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Spurway, Oakford
Spurway is a historic manor in the parish of Oakford in Devon. It was the seat of the de Spurway (later Spurway) family from before 1244 until the mid-20th century. The derelict buildings of Spurway Barton are in a remote location above a wooded combe. History Spurway was for several centuries two separate manors, East Spurway and West Spurway. East Spurway is listed as ''SPREWE'' in the Domesday Book of 1086 as one of the 99 Devonshire holdings of Geoffrey de Montbray, Bishop of Coutances,Thorn, Part 2, 3:74 who was one of the tenants-in-chief in Devon of King William the Conqueror. Before the Norman Conquest of 1066 it was held by an Anglo-Saxon named Algar. In the Book of Fees of 1302 it is recorded as a possession of the feudal barony of Barnstaple. In the record of Feudal Aids between 1284-1431''Inquisitions and Assessments Relating to Feudal Aids with other Analogous Documents Preserved in the Public Records Office AD 1284-1431'', HMSO, 1899-1920, 6 Vols. it is listed a ...
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Norman Conquest
The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Conqueror. William's claim to the English throne derived from his familial relationship with the childless Anglo-Saxon king Edward the Confessor, who may have encouraged William's hopes for the throne. Edward died in January 1066 and was succeeded by his brother-in-law Harold Godwinson. The Norwegian king Harald Hardrada invaded northern England in September 1066 and was victorious at the Battle of Fulford on 20 September, but Godwinson's army defeated and killed Hardrada at the Battle of Stamford Bridge on 25 September. Three days later on 28 September, William's invasion force of thousands of men and hundreds of ships landed at Pevensey in Sussex in southern England. Harold marched south to oppose him, leaving a significant portion o ...
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East Coker
East Coker is a village and civil parish in the South Somerset district of Somerset, England. Its nearest town is Yeovil, to the north. The village has a population of 1,667. The parish includes the hamlets and areas of North Coker, Burton, Holywell, Coker Marsh, Darvole, Nash, Keyford as well as the southern end of the Wraxhill area. History A Roman villa was discovered in East Coker in the 18th century and subsequent excavation has discovered artefacts including a mosaic, however further work is needed to fully identify the plan of the building. In the Domesday Survey of 1086 the villages of West and East Coker were known as ''Cocre''. The parish was part of the hundred of Houndsborough. In 1645, soon after the English Civil War, 70 people in the village died of the plague. In 2011 South Somerset Council published a plan for local housing which included a proposal for the construction of 3,700 new houses on land between East Coker and Yeovil. Local opposition has been ...
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Walter Of Douai
Walter of Douai (Old Norman: ''Wautier de Douai'') (born c.1046, died: c.1107) was a Norman knight, probably at the Battle of Hastings, and a major landowner in South West England after the Norman Conquest, being feudal baron of Bampton in Devon and of Castle Cary in Somerset. He is given various names and titles in different sources including: Walter (or Walschin or Walscin) de Douai. Douai is sometimes written as Dowai. He has also been called Gautier de Douai and later Walter the Fleming. Family Walter was the son of Urso of Douai, that was then a fiefdom of the counts of Flanders and now is a commune in the Nord département in northern France. Located on the river Scarpe some 40 km from Lille and 25 km from Arras. He married Emma (or Eddeva) of Devon, and may have had two children: Richilde de Douai and Ralph (of Tintinhull) Lovel. He also had a second wife. His son Robert built Bampton Castle in Devon.Dunning, 1995 page 32-33 Norman Conquest Walter likely ...
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Feudal Aid
Feudal aid is the legal term for one of the financial duties required of a feudal tenant or vassal to his lord. Variations on the feudal aid were collected in England, France, Germany and Italy during the Middle Ages, although the exact circumstances varied. Origin The term originated in the late 11th century, and it first appears in northern France, in the County of Anjou.Reynolds ''Fiefs and Vassals'' p. 65 It was a payment made by the tenant or vassal to the lord on certain occasions, usually the knighting of the lord's eldest son and the marriage of his eldest daughter. Occasionally it was collected when the lord needed to pay a ransom after being captured.Coredon ''Dictionary of Medieval Terms & Phrases'' p. 8 Sometimes a fourth occasion was added to the customary list: when the lord went on Crusade.Reynolds ''Fiefs and Vassals'' p. 312 Other times when aids might be demanded were when the lord himself was being taxed by his own superiors. At those times, the lord might tr ...
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Feudal Barony Of Barnstaple
From AD 1066, the feudal barony of Barnstaple was a large English feudal barony, feudal barony with its Caput baroniae, caput at the town of Barnstaple in north Devon, England. It was one of eight feudal baronies in Devonshire which existed in the Middle Ages. In 1236 it comprised 56 knight's fees or individual member Manorialism, manors. The Feudal land tenure, feudal service owed for half the barony in 1274 was the provision to the royal army of two knights or four sergeants for forty days per annum, later commuted to scutage. Descent de Mowbray The barony was first granted by William the Conqueror (1066–1087) to Geoffrey de Montbray, Geoffrey de Mowbray (died 1093), Bishop of Coutances, who is recorded as its holder in the ''Domesday Book'' (1086). His heir was his nephew Robert de Mowbray (died 1125), Earl of Northumbria, Earl of Northumberland, son of Geoffrey's brother Robert de Mowbray. In 1095 Robert II rebelled against King William II of England, William II (1087� ...
