SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC 



HISTORY 



economic and social development of Nottinghamshire has 

 certainly been favourably affected by the position and physical 

 features of the country. It forms the connecting link between 

 northern and southern England, and its chief towns, Notting- 

 ham and Newark, command the great water highway of the Trent. 

 Moreover, its internal resources are not small, and were early developed ; the 

 great Forest of Sherwood formerly covered the northern part of the county ; 

 the quarries of Basford, Gedling, and Mansfield supplied the stone which 

 served for many of the principal buildings in the county ; and the coal mines 

 at Cossall, Wollaton, and Selston early proved valuable. Thus in the variety 

 of its natural riches Nottinghamshire had the advantage of many of the more 

 fertile counties of the south. 



Early political and social influences also favoured Nottinghamshire. 

 The Danish influence, though far less strong than in Lincolnshire, is shown 

 by the number of socmen in the county. Exclusive of the town of Notting- 

 ham, over 1,700 Nottinghamshire socmen are mentioned in Domesday, 1 as 

 compared with about 2,500 villeins and less than 1,400 bordars. In com- 

 parison with Lincolnshire the proportion of socmen is small ; but it is greatly 

 in excess of that of the freemen in many southern counties. 



There are but few classes of tenants mentioned in the Nottinghamshire 

 Domesday. There are about seven 'franci homines,' 2 two 'Englishmen' 3 

 (mentioned as if forming a class by themselves), and about twenty ' servi.' 4 

 Of other tenants holding directly of the tenants in chief there were between 

 fifty and sixty. At Newark there were fifty-six burghers 6 ; and holding under 

 the Archbishop of York at Southwell there were six knights 6 ; while the 

 tenants in chief were few, numbering only twenty-eight besides the king's 

 thegns, of whom there were about twenty-three. 7 



The number of the tenants in chief, however, greatly increased during the 

 succeeding century and a half. One great landowner indeed, the Countess 

 d'Eu, held over thirty knights' fees, and much of the land in Nottinghamshire 

 had been gathered into the great honours of Peveril, Tickhill, Richmond, and 



1 Dom. Bk. (V.C.H. Notts, i). ' Dom. Bk. Notts, fol. 283^ (V.C.H. Notts, i, 257) 



1 Ibid. fol. 283 (V.C.H. Notts, i, 255). 



4 Ibid. fol. 287, 287^, 289, 293 (V.C.H. Notts, i, 269, 271, 275, 276, 287). 



5 Ibid. Notts, fol. 283^ (V.C.H. Notts, i, 257). 6 Ibid. fol. 283 (V.C.H. Notts, i, 255). 

 ' Ibid. fol. 292^, 293 (V.C.H. Notts, i, 284-8). 



2 265 34 



