A HISTORY OF WORCESTERSHIRE 



Tewkesbury itself. But Martley and Suckley, as we are reminded by 

 the note at the end of the Worcestershire Domesday, paid their geld in 

 the Hundred in which they were locally situate, while Feckenham with 

 Holloway similarly belonged to their own Worcestershire Hundred. The 

 note which thus records these facts is a fitting introduction to the 

 surveys of these manors under Herefordshire, which will accordingly be 

 given after it in the Domesday text below. 



The cause of these manors receiving this exceptional treatment is 

 to be found in one of the phenomena of the Conquest, the brief but 

 eventful career of William Fitz Osbern as reigning earl of Hereford- 

 shire (1067-1070). What was his official position in Worcestershire 

 it is not easy to decide, but a writ addressed to archbishop Ealdred, 

 bishop Wulfstan, earl William (Fitz Osbern), and all the thegns in 

 Gloucestershire and Worcestershire,^ suggests that he exercised power of 

 some kind over the shire. In any case he annexed the lands that he held 

 within its borders to Hereford, the seat of his power, so far that they were 

 surveyed, we have seen, under Herefordshire, although they seem to 

 have been only members of his great lordship of Hereford in the sense 

 of paying their rents as part of its collective revenue. He left, however, 

 on Worcestershire a more permanent impress by those benefactions to 

 the abbeys he had founded at Cormeilles and La Vieille Lyre, which 

 enable us, here as elsewhere, to trace his hand. The charters of con- 

 firmation granted to these abbeys by Henry IL, early in his reign, read 

 in conjunction with Domesday Book, place it in our power to detect the 

 endowments bestowed on them by their great benefactor. The monks 

 of La Vieille Lyre obtained the church of Hanley (Castle), with its 

 appurtenances, and ' the tithe(s) of the forest of Malvern, save the (pro- 

 ceeds of the) chase ' ; the tithe(s) of the whole demesnes of Queenhill 

 (chapel) and Bushley, with small holdings of land in each ; the tithe (s) 

 of the whole demesne of Eldersfield and Feckenham, with a small 

 holding at the former, and the church and a ploughland at the latter." 

 To the monks of Cormeilles were given the churches of Suckley and of 

 Martley, with all their chapels, tithes and appurtenances, together with 

 some small holdings and with the tithes of Holloway, and land at Tenbury.^ 



* Monasticon AngUcanum, I. 301. 



* *In episcopatu Wigorniae ecclesiam de Hanlega cum appendiciis suis, et decimam 

 forestae de Malvernias, praster venationem. Decimam totius dominii de Cohella {sic), et decimam 

 totius dominii de Brisseleia [sic], et unum hominem et decimam totius dominii de Fortelmetona, 

 et unum hominem et decimam totius dominii de Eldresfeld, et unum hominem et decimam 

 totius dominii de Fecheham cum appendiciis, et unam carucatam terras ' {Monasticon 

 Anglicanum, VI. 1092). In 1 1 60 we find on the Pipe Roll the abbey of Lyre receiving the 

 bulk of the tithes of Hanley (the monks of Malvern receiving the rest), while an annual 

 payment of 30 shillings represented a commutation for their other tithes from the King's 

 manors. 



^ ' Ecclesiam de Sukeleia, cum omnibus capellis, et decimis, et pertinentiis suis ; et totam 



decimam de dominio, et unam virgatam terras ; et ecclesiam de Merleia cum omnibus capellis 



et decimis et pertinentiis suis ; et tres virgatas terras et totam decimam de dominio. Ad Wich 



rectum suum in salinis. Ad Holewei totam decimam de dominio, et unam virgatam terra 



. . et de decima de Sukeleia et de Merleia sexaginta et quindecim solidos ' {Ibid. VI. 



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