Leighton Bromswold is a small village and civil parish in Cambridgeshire, England. Leighton lies approximately 10 miles west of Huntingdon.
Leighton Bromswold was listed in the Domesday Book in the Hundred of Leightonstone in Huntingdonshire; the name of the settlement was written as Lectone.[5] In 1086 there was just one manorat Leighton Bromswold; the annual rent paid to the lord of the manor in 1066 had been £23 and the rent was the same in 1086.[6]
The Domesday Book does not explicitly detail the population of a place but it records that there were 39 households at Leighton Bromswold.[6] There is no consensus about the average size of a household at that time; estimates range from 3.5 to 5.0 people per household.[7] Using these figures then an estimate of the population of Leighton Bromswold in 1086 is that it was within the range of 136 and 195 people.
The survey records that there were 19.5 ploughlands at Leighton Bromswold in 1086.[6] In addition to the arable land, there was 30 acres (12 hectares) of meadows, 10 acres (4 hectares) of woodland and a water mill at Leighton Bromswold.[6]
The tax assessment in the Domesday Book was known as geld or danegeld and was a type of land-tax based on the hide or ploughland. Following the Norman Conquest, the geld was used to raise money for the King and to pay for continental wars; by 1130, the geld was being collected annually. Having determined the value of a manor’s land and other assets, a tax of so many shillings and pence per pound of value would be levied on the land holder. While this was typically two shillings in the pound the amount did vary; for example, in 1084 it was as high as six shillings in the pound. For the manor at Leighton Bromswold the total tax assessed was 15 geld.[6]
No church is recorded in the Domesday Book at Leighton Bromswold.
The village has at various times been known as “Lecton” (11th century), “Leghton” and “Leghton upon Brouneswold” (14th century).[4]
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