A HISTORY OF WORCESTERSHIRE Tewkesbury itself. But Martley and Suckley, as we are reminded by the note at the end of the Worcestershire Domesday, paid their geld in the Hundred in which they were locally situate, while Feckenham with Holloway similarly belonged to their own Worcestershire Hundred. The note which thus records these facts is a fitting introduction to the surveys of these manors under Herefordshire, which will accordingly be given after it in the Domesday text below. The cause of these manors receiving this exceptional treatment is to be found in one of the phenomena of the Conquest, the brief but eventful career of William Fitz Osbern as reigning earl of Hereford- shire (1067-1070). What was his official position in Worcestershire it is not easy to decide, but a writ addressed to archbishop Ealdred, bishop Wulfstan, earl William (Fitz Osbern), and all the thegns in Gloucestershire and Worcestershire,^ suggests that he exercised power of some kind over the shire. In any case he annexed the lands that he held within its borders to Hereford, the seat of his power, so far that they were surveyed, we have seen, under Herefordshire, although they seem to have been only members of his great lordship of Hereford in the sense of paying their rents as part of its collective revenue. He left, however, on Worcestershire a more permanent impress by those benefactions to the abbeys he had founded at Cormeilles and La Vieille Lyre, which enable us, here as elsewhere, to trace his hand. The charters of con- firmation granted to these abbeys by Henry IL, early in his reign, read in conjunction with Domesday Book, place it in our power to detect the endowments bestowed on them by their great benefactor. The monks of La Vieille Lyre obtained the church of Hanley (Castle), with its appurtenances, and ' the tithe(s) of the forest of Malvern, save the (pro- ceeds of the) chase ' ; the tithe(s) of the whole demesnes of Queenhill (chapel) and Bushley, with small holdings of land in each ; the tithe (s) of the whole demesne of Eldersfield and Feckenham, with a small holding at the former, and the church and a ploughland at the latter." To the monks of Cormeilles were given the churches of Suckley and of Martley, with all their chapels, tithes and appurtenances, together with some small holdings and with the tithes of Holloway, and land at Tenbury.^
- Monasticon AngUcanum, I. 301.
- *In episcopatu Wigorniae ecclesiam de Hanlega cum appendiciis suis, et decimam
forestae de Malvernias, praster venationem. Decimam totius dominii de Cohella {sic), et decimam totius dominii de Brisseleia [sic], et unum hominem et decimam totius dominii de Fortelmetona, et unum hominem et decimam totius dominii de Eldresfeld, et unum hominem et decimam totius dominii de Fecheham cum appendiciis, et unam carucatam terras ' {Monasticon Anglicanum, VI. 1092). In 1 1 60 we find on the Pipe Roll the abbey of Lyre receiving the bulk of the tithes of Hanley (the monks of Malvern receiving the rest), while an annual payment of 30 shillings represented a commutation for their other tithes from the King's manors. ^ ' Ecclesiam de Sukeleia, cum omnibus capellis, et decimis, et pertinentiis suis ; et totam decimam de dominio, et unam virgatam terras ; et ecclesiam de Merleia cum omnibus capellis et decimis et pertinentiis suis ; et tres virgatas terras et totam decimam de dominio. Ad Wich rectum suum in salinis. Ad Holewei totam decimam de dominio, et unam virgatam terra . . et de decima de Sukeleia et de Merleia sexaginta et quindecim solidos ' {Ibid. VI. 240
