THE DOMESDAY SURVEY 



quainted with this statement, and pointed out, as confirmation or it, that 

 Baginton was included as a chapelry of Stoneleigh in a grant temp. Henry 

 II. ; but he did not draw from it what would seem to be the natural 

 inference, namely, that, just as Kenilworth to the west was a member of 

 Stoneleigh, so ' Optone ' must be sought somewhere in the three adjoining 

 vills of Baeinton, Rvton, and Stretton-on-Dunsmore to the east. Under 



O J 



Baginton and Ryton he rejects the statement of the same Stoneleigh 

 cartulary that they were given to the Ardens by Henry I., on the just 

 ground that Turchil held them as early as 1086. But if ' Optone' lay 

 within them, it might conceivably have been so granted, and its identity 

 thus lost in the manors they already held there. This, however, can 

 only be conjecture in the absence of further evidence. 



If we could only be sure of the forms of Domesday names, the work 

 of identification would present less difficulty. But those we find in War- 

 wickshire are enough to show that we cannot. Barston is represented by 

 ' Bercestone ' and by * Bertanestone.' * Berdingeberie ' occurs also, by 

 transposition, as 'Derbingerie.' Burmington is 'Burdintone ' in Domes- 

 day. Harbury is ' Edburberie,' but also ' Erburgeberie.' ' Filunger ' 

 and ' Felingelei ' both represent Fillongley. * Ilmedone ' and ' Edelmi- 

 tone ' are variant forms of Ilmington. Both ' Tacesbroc ' and ' Tas- 

 chebroc ' stand for Tachbrook, as do ' Wara ' and ' Gaura ' for Over. 

 Willoughby masquerades as ' Wilebec,' ' Wilebene,' and ' Wilebere,' 

 and Wormleighton as ' Wimelestone,' ' Wimenestone,' and ' Wimere- 

 stone.' ' Worwarde ' and ' Volwarde ' are both considered to represent 

 Great Wolford. 



In the midlands we have to be always on our watch for that 

 strange transposition of manors, which is one of the puzzles of Domes- 

 day. Just as two manors in the Staffordshire Hundred of Cuttlestone 

 have wandered into the Northamptonshire portion of the great Survey, 1 

 so we find surveyed under Warwickshire quite a group of manors on the 

 border of Staffordshire and Shropshire. On the Staffordshire side of it 

 are Essington, Bushbury, and Chillington in Brewood, all in the 

 Hundred of Cuttlestone ; on the Shropshire side are Quatt, Romsley, 

 Rudge, and Shipley near Bridgenorth. Under Warwickshire also we find 

 surveyed the important manor of Spilsbury in the west of Oxfordshire, 

 while of Mollington, a manor of ten hides where three counties meet, 

 five hides arc surveyed under Warwickshire, four under Oxfordshire 

 and one under Northamptonshire ! A parallel case is that of the 

 Overs, which lay on the border of Warwickshire and Northamptonshire, 

 William Fitz Ansculf s estate of one hide at ' Wavre ' being found under 

 Northants. In Northamptonshire also, we find the survey of Turchil's 

 manor of Sawbridge, of the Count of Meulan's estates at Berkswell * and 

 Whitacre, and apparently of Whichford, which is not mentioned under 

 Warwickshire in Domesday. 3 



1 See y.C.H. Northanti, i., and p. 344 below. 

 ! i.e. 4 hides in addition to the I hide under Warwickshire. 



3 My ground for identifying Gilbert de Gant's manor of ' Wicford,' placed under Northampton- 

 shire by Domesday, with Whichford in the south of Warwickshire is solely that its church was given to 



295 



