Some Norman lords maintained continuity with earlier arrangements, recognizing that the existing agricultural and commercial systems were functioning and worth preserving.

Others disrupted established patterns, displacing people, seizing resources, or imposing new obligations.

The Domesday Book of 1086, commissioned by William the Conqueror to survey the resources of his new kingdom, provides a snapshot of England seven years after the approximate date of Conquest Man’s burial.

The Domesday record for Lincolnshire shows the extent of the transformation: where before the conquest English thegns had held land under complex overlapping arrangements, by 1086 the land was reorganized into Norman baronies with clearer hierarchical structures.

St Peter’s Church, Barton, reflects this period.