THE PRESIDENTS ADDRESS. 
215 
land. Only a few manors were adequately supplied, and over the 
whole district there were not ploughs sufficient for three-fifths of 
the plough lands. 
There are a number of interesting details in the statistics 
given of the former and present values of the various estates. 
The total stated value, at the time of the Survey, of all the 
manors set forth as comprised within the area reviewed was 
£126 4s. 9d. Money is commonly reckoned as being then worth 
thirty times its present value, which would give an equivalent 
rental of £3787 2s. 6d. The present rateable value of the district 
is at least £500,000. Therefore in the eight centuries that have 
elapsed since the compilation of Domesday, the annual value of 
the landed property in this district has advanced 140-fold, while 
so far as the Three Towns only are concerned it has been ten times 
as great — 1400 times. 
We are hardly in a position to contrast the improvement that 
had been effected between the Confessor's time and that of the 
Conqueror ; for the previous value of the king's and of a few other 
manors are not stated. Assuming, however, that in them there 
was no change, we get a Saxon value of £115 13s. 6d., showing a 
difference of £10 lis. 3d. The net Norman improvement in twenty 
years was therefore nearly 10 per cent., or in present money £330. 
The greatest changes effected by the Conquest were, as might be 
anticipated, in the ownership. Not a single manor here, at any 
rate, continued in the hands of its former lay lord, either as owner 
or as tenant, and the only link left between the old order and the 
new (church lands excepted) is the fact that Osulf, who had 
owned Compton and one of the Meavies, both of which passed to 
Judhel, had become, under Robert of Albemarle, tenant of Widey 
and East Whitleigh. In the days of the Confessor the lands were 
divided among thirty-nine proprietors, 1 of whom the larger majority 
held one or two manors only. Chief were Alebric, with 10£ 
manors ; Alwin, with 9 manors ; Aluric, with 8 ; the king, with 6 ; 
while Edmar and Brismar and Wadelo had 4 each. One manor 
was owned by four thanes jointly, and another by two. 
1 There are variations in spelling of names, which render it doubtful how 
far in all cases various forms may be associated. 
