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The Norman Occupation 1066 and The Domesday/Exon Surveys 1086

The Surveys give us our first picture historically of the Manors on the banks of the Lower Otter River. For this appraisal the Manor of Otterton includes much of present day Sidmouth, which in various later documents, surveys, subsidy rolls etc. creates difficulties in separating out the two communities, especially as Sidmouth grew to a more substantial port than the anchorages in the Otter Estuary in the later Middle Ages and into the Tudor era. 

The Domesday Survey was only concerned with raising revenue for Government and does not touch on other aspects of life in the Manors. 

Mills 

An important building in any manor was the mill. Water mills had not long been introduced into Devon (any windmills came later). There are five mills listed in the manors bordering the Estuary: one at Colaton Raleigh; one at Dotton; and three in Otterton Manor. 

One of the three Otterton mills is almost certain to have been on the River Sid. As to whether the two other mills were in separate buildings in the Manor or whether they were housed in one building is not known. Until the 19th. century two mills would have indicated two millstones (not the building they were in). It is possible one mill was in Otterton probably higher up the village stream above the harbour. Could the other have been at Northmostown or on another stream flowing into the east side of the Estuary? The village mill was probably moved to its present site as silting started to form at the entrance to the harbour, creating a platform for a primitive building.  An arrangement of sluices or trunks would have taken water off the Otter without impeding access to the harbour. This was probably the situation at the Survey. The leat would have been constructed much later once the harbour had completely silted up. 

Colaton Raleigh settlement had its Church (on its present site) above the flood plain with the village below it on its stream harnessing the mill. Dotton had a similar configuration. The Survey for Budleigh does not mention a mill. The Manor was held by the Crown and was only taxed for half a hide. (Many Crown Manors do not pay any tax to the Exchequer). However the Manor must have been over 4,000 acres. Otterton taxed for fourteen hides probably covered 5,000 acres, some in the Sid Valley. The population for Budleigh is listed as 50 males; and for Otterton 103 of which 33 are saltworkers. There are no saltworkers listed for Budleigh, although Saltre (Salterton) is named only 125 years later in the Calender Patent Rolls of 1210. I consider there must have been a mill in (East) Budleigh at the time of the Survey. There are at least four by the 1500’s. (Town, Hayes, Thorn, and Kersbrook). 

Salt 

There are only two references to Saltworks/pans in the area. The number of workers, 33, for Otterton Manor and the Survey for Ottery St. Mary states: “1 salthouse which pays 30d, Sedemude (Sidmouth), St. Michael’s land.” This indicates that a salthouse was leased by the Church of St. Mary, Rouen who held Ottery St. Mary Manor, from the Abbey of Mont St. Michel who held Otterton. Some of the 33 saltworkers would have been employed and lived in the Sid Estuary. The remainder may have been employed in the Otter Valley –but where? 

The Lower Otter Estuary at this time was probably deep water at all times and did not provide saltpan facilities. For two miles or more up-river it was about 600 metres wide bounded by the red cliffs we see today. Other saltworkers may have been employed beyond Otterton. Although no saltworkers are listed in the Survey for Budleigh, it is believed salt was extracted in the Valley in Roman times a process continued for centuries after. In the early method “tidewater was trapped and saltworkers poured the brine into cauldrons or pans set on a layered pile of porous bars separated by “pedestals” which were splayed out top and bottom. A fire of straw or brushwood heated the bars and pedestals and the brine, and the salt effloresced on the bars as brine dripped over the side of the cauldron”. Salt pans may have existed in the area where Saltre/Salterton is today but away from the Haven at the mouth of the Otter. Did the saltworks develop after the Survey and after 1125 when Henry I granted much of Budleigh to the Priory at Otterton? 

Salt was the most important commodity needed in these early times and the Prior may have set up the extracting at Saltre for commercial purposes, probably selling surplus salt to other parts of Devon and may have been exporting some as well. The harbours in the Otter and Sid Estuaries grew and trading in salt and other commodities expanded. However, on 7th. July 1305 salt, which had become taxable, was being imported into the Estuary by Le Godyer, Richard Scote, master and importer. Had its extraction “dried up!”? In 1312 La Holhop (sloop), Seint Lowys of Le Vivier delivered one ton of salt probably to Ottermouth for the Prior. This suggests that salt was no longer available locally. (Le Vivier was a small port to the west of the Abbey at Mont St. Michel on the salt marshes of north Brittany.)  

Fisheries 

The Domesday Book, a Guide reads “We are not told much of sea-fishing, for no doubt it was extensively exploited, there was no need to mention it unless a Manor received dues from its produce”, another source reads: “ The Domesday references to fisheries in Devon are pretty meagre.” Many of the villagers (villeins) and smallholders (bordars) would be fishing-farmers. They would have had their lands inland and have a hut or ”cellar” for storing their tackle on the beach or river shore above the tide line. Chapels are recorded among the cellars. The name has been retained today at Combe Cellars in the Teign Estuary. Later in 1205 a chapel existed at Ladram, probably just a simple hut.  

Sheep 

The Survey quotes 549 sheep being farmed in the six manors in the Lower Otter Valley. Of these the figure of 300 for Otterton included sheep from Sidmouth and the figure of 100 for Aylesbeare included those from Newton Poppleford. Only twelve are quoted for Budleigh which seems unrealistic due to it being Crown lands. 

Over the next 200 to 300 years the figure increased enormously. By 1524 the Subsidy Rolls lists 1600 dying through the disease murrain and 39 farmers were being compensated. This suggests that huge flocks were surviving. However the Survey does indicate that sheep-farming was already a major industry in the Otter Valley in the 11th century and wool was probably being traded on the continent.  

This is one of a series of related articles. Click forward or back to jump to the next. 

Compiled and researched © Gerald Millington, 2009

References:

The New Maritime History of Devon, Vols. 1 and 2   (Conway Maritime 1992)

The Book of Budleigh Salterton by D. Richard Cann (Halsgrove 2005)

All About Otterton by Gerald Millington & Robert Jones   (Keverel  Books )2000 

Devon by Prof. W.G.Hoskins    (David & Charles 1954) 

Domesday Book Devon ed.  John Morris for Phillimore & Co. Ltd 1985  2 Vols.

Domesday Book -a Guide    R.Weldon-Finn    Phillimore  1973

Evolution of a Fishing Village 1086/1550   Harold Fox    2001

Shell Country Alphabet    Geoffrey Grigson    1965

OT-G-00009   Agriculture any