Earl Shilton, United Kingdom

The Roman army arrived in Britain in 43 AD, and quickly set about its conquest. Roman Legions spread north and west and by AD 47 were advancing into Leicestershire. At this time, Corieltauvi tribal chiefs were being severely harassed by their neighbours, the Brigantes, and so welcomed the Romans as a source of protection and stability. Ostorius Scapula, the Roman Governor in Britain, established the frontier zone delineated by the Fosse Way through the middle of friendly Corieltauvi territory.

Earl Shilton’s first industry arrived during this period, as a pottery was established on Shilton Heath, (behind the modern day Heathfield High School). There was an excellent vein of clay found in the vicinity of Earl Shilton’s Roman kiln. Early in the second century it started producing low grade, grey ware pots, used for everyday cookery and storage (John Lawrence).

Locally there was another pottery at Desford, and Stoney Stanton lived up to its name by the opening of a Roman quarry.

Earl Shilton lay in the kingdom of the Middle Angles. Middle Anglia and Mercia were built around the River Trent and the rivers that flow into it, such as the Soar.

The first recorded attacks on Saxon England by Viking raiders came at the end of the eighth century. Being well inland, early Viking raids did not affect the villagers of Earl Shilton but in 874—875 a great heathen army of Danes moved up the River Trent and into the heart of Mercia. They attacked and overran Nottingham before moving their ships along the River Trent into north Leicestershire.

Domesday records show that Shultone had 5 ploughlands worth 5 shillings at the time of Edward the Confessor. Shultone’s neighbour, the village of Barwell, stood on the lands of Leofric, Earl of Mercia (John Lawrence).

Following the Norman Conquest William the Conqueror besieged and captured the city of Leicester in 1068, about two years after the Battle of Hastings. William handed the government of Leicester over to Hugh de Grandmesnil, one of the Norman adventurers. He also gave de Grandmesnil 100 manors for his services, 65 of them in Leicestershire, including Earl Shilton. He was appointed sheriff of the county of Leicester. He married Adeliza, daughter of Ivo, Count of Beaumont-sur-l'Oise. Hugh de Grandmesnil and his wife, who died in 1087, had five sons and as many daughters together.

Earl Shilton, like many English villages, first appears in recorded history in the Domesday Book of 1086, the first complete tax record for the whole of England. One of the parcels of land granted to Hugh de Grandmesnil by William the Conqueror was the village of Scheltone, now known as Earl Shilton. The village measured some 500 acres (2.0 km2). The village boasted 3 ploughs, with 1 serf and 4 sokemen. Sokemen were the highest class of free peasants, a lower aristocracy, and were thought to be the descendants of the Danes who settled in the East Midlands. The village also had a priest, 10 villeins and 5 bordars. Villeins and bordars were below sokemen and tied to the land. Villeins often held between 30 and 100 acres (120,000 and 400,000 m2), while bordars were of a lower standing and usually had a smallholding.

Attached to the village of Sheltone were 12 acres (49,000 m2) of meadow and a mill of 16 pence (£0.07) value, with woodland 8 furlongs (1,600 m) in length and 3 broad valued at 70 shillings (£3.50). Following the Norman Conquest there must have been some inflation as during the time of Edward the Confessor Sheltone's woodland was valued at 5 shillings (£0.25). The population of the village would have been 75 to 80 people.

The fields of Earl Shilton manor were open spaces divided into long narrow strips. Only the fields being grazed by cattle were fenced. The others were open and were identifiable as separate fields only by the crops which they bore. The unusual detail was that the single crop in each field was separately farmed - in individual strips - by peasant families of the local village.

Some of the strips which belonged to the local lord, were farmed for him by the peasants under their feudal obligations. Strip-farming was central to the life of a medieval rural community. It involved an intrinsic element of fairness, for each peasant's strips were widely spread over the entire manor; every family would have the benefit of good land in some areas, while accepting a poor yield elsewhere. The strips also enforced an element of practical village democracy. The system only worked if everyone sowed the same crop on their strip of each open field. What to sow and when to harvest it were communal decisions. The field could not be fenced, or the cattle let into it, until each peasant had reaped his own harvest. When the harvest was in the peasant would compulsorily pay their lord to grind the corn in his mill.