unreadily were fallen,’ (where the rough hillside had fallen in confusion (unexpectedly)). Was the dislodgment of the rocks at Turn Edge, the place mentioned in the Gawain poem, where the men and the hounds gathered before searching out the boar between the knar and the knot? These fallen rocks are just over half a mile from Knotbury and less than a mile from Knar, they are dotted around the hillside of Turn Edge. at þe kerre syde – The River Dane runs along the west side of Turn Edge, there is also a brook to the east, between Wolf Edge and Turn Edge and also a Spring Head to the south. Turn Edge is surrounded by water of some description. Before better drainage, this must have been the marshy moorland that Flash village, a quarter of a mile away, took its name.

knar – a place just west of Knotbury on the Cheshire side of the River Dane. The poet called this place, þe knarre “the knar” which it was still referred to on the tythe maps of Cheshire in 1849.