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  The Normans - hunting scene
  ©TopFoto.co.uk
  Before the Normans arrived in 1066, the business of names was simple. If your father named you Tom then you were Tom. If there was another Tom in the area you might be Tom the tiler or Eric's son Tom. Then Duke William arrived and brought over surnames and within 300 years nearly everyone, in England at least, had one. (That's where we get names like Davidson and Thomson from.)

• As land-owning lords, the Normans dominated politically and economically, building castles to symbolise their strength.  They had a huge influence on the development of both castles and churches in England. There had been large-scale fortified settlements and fortified houses in Anglo-Saxon England, but the castle was a Norman invention. Some were towers on mounds, surrounded by larger enclosures – often referred to as motte and bailey castles. Others were enormous, like the palace-castles William I built in Colchester and in London. These were the largest secular stone buildings in since the Romans, more than 600 years before. They were a celebration of William's victory, but also a sign of his need to intimidate the conquered.

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  Norman Keep and Palace, Wiltshire
  ©TopFoto.co.uk/English Heritage /HIP
  The abundance of castles led to a shift from field to siege warfare. In Saxon times, battles were fought with infantry. The army would line up forming a wall of shields. Two such armies would face each other, throw spears at each other, and hack each other with swords and axes. The Normans fought with cavalry, which was far superior, as shown by the Battle of Hastings. In Norman times, if someone was going to attack you, you’d load up on provisions and seal yourself up in your castle.

• William gave all the high-ranking jobs to Normans, so the main speakers of the French language were the rulers of the land while the common people still spoke English. They did learn some French as everyone around them speaking it, so when they actually put a French word into a sentence it was considered to be classy or well-bred! This is how some French words were introduced to the English language – words to do with government, church, foods and colours, among others.  Some Norman words are parson, parliament, beef, pork, blue, poet, chair and music.
  

• The Normans introduced the bow into the English army. Prior to the Conquest, it was used very little by the Anglo-Saxons and never in masses. The bow that the Normans brought to England was about four feet long. In a short time, the English developed their famous longbow.
  

So was the Norman Conquest a good thing? English historian Edward Freeman (1823-1892) argued that it was a disaster for England, with William invading to deprive the people of their liberty, and to kill the brave and noble Harold.

However, British historian Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) disagreed and stated that without it, England would be “a glutinous race of Jutes and Angles, capable of no grand combinations”.