238 THE DOMESDAY INQUEST 



Whatever may have been the meaning of the Domesday 

 value, every one must notice the general rise in values during 

 the reign of the Conqueror. The gross value (omitting those 

 estates which produced rents) of Oxfordshire had risen from 

 1934 5^. in 1066 to 2397 Ss. 6d. in 1086, a rise of 20 per 

 cent. ; and if, as has been previously suggested, the team- 

 lands, the "terra carucis," represent the number of teams 

 employed in the county in 1066, the average value of a 

 teamland was 14^. 8d. in that year, and had risen to 22s. in 

 1086, an increase of 50 per cent. Increases of 25, 50, and 

 75 per cent, in the value of individual estates are not un- 

 common, and a few estates had actually doubled in value. 

 Cuxham had increased in value from 3 to 6 ; Lewknor, 

 from 10 to 20 ; and the Bishop of Bayeux's estate at 

 Tew, from 20 to 40. And what is true of Oxfordshire 

 is true of many counties in England. Yorkshire is the 

 most noticeable exception : generations passed before that 

 county recovered from the Conqueror's ravages. On page 

 after page of the Domesday of that unfortunate county are 

 numerous records of estates which were formerly flourish- 

 ing, but "are now waste." The Terra Regis in York- 

 shire fills seventeen columns, in the first four of which the 

 lands formerly gelded for 894 carucates which 471 teams 

 could plough, and were valued, T. R. E., at 570 ; in 1086 

 only 65 J teams were employed on these lands, and their value 

 had sunk to 36 igs. ^d. On the manor of Alvertune and 

 its eleven berewicks there were, T. R. E., sixty-six villans 

 with thirty-three teams, " now it is in the hand of the King, 

 and waste ; " to this manor pertained twenty-four sokelands, 

 assessed at 85 carucates, and inhabited by 116 sokemen ; 

 " now they are waste." l 



In Buckinghamshire, too, there appears to have been a 

 decrease of some 5 per cent, in values during the Conqueror's 

 reign. 



1 D. B., I. 299 a I. 



