Domesday Book: Totinglei

M. In Totinglei, Tolf had IV bovates of land hidable. Land for one plough. It is waste, pasturable woodland, 1 league in length and half a league in breadth. T.R.E. value X shillings now XII pence.

At the start of the paragraph M. meant a manor. Totinglei is of course Totley. Various theories about the meaning of the name have been put forward. Brian Edwards wrote that it meant a forest clearing belonging to Tota, who was probably the Saxon lord. Others have said it referred to a lookout place on the high bank or mound. Tolf (of Aston) was a King's Thane, originally a knight or military companion, later one of his administrative officials. A bovate was a measure of land, the area that could be ploughed by an ox in a ploughing season, normally taken to mean 15 acres. Hidable meant of sufficient size to be taxable.

Plough meant a ploughing team of eight oxen as well as the plough itself. A hide or carucate was an area of land that could be ploughed by the ploughing team in a ploughing season, equivalent to 8 bovates and 120 acres. There are 640 acres in a square mile these days but in 1086 the size of an acre varied. Waste could refer to land that was unsuitable for agriculture and also to land that had been laid waste by wars; it was not taxed. Pasturable woodland was an area under trees where swine would feed on acorns, beech mast etc. A league was a measure of distance equal to 12 furlongs, or 1½ miles. 

T.R.E. referred to the time of Edward the Confessor, who ruled from 1042 until Harold's short reign in 1066. X shillings meant ten shillings (the equivalent of fifty pence). Now meant 1086. XII pence meant one shilling (the equivalent of five pence).