JOHN MOOREHERITAGE SERVICES - Archaeology Data Service

John Moore HERITAGE SERVICES Cobrey Farm, Ross on Wye, Herefordshire
An Archaeological Desk-Based Assessment
virgate of land are identified but not fully located (see below). The past importance of
the manor is hinted at by this manor having rights to dues of honey and sheep in
Archenfield. This can be identified as coming from Bridstow (Yeates 2006), a parish
on the west side of the Wye from Ross-on-Wye. The church at Linton is a
complicated structure and predated the Norman Conquest, a pair of reused Roman
tufa arches have been recognised in the building, which must come from the Roman
settlement at Bury Hill, Weston-under Penyard (Yeates 2005, 21-32).
A further royal manor was located at Cleeve with its outlier Walton covering 14 ½
hides (Thorn and Thorn 1983, 1.8). This manor was located in the modern parishes of
Walford and Bridstow. There were 20 villagers, a reeve, 11 smallholders, 9 male and
5 female slaves, a ploughman, 2 mills and a fishery. The numbers of Welshmen that
belong to this manor are not numbered. The church of the manor is held by the Saint
Mary’s of Cormeilles, along with a priest the tithe and 1 villager. This could be a
repetition of the Linton holding but is more likely a reference to the church at
Bridstow or less likely Walford. Woodland and tithes are also mentioned with tithes
of honey and sheep, besides another 2 hides, half a fishery (presumably the other half
is tithe free or belongs to another manor), and 2 hides less 1 virgate at Ashe Ingen in
Bridstow parish.
The Abbey of Cormeilles is also recorded in the Domesday Book as holding a manor
at Kingsone, which was located in the later parish of Weston-under-Penyard (Moore
1982, 1.11; Thorn and Thorn 1983, 3.1). This estate covered 2 hides, but tax and
service was paid in Gloucestershire, by they lived and came to pleas in the hundred of
Bromsash. The manor probably originated as part of the manors of Linton and
Cleeve, a series of dispersed estates throughout the earlier parochia of Ross-cum-
Linton (see below), but was in 1086 accounted as part of the royal manor of
Westbury-on-Severn (Moore 1982, 1.11) along with a number of other diverse
holdings up the Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire borders.
The manors of Pontshill and Weston-under-Penyard where held by Durand of
Gloucester in 1086 (Thorn and Thorn 1983, 22.2-3). Bernard Newmarch held these
estates from Durand, while Gunnar held them in 1066. Pontshill was accounted as an
estate of 1 hide with 6 small holders. The manor of Weston had 2 hides had 2
smallholders.
An account of the manor of Hope Mansell and the other lands held by William son of
Baderon also has to be provided as will be evident in the later accounts of the
manorial holdings (Area C). All of William’s land holdings mentioned here were
located in the hundred of Bromsash (Thorn and Thorn 1983, 15.1-3), the hundred in
which was dominated by the parochial system of Ross-cum-Linton. The manor of
Hope Mansell was divided into two manors of 4 hides, with 1 villager and 1 small
holder with 1½ ploughs. A further third part of the manor was held by the abbey
church of Saint Peter’s at Gloucester. The village of Hope Mansell contains a house
called Sutton House, and it is likely that one of these manors may have been known
as Sutton, a directional estate name that would match Weston and Aston and thus
start to combine the parish and manor into the larger early medieval estate. William
also held Ruardean, which Hardwic held from him, with the land assessed at 4 hides.
The last holding was 1 virgate in the manor of Linton, the king’s manor, which
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