Overstrand Village and Parish Council

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Early History of Overstrand

The earliest recordings of our village can be found in Little Domesday where it is entered as Othestranda, within the North Erpingham Hundred.

The record tells us that at or near the end of Edward the Confessor's reign, Othestranda was held by a man named Skiotr, who was a Kings Thegn, which indicates that he probably held Othestranda directly from Edward.

Skiotr is an old Norse word meaning swift/fast. After Domesday the name is shown as Sket/Skeet an old form of the word shot/shoot from the old Swedish skiotan. It is possible that the intended meaning of his name was "swift shot or shooter".

After the conquest and up to the time Little Domesday was written in 1086, Othestranda was one of 10 villages held by Berner the Crossbowman. Berner was also a Kings Thegn, a position he presumably earned from William I as reward for his military service during the Conquest.

Both Skiotr and Berner were regarded as the ‘Lord of the Manor' as far as Little Domesday is concerned. As Kings Thegn's, both would have had important status approaching that of an Earl.

Little Domesday provides us with a snapshot of our village during these 20 years:

Extract of the entry for Othestranda from Little Domesday.

The entry appears at the bottom of a right-hand facing page and continues overleaf.

A copy of these pages can be viewed here.

Othestranda covered an area approximately 1540 yards long by 880 yards wide comprising 240 acres of arable land, a one acre meadow, woodland sufficient for 3 pigs to forage and a mill.

It was occupied by 5 freemen, 18 smallholders, 6 tied-peasants and 2 slaves owned by the ‘Lord' and most likely used as ploughmen.

At the end of Edward's reign Othestranda comprised one horse, 2 head of cattle, 4 pigs and 18 goats, all owned by Skiotr. By 1086 this had increased to 2 horses, 6 cattle, 5 pigs and the goats had been replaced by 19 sheep, all owned by Berner. Little Domesday only recorded livestock owned by the ‘Lord'.

Initially there were 2 plough teams for the small-holders and peasants use and a further 2 plough teams for use on Skiotr's behalf. After the Conquest there was only 1 additional plough team for use on Berner's behalf. The freemen also had a plough team to work 32 acres of land that they held in the manor, on which they paid a tribute directly to the Crown.

Little Domesday records oxen as a plough (plough team). At the time, the average plough team consisted of 8 oxen, so Othestranda possibly had 40 oxen pre-Conquest and 32 oxen post-Conquest. Oxen were used as draught animals during military conflict and many were lost during the Conquest.

The value of Othestranda was recorded as 40 shillings and the annual tax due to the Crown was 6 ¼ pennies. At the time of Little Domesday, the factors determining the value of a manor were in the plough teams and mills. Land areas were calculated on the basis of an amount that could be worked by a plough team in a year. That amount was measured as 120 acres.

The Othestranda mill would have been an horizontal mill turned by oxen, as there was no river, brook or stream to power a water mill. The windmill did not appear for another century.

Unlike Greater Domesday, Little Domesday recorded all churches. There is no record of a church in Othestranda, which is not surprising given its size and population.

Pre-Conquest

Although Othestranda was clearly a well established settlement at the time of the Conquest, it is not possible to identify exactly when a permanent settlement was first established.

Flint and bone tools dating from the Palaeolithic have been uncovered, suggesting that man was a visitor during the warmer months of the previous interglacial period and flint tools and flint workings dating from the Mesolithic suggest that man may have made temporary settlements during the warmer months following the beginning of the present interglacial period, some 10,000 years ago.

There have been no Bronze Age, Iron Age or Roman finds, so it would seem that Othestranda did not become a permanent settlement until the 5th century at the earliest.

Whether it was first settled by migrating natives, the arriving Angles or later Danes we may never know but it was probably settled by the early 6th century or so as a Saxon coin dated AD 517, found in 1963, would suggest.

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