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Prosperous times

From the subsidy rolls and documents available from the 15th  and 16th centuries there is no doubt that there was increasing prosperity in the Lower Otter Valley.  It has been pointed out that the Bailiffs were probably also merchants.  John Rixer, Robert and William Snellyng were all of Otterton and Edward Morsch, Edward Mory, Henry Webber, William, Nicholas and John Russell, Jon Brode, John Cole, John Lucas, John Toppe and John St. Clare were all of Budleigh.   

The 1524 Subsidy whilst being probably after the demise of Ottermouth as a substantial port, gives a clue as to the financial status of these people.  The Toppes were already on the 1332 Roll and are paying high subsidies.  The name that stands out is “Seyntcler” paying for goods worth £150 (on which he gained reductions, e.g. for 200 sheep that had died).  The family were living in Budleigh through much of the 15th and 16th centuries.  They lived at the old Tidwell Manorhouse and had the pew end installed in their name in East Budleigh Church.   

Sometime after 1420 the Church had been rebuilt by Bishop Lucy of Exeter and many of the wealthy resident shipowners and merchants lavished it with the adornments we see today.  The ceiling bosses, carved pew ends, chancel screen and the font all date from this period.  The ship carving on one pew end is probably a carrack, a vessel that is unlikely to have entered the Otter Estuary.  Being over 200 tons and first recorded in 1457 in Devon waters, its weight and draft would have been prohibitive by that time.  The pew end may have been donated by a Topsham mariner who had dealings and probably lived in the valley.  It is very evident that many mariners and merchants moved into the area during the next two centuries, leasing farms from the Duke Estates.                                                                                                

One such family were the Drakes.  John Drake is listed in the 1332 East Budleigh Subsidy Roll, taxed 2/- indicating a probable merchant.  By 1444 a descendant, another John is “engaged in trade and shipping at Otterton”.  In that year he is leasing lands in Pynn and Otterton.  The Drakes either leased or owned various farms at different times, at Pinn and elsewhere, for the next 500 years.  Other known families are Terleats, Bailey, Green, Austin, Harding and Brand either in Otterton,  Budleigh or Salterton. 

We have no account of embellishments made in Otterton Church at this time. The Church was demolished, except the tower, and rebuilt in 1870 and nothing from this period has survived. 

Sea-going Trade 

The principal maritime trade during these prosperous times was related to the cloth industry in the South West.  Professor Hoskins writing on Exeter Merchants states “Devon had become by the 16th century one of the leading textile counties in England.  The cloth industry was quite ancient.  As far back as the 12th century Exeter was an important cloth-producing town, but in the main the county simply produced the wool, most of which was exported and not manufactured into cloth locally.  During the 14th century, more and more of this wool was woven into cloth locally, mostly by people in their homes.All over Devon we find references to the setting up of fulling mills wherever there was water power”.  Evidence in the 14th century Exeter Customs Accounts of the quantities of cloth making materials being imported supports this.   

Evidence of Fulling Mills is first mentioned in the 1524 Subsidy for Budleigh which names Henry Kennewode as holding “dyverys Tokyn (tucking) mylls and cornemylls”.  In 1540 Richard Duke bought Otterton and Budleigh Manors including  two Fulling Mills.  Kenwoods holding was one and the other was harnessed to Otterton Mill leat.  This included racks for drying cloth in a field behind the Mill House still called “rack field” in 1843.  These mills probably existed in the 1400’s.   

The raw wool grown by the local farmers in the valley would have been spun and woven in cottages in the villages, the unfinished cloth taken to the fulling mills for final treatment.  In 1675 Isaac Hill, fuller, was living in Otterton and dealing with Richard Bartlett, dyer, of Ottery St. Mary.  Kersey was probably the cloth manufactured.  By the 16th and 17th centuries the cloth would have been taken to Exeter for  sale and probably shipped abroad from Topsham, but earlier in the 15th century the cloth would have been shipped from Ottermouth to home ports or ports on the continent. 

It was during this time that the local farmers who farmed the sheep, also prospered and a number of their farm houses in Otterton and Budleigh were built. In Otterton Manor the following have survived - Anchoring, Horestones, Pinn, Pitson and Pavers and also April/Garden Cottages in Fore Street.  Survivors in Budleigh Manor are Nos.1&2 Cottages, Dalditch Lane, once a farmhouse and Pulhayes, there are probably others.  

There are many 16th century survivors indicating that lucrative trading continued into the 16th century.  Otterton has The Barton Farmhouse, Stantyway Farmhouse, Houseterns, Basclose and The Barn which are all in the village and Ashtree to the north. Budleigh has Churchstile, Batstones (now Nos 3,5,7, High Street) and Nos. 38 & 40 High Street (now Sir Walter Raleigh Inn) all in East Budleigh and Dalditch Farmhouse.  Today these cob and thatched houses have helped the two villages to become tourist attractions. 

Fish was also exported either by coastal or overseas bound ships.  Fishing off the south-east Devon coast from Exmouth to Axmouth was a major occupation at this time.  Otterton, East Budleigh, possibly Colaton Raleigh harbours were still open to fishing boats in the Estuary.  Otterton market existed in 1086 and Sidmouth received a Charter establishing a market in 1214, both dealing with many commodities including fish. Much of the fish caught off-shore was sold in these markets, being moved to towns inland and up country.  

Compiled and researched © Gerald Millington, 2009 

Additional References:- 

Devon and its People  Prof.W.G. HoskinsWheaton, Exeter  1959

All Saints Church, East Budleigh Church Guide, 1991

John Drake, Otterton Roz Hickman  Ovapedia1998 OT-B-00009

Exmouth Milestones E.R.Delderfield Raleigh Press 1948

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