A HISTORY OF BERKSHIRE Domesday, were each worth the large sum of 60 a year. 1 On the manors which his rival, Harold, had held William, here as elsewhere, looked as his peculiar spoil. It was thus that Finchampstead, Great Faringdon, the Coxwells, Steventon, Littleworth, and Aldermaston came to swell his demesne. The assessment of these had slightly exceeded a hundred and thirty hides, but Harold had also held five-hide manors at Clewer and at Liver, ten hides at Brightwalton, and forty hides at Buscot ; and when we add the holdings of his tenants and grantees the total becomes a large one. Here, as elsewhere, we are led to wonder how these great possessions were acquired. Prof. Maitland has sug- gested that they may be accounted for by Harold holding them ex officio as earl of the shire, but it is not improbable that Harold (or his father) had obtained grants of some Crown manors, of which Faringdon may have been one. 2 The King's demesne was not swollen by the lands of Harold's relatives, which in Berkshire were not considerable, and Tostig's manor, as in Oxfordshire and in Bucks, fell to the share of Walter Giffard. Before tracing further the devolution of estates, we must say some- thing of their assessment, which here was expressed in hides. In Berkshire, as in the counties lying to its north and south, the existence of the five-hide unit as the basis of all assessment needs no special demonstration ; assessments in multiples of that unit are found thick upon the ground. 3 What is of more peculiar interest is that Berkshire is one of a block of four counties, including Hampshire, Surrey, and Sussex, lying to its south, in which the archaic assessments based upon this unit have been largely and inexplicably reduced. 4 It is tempting to connect this phenomenon with the possible ravages of William's host in the early days of the Conquest, but the Berkshire evidence does not, apparently, point in that direction. Indeed the reduction had begun before William's time. The monks of Abingdon claimed that King Edward had reduced the assessment of their manor ofBeedon. 8 Again Harold is alleged to have obtained a reduced assessment of Brightwalton after he secured the manor." For Godric the sheriff also King Edward had reduced the assessment of half Fyfield from 10 hides to 5. Domesday shows us the reduction of assessment as most sweeping on the Church's manors. The Bishop of Winchester held three, on two of which it was reduced from 20 hides to 10, and on the third from 15 to 10. Abingdon Abbey also secured enormous reductions, Cumnor being brought down from 50 hides to 30, Barton from 60 to 40, 1 The Domesday map should be consulted for the King's manors. 3 There is some reason to believe that this had been done on a large scale in Hertfordshire and possibly in other counties. 3 Feudal England, p. 65. * Ibid. ; Domesday Studies, pp. 100, 1 1 1-2, 1 14-6. 5 ' Tune se defendebat pro x hidis, modo pro viii. Tamen fuit pro xv hidis, sed rex E. condonavit pro xi hidis ut dicunt.' Possibly xi. is an error for x. ' Heraldus comes tenuit. Tune [se defendebat] pro x hidis. Quidam tainus qui ante eum tenuit geldabat pro xv hidis.' According to this, Harold had succeeded in getting the assessment reduced by a five-hide unit, i.e. from 15 to 10 hides. 286
