The notices afforded by the Domesday Survey (taken about A.D. 1083), of the state of Salford hundred, either in the time of Edward the Confessor or the reign of Wlilliam the Conqueror, are extremely slight; the manors and vills, except in a few instances, not being enumerated by name, but grouped together. Amongst the twenty-one berewicks, recorded as held in fee of King Edward the Confessor by as many Saxon thanes, it is probable Aldholme was one. The entire extent of the berewick would not seem to have exceeded seven hundred acres, which must be understood to mean only such land as was fit for the plough, but never actually cultivated; in other words, native pasture land, properly so called, excluding meadows, woods, and commons. The Saxon lordship of Aldholme was doubtless commensurate with all the four townships that constitute the ancient chapelry and the modern parish. The estimated value of the berewick in the money of those times might perhaps amount to £1 10s., which may be deemed to have been equivalent to £150 per annum of the money of our day, or little more than 4s. 3d. per acre.

The Norman Conquest not only reduced this part of the kingdom to extreme depopulation and decay, but effected a great revolution in the state of property. Whilst in the time of Edward the Confessor, 1041 - 1066, Salford hundred had contained twenty-one berewicks, held by as many thanes, it was so far injured by the appalling effects of conquest, that in the reign of William the Conqueror, 1083, the twenty-one lordships were parcelled out amongst three thanes only. Devastated by hordes of brutal soldiery, afflicted by an awful pestilence, the result of long continued wars, the country became, comparatively speaking, a wilderness, and the number of families in the entire parish was diminished to four or five, whilst the value of landed property dwindled down in a similar proportion, the probable annual value of the district being perhaps not

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