Duffield Frith - Norman Conquest

Norman Conquest

Henry de Ferrers had been granted vast tracts of land, in present day Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Northamptonshire, and Essex and as far south as Wiltshire. In 1070 Hugh d'Avranches was promoted to become Earl of Chester and the Wapentake of Appletree, which covered a large part of south Derbyshire, was passed to de Ferrers. At the centre of this was Tutbury Castle which he adopted as his domestic headquarters.

His major landholdings, however, were those of the Anglo-Saxon Siward Barn, following a revolt in 1071, including more land in Berkshire and Essex and also Gloucestershire, Warwickshire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. In addition to Tutbury Castle, he built two more, probably typical Norman timber motte and bailey construction. Remembering that large areas of the county were laid to waste during the so-called Harrying of the North, and are recorded as such in the Domesday Survey, Pilsbury Castle, on the west bank of the River Dove, was probably built to protect his holdings in the wapentake of Hamston. Meanwhile Duffield Castle commanded an important crossing over the River Derwent and oversaw the parts of the wapentakes of Litchurch and Morleyston, to the west of the river, and that part of his lands that would become the Frith. Much of the estate was granted to Knights who served under him, among them being the Curzons of Kedleston Hall.