THE DOMESDAY SURVEY that ' it belonged to the church of Pershore in the time of king Edward, and yet the abbot of Evesham was holding it on the day of king Edward's death, but they knew not how.' Comparing the case of Acton on the opposite page of Domesday, we shall hardly err in concluding that, as alleged by the monks of Evesham, Bransford was among the manors acquired by abbot iEthelwig,* and obtained, on the Abbot's death, by bishop Odo. The Bishop must then have given it to Urse. The Pershore lands he held in 1086 amounted only, in all, to g^ hides ; in I 166 his heir, William de Beauchamp, is returned as holding one of the two knights' fees created on the abbey's lands. The list of the great Worcestershire houses is closed by Evesham Abbey, which was charged with the service of five knights ^ in respect of a fief comprising, we must remember, not only the 65 hides assigned to it by Domesday in Worcestershire, but lands in three other counties. Although as many as six ' Frenchmen ' [francigence) are found as tenants on its Worcestershire estate, there is a singular absence of those cases in which Normans had obtained possession, by subinfeudation, of church lands. Indeed, except for the solitary hide held at Bengeworth by Urse,^ the only case is at (Abbot's) Morton, of which the 5 hides were held by ' Rannulf,' who was clearly the brother of abbot Walter men- tioned in Heming's Cartulary as present at the great plea with Wor- cester.* This Ranulf also held of the abbey 3 hides at Kinwarton, Warwickshire, and is claimed, apparently with good reason, as the founder of the house of Wrottesley. The other church lands entered in the Worcestershire Domesday are, comparatively speaking, insignificant. The bishop of Hereford, at Inkberrow, in addition to the 5 hides which he held there of the bishop of Worcester (fo. 173), had 15I hides belonging to his see, which ' Earl Harold wrongfully held, but King William restored' (fo. 174). The hide that St. Mary of Coventry held at Salwarpe had been virtually absorbed by the sheriff in his park ; St. Peter of Gloucester had rights in Droitwich ; St. Guthlac of Hereford one hide there ; and the priests of the collegiate church of Wolverhampton retained their small estate at Lutley. Of foreign religious houses the great abbey of St. Denis prob- ably owed its rights at Droitwich to its possession of a large estate in Gloucestershire appendant to its priory at Deerhurst, which would make these rights useful to its monks. Of the abbey of Cormeilles I have spoken above, so that there remains only the gift by Ralf ' de Todeni ' of 4 hides at Astley to the abbey of St. Taurin at Evreux, the monks of which founded there a cell that became an alien priory. In Worcestershire we learn practically nothing of the parish churches and their endowments from Domesday. Of priests, indeed, there is
- See p. 254 above. * Feudal England, pp. 303-4.
^ See p. 254 above.
- See p. 255 above, and Feudal England, p. 302.
- His gift of Alton in Rock to the abbey of St. Evroul (see my Calendar of Documents
preserved in France, p. 219. and Heming's Cartulary, p. 255) is not mentioned in Domesday. 261
