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At the Domesday Survey, (East) Budleigh was held by the King and Otterton, with Sidmouth, by the Abbot of Mont St. Michel, Normandy.  In 1125 King Henry I granted much of Budleigh Manor to the Abbey. The Abbot now had control of the whole of the Otter Estuary. Thirty-two years later (1157) Otterton Priory has a Prior appointed - Robert (Calendar Documents, France). The Abbot then had a small community of monks and a prior to manage and develop the Manor lands and harbour facilities in the Otter and Sid Estuaries. No doubt the Abbey officials encouraged trade, especially with France.  With Henry II’s marriage to Eleanor in 1152 brought Aquitaine to the English Crown and trade was encouraged with Bordeaux - importing wine etc. By the 1300’s vessels from the Ottermouth and Sidmouth are shipping in wine to the merchants there. 

The process of global cooling had probably already started at the Domesday Survey and Otterton Harbour and other anchorages higher up river were starting to silt up. This was a long drawn out process and 450 years later John Leland is writing 1535/43 that “Oterton (is) a pretty fisher town” indicating that fishing boats were still using the haven. However (East) Budleigh “right almost again Oterton but is somewhat more from the shore than Oterton. Less than a hundredth years since ships used this haven, but it now clean barred”.  Overshadowing Otterton to the north is Ankerne or Anchoring Hill, so named as it probably served as a guide to the whereabouts of the village anchorage for vessels coming up river from the Estuary.  Standing on the hill today it is not possible to see the sea as Catson Hill obscures the view. Vessels would have needed a guide round the corner of the hill, especially in bad weather. Perhaps a beacon stood on the hill. No bridge existed from Budleigh to Otterton and it was not fordable. A ferry probably existed, remembered in the name of a field on the hill – Firry Anchor.  

While anchorages above the Otter Estuary were silting up during the Middle Ages, maritime activity in the Sid Estuary was on the increase.  The Exon Domesday Survey lists a market on the Lords Day for Otterton. This indicates a weekly event at Otterton. The Otterton Cartulary, which covers the late 12th. and 13th. centuries, deals primarily with fish landed and sold in Otterton market. By 1214 Sidmouth received a Charter establishing a market, but both markets would have been dealing with many commodities besides fish.  The Cartulary states “The Prior was to have the right to buy fish before anyone else and at a better price than others. He must have the best hake at the price of the worst.  And the freedom of the Port is such that fishermen must not sell to regrators or forestallers before the first hour or at least until halfway through the first hour until such time as the freemen, who must buy the Priors victuals, come.” (Regrators were traders buying and then selling again in the same market; forestallers were dealers who bought up all of a certain type of produce in different markets creating a shortage and a subsequent rise in price) 

During 1315 England suffered torrential rain and widespread flooding in Spring and Autumn causing a terrible famine through failed harvests. The price of grain soared. It was the worst recorded famine in European history and lasted to 1322.  Researches of Customs Accounts of the Port of Exeter 1266/1321 cover this period and reveal the large quantities of commodities imported into the ports covered by the Port of Exeter. They included the River Exe to the sea, westwards to the River Teign and eastwards to the River Axe. Ottermouth and Sidmouth were within these bounds. The vessels named in the Customs Accounts are carrying taxable goods.  Other vessels not listed must have used Ottermouth and Sidmouth harbours, so we do not have a complete picture of the shipping using the ports in this period. 

Between 1296 and 1321 there were ten landings from Ottermouth vessels and 27 from Sidmouth vessels. 

The recorded Ottermouth landings were made by three boats:- Le Godyer; La Margarete and Le Welyfor.  La Margarete made three landings during this time, all three were importing grain and other foodstuffs. The vessels master was Stephen Crabbe.  On 4th March 1318 she was carrying 40 quarters of wheat and on the 27th April another 80 quarters. The earlier cargo included figs, raisins, garlic, onions and oil and both trips included cargos of commodities for the wool and cloth trade - weld, potash woad,  alum, canvas,  also cloth from Rouen. The third voyage was in June 1321 carrying mainly wheat and woad. She was probably a medieval barge of 50 to 100 tons, of shallow draft, with a single mast, square sail and propelled by sweeps. 

Le Godyer, a similar vessel, made six journeys.  Her master was Nicholas Hok or Holt of Budleigh and her cargo also included wheat and the commodities already listed plus almonds, licorice, and cumin. On her voyage of 28th August 1318 she carried 120 quarters of coal. The Welyfor, whose master was Robert Bowey of Budleigh, was carrying iron and may have been a larger vessel probably an early cog.  Cogs were the “bulk carriers” of their day and capable of carrying 100/150 tons of cargo, with a crew of 10/20 men.  The early cogs were approximately 90ft long, 24ft. wide, and 9ft. draft with a single mast and square rig sail.  Sweeps were also used. There was usually a forecastle and aftercastle which made them easily adaptable for the sea warfare of the times – hence the call for them to be taken out of trade for military use.  They had a large capacity and were easy to handle. During the 14th century their design increased in size and took on the appearance of a caraval which later succeeded them, with as many as three or four masts and lateen sails.  

The Customs Accounts indicate that the Sid was a deep water port able to take vessels as large as a heavily laden cog.  Two cogs are named – La Godyer or Bon An (Good year) and Seynt Gylys (St.Giles) between 1296 and 1321, with owners, John Irysh and Ralph Le Sangere, both of Sidmouth. Sometimes they discharged their cargo at Topsham or Exmouth, and usually carried wine between 35 and 116 tuns (ie 8,800 and 29,000 gallons) on ten voyages.  Other commodities were carried on these voyages, including coal, iron and provisions.  Other smaller vessels were trading out of Sidmouth. From the large number of importers/merchants named in these Accounts it is evident that they were using vessels from all the ports in the Exeter area for delivery at any port. The Prior of Otterton is importing wine using the Bon An of Sidmouth for delivery there in 1299. Only Nicholas Holt and John Lukeys (Lucas) among the many merchants named were importing into their home port, Ottermouth.    

This is one of a series of related articles. Click forward or back to jump to the next. 

Compiled and researched © Gerald Millington, 2009

References:

The New Maritime History of Devon, Vols. 1 and 2   (Conway Maritime 1992)

The Book of Budleigh Salterton by D. Richard Cann (Halsgrove 2005)

All About Otterton by Gerald Millington & Robert Jones   (Keverel  Books )2000 

Devon by Prof. W.G.Hoskins    (David & Charles 1954) 

Domesday Book Devon ed.  John Morris for Phillimore & Co. Ltd 1985  2 Vols.

Domesday Book -a Guide    R.Weldon-Finn    Phillimore  1973

Evolution of a Fishing Village 1086/1550   Harold Fox    2001

Shell Country Alphabet    Geoffrey Grigson    1965

Local Customs Accounts of the Port of Exeter    M\Maryanne Kowaleski 

East Devon (The Travellers Tales Ed.Todd Gray)    2000

Notes on History of Otterton    Revd.Grimaldi        1928

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