IN the late 11th century an army was cutting its way across England, town by town, village by village, and farm by farm.
But unlike other bands armed with swords and axes which had marauded the country over the turbulent centuries, this army was comprised of scribes on an extraordinary royal enterprise.
What these panels of bishops and earls found and recorded came to be known as the Domesday Book — a colossal document which opens an unparalleled window on Medieval life.
Domesday has been called "the most valuable piece of antiquity possessed by any nation" by the philosopher David Hume, and is noted as "the only census of England before 1801", by historian Sir Roy Strong.
But why is Bury missing from its pages?
What is the Domesday Book?
Following the Norman Conquest after the Battle of Hastings in 1066 King William the Conqueror established his control over England.
At Christmas 1085 he commissioned a survey to examine all the resources and taxable materials of his kingdom.
The task was completed in a matter of months and compiled in two volumes known as ‘Great Domesday’ and ‘Little Domesday’.
The word ‘Domesday’, however, does not appear anywhere in the book. Instead it is a metaphor for the Day of Judgement and the finality of the survey.
Why does Bury not appear in the book?
Despite its extraordinary scope, the Domesday book does do not include every area which existed in 1086.
Even important cities such as London and Durham are omitted.
Nonetheless, there is a conspicuously significant blackspot over the North West of England.
Bury and the surrounding towns which make up the modern metropolitan borough were historically in the county of Lancashire.
However, Lancashire did not exist at the time of the Norman Conquest, and was only established as a county in 1182.
Instead some of its lands were considered as part of Yorkshire. While the land between the Rivers Ribble and Mersey — known as “Inter Ripam et Mersam” — was part of Cheshire.
The towns of Bury were located in the Hundred of Salford — also known as the Royal Manor of Salford and the Salford Wapentake.
Hundreds were an historical subdivision of a shire for administrative purposes. They often covered an area of 100 hides (each hide being an area of land considered big enough to support a household).
During the Norman period, hundreds would pay a tax or ‘geld’ to the crown based on these hides.
In 1066 the Salford Hundred was held by the king of England, Edward the Confessor.
It was Edward’s death without an heir in that year that led to the power struggle to succeed him — culminating in Harold Godwinson and the Anglo-Saxons confronting the Vikings and Normans at the Battles of Stamford Bridge and Hastings.
What was Bury like at the time of the Norman Conquest?
Bury emerged at the end of the Roman occupation of Britain, and its name is derived from the Saxon word ‘Byri’ — meaning a fortified stronghold or place.
It is thought probable that a settlement and church had existed at Bury for some time before the Norman Conquest.
To the west of this settlement was Tottington, or the ‘Land of Tota’ in Old English.
In the south, Prestwich, which takes its name from the Old English words for a priest’s farm or retreat.
While what is now Whitefield was an area of pastoral and open moorland.
In the north, the area of Ramsbottom was part of the Forest of Rossendale.
This woodland was felled over time to create farmsteads whose Anglo-Saxon inhabitants named it the ram’s or wild-garlic valley.
Around this time the area of Radcliffe was also dominated by moorland and swamps.
However, Radcliffe is unique in being the only part of modern Bury referenced in the Domesday Book.
What does the book say about Radcliffe and Salford Hundred?
The little detail that we have for Norman Salford and Bury comes from a short section of the Domesday Book in the part given over to the County of Cheshire.
Radcliffe is described as being held by King Edward and made up of one hide and another hide belonging to the royal manor.
Salford had three hides and 12 ploughlands, or carucates — meaning an area which could be ploughed by an eight-ox team.
There was also forest of three leagues square, many enclosures, and a hawk’s eyrie listed as resources.
At the time hawking and falconry was emerging as a recreational activity for the aristocracy, and was keenly practised by Edward the Confessor and William the Conqueror.
The churches of the manor of Manchester also held an area of ploughland.
Rochdale, meanwhile, is described as belonging to the only nobleman referred to by name — a man named Gamal.
He was one of 21 thegn’s — the Old English for a man of noble status — who controlled the other 21 estates, or berewicks, of the hundred.
These estates included hides, ploughlands and extensive woodlands.
Large holdings in the North of England had been granted to the Norman aristocrat Roger de Poitou by William the Conqueror, who was keen to subdue its particularly rebellious inhabitants.
In turn, the Domesday Book notes, Roger had gifted areas of the Salford Hundred to several knights.
Among the other recorded inhabitants of the hundred are a number of slaves, middle to lower ranking unfree peasants known as villans and bordars, and a priest.
However, it should be remembered that Domesday is not a full population census, and tends towards the recording mainly of those who owned land.
In full the Salford Hundred section reads:
King Edward held Salford. There are three hides and 12 carucates of waste land and forest three leagues long and as much broad and there are several enclosures and a hawk’s eyrie.
King Edward held Radcliffe as manor. There is one hide and another hide belonging to Salford.
The Church of St Mary and the Church of St Michael held in Manchester one carucate of land quit every customary due except geld.
To this manor of hundred belonged 21 Berewicks which as many thegns held for as many manors, in which there were 11-and-a-half hides and 10-and-a-half carucates of land.
There is woodland nine-and-a-half leagues long and fives leagues and one furlong broad.
One of them, Gamal holding two hides in Rochdale was quit of his customs except these six: theft, housebreaking, highway robbery, breach of the king’s peace, breach of a due date set by the reeve, continuance of fighting after the oath was made. For these he paid a fine of 40 shillings.
Some of these lands were quit of every customary due except for geld and some are quit of geld.
The whole manor of Salford with the hundred rendered £35.4s.
Now there are in demesne in the manor two ploughs and eight slaves; two villans with one plough. This demesne is worth 100 shillings.
Of this land of this manor [these] knights hold by the gift of Roger de Poitou: Nigel three hides and a half carucate of land, Warin two carucates of land, and another Warin one-and-a-half carucates, Geoffrey one carucate of land, [and] Gamal two carucates of land. In these [lands] are three thegns and 30 villans and nine bordars and a priest and 10 slaves. Among them they all have 22 ploughs. It is worth £7.
High and Late Medieval Bury
In the later centuries of the Middle Ages Bury continued to grow and increase in significance.
The present borough included the manors of Bury, Pilkington, Prestwich and Radcliffe.
In the early 14th century the manors of Bury and Pilkington were merged through marriage of Alice de Bury and Roger de Pilkington.
Their descendant, Thomas de Pilkington, was granted permission in 1469 to fortify his manor house into what would become Bury Castle.
While the manor of Radcliffe remained in the hands of the de Radcliffe family until the 1560s, during which time they constructed the now Grade 1 listed Radcliffe Tower.
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