Domesday manors come in many shapes and sizes, ranging from enormous holdings which incorporated a substantial proportion of a county down to tiny properties worth just a few pence. Very large manors might contain sub-manors within themselves. Despite great variations in size, almost all manors contain a range of standard information of the kind laid out in a document sometimes known as the Articles of Inquiry of the Domesday Inquest. Broadly speaking, the main categories were ownership before and after the Conquest, assessments to taxation and military service, the arable and plough teams on the estate, the manorial population, manorial appurtenances, and valuations. Each of these categories is separately coded, making it possible to restrict searches to particular features of manors. The codes are: APP: statistics on manorial appurtenances: mills, pasture, meadow, etc. LND: statistics on the arable land and plough teams POP: statistics on the manorial peasantry SUB: part of a manor for which separate ownership and statistics are recorded TAX: statistics on assessment for taxation and military service TRE: landowners and the nature of their tenures before the Conquest TRW: landowners and the nature of their tenures after the Conquest VAL: statistics on the manorial valuations before and after the Conquest For the use of codes in searching the text, see properties and property searching. |