DOMESDAY SURVEY Reading is clearly its position at the junction of the Thames and Kennet valleys, which gave it a certain trade. Next in importance comes Windsor, a typical example of a town dependent on a great castle. Here the town is styled a ' vill,' and is part of the manor. It contained, however, 95 bagez, thirty shillings being received from the rent of sixty-nine of them. Possibly the ' new market' at Cookham was not unconnected with Windsor, but this is merely a guess. It is only from the survey of Surrey that we learn that the pious Edward had bestowed Old Windsor on his great foundation at Westminster, and that the Conqueror had redeemed it by the gift of Battersea. He then enlarged it, as we learn from the Clewer entry, by adding half a hide from that manor, on which Windsor Castle was placed, 1 a statement which practically implies that he raised it there himself. Abingdon, of course, is the typical town that rises at the abbey gate ; indeed, Domesday describes its ten traders, paying their forty pence, as so situate. The nine hagce at Great Faringdon point to the commencement of a trade arising from the junction of several roads at its gap in the hills. Trade, due to a similar cause, would also be the origin of Newbury and Hungerford, but the twelve hagce entered at Thatcham as farmed for fifty-five shillings present some difficulty. Unless this royal manor possessed special trade privileges, of which there is no mention in the survey, one does not see why it should possess these houses, unless they were really situate in Newbury, which the formula does not suggest. The earliest mention, possibly, of New- bury by that name is found in my Calendar of Documents preserved in France^ and it seems desirable to say something of the early history of this town, in which Domesday records the existence of fifty-one hagce. Of Ernulf de Hesdin who held Newbury, under the name of
- Ulvritone,' 4 it has been said that ' despite all researches,' he ' still
remains one of the most mysterious personages in Domesday.' 3 That his Berkshire manor included, as has been believed, Newbury is for- tunately confirmed by two charters, one of which proves that he bestowed on the abbey of Preaux the church, tithes, and glebe of New- bury, 4 while another records his gift to the Priory at his native Hesdin of a curtilage in Newbury. 8 With the bulk of his possessions it must have passed to Patrick de Chaworth (Cadurcis] and Maud his wife, 6 who is held, though (in my opinion) without good ground, to have been a daughter of Ernulf. 7 Their heir Payn was, clearly, in possession of Newbury in n66, 8 and it was subsequently, with other lands of 1 ' et castellum de Windesores est in dimidia hida.' This may be compared with the entry relating to Bramber castle, V.C.H. Sussex, i. 444. a See my note to ' Ulvritone ' in the text. s Cal. Docs. France, p. xlvii. * Ibid. p. 108. B Ibid. p. 482. Ibid. p. 364. That Patrick held it in 1130 is proved, I consider, by the Pipe Roll of that year, which records the remission to him of 20 sh. for Danegeld, representing the 10 hides at which ' Ulvritone ' was originally assessed (pp. 125-6, cf. p. 124). 7 Ibid, xlviii. 8 Red Book of the Exchequer (Rolls Ser.) 297, where it is recorded that Payn de Muntdublel (his alias) had given ' unam vastam terram juxta Neuberiam ' to his steward Nicholas son of Simon. In the I 313 40
