vaccary

1) A cattle-farm in the uplands, especially the Pennines.

From medieval Latin vaccaria: 1203-4 facient logias et vaccarias in easdem foresta de Mewith

1394-5 Redditus Vaccaria de Kesebek, Whitby. The word was used in early court rolls and in official documents for the cattle-farms which feudal landlords established in the uplands, especially in the Pennines: 1339 ‘a sixth part of Saltonstall vaccary which is granted to Richard [son of Stephen] likewise’. The thinly-populated moorland fringes had abundant grazing and were able to support animal husbandry, so vaccaries could be set up within forests, as in Marsden, or be the main activity within a township such as Scammonden, a development which determined the pattern of settlement. Sometimes the place-names in a particular area serve to identify the sites, especially booth as a suffix in the de Lacy territories, and t?n-stall on Wakefield manor. The term is now part of the landscape historians’ vocabulary.

dates 1339 1394-1395

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Photo by Kreuzschnabel CC BY-SA 3.0