Leofhelm 8

Leofhelm ‘of Pangdean’ (Suss.), fl. 1066
Male
CPL
4 of 5

Name

Leofhelm

Summary

Leofhelm 8 was a thegn with two manors straddling the Sussex and Surrey Weald, together assessed at around 15 hides and worth some £7.

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
Surrey 19,17 Walton on the Hill Lefelm Leofhelm 'of Pangdean' Edward, king Richard fitzGilbert John 'of Buckland' 5.00 2.00 2.00 D Map
Sussex 12,31 Pangdean Leufel Leofhelm 'of Pangdean' Edward, king William de Warenne William fitzReynold 10.00 5.00 5.00 D Map
Totals

Profile

The name Leofhelm occurs only twice in DB, with different spellings at places nearly 30 miles apart, located on the North and South Downs and divided by the intractable landscape of the Weald. But both manors were large and had outliers within the Weald as well as further afield, so that we are probably dealing with one landowner. The alternative, that there were namesakes who both happened to be quite wealthy thegns in broadly the same district, cannot be ruled out entirely but seems less likely.

One of the two manors was Walton on the Hill, located on the North Downs in mid Surrey. It was held TRE ‘from King Edward’ as three manors by Alwine, Leofhelm, and Coleman, each with full power of alienation. Coleman was surely the man of that name whose hide of land nearby was added to the manor of Thorncroft after the Conquest (Surr. 19:39). Alwine’s name was too common for much reliance to be placed on any identification, though there were certainly wealthy thegns of the name in both Surrey and Sussex. In the circumstances it is not possible to define Leofhelm’s relationship with the owners of the other manors at Walton at all closely. After the Conquest there was a single manor covering the whole of the parish (VCH Surr. III, 315–19).

Walton manor is known from later evidence to have included detached Wealden tenements at Horley and Charlwood, right on the Sussex border almost 10 miles to the south (VCH Surr. III, 315–19). DB itself tells us that it also included a house in Southwark, 17 miles to the north, so that Walton’s manorial appurtenances stretched across the length of Surrey in 1066.

Leofhelm’s other manor was Pangdean, occupying a stretch of the South Downs only 5 miles from the sea but which reaches 700 ft in places besides including the coombe which gave Pangdean its name. There were two large and quite separate manors called Pangdean in 1066, one of which likely represented neighbouring Pyecombe (Suss. 12:31–32); although they both passed after the Conquest to William fitzReynold as tenant of William de Warenne they seem to have remained distinct in the later Middle Ages before being united in later times under the name of Pangdean. The church serving both manors was referred to as the church of Pangdean until 1140 but by 1180 as the church of Pyecombe, which was always afterwards the name of the parish (VCH Suss. VII, 212–14).

Just as Leofhelm’s manor of Walton included a house in Southwark, so his manor of Pangdean included two houses in Lewes, the principal town of Sussex, some 8 miles away to the east. Much later evidence also reveals copyhold tenements of Pangdean manor at Rodmell, on the Downs 3 miles south of Lewes (ESRO HIL/6/73/1–2), and others in the Weald between 6 and 10 miles north of Pangdean: around Hook House and Moon Hill in the south-east corner of Cuckfield parish, and in the south-east corner of Balcombe parish (ESRO AMS 1336–7; WSRO Add. MSS 17288, 22225, 22228, 48705–6; ibid. Cowdray MS 1632). The copyholds must have been part of the manor from early times but the intertwined descents of Pangdean and Pyecombe make it uncertain which outliers belonged to which of the Domesday Pangdeans.

The Wealden outliers of Walton and Pangdean lay within 10 miles of one another, and Leofhelm’s landed estate in 1066, though including only two manors, stretched from the Thames at London to within sight of the south coast.

Bibliography


ESRO: East Sussex Record Office, Lewes

VCH Surr.:

VCH Suss. VII: The Victoria History of the Counties of England: The Victoria History of the County of Sussex, VII, ed. L. F. Salzman (London: Oxford University Press for the Institute of Historical Research, 1940)

WSRO: West Sussex Record Office, Chichester