Camberwell, 1086

Reading Camberwell history lately; here’s our entry in the Domesday book:

Hamo himself holds Cambrewelle. Northmann held it of King Edward. It was then assessed at 12 hides; now at 6 hides and 1 virgate. There is land for 5 ploughs. In demesne are 2 [ploughs]; and 22 villans and 7 bordars with 6 ploughs. There is a church, and 63 acres of meadow, [and] woodland for 60 pigs. TRE it was worth 12l ; afterwards 6l ; now 14l.

In the register of Bishop Edington at Winchester there’s a commission dated 1346, for “reconciling Camberwell church, which had been polluted by bloodshed”.

A gazette in 1868 said:

As one of the most pleasant suburbs of the metropolis, Camberwell contains many seats of the gentry and residences of wealthy merchants and citizens.

And did you know that Coldharbour (as in, the Lane) appears to be a corruption of the German ‘kalte herberge’, a mediaeval inn? It was literally a ‘cold shelter’, a place for travellers to rest but with no food or fire. Also linked to Colde Abbey, a nearby manor (long gone).

Would make for an interesting psycho-geographical study.