| Original | Meaning | Examples |
|
| advowson | the right to appoint a priest to an ecclesiastical benefice | |
|
| almshouse | charitable foundations to care for the elderly, poor, infirm and wayfarers | |
|
| assert, assart | land newly cleared for tillage and cultivation | |
|
| berg, borg | hill | |
|
| bloomery | a forge that produced iron bars known as 'blooms' | |
|
| boc | beech | Buxted - derived from boc stede or beech place |
|
| bridle-way, bridle-path | a highway over which the public have rights of way on foot and on horseback | |
|
| brook | a meadow abutting on a stream which is liable to flooding | |
|
| burh | fortified town or dwelling | |
|
| carucate | a plough-land | |
|
| chapel of ease | a chapel provided for the ease of those living at some distance from the parish church | |
|
| chuck | block of wood | |
|
| close rolls | registered copies of private letters and documents of the Royal Court of Chancery such as conveyances and writs | |
|
| copyhold | copyholders held their land by right of a title entered in the manor court rolls, a copy of which was given to them | |
|
| curtilage | the court and outbuildings attached to a dwelling-house | |
|
| demesne | land attached to a mansion | |
|
| den or denn | woodland pasture | Birchden - a woodland pasture amongst birch trees |
|
| estovers | the right to dig turf from the wasteland of a Manor | |
|
| feet of fines | a formal conveyance of land | |
|
| fleche or fletch | arrow | Fletching - where arrows were made |
|
| frankpledge | the responsibility of a small community to ensure that anyone accused of an offence was available to answer the charge at court | |
|
| gill | a narrow, steep-sided valley with a stream running through it | |
|
| glebe | a piece of land serving as part of a clergyman's benefice and providing income | |
|
| ham | settlement | |
|
| hamm | water meadow | Blackham - a black water meadow |
|
| hammer pond | a type of mill pond associated with the production of iron | |
|
| hatch | a fenced enclosure | |
|
| heriot | an obligation upon an heir to return property, donate the best animal or make a payment to the lord of the manor prior to being allowed to enter the inherited land | |
|
| hoath | a clearing on heathland | East Hoathly - the eastern part of a clearing on heathland |
|
| hundred | a tenth century administrative division of a shire or rape | Rotherfield hundred |
|
| hurst or hyrst | wooded hill | |
|
| knight's fee or service | a feudal obligation to provide military service to the Crown for forty days each year | |
|
| manor | a feudal estate and, in essence, the forerunner of local government through its system of Manor Courts recorded in Court Rolls | |
|
| marl | soil consisting of clay and lime, with fertilizing properties | |
|
| marlpit | an open pit, the primary purpose being to obtain marl for improving the soil, and a frequent secondary one being the extraction of the iron ore below the marl | |
|
| mere | pool | Maresfield - derived fom Meresfield - open land and pools |
|
| messuage | a dwelling house with outbuildings and land assigned to its use | |
|
| peculiar | property exempted from the jurisdiction of the diocese in which it lies | |
|
| perry | pear or fruit tree | Perryfield - a field of fruit trees |
|
| rape | an area consisting of several hundreds | The Sussex Rapes were - Chichester, Arundel, Bramber, Lewes, Pevensey and Hastings |
|
| reredos | a decorative stone or wood screen | |
|
| stede | place | Horsted - the horse place |
|
| subsidy rolls | list of tax payers | |
|
| tithe | a tax of one-tenth of the annual produce of land or labour formerly levied to support the clergy and the Church | |
|
| tun | farmstead or manor | |
|
| tye | an enclosed common or large open field | Holtye - an enclosed common by a hollow |
|
| villein | an unfree tenant who held land subject to agricultural service and fines | |
|
| virgate | a yardland, about 30 acres | |
|
| weald | forest or woodland | Andredesweald - the forest of Anderida |
|
