Wirral at the time of Domesday
So what
happened to the Vikings who settled on Wirral in the tenth century? It’s
frustrating that they left behind no written records.
However,
some records of Viking names have survived from the late 11th
century.
1066 must be one of the most famous years in British
history. William of Normandy defeated the English King Harold at the Battle of
Hastings – the Normans had arrived. William set about confiscating lands and
giving them to his followers. Not surprisingly, many of the existing landowners
rebelled, so William waged a series of campaigns in the winter of 1069/70 to
subjugate the Anglo-Scandinavians in the north of the country. The Anglo-Saxon
Chronicles describe William’s actions as “stern beyond measure”, especially in
Yorkshire, but also in other northern counties, including Cheshire. The
decrease in value of land from 1066 to 1085 is recorded in Domesday Book.
In 1085, almost 20 years after the Battle of Hastings, William the
Conqueror decided to organise a survey of the lands he had conquered. The primary
purpose of Domesday Book (as the survey came to be known) was to
ascertain and record the fiscal rights of the king and to reassert the rights
of the Crown.
The Domesday survey recorded the names of the new holders of
lands and the assessments on which their tax was to be paid. It also tried to
make a national valuation list, estimating the annual value of all the land in
the country,
(1) at the time of Edward the Confessor’s death (T.R.E. tempore Regis Edwardi, 'in the time of King Edward' in the survey),
(2) when the new owners received it,
(3) at the time of the survey, and the potential value as
well.
Most of Domesday Book is devoted to details of the assessment
and valuation of rural estates, which were at the time the only important
source of national wealth. After stating the assessment of the manor, the
record gives the amount of arable land and
the number of plough teams (each reckoned at eight oxen) available for working
it, with the additional number (if any) that might be employed; then the
river-meadows, woodland, pasture, fisheries, water mills, salt-pans and other
subsidiary sources of revenue; the peasants are enumerated in their several
classes. Finally, the annual value of the whole manor, past and present, is
roughly estimated.
In Domesday, Thingwall is called Tuiguelle and it is
owned by William Malbank.
The entry reads:
“The same William hold Thingwall and Durand of him. Vetrlithr
held it and was a free man. There is 1 hide paying geld. There is land for 2
ploughs. In demesne is 1 [plough] and 2 slaves and 1 villan and 1 border have
another [plough]. TRE it was worth 8s now 5s.”
The entry tells us that at the time of the Conquest,
Thingwall was held by somebody with a Norse name, which means “Winter
traveller”. It was quite a small settlement and was worth less in 1069/70 than
it had been in 1066.
Wirral is included in Domesday Book as Wilaveston Hundred
and was slightly bigger than modern Wirral. There were 45 manors within the
hundred, of which Eastham, which included most of the Mersey shore, was the
largest. The total value of the manor before 1066 had been £24, but by the time
of Domesday, this had reduced to £4. Clearly, something had happened over 20
years to reduce the value of the land – probably it had fallen victim to
William’s campaigns in 1069/70. Eastham had formerly been held by Earl Edwin,
but was now held by Earl Hugh. Settlements on the shore of the Dee appear to
have suffered less.
There is debate about some of the manor boundaries and two
(Puddington and Burton) appear under different hundreds. Spellings in Domesday
cannot be used as a reliable guide to how words were pronounced; the
Norman-speaking commissioners had to record their findings in Latin of sounds
with which they would have not been familiar. They often added an “e” to the
ends of words because that is how they would have appeared in French and had
problems with initial “th” and “w” sounds. Nevertheless, Domesday Book gives
the modern reader clues about Wirral before the Conquest from a time when there
were few written records. Of the 28 former lords of the manor in 1066, twelve
had Norse names: Arni, Gamel, Gunner, Osgot, Ragenald, Ravenwart, Thored, Toki,
Ulf, Ulfkel, Ulfketel and Winterlet. Their manors were held throughout Wirral,
not only in the area of the north Wirral “mini-state”. There is no way of
knowing whether these people identified as Scandinavian or whether they had
“borrowed” Norse personal names, but it does reflect the importance of former
settlers.
The Domesday survey shows that that Wirral was relatively
prosperous when compared with other areas of Cheshire; it had a comparatively
high population density and was intensively cultivated. In 1086, the peninsula
had almost no wood. The only manors where woodland is recorded are Prenton and
Mollington. This is consistent with the theory that woodland had been cleared
for arable land (probably as early as Roman times). Seven fisheries (at Gayton,
Leighton, Saughall, Blacon and Stanney) and three water mills (Eastham, Hadlow
and Prenton) are recorded in Wirral. 427 heads of household are recorded, so
the total population would have been somewhat over 2,000. Nearly 75% of the
householders were villannii (villeins) or bordarii (smallholders).
They were tied to the land they owned and had to work for a number of days per
week for the lord of the manor. Over 9% were bovarii (oxmen), who were
virtual slaves and over 7% were servii (slaves). There were radmans (riders),
who were probably the lords’ personal servants, and 12 francigenae (Frenchmen),
who served the nobles and were rewarded with land. There were also five priests
(in Burton, Eastham, Landican, Neston and Poulton Lancelyn).
Domesday Book presents a snapshot of Wirral life immediately
post-Conquest. There is still evidence of Norse influence in place and personal
names, but the population seems to have been well-integrated and relatively
prosperous. Most people worked on the land, lived in small villages and were
subservient to a Norman overlord. Nearly all buildings were made of wood, so
have unfortunately left few archaeological remains.
References and further reading
Brownbill, J., Cheshire in the Domesday Book, 1899
Bu’lock, J.D., Pre-Conquest Cheshire 383-1066, 1972
Harding, S., Ingimunds Saga: Viking Wirral, 3rd edn. University of Chester Press 2016
Roberts, S.J., A History of Wirral, 2002
Tait, J., The Domesday Survey of Cheshire, 1916
Comments
Post a Comment