i 7 4 THE DOMESDAY INQUEST 



landowners, it was often the case that the profits of the mill 

 were equally divided, and frequently we meet with manors to 

 which was attached a share in the profits of a mill. To 

 Fetcham (Surrey) pertained a fifth share in one mill and a 

 third share in another. 1 Many mills did not work throughout 

 the year: it was only in winter that some streams had a 

 sufficient flow of water to turn the mill-wheel, and mills on 

 such streams were called "molini hiemales." 2 I have not 

 found any mention of a windmill in Domesday Book. 



Possibly some of the mills recorded in Domesday Book 

 were tide-mills, where a mill-pond is filled by the rising tide and 

 emptied by the ebb, when the rush of water turns the wheel. 

 There are two tide-mills in Chichester Harbour to-day, at 

 Birdham and Fishbourne, both of which vills contained mills 

 in 1086. But the one tide-mill distinctly mentioned in 

 Domesday Book was that erected by Hubert fitz Ivo in the 

 entrance of the port of Dover, " which breaks almost all the 

 ships by the great disturbance of the sea, and causes very 

 great damage to the King and his men." 3 



4. THE FISHERIES 



We have just alluded to the strictness of mediaeval fasting 

 and to the value of the eels from the mill-pond, and the most 

 casual student of Domesday Book must notice the frequency 

 with which the fisheries are recorded. Reverting to our three 

 Oxfordshire examples, there was no fishery recorded at 

 Combe ; the mills at Deddington rendered one hundred eels ; 

 and two fisheries at Stanton Harcourt produced rents of 305-. 

 If we follow the left bank of the Thames downward from 

 Oxford, we find that the fishery at Iffley yielded 4$-. ; two 

 fisheries at Sandford yielded los. ; there were three fisher- 

 men at Nuneham ; and the fisher on the demesne manor of 

 the Bishop of Lincoln at Dorchester provided him with thirty 

 1 D. B., I. 32 a I. 2 Id., I. 255 b I ; II. 304. 3 Id., I. I a I. 



