Table Of ContentTHE DOMESDAY GEOGRAPHY OF
EASTERN ENGLAND
By courtesy of the Public Record Office.
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THE
DOMESDAY GEOGRAPHY
OF
EASTERN ENGLAND
BY
H. C. DARBY
Professor of Geography in the
University of Cambridge
CAMBRIDGE
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
1971
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
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This edition© Cambridge University Press 1971
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without
the written permission of Cambridge University Press.
First Edition 1952
Second Edition 1957
Third Edition 1971
This digitally printed first paperback version (with corrections) 2006
catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library
A
70-108106
Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number:
ISBN-13 978-0-521-08022-4 hardback
ISBN-10 0-521-08022-3 hardback
ISBN-13 978-0-521-89396-1 paperback
ISBN-10 0-521-89396-8 paperback
TO
MY PARENTS
A century hence the student's materials will not be in the shape in
which he finds them now. In the first place, the substance of
Domesday Book will have been rearranged. Those villages and
hundreds which the Norman clerks tore into shreds will have been
reconstituted and pictured in maps, for many men from over all
England will have come within King William's spell, will have
bowed themselves to him and become that man's men.
From the concluding paragraph of F. w. MAITLAND's
(Cambridge, 1897)
Domesday Boole and Beyond
CONTENTS
Part of folio 190 of the Domesday Book Frontispiece
Preface page viii
List of Maps xi
Chapter I THE DOMESDAY BOOK
I
II LINCOLNSHIRE 26
III NORFOLK 97
IV SUFFOLK 153
ESSEX 209
v
VI CAMBRIDGESHIRE 264
VII HUNTINGDONSHIRE 3I5
VIII THE EASTERN COUNTIES 350
Appendix I: Summary of Domesday Book for the Eastern Counties 373
Appendix II: Extension and Translation of Frontispiece
Index
PREFACE
The Domesday Book has long been regarded as a unique source of
information about legal and economic matters, but its bearing upon the
reconstruction of the geography of England during the early Middle
Ages has remained comparatively neglected. The extraction of this geo
graphical information is not always as simple as it might appear to be
from a casual inspection of the Domesday folios. Not only are there
general problems of interpretation, but almost every county has its own
peculiarities. There is, moreover, the sheer difficulty of handling the vast
mass of material, and of getting a general view of the whole. The original
survey was made in terms of manors, villages and hundreds, but the
Norman clerks reassembled the information under the headings of the
different landholders of each county. Their work must therefore be
undone, and the survey set out once more upon a geographical basis.
The information that such an analysis makes available is of two
kinds.
In the first place, the details about plough-teams and about population
enable a general picture of the relative prosperity of different areas to be
obtained. In the second place, the details about such things as meadow,
pasture, wood and salt-pans serve to illustrate further the local variations
both in the face of the countryside and in its economic life. An attempt has
been made to set out this variety of information as objectively as possible
in the form of maps and tables. This volume is intended to he the first
of a number covering the whole of Domesday England. When all the
maps have been drawn and all the tables compiled, we may begin to have
a clearer idea of both the value and the limitations of the survey that has
so captured the imagination of later generations.
But great though the bulk of the Domesday Book is, it is only a sum
mary. The making of it not only omitted much, but has, too often, re
sulted in obscurity. No one works for long on the text before discovering
how fascinating and tantalising that obscurity is. In reflecting over many
Domesday entries I have been reminded, time and again, of some remarks
in Professor Trevelyan's inaugural lecture at Cambridge in 1927: 'On the
PREFACE
ix
shore where Time casts up its stray wreckage, we gather corks and broken
planks, whence much indeed may argued and more guessed; but what
be
the great ship was that has gone down into the deep, that we shall never
see.' The scene that King William's clerks looked upon has gone, and the
most we can do is to try to obtain some rough outline of its lineaments;
this chapter in the history of the English landscape can only be a very
imperfect one.
The drawing of the maps for this and the subsequent volumes has been
made possible through the generosity of the Trustees of the Leverhulme
Research Fellowships and of the University of Liverpool. My first duty,
therefore, is to thank these two authorities for their kindness and help.
The maps in this volume have been drawn by Miss Helen Freestone to
whose skill and care I am much indebted. Among others who have been
most helpful, I owe particular thanks to Mr Alan Hodgkiss for a great
deal of general assistance, to Mr R. W elldon Finn for comments on the
whole proof, to Miss Barbara Dodwell for comments on the chapters
dealing with Norfolk and Suffolk, to Mr S. Inskip Ladds for comments
on that dealing with Huntingdonshire. For other help from time to
time I owe particular thanks to Sir Frank Stenton and Professor
V. H.
Galbraith. I am also indebted to my wife for much help over tedious
calculations and for constant encouragement. Finally, I must thank the
officials of the Cambridge University Press for their skill and care.
H. C. DARBY
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE
LONDON
Slirove Tuesday,
1952
N O TE TO THIRD EDITI O N
The text of the second edition has been considerably revised to take
account of recent research and new place-name identifications. The treat
ment of the statistics for the boroughs has been brought into line with that
in the more recent volumes of this series. The resulting changes in the
densities of some units are not great, but they, together with the revision
in general, have meant the alteration of a number of maps. A short new
section on 'Vineyards', with an additional map, has been added to the
final chapter. The first edition appeared in 1952, and in the light of the
experience of editing the four subsequent vofomes of the series, I prob
ably would present some facts and ideas a little differently today. But I
have kept changes in the wording to a minimum and have tried to limit
the revision to strictly factual material.
I am greatly indebted to Mr G. R. Versey who has not only altered the
maps but has helped at all stages in the checking and revision of the
material.
H. C. D.
'
KING S COLLEGE,
CAMBRIDGE
St Eligius' Day, 1970.
