preserved in the chapter house, Westminster, records: "Alwardus de Aldhom" tenet duas bovat' terr' in Vernet, p. xix, den' and mediet' unius q dr :" (folio 372). The plain English of this is, Alwardus de Aldholm, held two bovates (a bovate was as much ground as an ox could till, usually 15 or 18 acres), in Vernet (now Werneth), for nineteen-pence, and the moiety of one farthing. The tenure of Alwardus is entered as amongst the fees held in chief of the king, doubtless of his royal manor of Salford. The rent of nineteen-pence and the moiety of one farthing would be equal to about £8 l7s. of our present money, or at the value of 5s. 6d. per acre. The entire district appears to have been divided from remote times into a large number of distinct estates of moderate extent, some of which remain even almost of their original size to our own day, whilst others have been again divided into small tenements, and variously alienated from the ancient owners. The properties which were comparatively large became in course of time the inheritances of families of local gentry, and the farms of still smaller extent formed the freeholds of sturdy substantial yeomen, the ancestors of several of the enterprising manufacturers of the present age.

The Testa de Neville records Adam de Glothie (Adam de Glodwick), to have held lands of the king in thanage. Thanes were minor barons who held rank next to knights; they were lords of manors who had a particular jurisdiction within their limits, and over their own tenants in their own courts. Existing records establish the fact of a manor court being formerly held at Glodwick, as will be subsequently noticed. So late as the present century several tenements in and about Glodwick bore the name of crown lands, but in most instances, the payment of chief rents to the manor of Salford in right of the crown have been compounded for.

The Charter Rolls preserved in the Tower of London,

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