Taldus 2

Taldus ‘of Goodrich’ in Archenfield (Herefs.), fl. 1066
Male
CPL
4 of 5

Name

Taldus

Summary

Taldus 2 was a substantial Welsh landowner in Archenfield, annexed to Herefordshire in the earlier 1060s. If his name was really Tewdws (which is not certain), he was probably the father of the Ithel ap Tewdws who was already a major figure in the adjoining district of Gwent c. 1060 and remained prominent in its affairs in 1086.

Distribution map of property and lordships associated with this name in DB

List of property and lordships associated with this name in DB

Holder 1066

Shire Phil. ref. Vill DB Spelling Holder 1066 Lord 1066 Tenant-in-Chief 1086 1086 Subtenant Fiscal Value 1066 Value 1086 Value Conf. Show on Map
Herefordshire 1,60 Goodrich Taldus Taldus 'of Goodrich' - William, king Godric Mappesone 0.00 2.00 2.00 A Map
Totals

Profile

The name Taldus, whether or not it stands for the Welsh name Tewdws, occurs just once in DB, as the holder of one of the ‘vills or lands’ (villæ vel terræ) in Archenfield (Ergyng in Welsh), a culturally and linguistically Welsh territory which probably came definitively under English rule only with Earl Harold’s defeat of Gruffudd ap Llywelyn in 1062–3 (Lewis 1985: 158–62).

In DB the estate in question was named as Hulla, a normal spelling for OE hyll, ‘hill’, used as a simplex place-name (Gelling and Cole 2000: 192; Ekwall 1960: 239). It has been suggested that the most likely location for Hulla is Howle Hill, east of the Wye (Phill. Herefs. note 1,60), but Howle Hill is in the wrong place (not in Archenfield and clearly within the episcopal manor of Walford) and the identification has been conclusively dismissed (PN Herefs. 198; PN Salop. I, 161).

The ‘Herefordshire Domesday’, a complete copy of DB for Herefordshire made in the 1160s, annotated Hulla as Cast’ Godr’ (Galbraith and Tait 1950: 20), that is Castellum Godrici or Godric’s Castle, the place now known as Goodrich, which lies on the correct bank of the Wye within Archenfield. Goodrich was named after its holder in 1086, Godric Mappesone (PN Herefs. 91). The estate was quite large, with 13 ploughteams at work in 1086 and a population including 12 villans and 12 bordars; it probably covered a sizeable territory across the southern end of Archenfield, stretching westwards to the river Monnow. Taldus must have been one of the leading landowners in Archenfield when it was brought under English control in the earlier 1060s.

Immediately west of Archenfield, across the river Monnow, was the Welsh district of Gwent. Ithel son of Tewdws (Ithel ap Tewdws) was a major figure there between the early 1060s and 1086. He witnessed three charters in favour of Bishop Herewald of Llandaff issued by Gruffudd ap Llywelyn c. 1060 and Caradog ap Rhiwallon c. 1072 and 1071 × 1075, Welsh kings from different dynasties who ruled Gwent in succession. Ithel’s presence as a witness thus pins him down as a local figure, not an outsider from the king’s household. The three charters dealt with gifts in different parts of Gwent: in the east on the river Wye, west of the Usk not far from Caerleon, and north of Wentwood (Evans 1893: 269–71, 272–3, 274–5).

It is highly likely that the same Ithel was named in DB as controlling a group of fourteen townships (uillæ) in Gwent in 1086 (Glos. W:2).

None of this proves that Taldus (fl. 1066), holding at Goodrich immediately adjacent to Gwent, was the father of Ithel ap Tewdws, major figure in Gwent (fl. c. 1060–1086), but the identification is more likely than not. Father and son can be characterized as an important local family who had forged links beneficial to themselves with all the powerful men, Welsh, English, and Normans, who were influential in and around Gwent before and after 1066.

Bibliography


Ekwall 1960: Eilert Ekwall, The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place-Names, 4th edn (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1960)

Evans 1893: The Text of the Book of Llan Dâv, reproduced from the Gwysaney Manuscript, ed. J. Gwenogvryn Evans (Oxford: privately published, 1893)

Galbraith and Tait 1950: Herefordshire Domesday (c. 1160–1170) from Balliol College MS. 350, ed. V. H. Galbraith and James Tait, Pipe Roll Society new series 25 (1950)

Gelling and Cole 2000: Margaret Gelling and Ann Cole, The Landscape of Place-Names (Stamford: Shaun Tyas, 2000)

Lewis 1985: CPL, ‘English and Norman government and lordship in the Welsh borders, 1039–1087’ (Oxford University D.Phil. thesis, 1985)

Phill. Herefs.: Domesday Book, ed. John Morris, 17: Herefordshire, ed. Frank and Caroline Thorn (Chichester: Phillimore, 1983)

PN Herefs.: Bruce Coplestone-Crow, Herefordshire Place-Names, British Archaeological Reports, British Series 214 (1989)

PN Salop.: Margaret Gelling with H. D. G. Foxall, The Place-Names of Shropshire, 5 vols (incomplete) English Place-Name Society 62/63, 70, 76, 80, and 82 (Nottingham: English Place-Name Society, 1990–2006)