Q/ When did the ancestors of the Hales family enter England?
Were they already in Norfolk when the Normans invaded? Or were they in the service of Roger Bigod, whose descendants they served.
The Bigods allegedly rose to prominence after Robert le Bigot informed Duke William about a plot in his life. Though it is not certain if Robert or his relative (son?) Roger fought at Hastings, Roger helped defeat a Danish invasion in 1069.
The Domesday Book lists Roger Bigod's vast estates in East Anglia: six lordships in Essex, 117 in Suffolk and 187 in Norfolk.
One of those Norfolk holding was the village of Hales. According to the Domesday Book, compiled in 1086, it consisted of:
Taxable units: Taxable value 1.7 geld units. 8.0 villtax.
Value: Value to lord in 1066 £1. Value to lord in 1086 £2.
Households: 9 smallholders. 13 free men.
Ploughland: 2 lord's plough teams. 1 men's plough teams.
Other resources: Meadow 5 acres. Woodland 3 pigs.
Livestock in 1066: 1 cobs. 1 cattle. 14 pigs. 10 sheep.
Livestock in 1086: 2 cobs. 2 cattle. 27 pigs.
Lords in 1066: Alstan; free men, thirteen.
Overlord in 1066: (Earl) Harold.
Lord in 1086: Roger Bigot.
Tenant-in-chief in 1086: Roger Bigot.
Bigod lost his lands in 1088, when supported Duke Robert of Normandy's in an ill fated attempt to seize the throne, but was able to regain them by reconciling with King William II.
It is not known when the ancestors of the Hales family were granted a manor in Hales. I suspect that some of the 2.9% of my DNA labelled "East Anglia" comes from the three centuries this family was in Norfolk.