Pre-Conquest Yorkshire: Fiscal Carucates as an Index of Land Exploitation

Abstract

Yorkshire was devastated in 1069-70, hence maps based on Domesday Book data relating to population and ploughteams are less informative than usual about normal eleventh-century conditions. Other data from Domesday Book that might be used instead are io66 values, ploughlands and the fiscal assessments. The latter provide the most satisfactory index, for the assessment probably dates from the early eleventh century and it represents an approximate measure of the tax capacity of each township at this time. The assessment units were known as carucates and bovates; the same names were used for medieval agricultural ('real') units comprising a share of arable land together with meadow and common rights. The 'real' units were of standard size within one township, but by the thirteenth century varied greatly from place to place. It is argued that this was due partly to the imposition of similar assessment totals on townships that in the early eleventh century had differing amounts of arable land; the number of'real' units was then made equivalent to the number of fiscal units. This likely equivalence makes it possible to calculate the approximate area of arable land represented by a fiscal carucate, and the map of carucate density gives a general picture of the intensity of land use in the early eleventh century. The pattern of distribution was closely related to soil conditions, and parts of the county were probably amongst the most densely peopled districts of England. IN recent years, our knowledge of regional variations in the economy of eleventh-century England has been considerably extended by the publication of five volumes of The Domesday Geography of England,' each illustrated by maps using carefully selected and standardized cartographic techniques. Amongst the sets of data mapped, two have proved to be particularly suitable for providing 'a general picture of the relative prosperity of different areas';2 these are the numbers of plough-teams and of enumerated population, plotted as densities per square mile. Their aptness derives from three characteristics: numbers clearly relate to the period of the Inquest, I085-86; the information is given for almost all vills, either individually or in groups, so that densities can be fairly accurately calculated; and the interpretation of the terms used involves no serious problems. Maps based on these data are therefore, for most parts of England, reliable indicators of regional differences in the extent of cultivated land and the intensity of settlement during the late eleventh century. For the county of Yorkshire, however, the maps of plough-teams and population in 1086 are less illuminating. One reason is that the unit areas used in the calculation of densities are on average larger than in counties farther south, owing to the many joint entries covering large and sometimes widely dispersed estates. The North Riding, for instance, is mapped in 20 divisions with a mean size of approximately 27 540 ha, compared with Norfolk where 39 divisions were used with a mean size of just under 13 770 ha. Regional distribution patterns are therefore more generalized on the Yorkshire maps. A more serious limitation to the value of the maps arises from the major change i the prosperity ofr the county that took place sixteen years before the Survey. The 'Harrying of the North' by William I's army in the winter of 1069-70 left behind a trail of devastation from which relatively few manors appear to have recovered by the time the Domesday description was made. Since many vills were recorded as waste or partially waste, maps of plough-teams and population in i o86 obviously give a distorted picture, which cannot be used as a guide to 'normal' eleventh-century conditions. An additional map showing conditions before 1069 is therefore required. Ideally, this would not only show internal variations within