A HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE 



Domesday, were each worth the large sum of 60 a year. 1 On the 

 manors which his rival, Harold, had held William, here as elsewhere, 

 looked as his peculiar spoil. It was thus that Finchampstead, Great 

 Faringdon, the Coxwells, Steventon, Littleworth, and Aldermaston came 

 to swell his demesne. The assessment of these had slightly exceeded a 

 hundred and thirty hides, but Harold had also held five-hide manors at 

 Clewer and at Liver, ten hides at Brightwalton, and forty hides at 

 Buscot ; and when we add the holdings of his tenants and grantees 

 the total becomes a large one. Here, as elsewhere, we are led to wonder 

 how these great possessions were acquired. Prof. Maitland has sug- 

 gested that they may be accounted for by Harold holding them ex officio 

 as earl of the shire, but it is not improbable that Harold (or his father) 

 had obtained grants of some Crown manors, of which Faringdon may 

 have been one. 2 The King's demesne was not swollen by the lands of 

 Harold's relatives, which in Berkshire were not considerable, and 

 Tostig's manor, as in Oxfordshire and in Bucks, fell to the share of 

 Walter Giffard. 



Before tracing further the devolution of estates, we must say some- 

 thing of their assessment, which here was expressed in hides. 



In Berkshire, as in the counties lying to its north and south, the 

 existence of the five-hide unit as the basis of all assessment needs no 

 special demonstration ; assessments in multiples of that unit are found 

 thick upon the ground. 3 What is of more peculiar interest is that 

 Berkshire is one of a block of four counties, including Hampshire, 

 Surrey, and Sussex, lying to its south, in which the archaic assessments 

 based upon this unit have been largely and inexplicably reduced. 4 It is 

 tempting to connect this phenomenon with the possible ravages of 

 William's host in the early days of the Conquest, but the Berkshire 

 evidence does not, apparently, point in that direction. Indeed the 

 reduction had begun before William's time. The monks of Abingdon 

 claimed that King Edward had reduced the assessment of their manor 

 ofBeedon. 8 Again Harold is alleged to have obtained a reduced 

 assessment of Brightwalton after he secured the manor." For Godric 

 the sheriff also King Edward had reduced the assessment of half 

 Fyfield from 10 hides to 5. 



Domesday shows us the reduction of assessment as most sweeping 

 on the Church's manors. The Bishop of Winchester held three, on two 

 of which it was reduced from 20 hides to 10, and on the third from 15 

 to 10. Abingdon Abbey also secured enormous reductions, Cumnor 

 being brought down from 50 hides to 30, Barton from 60 to 40, 



1 The Domesday map should be consulted for the King's manors. 



3 There is some reason to believe that this had been done on a large scale in Hertfordshire and possibly 

 in other counties. 



3 Feudal England, p. 65. * Ibid. ; Domesday Studies, pp. 100, 1 1 1-2, 1 14-6. 



5 ' Tune se defendebat pro x hidis, modo pro viii. Tamen fuit pro xv hidis, sed rex E. condonavit 

 pro xi hidis ut dicunt.' Possibly xi. is an error for x. 



' Heraldus comes tenuit. Tune [se defendebat] pro x hidis. Quidam tainus qui ante eum tenuit 

 geldabat pro xv hidis.' According to this, Harold had succeeded in getting the assessment reduced by 

 a five-hide unit, i.e. from 15 to 10 hides. 



286 



