A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



which came up with the tide were left impounded after the ebb, and were 

 taken at low water in nets, or by spears ; he also assisted in making enclosures 

 {haia) in the woods and wastes, fenced by hedges, walls, or pales, where cattle 

 or deer could be impounded and better protected from the attack of beasts of 

 prey ; and ' deer-hedges ' [stabilitura), also called deer-hays or deer-stalls, which 

 he assisted to construct in the forest when the king came to hunt, so that the 

 deer might be driven within reach of the king's spear or bow in the manner 

 of a modern ' drive.' ^ 



Every thegn who should fail to come at the reeve's summons to assist in 

 these customary duties incurred a penalty of 2s., and afterwards came and 

 laboured at the work until it was finished. In these duties it would appear 

 that the thegns were by custom fellow-workmen with the villeins, but in 

 SaLford hundred some thegns were exempt from performing these customary 

 works, and — as the record elsewhere states — the thegns of this hundred and 

 those of Leyland were exempt from working at the king's hall. Each thegn 

 in West Derby hundred was also compelled to send his reapers for one day in 

 August to cut the crops on the king's demesne lands, and failing to do so 

 incurred a penalty of zs. ; but whilst the drengs of Newton hundred owed 

 this service for two days instead of one day only, the thegns of Salford and 

 Leyland hundreds owed no reaping service in August. Of ploughing service 

 there is no mention, and probably the thegns and drengs were exempt from 

 this servile work, which the villeins performed at this time and for genera- 

 tions after, together with many other duties required in the cultivation of the 

 demesne lands.^ In many parts of England the ' radmans ' ploughed and 

 harrowed, mowed and reaped, in the king's or lord's demesne lands, and did 

 whatever was required of them,' but of their services in these districts nothing 

 is told us. 



The survey makes no mention of the number of villeins, bordars, oxmen, 

 or serfs existing in 1066 between Ribble and Mersey, but gives some particu- 

 lars thereof applicable to the demesne of Roger of Poitou and the demesne of 

 his knights in 1086. These particulars are not in any way remarkable, though 

 attention may be called to the three bondwomen {ancilla) mentioned in the 

 hundred of West Derby, as the exact position and significance of this class is 

 still one of the incompletely solved problems of Domesday. 



When we turn to the consideration of the values recorded in the survey, 

 we meet with several questions difficult of solution. The thegns, we are told, 

 paid for each carucate a customary due of 2 ores of pence, i.e. ^^d. When, 

 therefore, we find a large number of cases in which the value of 2 carucates of 

 land was 64 pence, or of half a hide 8 shillings, it appears at first as if this 

 customary due was identical with, and the sole constituent of, the annual 

 ' render.' But the case of the two manors of Toxteth,* where in each case 

 2 carucates were worth only 4 shillings, suggests a doubt as to this identity, 

 which is strengthened when we examine the return of these hides in the 

 parishes of Ormskirk and Halsall, which are stated to have been exempt from 



1 See also Dom. Bk. i. 56 (5 ; Ibid. f. 179. For examples of similar service, see BoMon Book, V.C.H. 

 Durham, i. 



ii See Dom. Book and Beyond, p. 56. 3 Ibid, p 56, in not'u. 



* The assessment area is recorded in each case as I virgate (equal in this district to i J carucate) and half 

 a carucate of land. Probably only the virgate paid rent. ' Reddebat ' and ' valebat' arc here interchangeable 

 terms. 



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