William Peverel was born in Normandy in France. He was a close friend of Duke William and brought his own soldiers across the English Channel to fight for William at the Battle of Hastings. 

William promised to give English land to the Norman lords who fought with him against the Anglo-Saxons.

In exchange, the lords would have to provide William with money or knights or soldiers to fight for him whenever he needed them. 

The lords, in turn, gave land to the knights who had come with them from Normandy, also on condition that they would fight for the King if he needed them. (The knights then rented their land to the peasants to farm.)

Most lords had manors scattered across England. William made sure that the lords could not easily plot against him by giving them land in different parts of the country.

However, the King gave William Peverel more than 150 manors, most of them close together in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. Langar and Barnstone were two of these manors.

Why? . . .   Because the King trusted him.

A Royal Visit

In 1068 King William came to Nottingham. Some of the Anglo-Saxon lords were causing trouble, because William had taken their lands from them. The King reacted quickly. He brought his soldiers from London and met violence with greater violence. 

Click here for more on Norman castles.

The King owned all the land in England which was divided into manors, 9000 of them. The King 'rented' the manors to the lords who had come with him from Normandy and fought at the Battle of Hastings. 

William Peverel was lord of the manors of Langar and Barnstone, but he probably never came here. He paid a bailiff to look after the manors for him. 

William Peverel kept a third of the land here for his own use (known as the demesne). There was arable land for growing crops, meadows where the cows and sheep were kept and woodland. The bailiff also had his own land.

William rented out other arable land to the peasants to grow their own crops. But they also had to work on the lord's land as well as on their own.

The main crops were wheat, beans, barley, peas and oats, though people grew other food crops in the gardens of their houses. They might also have a few hens or geese at home.

The woodlands and the fishponds belonged to the lord; so peasants had to pay for the right to let their pigs feed in the woods, to hunt animals, collect firewood and catch fish. 

At harvest time the peasants had to pay to use the lord's mill to grind their corn and use his oven to bake their bread. William Peverel owned two mills in Langar.

Peasants had to have their lord's permission and pay him if they wanted to get married. When a peasant died, his family had to pay the lord to keep the land they farmed.

And peasants were not allowed to leave the manor where they lived.

In addition to this, peasants also had to pay one tenth of what they produced to the Church, whether it was corn or wool or milk or animals.

The laws of the manor ruled everything about a peasant's life.

The story of Britain - The Normans

from the BBC

Life in England after 1066 seen through the eyes of a Norman family.

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