THE DOMESDAY SURVEY In addition to the hundred burgesses accounted for above, there are 13 others definitely assigned to Droitwich, and there are some whose locale is not mentioned. The former were appurtenant to Wichbold, and owed there reaping and other service (fo. ij6b). Houses also are mentioned as held in Droitwich, in two or three cases, by owners of other manors. But it is with the ' salins ' that we meet most frequently. Some misapprehension has arisen from the entry of • Salinas ' under other places, without the explanation that they were situated in Droitwich ; the existence of local saltworks has been wrongly deduced from these entries. As a matter of fact, many places outside Worcestershire possessed ' salins ' or rights to salt at Droit- wich. That Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, and Warwickshire should supply instances in point may not be surprising ; but so far afield as Oxfordshire we have cases at Bampton^ and Rollright,^ while even in Bucks (Prince's) Risborough had its saltworker at Droitwich.^ It appears to me that these rights, belonging to manors at a distance, must have been due to some extent to their lords having at Droitwich also territorial interests. In Warwickshire, for instance, the Domesday holders of Witton in Droitwich, William son of Corbucion and Urse d'Abetot, held sundry manors. The former's chief seat was at Studley, to which we find appurtenant a saltpan, which must have been at Droitwich,* whence also salt was due to another of his Warwickshire manors.^ A Droitwich saltpan similarly belonged to a Warwickshire manor of Urse.® It is probable that Earl Eadwine, who had large interests at Droitwich, had similarly bestowed rights there on distant manors of his own before the Conquest. Although the process of salt manufacture must be dealt with in the section devoted to industries, it may be mentioned here that Domesday contains several allusions to the process. In addition to the brine-pits, the ' Salinas,' and the somewhat mysterious ' hocci,' we have, under Bromsgrove 3 saltworkers and 6 leaden pans {plumbi) for their work ; and two of these leaden pans are mentioned under Tardebigg as distinct from the ' salinas.' A place for making these pans {fabrica plumbi) is mentioned under Northwick (fo. ij^^)-, and 4 furnaces {furni) stood on the Westminster Abbey estate. The consumption of wood at the saltworks must have been very great. The Bishop's wood at Fladbury, we read (fo. 173), supplied 'ligna ad salinas de Wich,' while Bromsgrove sent yearly
- *De . . . salinis de Wic ' (154^). * 'III summae salis ad Wich' (i6oi).
' 'Adhuc unus salinarius de Wicg reddens summas {sic) salis' (143^).
- ' Salina reddens xix summas salis ' (243). Studley was just over the Worcestershire
border, and William's heirs removed thither the religious house they had originally founded at Witton. Thus it was that Studley Priory came to hold St. Peter's, Witton. In addition to Witton, William held, as an under-tenant of Westminster Abbey, the valuable manor of Dormston, Worcestershire, which was represented by the one knight's fee held of the Abbey in 1 1 66 by Peter ' de Stodlega,' William's heir. In the Droitwich survey he holds the two hides at Witton as Peter ' Corbezun,' the family being known by both names. ® (Binton): 'de Wich iii summas salis' (243). * 'Salina in Wich reddens iii solidos ' (243^). ' Salters' way ' was the road from Droitwich through Alcester to Stratford-on-Avon.
- Salt Street ' seems to have run south-east towards Stow-on-the-Wold.
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