Coley, Domesday, and the Abbey of Reading (1066–1309)

The Norman Conquest reallocated land around Reading but did not erase existing patterns of use. In 1086 Domesday Book described Reading as a borough with around sixty households, divided between the king and the Abbot of Battle, and recorded six mills in the town and its immediate area. Land south and west of the borough, including what later became Coley, formed part of this complex of royal and abbatial holdings supporting mills, markets and local administration.

A decisive change came with the foundation of Reading Abbey by Henry I in 1121. The new Benedictine house was endowed with the town of Reading and extensive surrounding lands, and its abbots became lords of the manor of Reading for the remainder of the Middle Ages. Coley fell within this jurisdiction. The first known appearance of the place-name comes in 1133, in the Reading Abbey cartulary, which records a transaction witnessed by "Ricardus of Colleia" and "Ailwardus of Colleia" – the earliest identifiable individuals associated with Coley in surviving documents.

Through the twelfth and thirteenth centuries Coley was administered as part of the abbey's manor of Reading. The Abbot was lord; local families held parcels of land under long leases or customary tenure, owed suit to the abbey's courts, and contributed labour, rent and produce to its demesne. By the later thirteenth century the Vachell family began to emerge among these layholders. In 1309 John Vachell (1287–1340) purchased land at Coley from Thomas Syward of Reading, marking the first clearly dated lay acquisition that later historians can link to what became the Coley Park estate.

Further Reading

• David Roffe, Domesday: The Inquest and the Book.
• Brian Kemp, Reading Abbey: An Introduction to the History of the Abbey.
• Victoria County History, A History of the County of Berkshire, vols. on Reading and surrounding manors.