The construction of Norman castles, the motte-and-bailey structures that sprang up across England in the decades after 1066, required labor conscripted from local communities.

The hunting forests that William expanded and enforced with harsh forest laws removed substantial land from agricultural use and from the forest rights that communities had relied on.

In the Humber region specifically, the aftermath of the northern rebellions and the Harrying of the North had left lasting damage to the region’s economy and population.

Domesday Book records many settlements in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire as “waste,” meaning they had been depopulated and were not productive.

This damage was still being felt in 1079, when Conquest Man was buried.