0 an area of land owned and controlled by someone:
A great many have sold their demesnes and cleared out altogether.
Demesnes are purchasable and home farms are purchasable up to the extent of £20,000.
By the early fourteenth century the lord's demesne was worked by a combination of labour services, wage labour and the manorial famuli.
However, ancient demesne cases also present the historians with a set of problems of interpretation.
They live in immense villas on private parks, called demesnes.
Several landowners would not permit contractors or their workmen to approach their demesnes.
On the other hand, ancient demesne status might have been of some use to the half-virgaters in their dispute with the lord over the nature of customary heriot payments.
The answer must lie beyond the traditional perceptions of what the custom of ancient demesne entailed, and of what the criteria for ancient demesne status were.
