The Hidage of the Pre-Conquest Estate of Bromborough, Wirral

It has long been appreciated that the Domesday manor of Eastham, which was assessed at 22 hides, covered a large area of the Wirral peninsula, encompassing almost all of the Mersey shore and extending inland to include the later parish of Bidston. It has also been observed previously that in pre-Conquest Cheshire, there is evidence for estates being assessed on the basis of the five-hide unit. The Estham of 1086 should be identified with Bromborough, where lay the Domesday church, mill and almost certainly the manor house from which the estate was administered. By the time of the Conquest this estate had already begun to decay, yet it does not seem to have been previously noted that the total Domesday hidage of its original components is assessed at just shy of 30 hides, the implication being that at some point before the Conquest, there was a 30-hide Anglo-Saxon estate based at Bromborough. This was probably once a royal estate, quite possibly representing the lands on Wirral held by nobleman Wulfric Spot c.1000.