DOMESDAY SURVEY 



Reading is clearly its position at the junction of the Thames and Kennet 

 valleys, which gave it a certain trade. 



Next in importance comes Windsor, a typical example of a town 

 dependent on a great castle. Here the town is styled a ' vill,' and is 

 part of the manor. It contained, however, 95 bagez, thirty shillings 

 being received from the rent of sixty-nine of them. Possibly the ' new 

 market' at Cookham was not unconnected with Windsor, but this is 

 merely a guess. It is only from the survey of Surrey that we learn that 

 the pious Edward had bestowed Old Windsor on his great foundation 

 at Westminster, and that the Conqueror had redeemed it by the gift 

 of Battersea. He then enlarged it, as we learn from the Clewer entry, 

 by adding half a hide from that manor, on which Windsor Castle was 

 placed, 1 a statement which practically implies that he raised it there 

 himself. 



Abingdon, of course, is the typical town that rises at the abbey 

 gate ; indeed, Domesday describes its ten traders, paying their forty 

 pence, as so situate. The nine hagce at Great Faringdon point to the 

 commencement of a trade arising from the junction of several roads at 

 its gap in the hills. Trade, due to a similar cause, would also be the 

 origin of Newbury and Hungerford, but the twelve hagce entered at 

 Thatcham as farmed for fifty-five shillings present some difficulty. 

 Unless this royal manor possessed special trade privileges, of which 

 there is no mention in the survey, one does not see why it should 

 possess these houses, unless they were really situate in Newbury, which 

 the formula does not suggest. The earliest mention, possibly, of New- 

 bury by that name is found in my Calendar of Documents preserved in 

 France^ and it seems desirable to say something of the early history of 

 this town, in which Domesday records the existence of fifty-one hagce. 



Of Ernulf de Hesdin who held Newbury, under the name of 

 * Ulvritone,' 4 it has been said that ' despite all researches,' he ' still 

 remains one of the most mysterious personages in Domesday.' 3 That 

 his Berkshire manor included, as has been believed, Newbury is for- 

 tunately confirmed by two charters, one of which proves that he 

 bestowed on the abbey of Preaux the church, tithes, and glebe of New- 

 bury, 4 while another records his gift to the Priory at his native Hesdin 

 of a curtilage in Newbury. 8 With the bulk of his possessions it must 

 have passed to Patrick de Chaworth (Cadurcis] and Maud his wife, 6 

 who is held, though (in my opinion) without good ground, to have 

 been a daughter of Ernulf. 7 Their heir Payn was, clearly, in possession 

 of Newbury in n66, 8 and it was subsequently, with other lands of 



1 ' et castellum de Windesores est in dimidia hida.' This may be compared with the entry 

 relating to Bramber castle, V.C.H. Sussex, i. 444. 



a See my note to ' Ulvritone ' in the text. 



s Cal. Docs. France, p. xlvii. * Ibid. p. 108. B Ibid. p. 482. 



Ibid. p. 364. That Patrick held it in 1130 is proved, I consider, by the Pipe Roll of that year, 

 which records the remission to him of 20 sh. for Danegeld, representing the 10 hides at which ' Ulvritone ' 

 was originally assessed (pp. 125-6, cf. p. 124). 7 Ibid, xlviii. 



8 Red Book of the Exchequer (Rolls Ser.) 297, where it is recorded that Payn de Muntdublel (his 

 alias) had given ' unam vastam terram juxta Neuberiam ' to his steward Nicholas son of Simon. In the 

 I 313 40 