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Book Of Fees
The ''Book of Fees'' is the colloquial title of a modern edition, transcript, rearrangement and enhancement of the medieval (Latin: 'Book of Fiefs'), being a listing of feudal landholdings or fief ( Middle English ), compiled in about 1302, but from earlier records, for the use of the English Exchequer. Originally in two volumes of parchment, the ''Liber Feodorum'' is a collection of about 500 written brief notes made between 1198 and 1292 concerning fiefs held or in-chief, that is to say directly from the Crown. From an early date, the book comprising these volumes has been known informally as the ''Testa de Nevill'' (meaning 'Head of Nevill'), supposedly after an image on the cover of the volume of one of its two major source collections. The modern standard edition, known colloquially as "The Book of Fees" whose three volumes were published between 1920 and 1931, improves on two earlier 19th-century efforts at publishing a comprehensive and reliable modern edition of all the ...
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Algar (thane)
Algar was an Anglo-Saxon personal name, frequently mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1068. it is impossible to determine whether the many mentions of the name in that record refer to a single person or to several people of the same name. Some mentions of the name have an identifying suffix, such as "Algar Long" and "Algar the Priest". Certainly one of the men of this name was one of only twenty Saxon thanes in Devonshire who survived the Norman Conquest in 1066 and retained their antiquated high status as thanes under the new Norman King from whom, according to the Domesday Book he held two manors as tenant-in-chief called Chenudestane and Chenuestan (with the probable meaning 'Canute Stone'), at today's Knowstone, South Molton South Molton is a town in Devon, England. It is part of the North Devon local government district. The town is on the River Mole. According to the 2001 census the civil parish of South Molton had a population of 4,093, increasing to 5,108 at the ... in ...
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Anglo-Saxon
The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo-Saxons happened within Britain, and the identity was not merely imported. Anglo-Saxon identity arose from interaction between incoming groups from several Germanic peoples, Germanic tribes, both amongst themselves, and with Celtic Britons, indigenous Britons. Many of the natives, over time, adopted Anglo-Saxon culture and language and were assimilated. The Anglo-Saxons established the concept, and the Kingdom of England, Kingdom, of England, and though the modern English language owes somewhat less than 26% of its words to their language, this includes the vast majority of words used in everyday speech. Historically, the Anglo-Saxon period denotes the period in Britain between about 450 and 1066, after Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, th ...
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William The Conqueror
William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England The monarchy of the United Kingdom, commonly referred to as the British monarchy, is the constitutional form of government by which a hereditary sovereign reigns as the head of state of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies (the Bailiw ..., reigning from 1066 until his death in 1087. A descendant of Rollo, he was Duke of Normandy from 1035 onward. By 1060, following a long struggle to establish his throne, his hold on Normandy was secure. In 1066, following the death of Edward the Confessor, William invaded England, leading an army of Normans to victory over the Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Saxon forces of Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings, and suppressed subsequent English revolts in what has become known as the Norman Conquest. The rest of his life was marked by str ...
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Manorialism
Manorialism, also known as the manor system or manorial system, was the method of land ownership (or " tenure") in parts of Europe, notably France and later England, during the Middle Ages. Its defining features included a large, sometimes fortified manor house in which the lord of the manor and his dependents lived and administered a rural estate, and a population of labourers who worked the surrounding land to support themselves and the lord. These labourers fulfilled their obligations with labour time or in-kind produce at first, and later by cash payment as commercial activity increased. Manorialism is sometimes included as part of the feudal system. Manorialism originated in the Roman villa system of the Late Roman Empire, and was widely practiced in medieval western Europe and parts of central Europe. An essential element of feudal society, manorialism was slowly replaced by the advent of a money-based market economy and new forms of agrarian contract. In examining ...
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Devon Domesday Book Tenants-in-chief
The Domesday Book of 1086 lists in the following order the tenants-in-chief in Devonshire of King William the Conqueror: * Osbern FitzOsbern (died 1103), Bishop of Exeter *Geoffrey de Montbray (died 1093), Bishop of Coutances * Glastonbury Church, Somerset * Tavistock Church, Devon * Buckfast Church, Devon * Horton Church, Dorset * Cranborne Church, Dorset * Battle Church, Sussex * St Mary's Church, Rouen, Normandy * Mont Saint-Michel Church, Normandy * St Stephen's Church, Caen, Normandy *Holy Trinity Church, Caen * Hugh d'Avranches, 1st Earl of Chester (died 1101) *Robert, Count of Mortain (died 1090), half-brother of the king *Baldwin de Moels (died 1090), Sheriff of Devon, feudal baron of Okehampton, * Juhel de Totnes (died 1123/30), feudal baron of Totnes, Devon *William de Mohun (died post 1090), feudal baron of Dunster, Somerset * William Cheever, ( Latinised to ''Capra'', "she-goat"), feudal baron of Bradninch, Devon. He was brother of Ralph de Pomeroy (see below), feu ...
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