DOMESDAY SURVEY 



in Clackclose hundred ' half a league ' of wood belonged to Fincham/ an 

 acre to Stow Bardolph,' i6 acres to South Runcton/ and 4 acres to Barton 

 Bendish.* In Brothercross hundred we hear of a wood called Fangeham 

 Wood ' sixty acres in length ' " at Colekirk, while in Depwade hundred 

 at Hemenhale there was a wood called ' Schieteshaga ' supporting 200 swine/ 

 Bittering, in Launditch hundred, had 7 acres/ and Sparham, in Eynesford 

 hundred, had six.' For the most part, however, we must be content with 

 statistics as to swine, and these would lead us to conclude that apart from 

 some stray woods about Heacham and Snettisham and along the course of 

 the Nar, most of the woodland was precisely where we find a scarcity of 

 sheep, that is to say, from Diss north-westwards to Wayland Wood, where 

 the babes 



' were found stiff and stark, 

 And stone dead, by two little cock robins,' ' 



and thence north-easterly in the hundredsofMidford, Launditch, and Eynesford. 

 Nearer the north coast pigs become decidedly scarcer. The largest herd of 

 swine for which pasture is recorded was one of 1,200 at Thorpe next 

 Norwich, but several towns such as Mileham, Necton, and Buxton had 1,000, 

 and there had been 1,500 at Harold's manor of Cawston. We may regard 

 these numbers as guesswork, but Domesday is sometimes very precise about 

 subdivisions of such pastures as those described. At ' Strincham ' (i.e. Itter- 

 ingham), for instance, we find two sokemen who have ' wood for 18 pigs and 

 2 thirds of another,'^" which may well take rank with the famous 'semibos.'" 



The same two sokemen had seven-eighths of a mill, which might seem 

 at first sight to require explanation. Professor Maitland suggests that in such 

 cases the 'mill has been erected at the cost of the vill.'^^ We may conclude 

 that in both these cases the fractional expression is the result of co-ownership, 

 even though we are unable to trace the remaining eighth of the mill. Half- 

 mills are somewhat common in Norfolk, the profits being divided between 

 two owners, and in some cases perhaps between two adjoining townships." 



There was no lack of mills in Norfolk. For the most part they follow 

 the courses of the rivers, the Great Ouse, with its tributaries, the Nar, Stoke, 

 and Little Ouse in the west, the Bure, Wensum, Yare, and Waveney in the 

 east. Some places, such as Thetford, where there were seven mills, must 

 have had a considerable milling industry. One of the Thetford mills brought 

 in £1 I2S. a year.^* Wymondham had 5! mills, Gooderstone 5, Aylsham and 

 East Dereham 4 each, as had Heacham, Snettisham, and Castle Rising near 

 the west coast, North Barsham, near Walsingham, and Shropham in the 

 south. 



We hear of a good many river fisheries ; Hockwold had six and Meth- 

 wold seven, but in many places where we should expect to find them we find 

 no record. Of sea fisheries we hear little or nothing since we cannot certainly 

 set down the fisheries at Hunstanton, Heacham, and Castle Rising as such. 

 Even on the Yarmouth herring fishery Domesday is silent, so far as Norfolk 



' Dom. Bk. f. 205^. ' Ibid. f. 206. ' Ibid. f. 209. 



* Ibid. f. 230^. ' Ibid. f. 197. « Ibid. f. 248. 



' Ibid. f. 137. ' Ibid. f. 204. ' Vide Ancestor, xii, 179. 



'° Dom. Bk. f. 1961^. " Maitland, Dom. Bk. and Beyond, 142. 



'=' Dom. Bk. and Beyond, 144. " Cf. K C. H. Essex, i, 379. " Dom. Bk. f. 173. 



2 25 4 



