A
History–The Normans Part 1
Our history books
always flag up 1066 as such a major event in England’s
story–why? Would we have known in Rowley? Before 1066
we had Danish and Norman kings, Canute was Danish, Edward
(the Confessor) was Norman, as was Harold, so why the
emphasis on William?
To the populace it
was all pretty much life and work as usual–at least south
of the Humber. Not so hereabouts and I mentioned the genocidal
‘harrying of the north’ supervised by William himself
last time. This must have been a terrible time, houses,
ploughs, corn, seed, and animals destroyed; if you weren’t
killed by William’s men you starved. Estimates of 100,000
dead; York, Beverley, Ripon only protected by the power
of the church in Archbishop Aldred of York; every village
sacked to the Scottish border.
As it happens we do
know something of this time here in Rowley–it comes from
the Domesday Book of 1086. William set his clerks to record
land ownership, values for taxes, and population in every
farm, hamlet, village and town in the country; the difference
was it survived for us to read today. It is a book well
worth studying as it tells us so much of life and law
before and after 1066. Taking Rowley we have, with my
emphasis:-
Bentley; (Benedlage), Land of the Archbishop
of York; 2 carucates taxable (1 carucate = 120 acres),
1 plough can plough; St. John’s (Beverley minster) had
one man there; now waste. Woodland pasture is there, however,
1league long and 4 furlongs wide. Value before 1066 20
shillings. Land of Count of Mortain; from Garton the Count
has…in Bentley 2 carucates.
Risby; (Risbi), Archbishop of York, 6
carucates taxable, 3 ploughs possible; waste. The Archbishop
has all of them. In Risby Gamall had 4 car. of land which
he sold to Aldred after 1066. The jurisdiction of this
land formerly lay in Welton but Archbishop Thomas has
King William’s writ through which he granted that same
jurisdiction with exemption to St. John’s of Beverley.
Little Weighton; (Widetone), Land of
Hugh son of Baldric; in Little Weighton Gamall had 5 car.
and 2 bovates of land taxable; there is land for 3 ploughs.
Now Hugh has there 2 ploughs; and 16 villagers with 4
ploughs; there is a church and a priest, 2 mills (value)
16s. 1 league long and 1 wide; Value before 1066 40s now
50s.
Riplingham;
(Ripingham), Land of Ralph of Mortemer; in (North) Ferriby
Eagdifu had 10 car. of land taxable; land for 5 ploughs.
Now Ralph has there 14 villagers with 3 ploughs; Value
before 1066 100s now 60s. To these manors belong these
outliers…(Anlaby, Wauldby, Myton, Wolfreton, Hessle)…Riplingham
1 car, and 2 bov, (elsewhere 10 bov). Together 61/2 car
of land taxable. There is land for 4 ploughs. These are
waste, except that in Hessle there are 4 villagers with
1 plough.
Hunsley; (Hundeslege),
Land of the Bishop of Durham (Bishop Alwine); In…Hunsley
21/2 car. Now the Bishop of Durham (Bishop William) has
it. Waste. Land of Hugh son of Baldric; In Hunsley Gamall
had 21/2 car. of land taxable. There is land for 1 plough.
Hugh has there 2 ploughs and 6 villagers with 2 ploughs,
1 league long and 2 furlongs wide. This village appertains
to Little Weighton.”
In the above taken directly from The Domesday Book we
see the detail given. Thus we have woodland at Bentley,
which was very rare in the whole of East Yorkshire; Risby,
Bentley and Riplingham had workable land, (and presumably
villagers to work it), but all are ‘waste’. Except for
Little Weighton taxable values have disappeared or fallen.
The picture is dismal with only Little Weighton and its
outlier Hunsley being viable settlements in 1086. What
did it all mean, who were all these people, and what happened
next?
Big Thank You to Barrie Heaton for his historical articles.
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