A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



one or more of its neighbours in the possession of a church, or that different 

 tenants held shares of the same church. 



Numerous as are the entries of churches of this shire in the early Norman 

 days, it is quite obvious that the roll is not complete. Even the old mother 

 church of Southwell is not named, nor can there be much doubt that there 

 was then a church at Cropwell Bishop. In at least five or six cases remains 

 of church fabrics (as at Farndon), or of pre-Norman carved stones (as at 

 Hickling and Shelford) point to other early places of Christian worship not 

 named in Domesday. Moreover it can be proved in other counties that 

 chapels of ease or early manorial chapels hardly ever find a place in the Sur- 

 vey,' and there is no reason to suppose that Nottinghamshire is in this respect 

 an exception.'' Taking all these points into consideration, it is within the 

 mark to say that there were at the very least i lo places of Christian worship 

 in the county in the year 1085, a striking and practical proof of the reality , 

 and vitality of the faith of those early days. The proportion of church 

 accommodation of those rough times in proportion to the population was 

 certainly far in excess of that supplied at the beginning of the 20th century. 



The considerable share of Nottinghamshire manors held by the church 

 at the time of the Survey has already been adequately discussed,' and need 

 here be only very briefly recapitulated. In addition to Southwell and its 

 numerous berewicks in the centre of the county, the Archbishop of York 

 held a fairly extensive group of manors in the further north, such as Bole, 

 Beckingham, Scrooby and Everton ; also Cropwell Bishop and Hickling in 

 the south. The possessions of the Bishop of Lincoln all lay about the centre 

 of the eastern verge of the county, and were dominated by his widespread 

 manor of Newark, with its ten churches and eight priests. The Bishop of 

 Bayeux held six manors, but his holding had no ecclesiastical signification. 

 The only religious house which held land in this county in chief of 

 the crown was the Abbey of Peterborough ; its holding was restricted 

 to the two manors of CoUingham (with two churches) and North 

 Muskham. 



It is interesting to note that glebe land or other endowments are named 

 in connexion with some of these churches. In a few of these cases the 

 endowment was considerable. Thus at Sibthorpe a fourth part of the land of 

 the manor belonged to the church; and at Barnby in the Willows the church 

 had half a bovate of land. The one church mentioned in Nottingham in 

 the king's demesnes was remarkably well off ; it possessed three burgess 

 houses, 5 bovates of land adjacent to the town and 5^ acres of other land. 



The extant chronicles and records of the 12th century yield but meagre 

 ecclesiastical information as to Nottinghamshire. During that period 

 different archbishops attached four new prebends to their southern cathedral 

 church of Southwell. Only one religious house was founded in the i ith 

 century, namely the priory of Blyth ; but the following century saw the 

 establishment — named in chronological order — of the houses of Lenton, 

 Worksop, Thurgarton, Rufford, Welbeck, Felley, Shelford, Newstead and 

 Mattersey. It was essentially the century of monastic development. 



• See y.C.H. Suff.W, 10. 



' Where William Rufus gave the churches of Mansfield and Orston to the Bishop of Lincoln in 109 J 

 the gift specially mentions the chapels of the various berewicks in each parish. Dugdale, Mon. vi, 1271. 

 ' y.C.H. Notts, i, 217-22. 



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