DOMESDAY BOOK 1086

The founding patriarch of the le Strange Estate was Ralph fitz Herluin, (son of Herluin) or Ralph of Hunstanton. In the Domesday Book of 1086, he is recorded as one of four principal landholders at Hunstanton, holding two estates there. He also possessed additional lands elsewhere in Norfolk.

Ralph was a wealthy—almost certainly Norman—knight, with land assessed to value approximately £24 in 1086. This means that he would have had a considerable income along with being a landowner at the time, sufficient to sustain a manor house - albeit made from wood. One of his Hunstanton holdings ranked among the most valuable properties he held in that County.

As no precise dates of his birth or death survive, it remains uncertain how he acquired his Norfolk estates. Whether they came to him by inheritance or as reward for service rendered during the Norman Conquest cannot be fully determined.