An Anglo-Saxon multiple estate was a large landholding controlled from a central location with surrounding subsidiary settlements. These estates were present in the early Anglo-Saxon period, but fragmented into smaller units in the late Anglo-Saxon period. Despite some academic criticism, the concept has been widely used and a large number of possible examples have been proposed.

The concept of an Anglo-Saxon multiple estate was developed by Professor Glanville Jones of Leeds University. The idea originally appeared in a paper published in 1961^[1] and was fleshed out in a 1976 book on medieval settlement.^[2] The term "great estate" is sometimes used as an alternative to multiple estate.^[3] These estates typically contained various features:^[4]

• a central caput from which the estate was managed
• a minster church providing parochial support to the whole estate
• surrounding agricultural settlements specialising in particular crops.

The specialised settlements, dependent on the caput, often took their name from the crop they produced – Cheswick (cheese wick), Berwick (barley farm), etc.^[5] The caput has been variously described as a villa regalis, aula, mansio, or maerdref.^[4] Specialisation may have been encouraged by "renders" – taxation in kind – paid to the king.^[6]

These estates may have been based around a royal vill and may have been coterminous with the parochia of an early minster church.^[3]

The origin of some of these estates has been traced back to Roman times or earlier^[7] – for example, H. P. R. Finberg proposed a Roman origin for Withington, Gloucestershire,^[8] while Glanville Jones himself suggested a pre-Roman origin for some estates^[9] These multiple estates were a common feature in the English landscape before the 10th century and were usually owned by the king or an important monastery.^[10] In the late Anglo-Saxon period, many of these large estates fragmented into smaller units which eventually became independent parishes.^[11] The resultant parishes frequently share the same name differentiated by a suffix or prefix.^[12] The fragmentation of these estates resulted in the diminishing importance of their minster churches^[13] which (under the "minster hypothesis") had been the basis of early Christian church organisation.

The concept has been criticised – for example, because the evidence used is often much later than the date of the proposed estate.^[14] Nonetheless, the concept is widely used and a large number of possible examples have been proposed.