The Medieval Manor

The Village Community.—The economic core of feudal society was the peasants’ village community, an institution, indeed which was older than feudalism and, in most countries, survived its downfall. In England, the name generally applied to it was the manor. This term requires some explanation. In its origin simply a name for a house, the word came to be used in a number of different senses. In its economic sense, it meant an agricultural estate, tilled by servile labour for the benefit of a lord. But it might also mean a unit of taxation or an administrative or judicial centre for a number of scattered settlements. Thus Maitland defined the manor, somewhat misleadingly, as ‘a house against which geld is charged’. ¹ Another source of ambiguity is the contemporary custom of applying the term indiscriminately to very different kinds of villages. Broadly, there were three distinct types of village organization in England. Throughout the northern and southern midlands (see map, p. 49) there prevailed a ‘nucleated’ village which is generally presumed to be mainly of Teutonic origin. The west of England was a land of scattered hamlets, where the blending of Celtic and Teutonic influences was clearly visible. And in south-east England, there was a type or types of village community which showed indubitable traces of Roman influence. The account that follows will deal mainly with the most important of these three types, the midland village, considered chiefly in its economic aspect. ²