A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE
which came up with the tide were left impounded after the ebb, and were taken at low water in nets, or by spears; he also assisted in making enclosures (haiæ) in the woods and wastes, fenced by hedges, walls, or pales, where cattle or deer could be impounded and better protected from the attack of beasts of prey; and 'deer-hedges' (stabilituræ), also called deer-hays or deer-stalls, which he assisted to construct in the forest when the king came to hunt, so that the deer might be driven within reach of the king's spear or bow in the manner of a modern 'drive.'[1]
Every thegn who should fail to come at the reeve's summons to assist in these customary duties incurred a penalty of 2s., and afterwards came and laboured at the work until it was finished. In these duties it would appear that the thegns were by custom fellow-workmen with the villeins, but in Salford hundred some thegns were exempt from performing these customary works, and—as the record elsewhere states—the thegns of this hundred and those of Leyland were exempt from working at the king's hall. Each thegn in West Derby hundred was also compelled to send his reapers for one day in August to cut the crops on the king's demesne lands, and failing to do so incurred a penalty of 2s.; but whilst the drengs of Newton hundred owed this service for two days instead of one day only, the thegns of Salford and Leyland hundreds owed no reaping service in August. Of ploughing service there is no mention, and probably the thegns and drengs were exempt from this servile work, which the villeins performed at this time and for generations after, together with many other duties required in the cultivation of the demesne lands.[2] In many parts of England the 'radmans' ploughed and harrowed, mowed and reaped, in the king's or lord's demesne lands, and did whatever was required of them,[3] but of their services in these districts nothing is told us.
The survey makes no mention of the number of villeins, bordars, oxmen, or serfs existing in 1066 between Ribble and Mersey, but gives some particulars thereof applicable to the demesne of Roger of Poitou and the demesne of his knights in 1086. These particulars are not in any way remarkable, though attention may be called to the three bondwomen (ancillæ) mentioned in the hundred of West Derby, as the exact position and significance of this class is still one of the incompletely solved problems of Domesday.
When we turn to the consideration of the values recorded in the survey, we meet with several questions difficult of solution. The thegns, we are told, paid for each carucate a customary due of 2 ores of pence, i.e. 32d. When, therefore, we find a large number of cases in which the value of 2 carucates of land was 64 pence, or of half a hide 8 shillings, it appears at first as if this customary due was identical with, and the sole constituent of, the annual 'render.' But the case of the two manors of Toxteth,[4] where in each case 2 carucates were worth only 4 shillings, suggests a doubt as to this identity, which is strengthened when we examine the return of these hides in the parishes of Ormskirk and Halsall, which are stated to have been exempt from
- ↑ See also Dom. Bk. i. 56 b; Ibid. f. 179. For examples of similar service, see Boldon Book, V.C.H. Durham, i.
- ↑ See Dom. Book and Beyond, p. 56.
- ↑ Ibid. p 56, in notis.
- ↑ The assessment area is recorded in each case as 1 virgate (equal in this district to 1½ carucate) and half a carucate of land. Probably only the virgate paid rent. 'Reddebat' and 'valebat' are here interchangeable terms.
