The
manor of Coughton is recorded in the
Domesday Book when it was one of 70 manors in
Warwickshire held by
Thorkell, or Turchill, of
Warwick later surnamed
Arden. Thorkell was an
Anglo-Saxon, his father, a descendant of
Vikings, was
Sheriff of Warwick under
Edward the Confessor. Thorkell refused to support
Harold Godwinson, his relatives the earls of Mercia,
Leofric and his successors
Ælfgar and
Morkere, had constantly been at arms against Harold whom
Mercia had never really recognised as King of
England and he therefore received the gratitude of
William the Conqueror, allowing him to retain his lordship and many landholdings in Warwickshire. Under orders from William he constructed a ditch with an entrance gate around the town of Warwick as part of William's campaign in 1068–69 known as the
Harrying of the North. Thorkell was one of only two Anglo-Saxons in the country south of the
River Tees holding an estate of
baronial dimensions directly from the King after the
Conquest. The record reads "Land of Turchill of
Warwick, in Ferncombe
Hundred, William holds 4
hides in (Coctune) Coughton. Land for 6 ploughs. 2 freemen, 7 smallholders and 4 slaves with 3 ploughs. A mill at 32d; in Warwick 1 house which pays 8d; meadow, 10 acres; woodland 6
furlongs long and 4 furlongs wide; pasture land, 50 pigs. The value was 40s; later 20s; now 50s. Untan held it freely." However, soon after 1086
William II created the
earldom of Warwick for Henry de Beaumont, who changed his name to
Henry de Newburgh, appointed him
Constable of
Warwick Castle and gave him the great estate of
Thorkell of
Arden. It is not known why Thorkell was dispossessed, he may have only been granted a lifetime tenure of his lands the estate passing to
the Crown on his death or it may have been that his son died before him and that he left no direct heir. His family, the Ardens however, held land from the
Earls of Warwick for another 200 years. == Governance ==