Wiltshire Landowners in 1066

A Saturday afternoon lecture by Dr Chris Lewis -26 January 2013, 2.30pm.

We would understand the effects of the Norman Conquest much better if we knew more about who owned England in 1066 and what happened to them after the battle of Hastings. The names of pre-Conquest landowners were recorded in Domesday Book, but for the most part without distinguishing people of the same name among the confusion of Edwins, Godrics, Azurs, and Ælfstans. A research project at King’s College London is now systematically working through the material for the whole of England, identifying hundreds of individual landowners - great and small - for the first time. We are writing biographical profiles, creating maps and tables and widening our knowledge of English landed society at the end of the Anglo-Saxon period. This lecture presents the results for Wiltshire: it explains who owned Wiltshire in 1066 and suggests what happened to them when the Normans came.

Chris Lewis has been a Research Fellow at King’s College London since 2010, working on Profile of a Doomed Elite: The Structure of English Landed Society in 1066. He has published extensively on late Anglo-Saxon England and the Norman Conquest, and previously worked for the Victoria County History in Cambridgeshire, Cheshire, and Sussex.

Lectures commence at 2.30pm and last approx. one hour.  The Lecture Hall is accessible via a lift if required, has a hearing loop and is air conditioned.

Book on-line, email wanhs@wiltshireheritage.org.uk or telephone 01380 727369 (weekdays Tuesday to Friday 11am to 5pm).