1499 AD - Nicholas De Birmingham & Marjorie Middlemore

The church behind it was much smaller than the one in my time, and it looked quite new. A little way off a large half-timbered house with a tiled roof lay inside a moat. There were a few cottages nearby, but they were tumbled-down and seemed to be empty.

Three rutted tracks came together near the church, and on the one from the direction of Birmingham a young horseman was galloping towards me. He dismounted at the tower door just as a middle-aged woman opened it and came out. Both of them were very colourfully clad.

Marjorie: Nicholas ! Nicholas de Birmingham - is it really you?

Nicholas: Yes, Mistress Marjorie, Nicholas it is - at your service.

Marjorie: You are a stranger in Edgbaston - what brings you here? I have not seen you or any of your family since your wedding four years ago. You seem to prefer your other estates to Birmingham. Of course you did write once, to tell me that baby Edward had arrived. How is he?

Nicholas: Very well, I rejoice to say. He is three years old now.

Marjorie: And quite old enough to be brought here to see me ! You still haven't told me why you are here, Nicholas. You know you are very welcome, whatever the reason.

Nicholas: Why, I have come to see you and Master Humphrey, of course and to invite you both to hunt with me in Rotton Park tomorrow.

Marjorie: A good reason and a kind invitation, Nicholas. But I think the truth of the matter is that you want us to put you up in the Hall here, because your manor house in Birmingham isn't fit to live in !

Nicholas: I won't deny that it's in a poor state - half the roof's off, and the townsfolk have used the moat as a rubbish dump. What with that and the smell from the tanyards by the river, it's no place to spend even one night. Of course, I could stay in the Keeper's Lodge in Rotton Park, if you don't want me.

Marjorie: Nonsense, Nicholas, you know we love to have guests, and especially you.

Nicholas: There is another reason for my coming. I heard that you were adding a tower to the chapel your husband built, and I've come to see it.

Marjorie: Well, here it is. What do you think of it?

Nicholas: It's splendid, magnificent ! In fact, it's nearly as fine as the tower and spire of St. Martin's in Birmingham!

Marjorie: You haven't changed, Nicholas still living to tease me! You know very well that the rich merchants of Birmingham can afford to build a tall steeple to guide lost travellers there are only farmers in Edgbaston, and even with the good prices we get for wool we can never be as wealthy as you and your metal-workers.

Nicholas: Truly, Mistress Marjorie, it is a fine tower, and it will make a safe refuge for your tenants if war comes again to these parts. Did you really build it all yourself ?

Marjorie: You know very well I didn't! A travelling master-mason and his men did the work, with some of our people for labourers. But it's still my tower, because I paid for it.

Nicholas: I suppose you were jealous of Humphrey's new chapel.

Marjorie: Well, he would keep on about it! But, as I told him, he had to rebuild the chapel - the old one was likely to fall down on our heads at any moment. It was over two hundred years old, you know.

Nicholas: The de Edgbaston family built that one, I suppose? They held the manor in those days.

Marjorie: Yes. Did you realise, Nicholas, that yours is the only family hereabouts that still holds a manor it held in Norman times? All the other old families have died out or gone away.

Nicholas: Yes, we are very proud to have been lords of Birmingham for four hundred years, even if we don't live there any more. I think we can claim to have done well for the manor. We got charters for the weekly markets and the annual fairs that have brought so much trade to the town: and we have allowed the tenants to pay rents for their land instead of working for us, so that they've been able to go in for manufacturing and commerce.

Marjorie: And Birmingham has done very well for your family too, Nicholas. With all the tolls your Steward collects at the markets and fairs, and the high rents you charge on about three hundred houses, not to mention the land-rents, you have a very profitable estate there. Be careful that no-one tries to take it from you!

Nicholas: I will indeed. Now that you have this new chapel, I expect that you will try to have Edgbaston declared a separate parish?

Marjorie: Yes, it's a rough ride to the mother church in Harborne on holy days. It would be so much better if we could hold all the services here in St. Bartholomew's.

Nicholas: I see you have enclosed Church Field.

Marjorie: Yes, it had to happen. The last outbreak of plague hit us very hard, you know. It was more serious than most of those we've had in the last 100 years. A quarter of our tenants died of the sickness, and nearly as many fled to escape it. There haven't been enough workers to grow crops for the last ten years or more. We can't get tenants for those cottages there. So, as wool fetches a good price and sheep need only a few shepherds, Humphrey has had the field divided into closes and offered for rent. Do you know, some of your tenants have taken them.

Nicholas: That doesn't surprise me. Our great fields were enclosed years ago, and they're all used for pasture. I don't think there's any corn being grown in Birmingham manor now - it has to be brought in, like the iron and sea-coal. My steward tells me that he often has enquiries about Rotton Park from graziers who want to rent it. But I and my son will keep it for hunting until there are no deer left.

Marjorie: If what I hear is correct, that won't be long ! There is a great deal of poaching, not only of deer and game birds, but of fish from Roach Pool.

Nicholas: We must hope there'll be something for us to shoot at with our crossbows tomorrow! Will any of your sons be able to join the hunt?

Marjorie: Robert will, I know - he loves hunting. In fact, he says that one day he hopes to buy Metchley Park from you ! Come along now and meet Humphrey. I expect he's out in a boat on the Great Pool. It's been re-stocked with fish from our ponds, and we can offer you some good fishing if you can stay for a few days.

Leading his horse, Nicholas went with Marjorie towards Edgbaston Hall, and I looked sadly after him : for I knew that this gay young man was going to die very suddenly not long after this visit, and that his son Edward would be the last of his family to hold
Birmingham.