The following is a glossary of the terms used in extracts for Hooe taken from the Domesday Book. There is, also, at the end, an explanation of the English currency for those unfamiliar with it.
| Abbot | A monk in charge of a monastery – in this case, a man by the name of Gausbert |
| Acre | The measurement of an area of land, used in Domesday. Said to be equal to the area of land that could be ploughed by a team of eight oxen in one day but varied in size according to the land itself – soil type and other features. Today′, measurement = 200 yards x 22 yards. |
| Demesne | An area of the lord′s manor, most probably the best, set aside purely for his use but worked by serfs or peasants as part of their dues. |
| Earl | Before the Conquest, an earl was the highest rank of nobility under the King but lost it's position to the new title of Duke, after the Conquest. |
| Hide | An area of land large enough for one peasant family to live on. The area, however, would depend on the type of land and the soil and what could be grown on it or used by the family. Generally considered to be between 40 and 120 acres. |
| Hundred | A judicial, administrative, and financial division within a county, being 100 hides in size and having its own representative body from local villages. The Hundred would vary in size according the sizes of the hides |
| Lordship | The land owned by a lord or an institution such as the Church |
| Manor | An estate or area of land belonging to an earl, lord or institution |
| Meadow | Land put aside for the growing of hay. After the hay had been cut, livestock would be let onto the land to feed off it and to fertilize it for next year. |
| Mill | In Hooe this was a windmill that existed from before Domesday until the year 1899 when it was demolished and a house, named "The Retreat" was built by Miss Hannah Routh for a Miss Elphick, who was a faithful servant to her. |
| Pasturage | Grazing land for animals such as sheep, cattle,and horses. |
| Plough | Domesday was mainly interested in land that produced a surplus, which could be sold to pay for taxes or rent. The best land for this purpose was "Ploughland"; land worked by a team of eight oxen and a plough. |
| Rape | The Sussex equivalent of a Hundred.- Old English variation of the word "Rap" meaning "Rope". There were (and are) six such Rapes in Sussex, each with a castle and a Lord. |
| Salt House | where salt was extracted from the sea water. Salt was a very saleable commodity and could easily be taxed |
| Smallholder | Generally, a peasant holding anywhere between five and twenty acres of land, in a manor. This area of land was often not sufficient to support him and his family so he would have to work for other peasants. |
| Virgate | A quarter of a hide. |
| Woodland | Woodland varied in size and type of trees but anyone could use this for grazing pigs, for firewood, or or for would small patches of land for grazing pigs or used for firewood. Anyone could use the woodland |
Pre-Decimal Coinage
For those not aware of the old, pre-decimal currency used in England, the following may help.
The main coins were:-
The "Pound", the symbol used being "£", which is a stylised capital letter "L" standing for the Latin word "Libra" (the Roman pound weight)
The "Shilling", the symbol a small "s" after the Roman coin, the "Solidus";
The "Penny", the symbol a lower case "d", after the Roman coin, the "Denarius"
The general way of showing a sum of money was, for example, £10 10s 10d.
There were 240 pennies to the pound, 12 pennies to the shilling, and 20 shillings to the pound. In 1971, with decimalisation, the number of pence to the pound was changed to 100 and inflation took off as price rises tended to be, as a minimum, 1p, the equivalent of a 2.4d price rise – and businesses took advantage of the uncertainty of the public, especially the elderly, concerning the difference in the value.
At the moment, we won′t go into "Farthings" and "Groats" – let alone "Barleycorns" - the monetary system was far more interesting and imaginative in those days!
