| Tithes | Oblations | |||||||||||
| 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | |||||||||
| Burton-on-Trent | £23 | 0 | 0 | £33 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| St. Modwen’s Chapel at Andrasia | £2 | 0 | 0 | £2 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| Abbots Bromley | 13 | 6 | 8 | 13 | 6 | 8 | ||||||
| Ilam | ||||||||||||
| Blithfield | ||||||||||||
| Grindon | ||||||||||||
| Leigh | ||||||||||||
| Hampstall Ridware | ||||||||||||
| Cauldon Chapel | ||||||||||||
| Mickleover, Littleover and Findern (Derbyshire) | ||||||||||||
| Stapenhill „ | ||||||||||||
| Allestree (Warw.) | ||||||||||||
| Total | 36 | 6 | 8 | 46 | 6 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
Part 2 of table
| Church and Glebe | Church | |||||||||||
| 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | |||||||||
| Burton-on-Trent | ||||||||||||
| St. Modwen’s Chapel at Andrasia | ||||||||||||
| Abbots Bromley | ||||||||||||
| Ilam | £8 | 0 | 0 | £8 | 13 | 4 | ||||||
| Blithfield | ||||||||||||
| Grindon | ||||||||||||
| Leigh | ||||||||||||
| Hampstall Ridware | ||||||||||||
| Cauldon Chapel | 2 | 6 | 8 | |||||||||
| Mickleover, Littleover and Findern (Derbyshire) | 8 | 13 | 4 | 8 | 13 | 4 | ||||||
| Stapenhill „ | 10 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| Allestree (Warw.) | 15 | 0 | 0 | 16 | 0 | 0= | ||||||
| Total | 8 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 33 | 13 | 4 | 34 | 13 | 4 |
Part 3 of table
| Pensions | ||||||
| 1 | 2 | |||||
| Burton-on-Trent | ||||||
| St. Modwen’s Chapel at Andrasia | ||||||
| Abbots Bromley | ||||||
| Ilam | ||||||
| Blithfield | £1 | 0 | 0 | £1 | 0 | 0 |
| Grindon | 13 | 4 | 13 | 4 | ||
| Leigh | 3 | 6 | 8 | 3 | 6 | 8 |
| Hampstall Ridware | 5 | 0 | 5 | 0 | ||
| Cauldon Chapel | ||||||
| Mickleover, Littleover and Findern (Derbyshire) | ||||||
| Stapenhill „ | ||||||
| Allestree (Warw.) | ||||||
| Total | 5 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 0 |
1st Total £85 5s.
2nd „ £99 5s.
Given in _V.E._ as £lxxxxviii xi viii
Whether the official opinion in this case was just we need not enquire. We must, however, examine with some care the attempt which, as it appears, was made to mislead the Commissioners for First Fruits and Tenths in the reign of Henry VIII.
It will be noticed that by far the largest individual additions which are made in the second survey come from rents in Burton and its suburbs. In the first survey no mention at all is made of the special endowments of the Prior (£2), Almoner (£8), Cook (£8 6s. 8d.), Custodian of St. Mary’s Chapel (£4), and Martyrologist (£14). The kitchen at Burton had long been well endowed. Abbot Nicholas (ob. 1197) was the first to put it on a business-like footing. Abbot Nicholas de Wallingford (1216–1222) and Abbot Richard de Insula (1222–1223) had added to its endowments. No mention is made of the Chantries of William Branstone (£4), or William Beyne (£8 13s. 4d.). The former had been Abbot in the fifteenth century and had died in 1474. The latter had been Abbot from 1502 to 1533 and had endowed the Grammar School. Considerable rents are omitted from “divers pastures near the Trent,” where fed the sheep which had once made the Abbey wool famous. In an old list of the English monasteries which supplied wool to the Florentine markets in 1315 the wool from Burton is described as in Torcea, probably the same as wool de marisco, which was usually classed by itself. Torcea appears to mean a dyke or embankment, and the Burton sheep probably pastured in these low fields near the Trent which were secured from inundation by means of embankments.[77] Rents from Abbots Bromley (£16 10s. 11d.), one of the oldest of the Abbey’s estates, and Derby are also omitted. Even in the items which are given in both lists, the second shows a considerable increase in nearly every instance. The rents from Allestree are raised by £7 2s. 6d.; the valuation of the Manor of Mickleover is increased by £8 14s. 8d.; the chief rents from Anslow actually leap from 13s. 4d. to £13 5s. 4d. The increase in the valuations of the other manors is also considerable.
“Seney Park,” the valuation of which is increased from £6 to £8, was to the west of the town, near Shobnall Grange. The Abbey had a house there, surrounded by a moat, and used as a place of retirement for many generations. The monks used to go there in the fourteenth century to recover from the periodical “blood-letting.” Its name is thus explained by a seventeenth century writer: “The Abbot of Burton-upon-Trent ... having a vast rough hillie ground about a mile distant from the Abbey, called it Sinai, for the likeness it had to that rough wilderness of Sinai where in a mount God appeared unto Moses; which ground to this day retaineth the Name and is now called Sinai Park.”[78]
The only important items which are left unchanged are the valuations of the demesnes at Shobnall Grange and at Burton (with the Court Fees), and the lands on lease (ad firma) at Bromley Hurst and this may suggest a possible explanation of the problem we are considering.