A HISTORY OF NORFOLK 



Smeeth,^ A glance at the ordnance map reveals the extreme complication 

 of the south-western corner of Frecbridge hundred, and suggests that at least 

 two parcellings out of reclaimed land must have been made. This classic 

 instance is not, however, so interesting as a similar tract between the rivers 

 Yare and Waveney, which is split up between the six parishes of Langley, 

 Chedgrave, Toft Monks, Stockton, Loddon, and Raveningham, half of which 

 belong to Clavering hundred, and half to that of Loddon. The correspond- 

 ing tract north of the Yare, known as The Marsh, is similarly divided 

 between the hundreds of Walsham and Blofield. We are not, therefore, 

 entitled to assume that the sheep enumerated in the account of any manor 

 actually fed in the immediate neighbourhood of the village which now bears 

 the name of the manor. 



If we make a rough map of the county, marking each manor where 

 more than loo sheep are recorded, we find, as might be expected, that much 

 of the sheep-farming went on in the western portion of the county in the 

 marshes of Freebridge and Clackclose hundreds. We find sheep along the 

 course of the Little Ouse, near Thetford, and also in the tract extend- 

 ing along the valleys of the Yare and Waveney, and in the northern 

 hundreds of Smethden, Brothercross, Gallow, and North Greenhoe. It is 

 probably safe to assume that these last were pastured on the salt marshes 

 which stretch from Blakeney to Titchwell along the north coast, just as 

 Bishop William's loo sheep in Hindringham (f. 192) seem to have been 

 pastured in Wells and Warham. In most cases we are left to infer the 

 existence of these pastures from the numbers of the stock, so it may not be 

 out of place to enumerate the few instances in which the ' pastura ovium ' is 

 mentioned. In Clavering hundred Haddiscoe has pasture for forty sheep 

 and for fifty more," Wheatacre for 200,^ Heckingham has ' marsh ' for sixty 

 sheep,* while in Raveningham ' one freeman, Ketel Friedai,' has seven acres 

 and I marsh. ^ In Freebridge hundred there is a pasture at Upwell, or Outwell, 

 measuring five furlongs by four." In Clackclose hundred there is a marsh at 

 Marham, whereof 'nescitur mensura.'^ In North Greenhoe hundred there is 

 pasture for 200 sheep at Wells next the sea,* and finally there are sixteen acres 

 of marsh in Norwich hundred.' 



The part of the county in which sheep seem least numerous may be 

 found by drawing a line from Cromer to East Dereham, and another line 

 from East Dereham to Harleston or Diss. For about five miles on each side 

 of these lines, which form an angle at East Dereham, sheep may be said to be 

 comparatively scarce. Norfolk is, on the whole, a flat county, but a good 

 deal of the higher ground lies within the tract just described. This ground 

 was probably fairly well wooded in 1086. We can infer this with tolerable 

 certainty from the distribution of pigs in Domesday Book. As in the case 

 of the sheep we must allow for a good deal of intercommoning at all events 

 between manors, but when we find groups of villages lying near together and 

 supporting more than a hundred swine each, we may safely conclude that 

 they lay in a well-wooded district. Wood is often expressed in terms of 

 pigs, as at Whinburgh,^° but in a few cases measurements are given. Thus 



' Maitland, Dom. Bk. and Beyond, 365 n. * Dom. Bk. fF. 182, 190. ' Ibid. f. 250. 



Mbid. f. 205. ' 'Ibid. fF. 135^, 273/5. ' Ibid. f. 22ii. 



• Ibid. f. 212^. Mbid. f. 271. " Ibid. f. 2343. " Ibid. f. 2073. 



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