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- A Norman baron called Ansculf de Picquigny (Ausculph de Penchengi) was granted many manors in the county of Warwickshire, and elsewhere, at the time of the Norman Conquest. They were centred upon Dudley Castle. Ansculf was observed by Sir William Dugdale (who mistakenly confused him with his son William) to have been a great man in the time of the conquest as evidenced by the extent of the lands granted to him, i.e., ten lordships in Berkshire, one in Middlesex, one in Oxfordshire, one in Huntingdonshire, one in Cambridgeshire, seven in Surrey, four in Northamptonshire, seven in Warwickshire, twenty in Buckinghamshire, twenty-five in Staffordshire and fourteen in Worcestershire. By the time of the Domesday Book in 1086 Ansculf's lands had passed onto his son, William Fitz Ansculf (or Ausculph). Ansculf de Picquigny (c1014–c1084) was a French baron who followed William the Conqueror to England. He was born the son of Guermond de Picquigny of Picquigny, a village near Amiens in Picardy and with his brother Gilo, crossed to England with Duke William of Normandy. Their names are inscribed on the Battle Abbey Roll. Ansculf must have played a significant role in the invasion as he was awarded some 80 manors covering 11 counties (Worcestershire, Warwickshire, Staffordshire, Northampton, Rutland, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Oxfordshire, Middlesex and Surrey) and made sheriff of Surrey and Buckinghamshire (1066–c1084). After Earl Edwin's abortive revolt in 1070 he was given some of Edwin's lands in the west Midlands, including Dudley. It was there that he built a Norman style motte and bailey castle, which formed a part of a defensive chain protecting the Midlands from the Welsh, and the centrepiece of his barony of Dudley. He died before 1086 and was succeeded by his son William Fitz Ansculf. The Pinckney family are their present day descendants.
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