” …archaeological remains across the eastern half of the site … define a truncated late Saxon and early medieval settlement phase with evidence of pits, postholes and ditches”

Architectural Solutions

So, it would appear that at around the same time that King Alfred was upsetting his host and burning the cakes, but around two hundred years before William got around to creating the Domesday Book, our ancestors were taking the first steps to creating the beginnings of a settlement that we know today as Knapton…

We take a look at the archaeological Survey that was commissioned by the developers before they put a spade in the ground.
The results finally gave reliable credence to both the idea that Knapton has been around longer than many villages around us, and the theories as to how it got its name.

quick link | Our Saxon Heritage

Whilst we don’t yet know the precise date of when the Saxon settlers first decided to build their home here, we do know that people have lived here for at least 1000 years because Kanapatone is mentioned in William the Conqueror’s Domesday Book of 1086, where it had an annual value to the lord of Sixty Shillings(£3).

Below we have shown a copy of the original manuscript and a translation.

Our parish has a long history and was certainly well established by the time of the Norman Conquest in 1066, when Kanapatone was valued at 20 shillings, which was increased to 60 shillings in the seminal Domesday Book of 1086, perhaps due in part to the greater accuracy and thoroughness of that survey.

How much would 60s be worth today?

According to the National Archive’s Currency Converter, this could be equivalent to around £2,200 today.

What would it have bought then?

It’s not an exact science and there are lots of ifs and maybes, but back then, it would have bought, maybe, one of the following…

• three horses
• eight cows
• 23 stones of wool
• 18 quarters of wheat
• 300 days wages, for a skilled workman

The name of the Parish has long been the subject of many theories, but it is generally believed that it is of Anglo-Saxon origin and probably dates from the period of the Dane’s invasion, when they opted to settle in Norfolk, rather than just being regular visitors.

Walter Rye put forward a theory that several Norfolk village names reflected names in Scandinavia and in his History of Norfolk, published in 1885, he connected Knapton with Knappen in Eastern Denmark.

Scholars suggest it derives from two pre 7th Century Old English words, cnapa which meant boy or servant, and tun, which meant farm, enclosure or settlement. It’s possible that cnapa may also have been used as a personal name, so it’s likely that our village name originally meant Cnapa’s settlement or farm.

The parish has a long history and was certainly well established by the time of the Norman Conquest, when Knapatone was valued at 20 shillings, which was increased to 60 shillings in the seminal Domesday Book of 1086, perhaps due in part to the greater accuracy and thoroughness of that survey.

In his Portrait of Norfolk, David Yaxley notes that the village boundary with Paston…

… has hedges that date only from the 15^th or 16^th centuries, although the boundary itself goes back to before the Conquest

We think they meant residents…
And we had our own Policeman, called Aldis.

Dire Straits indeed as the parish population has dropped to 346 but the area has grown to 1,490 acres, with a rateable value £2,680.

We’ve lost our Policeman, but gained a Station Master, a School Mistress, a Grocer, a blacksmith and a cattle dealer…

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