The Domesday Book shows Rochford to have been a very small village in 1066 and 1086.
It was so small that there wasn’t even a Norman Frenchman here to lord over it. Instead it was run by someone with a Saxon name, Alfred. There weren’t any vines here, either. But there were slaves….
This is the Domesday Book entry for Rochford:
Land of Swein of Essex
Hundred of Rochford
Alfred holds Rochford from Swein, which 1 free man held before 1066 as a manor, for
2?hides.
Always 5 villagers. Then 4 smallholders, now 12; then 2 slaves, now 3. Then 2 ploughs in
lordship, now 3. Then 3 men?s ploughs, now 4.
1 free man holds 30 acres and they also lie in (the lands of) this manor.
Meadow, 2 acres; woodland, 20 pigs; 1 mill. Then 1 cob, 8 pigs and 11 sheep; now 3
cobs, 2 foals, 10 cattle, 21 pigs, 160 sheep and 23 sheep.
Value then 100s; now ?7.