The Journey of a Lunchtime

(NIGE) Let me take you back to an age where Billingshurst was just an empty field by a railway line. The year was 1086. William the Conqueror has been Conquering for 20 years now, and was probably a bit Conquered out.

He had built his castles in a dastardly plan to lower the property values of the locals mud dwellings, and now he was ready to do some taxing.

Into the small Sussex hamlet of Cilletone came his men in fluorescent jackets and holding clipboards. They were compiling a book with the slightly over-dramatic name of Domesday.

What did they find in Cilletone?

Well thanks to the National Archives publication of the Domesday book online it is now possible for me to look back almost 1000 years and see the earliest records of the place in which I live, for as the years rolled by, Cilletone would become known as Chiltington.

Obvious my Latin extends only as far as replacing U's with V's, but the national archive have translated the ancient texts to the far more readable English, where the U's are written just as they should be.

So, it seems in 1086 the two main landowners were William de Braose and someone named Roger. A little investigative journalism makes me believe that this was probably Roger de Montgomerie, The first Earl of Shrewsbury.

According to the Wikipedia, Roger was one of William’s principal councillors and one of the most powerful men in the land.

William de Braose was the man who built Bramber Castle, and apparently now owns half the lands that used to belong to the Saxon Thane of Sussex, Earl Goodwine.

Despite this, the villages of Cilletone, Sillington and Poleberge (Chiltington, Sullington & Pulborough) are all linked as belonging to somebody called Robert, who may well have been Robert, Count of Mortain - the King's half brother.

The Church is clearly mentioned alongside passages referring to Three Farms and one "Home Farm", apparently there is land for three ploughs.

The area didn't seem to have been affected too much by the arrival of the Norman’s as the land is reported to be worth the same amount in 1086 as it was before 1066.

It's just 5 lines in a 1000 year old book, but it's taken me on an amazing lunchtime journey into the lives of the people who called my village home all those years ago.

To see yourself why not visit The National Archives Domesday Website