The manor was held by King Harold before the Conquest, and by the Conqueror in 1086, both as part of the royal demesne. It was assessed at 15 hides in Harold's time. The population numbered 50 recorded people, equivalent to a total of over 200 in 1086. There was a church, a mill, 2 fisheries and a church. Henry I granted the tenancy to Robert Achard, and it passed to his son and grandson (both Williams) and remained in the same line throughout the middle ages and beyond. The manor was sold in 1893 to the distinguished antiquarian, C. E. Keyser, well known for his discovery of stone from Reading Abbey at Borough Marsh.
William Achard, grandson of Robert, granted the church to Sherbourne Priory in Hampshire, and as this was a cell of St Vigor de Cerisy it was taken into royal hands during the Hundred Years War.