Earnig/Ernwy, a Dane and priest of Edric the Wild, acquired the manor of Witleaege (Witley) sometime before the Norman Conquest. Ralph de Bernay forcibly removed the estate from Earnig but it did not return to the church on his imprisonment. Little Witley was mentioned in the Domesday Survey of 1086 when Urse d'Abetot, Sheriff of Worcestershire, held one hide (30 acres. He let one plough to Walter Ponther. There was a resident priest, two smallholders and a second plough in the manor. The woodland was three by two furlongs (60 acres). Both before the conquest and in 1086 the taxable value was 10s(15s in another contemporary source).