It is in Domesday Book that we first come across the name of ‘Cocre’ It occurs under the heading ‘Here are entered the Holders of Lands in Summersete’ and in the Exeter Domesday in the statement with regard to ‘the King's Land, which Earl Godwine and his sons held in Sumerseta’. The entry commences with the sentence, ‘The King holds Cocre. Ghida (the countess) held it T.R.E.’ There is no definite evidence of how she or her younger daughter Gunhild, who held the neighbouring vill of Hardington, acquired these lands but no doubt it was from Earl Godwine either by inheritance on his death in 1053 or previously by grant from him when he ruled over Wessex before his disgrace in 1048; in the latter case they would have been among the lands that were returned to them at the time when Godwine was received again into favour just before his death. It is possible indeed that Eadward had given directly to Ghida and to Gunhild but more likely that they had come through Godwine to whom they would have been granted by Eadward. At any rate Coker was one of the Somerset manors which had been forfeited to King William by the house of Godwine, of which Gytha, as she is generally called, had held in Somerset two besides Coker, and Gunhild one besides Hardington. These fifteen forfeited manors are now usually known as the ‘comital manors’ and have certain peculiarities to which reference will be made in due course.