oakfed

Re: Star Mapping software: You call THIS progress?

Re: Medieval Farming Villages

Re: Medieval Farming Villages Here's a summary of Norman English village sizes from 'Domesday Book and Beyond', an old but as far as I know still accurate treatise on the Domesday book statistics: The minimum size village considered sufficient to provide for one knight was a '10-hide' village. The Saxons had set the minimum land for 'thegn-right' at 5 hides. Coincidently, large numbers of the villages listed in Domesday Book have 5 or 10 hides. (Aside: the Saxon 'hundred', an administrative division of a shire, was called because it theoretically had villages with 100 hides). A hide is a unit of both area and taxation. Area-wise, a hide is usually considered to be 120 (cultivated) acres. A hide had four virgates (30 acres); a typical villein (about 1/2 the peasant families) held a virgate, though some had as much as a hide, while the rest - bordars and cottars - made do with less than a virgate, or no land at all (and made their living as hired labour). You have to be careful with the hides in Domesday book, though, because they were used primarily for taxation. We know a lot about taxation in Norman England because of Domesday Book (which was compiled so the Normans could continue to collect the Danegeld as the Saxons had done; the Danegeld was assessed on hides.) As units of taxation, hides had flexible areas. Large swathes of England were either punitively or beneficiently 'hidated' - assessed 'for geld' at more or less hides than usual, as punishment or reward.