Bellhouse

To constitute a Thane, it was necessary that he should possess a distinct office in the King's Court; or, being a churle or countryman, that he should have “fully five hides of his own land, a church, a kitchen, a bellhouse, and a boroughgate with a seat.”

Such houses were called Schallenwerke, or bellhouses, because while at work the prisoners, always in chains, had bells attached to the iron neck bands they wore.