Page:VCH Worcestershire 1.djvu/366

 A HISTORY OF WORCESTERSHIRE ploughs, and (there are) 5 villeins and 4 bor- dars with 2 ploughs. There are 5 acres of meadow. It was and is worth 40 shillings. Elmer held (it) and afterwards became a monk. The Bishop received his land. The same Urse holds 4 hides at Westmone- COTE [Westmancot],^ where he has 3 ploughs, and (there are) i villein and 2 bordars with i plough. There are 14 serfs and 12 acres of meadow. It was worth 50 shillings ; now 60 shillings. Brictuine held it, and did service (deserviebat) for it to the Bishop (on such terms) as could be obtained {deprecari). Of the same manor Durand holds 2 hides at NoRTUNE [Bredons Norton], where he has I plough, and (there are) 2 bordars with i plough, and 6 acres of meadow. Leofwine {Lewinus) held it and served [fuit) for it as Bishop's ' radman.' Of this same manor Brictic son of Algar ^ held of the Bishop i hide at Biselege [Bush- ley]^ and paid rent for it to the Bishop {inde firmabat ipsum episcopum) every year ; and yet he rendered to the Bishop {ad mam episcopt) whatever he owed to the King's service. It is now in the hands of king William.* It is and was worth 40 shillings. There are 20 acres of meadow and wood(land) half a league (Jewa) long and 3 furlongs wide. In the aforesaid Hundred the same Bishop holds RiPPEL [Ripple] with one (appurtenant) member, Uptun [Upton-on-Severn]. There are 25 hides that (pay) geld. Of these, 13 are in demesne, where are 4 ploughs ; and there are 2 priests who have i hides with 2 ploughs; and (there are) 40 villeins and 16 bordars with 36 ploughs. There are 8 serfs and I bondwoman and a mill and 30 acres of meadow. The wood(land) is half a league [lewa] long and 3 furlongs wide, (and is) in Malferna [Malvern] ; from it (the Bishop) had the honey and the hunting and all profits {quicguid exibat), and 10 shillings over and above ; it is now in (the King's) forest ; but the Bishop has its pannage,* and (wood for) tric son of jElfgar, whose connection with Worcestershire is alluded to in the Introduction. ^ Formerly Bysseley. It is confused with Bisley (Gloucestershire) in the Index to the Red Book of the Exchequer (Rolls Series), and is oddly spoken of by Nash as a ' name now lost' (I. 557). i8oi (p. 321 below), and the Introduction. firing and repairs [domorum emendationem). It was and is worth 10 pounds. Of this manor Ordric holds I hide at Crumbe [Earl's Crombe] where he has 3 ploughs and 3 villeins and 5 bordars with 3 ploughs. There are 24 acres of meadow and 3 ' quarentenes ' of wood. It was worth 20 shillings ; now 40. Godric held (it) and performed (his) service to the Bishop [de eph- copo deservivit). Archbishop Ealdred {Eldre- dus) received it rightfully (Jure) from him.' There also at Crumbe [Crombe d'Abitot] Siward holds 5 hides, where he has 1 plough, and (there are) 6 villeins and 4 bordars with 4 ploughs. This land was held of the Bishop, T.R.E., by Sirof, on whose death the Bishop gave his daughter, with this land, to a certain knight of his, who was to support (pasceret) her mother and to render the Bishop service {serviret) for the land. It was and is worth 40 shillings. Of this same manor Roger de Laci holds 4 hides at Hilcrumbe [Hill Crombe], where he has I plough, and (there are) 8 villeins and 4 bordars with 4 ploughs. There are 30 acres of meadow. The wood(land) is half a league {lewa) long and 2 furlongs wide. It was worth 3 pounds ; now 4 pounds. Of the same manor Urse holds i hide at HoLEFEST [Holefast],' where he has i plough ^ There has evidently, and naturally, been some confusion between the Crombes. Nash makes the one hide held by Ordric to be Crombe d'Abitot {alias Crombe Osbern) and the 5 hides held by Siward to be Earl's Crombe {alias Crombe Simon). So far as Domesday is concerned, the Crombes are treated as one. There is, however, sufficient evidence even in Nash's pages that Crombe Simon (which took its name from a tenant about a century later) was reckoned at i hide, and was not held of the Bishop by the Beauchamps, though it was subsequently obtained by the earls of War- wick, whence it is named Earl's Crombe. On the other hand Crombe d'Abitot (named from Osbern d'Abitot, who held it under the Beauchamps) must have been 5 hides, for the survey temp. Henry I. shows us Walter de Beauchamp holding 6 hides 'in Rippel et Uptune.' One of these was at Holefast, for Urse had held it as above, and the other 5 would be at Crombe d'Abitot. This identi- fication, which is the opposite to that of Nash, is in harmony with the feodary temp. John, which shows us one Crombe held of the Bishop by Beauchamp, and the other by Adam ' Now ' Holdfast.' A chapelry in Ripple. 292
 * A hamlet in Bredon.
 * This was the great English thegn, Brih-
 * See further for this estate, Domesday fo.
 * Payment for feeding swine on the mast.
 * de Crumba' {Testa de Nevill, p. 41).