Hangleton’s peasant community would have been diverse and contained within it its own social gradations.  The most important of these was the division of the peasant population into free and unfree tenants (or freeholders and villeins), the principal distinction being that the former were protected by common law and the latter were not, but were instead subject to the control of the manorial lord, and required to provide labour services in exchange for holding their land.  But whilst unfree status was viewed as inferior, there was no direct correlation between wealth and land tenure: unfree tenants could hold more land and thus be wealthier than their free neighbours.  So there was also a social division within the peasant community based on wealth.  The relative wealth of the Hangleton villagers can be assessed from their tax assessments but it is reflected too in the archaeological evidence.  The two largest buildings excavated at Hangleton – the ‘longhouses’ – rather than being used to house both people and animals were more likely to have belonged to more substantial peasants, one of whom may have been the village reeve.