Holt Fleet - Norman Period

Norman Period

Holt was mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 when Urso de Abitot, Sheriff of Worcestershire, held it. His estate consisted of 5 hides (about 600 acres) with two ploughs (probably 8 oxen per team). There were 12 villagers and 24 smallholders with an additional 10 ploughs. A 12-acre (49,000 m2) meadow and a woodland half a league square (c. 1440 acres) were also in the parish. A hedged enclosure was noted; this would have been for the capture of game such as deer and wild boar. A fishery (on the Severn presumably) was worth 5 shillings and a salt house in Droitwich 13 pence. The total value was £6.

After the Norman Conquest the new manorial lords quickly went about putting their physical mark on the landscape. This generally took the form of rebuilding the parish churches in the Norman architecture style. In Holt church the earliest architectural feature, an opening in the bell tower wall, was possibly constructed within ten years of the conquest. It bears Saxon characteristics and probably reflects the use of native stonemasons by the Norman lord. The nave was constructed about 1100 to 1110, and the chancel arch in 1120. The same mason appears to have carved the font and the arch. The rest of the structure of the building dates from periods in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, as do some of the memorials and leaded windows. In 1113 Holt was still a chapelry of St Helen's in Worcester.

A medieval deer park that was situated immediately to the south of Holt church may have predated the Norman Conquest.