Norman

When William's army marched through Surrey to cross the Thames at Wallingford on his way to London it is widely reported that he laid many lands waste and gave possession of lands and positions to his followers. However, there is no evidence for this locally. Abbot Wulfwold of Chertsey, a Saxon, seems to have promptly paid homage to William and thus retained his position. The Domesday survey, 20 years after the conquest shows no collapse in the local economy and that in Chobham a Saxon or possibly Scandinavian remained a large landowner.

Therefore we can assume that the immediate impact of the conquest on locally held Abbey lands was minimal and changes slow.

However, in 1092 King William Rufus appointed his Chancellor, Ranulf Flambard, as the new abbot. Flambard promptly appropriated the profits of the Chertsey possessions. He was so hated that when Henry I came to the throne he imprisoned Flambard for his crimes. In 1107 Abbot Hugh found the abbey to be in a ruinous condition ^{5 p62-64}. It seems likely that the abbey lands and tenants suffered similarly.

The Domesday Survey

In 1086 a national taxation survey known as the Domesday Book was made at the order of William the Conqueror. It was never intended as a census; its purpose was to record the worth of each landholder and thus what tax could be raised.

The Abbey holds CEBEHAM. Before 1066 and now, it is assessed for 10 hides. There is land for 12 ploughs. In lordship there is 1; 29 villeins and 6 bordars with 11 ploughs. 3 slaves.

Meadow 10 acres, woodland at 130 pigs.

Odin holds 4 hides of this land from the Abbot, and Corbelin two hides of the villeins land. In lordship there is one plough; seven villeins and four bordars with three ploughs.*

There is a church, and another chapel.

Value of the whole manor before 1066 £16; now, the monk's part £12 10s; but the men's 60s.⁽¹⁾

^{* Manning and Bray
add the note here 'the latter entries must surely refer to the land of
Odin and Corbelin'.}

This seemingly rambling entry is actually very structured. It follows a set formula.

Domesday starts by giving us the history and a summary of the tax that can be collected. It tells us that before the Norman Conquest and at the time of the survey, Chobham was assessed for ten hides [a hide being a unit of taxation and contribution to defence) and there was cultivated land assessed as sufficient for 12 plough teams ⁴.

Domesday then tells us how the land was divided up. It states that of the 12 ploughs-worth of land, the Abbot farms one ploughs-worth of land and rents out the remaining 11 to 29 farmers and 6 smallholders. There are 3 slaves who have no property or land rights. So we know there were 38 heads of households; with their families perhaps about 150-200 people?

It then gives details of the taxation of the shared land. Firstly 10 acres of meadow; if the taxation was in line with the normal tithe then that would represent 10% of a total of 100 acres of meadow.

The woodland is taxed at 130 pigs. Depending upon location, pigs were taxed at rates varying from 1 in 3 to 1 in 10. '130' may be a rounded down taxation of 1 in 3 of oak woodland sufficient for 400 pigs.

The major land owners are Odin and Corbelin who between them rent 60% of the value of the land. The Norse name 'Odin' was often the written form of the Germanic name 'Woden'. Hence, despite the bulk transfer of land from the Saxons to Norman lords immediately after the Conquest, it appears that a Saxon or Scandinavian landholder was allowed to retain a major landholding. Conversely, 'Corbelin' is an old French surname and also the name of a town in the centre of France (not in Normandy - very curious).

Odin is said to rent 4 hides direct from the Abbot whilst Corbelin has 2 hides of the land assigned to the farmers. I interpret this to mean that Odin (who also held land in other parts of Surrey) had a 'sub-manor' of the Abbot's Chobham Manor, whilst Corbelin merely rented bits and pieces from the stock of farmers land. We can tell that Odin had a manor because he has land 'in lordship': he retained one ploughs-worth of land for his own use (perhaps worked by his four landless smallholders) and let three ploughs-worth of land to the seven farmers of his manor.

In Domesday, the number of churches, chapels, fishponds and mills are then usually listed. Chobham is said to have one church and another chapel.

St Lawrence's church is said to have been built just a few years before the Domesday survey, around 1080 during the great boom in stone church building following the conquest. But the Abbot did not appoint a vicar to Chobham until the 13th century so it has been argued that St Lawrence's was merely a chapel at the time of Domesday and is the chapel mentioned in Domesday. Bisley has been suggested as the 'church'. There are two problems with this argument: firstly a stone building of the original size of St Lawrence's appears to be too imposing for a lowly chapel; and secondly the chapel at Bisley did not become a church until 1283/4 ⁽²⁾.

Alternatively, the church referred to in Domesday may have been the manorial church of Odin. Secular lords of the manor, like Odin, tended to establish their manor houses and built adjoining churches in the centre of the principle village. Odin's manor may have been the similarly-sounding Aden which appears later in the records. If so, then since Aden is in the centre of the village, it would appear that the manorial church was the adjacent St Lawrence. Later on, St Lawrence may have lost its 'church' status when Odin's manor disappeared.

But then where was the 'chapel'? Domesday says that the monastery farmed about 120 acres in the vill (parish) of Chobham. It is likely that there was a house attached to this land for any monks who worked the farm and the steward who managed the workforce. In later times this arrangement would come to be known as a 'grange'. Granges normally included a chapel for the use of the monks and the Abbot when he visited. We don't know where the abbot had his farm or his 'grange'/manor house. Research has shown that, unlike secular lords who favoured village centres, monastic granges/manor houses tended to be located in peripheral positions ^{5 p33}. By the end of the 13th century the abbots manor house appears to be at Chobham Park: a location that may have held since Domesday or before.

Finally a total tax value is calculated: The Abbey's assessment is £12 10s; the men who rent land £3. It assesses the total tax as being 10 shillings less than before the Conquest: King William was hoping to increase the tax raised!

Since no other 'Surrey Heath' villages are mentioned in Domesday it is assumed that the vill of Chobham includes all the land and villages in the central and western half of the Abbey's lands - the Godley Hundred. This would include all of present day Surrey Heath, but perhaps or perhaps not at that time:

If we plot the location of medieval houses and manors in the area we find that nearly all lie within a mile of the centre of Chobham. To the north lay the vast barrenness of the heath; to the west beyond West End lay the bogs below Chobham Ridges. Thus when Domesday refers to 'Chobham' it really does essentially refer to just the cultivated land along the Bournes within a one-mile radius of Chobham. The Abbot's manor house at Chobham probably served as Chertsey Abbey's western administrative centre.

4. A 'plough' is said to be a unit of taxation; nominally the arable land needing an eight-oxen plough-team; probably about 120 acres. But might it also relate to land subject to the greater tithe (anything produced of the plough - field crops such as wheat, barley, rye and oats)?

5 Research by Hilary Healey, reported in "Moated Sites" by David Wilson, pub: Shire Archaeology. 1985.

The Conquest

The Domesday Survey