Aspects of Kentish Local History

and took place with the same regularity as the maltings. Utensils of all sorts were constantly being purchased for the brewery. In 1414-15, for example, hoops were bought for mending barrels, and candles for lighting the brewery. "Scoops", linen cloth, rings, trivets, taphose (sic), and charcoal were constantly in demand. With his many responsibilities the bartoner must certainly have been one of the most active of the conventual obedientiaries. Another monk took his place in choir during his frequent absences at the barton, for he was only able to lead a quasi-regular life. Many of the most important and senior monks were promoted to the office. To take only one example, John Woddnesburgh, who was co-adjutor to Prior Chillenden in 1410, at the same time held the office of bartoner. He became prior in the following year.
   The years 1250-1350 marked the high-water mark of the manorial economy of Christ Church, and it was therefore in this century that the bartoner was most actively employed. It was the golden age of demesne farming and the bartoner, together with the garnerer who received the wheat supplies, was one of the key men in the economic system of the priory. His responsibilities were great, yet the accounts show that he rose to the occasion and punctiliously fulfilled the duties imposed upon him. His method of accounting was clear and exact—a fact which must have greatly facilitated the effective execution of his duty. The long series of

accounts are themselves a testimony to the integrity of the Christ Church bartoners, for failure to keep accounts was one of the besetting sins of the middle ages and a most common cause of economic collapse.
   After Prior Chillenden had completed his policy of letting out manorial demesnes on lease in the last decade of the fourteenth century, the work of the bartoner declined in importance. Most of the corn was now purchased in the local markets by the prior-treasurers and taken to malt-houses in the city. In 1405-06, for example, 1084 quarters of barley were malted at the barton, but 513 quarters were taken to various malt-houses in the city. Again in 1410-11 no less than £12 18s. 4d.. was paid by the monks to the city maltsters. But activity in the brewery was unabated and the bartoner still supervised the management of the manor, the demesne of which was constantly demised for short-term leases. In 1399 the prior and chapter granted 20 marks of rent from Barton Manor to the two chantry chaplains who sang in the cathedral for the soul of the late John Buckingham, Bishop of Lincoln.
   The bartoner held a court for his tenants at the door of the brewery (ostium bracini). Court-rolls have only survived for the fifteenth and early sixteenth century. They show that the business was then trivial in amount. The payment of reliefs or the distraint of tenants for failure to do so constituted its main activity. The bartoners presided