Bottisham Second Millennium
Page 9 of 69
established and the division of the land into ‘fiefs’ had been
given to the Norman nobles who, in turn, were required to
protect their vassals who, again in return, undertook to carry
out forty days of field work each year for the lord. Domesday
was recorded in terms of hides, virgates,
vills etc. which in
current terms indicates that the land of Walter Giffard (in the
Stanes Hundred of six villages) paid tax on some 10 hides
(i.e. a hide being an area, varying with type of soil, that could
be tilled with an 8-oxen plough in one year - an area thought to
be sufficient to support a family) and 20 carucates (equivalent
of
the hide but
an
area related to the assessing
of Danegeld -
the area varied according to the location). Domesday also
recorded that farm buildings and hamlets covered some 600
acres and 6 carucates , 25 villeins (serf/tenant) and 12
borderers had 14 carucates but the 14 serf slaves had nothing!
The four mills were important to the life of the area and in
today’s terms brought in some £500. By this time Ailric, the
monk, still survived, but appears to have been reduced to some
250 acres under licence of the Abbot of Ramsey. More
important than the livestock was the harvest obtained from the
fens, especially fish such as tench and eels, which value
extrapolated is equivalent to some £12,000. - an important
source of income for the land owners. Ancient woodlands had
been cleared by 1086. From the figures recorded at Domesday
it would underline the suggestion that the survey was a hurried
one and not complete. This large area must have been more
populated and productive than was then obvious to the King’s
surveyors.
ECCLESIASTICAL REORGANISATION The
importance of provision for the future of the soul after death
was emphasised throughout the early centuries of the second
millennium. King William’s policy was to keep the church
under his control. William had parcelled some 26% of the