— 
By the Rev. J. Wilkinson. 279 
So there are now to the east and west, though one is no longer 
at work. But Mill Farm sufficiently indicates its position on the 
brook. They were the lord’s mills, and he did not allow his 
tenants to take their corn elsewhere. This protectionist policy 
will partly account for the multiplication of mills (apparently 
beyond the wants of the community), and their value; though it 
will hardly explain the curious fact that there are enumerated in 
the Domesday survey of Wilts (not a superabundantly watered 
county) 404 mills, a number greater than in any other English 
county except Lincolnshire. Some must from their situation have 
been driven by the wind. Here these two mills for a few people 
were assessed at nine shillings, while five hides of the best land in 
the Parish only paid one hundred. 
Spiritual government our Parish had none. Submission to 
‘spiritual pastors and masters’ was not taught to the little Brotonians 
of the 11th century. Nothing is said of a church or of a priest 
here. Indeed out of 324 parishes in Wilts, only 29 with churches 
are enumerated, and of these two were in ruins. For spiritual 
ministrations our people were dependent on any itinerant priest, 
who might gather some listeners together round the village cross, 
of which the name still marks the position. Justice has hardly 
been done the Normans in the matter of providing the means of 
grace throughout their properties. The invasion had a religious 
aspect; the Pope blessed it and gave a Bull; the Pope’s banner was 
at the mast head of William’s ship, and a cross on his flag; there 
were the appeal to Harold’s oath, and the devotional practise of the 
night before the battle; the Bishop of Bayeux (William’s brother) 
celebrated mass, and blessed the troops early, wearing his episcopal 
robes over his armour; William himself wore suspended round his 
neck the relics on which Harold had sworn; the standard blessed 
by the Pope was carried before him; the Normans attacked amidst 
cries of Notre Dame, Dieu aide; Battle Abbey, vowed during the 
fight, was built on the very ground, the high altar raised on the 
‘The probability is that these were the only churches with glebe attached. 
The assessors, having taxation in view, would not make returns of churches 
which had no fixed sources of income. 
