An Anglo-Saxon multiple estate was a large landholding controlled from a central location with surrounding subsidiary settlements. These estates were present in the early Anglo-Saxon period, but fragmented into smaller units in the late Anglo-Saxon period. Despite some academic criticism, the concept has been widely used and a large number of possible examples have been proposed.
The concept of an Anglo-Saxon multiple estate was developed by Professor Glanville Jones of Leeds University. The idea originally appeared in a paper published in 1961[1] and was fleshed out in a 1976 book on medieval settlement.[2] The term "great estate" is sometimes used as an alternative to multiple estate.[3] These estates typically contained various features:[4]
The specialised settlements, dependent on the caput, often took their name from the crop they produced – Cheswick (cheese wick), Berwick (barley farm), etc.[5] The caput has been variously described as a villa regalis, aula, mansio, or maerdref.[4] Specialisation may have been encouraged by "renders" – taxation in kind – paid to the king.[6]
These estates may have been based around a royal vill and may have been coterminous with the parochia of an early minster church.[3]
The origin of some of these estates has been traced back to Roman times or earlier[7] – for example, H. P. R. Finberg proposed a Roman origin for Withington, Gloucestershire,[8] while Glanville Jones himself suggested a pre-Roman origin for some estates[9] These multiple estates were a common feature in the English landscape before the 10th century and were usually owned by the king or an important monastery.[10] In the late Anglo-Saxon period, many of these large estates fragmented into smaller units which eventually became independent parishes.[11] The resultant parishes frequently share the same name differentiated by a suffix or prefix.[12] The fragmentation of these estates resulted in the diminishing importance of their minster churches[13] which (under the "minster hypothesis") had been the basis of early Christian church organisation.
The concept has been criticised – for example, because the evidence used is often much later than the date of the proposed estate.[14] Nonetheless, the concept is widely used and a large number of possible examples have been proposed.
. Interpreting the Landscape. 34–35. Routledge. 1985. Mick Aston. 0-7134-3649-2.
. Local history#United Kingdom . Roman and Saxon Withington: a study in continuity . 1955 . Leicester . University College, Leicester.
. Interpreting the Landscape. 32. Routledge. 1985. Mick Aston. 0-7134-3649-2.
. Signposts to the Past. Phillimore. 206. 1997. third. Margaret Gelling. 0-460-04264-5.