As recorded in Domesday Book, the majority of the land of Bishop's Cannings (Cainingham) belonged to the bishop of Salisbury, after bishop Osmund in 1091 gave ‘the church of Cannings with the tithes and other things pertaining to it, to the cathedral then newly established at Salisbury’ (VCH VII, 189). No church, but a priest is mentioned in Domesday Survey, holding 2 hides of land. Bishop’s Cannings appears there as a large and prosperous manor, assessed at 70 hides, with 6 mills, 30 acres of meadow, a pasture and woodland (VCH II, 121; VCH VII, 195-6).