THE DOMESDAY SURVEY 



In addition to the hundred burgesses accounted for above, there are 

 13 others definitely assigned to Droitwich, and there are some whose 

 locale is not mentioned. The former were appurtenant to Wichbold, 

 and owed there reaping and other service (fo. ij6b). Houses also 

 are mentioned as held in Droitwich, in two or three cases, by owners 

 of other manors. But it is with the ' salins ' that we meet most 

 frequently. Some misapprehension has arisen from the entry of 



• Salinas ' under other places, without the explanation that they were 

 situated in Droitwich ; the existence of local saltworks has been 

 wrongly deduced from these entries. As a matter of fact, many places 

 outside Worcestershire possessed ' salins ' or rights to salt at Droit- 

 wich. That Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, and Warwickshire should 

 supply instances in point may not be surprising ; but so far afield as 

 Oxfordshire we have cases at Bampton^ and Rollright,^ while even 

 in Bucks (Prince's) Risborough had its saltworker at Droitwich.^ It 

 appears to me that these rights, belonging to manors at a distance, 

 must have been due to some extent to their lords having at Droitwich 

 also territorial interests. In Warwickshire, for instance, the Domesday 

 holders of Witton in Droitwich, William son of Corbucion and Urse 

 d'Abetot, held sundry manors. The former's chief seat was at Studley, to 

 which we find appurtenant a saltpan, which must have been at Droitwich,* 

 whence also salt was due to another of his Warwickshire manors.^ A 

 Droitwich saltpan similarly belonged to a Warwickshire manor of 

 Urse.® It is probable that Earl Eadwine, who had large interests at 

 Droitwich, had similarly bestowed rights there on distant manors of his 

 own before the Conquest. 



Although the process of salt manufacture must be dealt with in the 

 section devoted to industries, it may be mentioned here that Domesday 

 contains several allusions to the process. In addition to the brine-pits, 

 the ' Salinas,' and the somewhat mysterious ' hocci,' we have, under 

 Bromsgrove 3 saltworkers and 6 leaden pans {plumbi) for their work ; 

 and two of these leaden pans are mentioned under Tardebigg as distinct 

 from the ' salinas.' A place for making these pans {fabrica plumbi) is 

 mentioned under Northwick (fo. ij^^)-, and 4 furnaces {furni) stood on the 

 Westminster Abbey estate. The consumption of wood at the saltworks 

 must have been very great. The Bishop's wood at Fladbury, we read 

 (fo. 173), supplied 'ligna ad salinas de Wich,' while Bromsgrove sent yearly 



* *De . . . salinis de Wic ' (154^). * 'III summae salis ad Wich' (i6oi). 

 ' 'Adhuc unus salinarius de Wicg reddens summas {sic) salis' (143^). 



* ' Salina reddens xix summas salis ' (243). Studley was just over the Worcestershire 

 border, and William's heirs removed thither the religious house they had originally 

 founded at Witton. Thus it was that Studley Priory came to hold St. Peter's, Witton. 

 In addition to Witton, William held, as an under-tenant of Westminster Abbey, the valuable 

 manor of Dormston, Worcestershire, which was represented by the one knight's fee held of 

 the Abbey in 1 1 66 by Peter ' de Stodlega,' William's heir. In the Droitwich survey he 

 holds the two hides at Witton as Peter ' Corbezun,' the family being known by both names. 



® (Binton): 'de Wich iii summas salis' (243). * 'Salina in Wich reddens iii solidos ' 



(243^). ' Salters' way ' was the road from Droitwich through Alcester to Stratford-on-Avon. 



* Salt Street ' seems to have run south-east towards Stow-on-the-Wold. 



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