West Bergholt

The Normans reached the village in 1067, after their conquest of 1066. The village had already been named Bergholta by the Anglo-Saxons, meaning "wood on a hill" (the woodland in reference here is believed to be the modern Hillhouse Wood on the outskirts of the village). The village also already had a church, in the form of a wooden single-celled building on the site of the current "Old Church", although was one of the least populous parishes in Lexden Hundred in the Middle Ages. The combined total of free tenants, unfree tenants, and slaves was 27 in 1066 and probably 32 in 1086. In 1377 only 105 inhabitants paid the poll tax. Until the arrival of the Normans the village was split between…