Bakewells entry in the domesday book the domesday book is a great land survey from 1086, commissioned by william the conqueror to assess the extent of the land and resources being owned in england at the time, and the extent of the taxes he could raise. Domesday book the domesday book was a survey designed to record everything that people owned in england. Generally around 120 acres, though the area varied depending on the quality of the land. The record was compiled in 10861087, a mere twenty years after the norman conquest, at the order of william the conqueror. These pages give an overview of the domesday inquest, great domesday, and the purpose, structure, and terminology of domesday book, with references for further study. The information collected was recorded by hand in two huge books, in the space of around a year. Create a fictional english town name, remember to make it sound anglosaxon with a ton at the end eg. At over 900 years old, domesday is the earliest surviving public record and the foundation document of the national archives. Sep 24, 2004 domesday book is one of the most famous documents in english historyand arguably in world history. The domesday book records that mimmine had land for ploughs. Along with a string of castles throughout england, the domesday book was to give william huge authority in england. Conceived by william i, but probably to some extent based on preconquest administrative records, it was the most comprehensive assessment of property and land ever undertaken in medieval europe. Domesday book definition is a record of a survey of english lands and landholdings made by order of william the conqueror about 1086.
The domesday book online frequently asked questions. Domesday book facts, summary, composition, creation. A ploughland terra carucis or carucata was the area that could be ploughed by eight oxen in a year. Under the feudal system all manors had to provide taxes and soldiers to the king. Domesday survey definition of domesday survey by the. Domesday book is one of the most famous documents in english historyand arguably in world history. The term is given greater precision in the phillimore edition, where each entry is assigned a unique reference. Aug 14, 2010 every entry in domesday book supplies that information.
The mimmine domesday book entry continues with more detail, recording that. N ewbury was recorded in the domesday book as a town with 22 households in 1086. The national archives is the home of domesday book, the oldest surviving public record. Domesday book definition of domesday book by merriamwebster. Domesday book is the name which, at least since the 12th century, has been borne by the record of the great survey of england made by order of william the conqueror. Domesday explorer the text has been tagged with over 500,000 codes, and a powerful search engine lets you easily find entries of interest, map them, display the facsimile and the. All entry numbers cited in this edition are those defined by the phillimore translation. Coting e ham is listed in the domesday book, a survey commissioned by william the conquerer in 1085, following his invasion of britain in 1066. The domesday book was commissioned in december 1085 by william the conqueror, who invaded england.
There are fiftythree entries, including the first entry for the king himself followed. Detail from domesday book, list forming part of the first page of kings holdings. Domesday book 1086 the middle ages encompass one of the most exciting periods in english history. Over 8,500 domesday book settlements are available to choose from giving a unique insight into our distanta past. Here is the entry for cottingham use this to make up your own entry. Chichester, 19741992 the english translations for the great domesday counties, together with images of the latin text, are available in searchable form on cd, known as domesday explorer, published by phillimore and co. Domesday book of 1085 badequella bakewell, derbyshire. To see full names of counties hold your mouse over the name. The first one was called stanmere, was owned by robert count of mortain who was william the conqerors half brother and landowner. It has been cited as an example of digital obsolescence on account of the physical medium used for data storage. Remember that domesday book is actually a 12th century name for william the conquerors survey, not what it. The results were compiled into two books which are called the domesday book.
Since then his thesis has been refined in various ways, but there has been no serious challenge to his central propositions. The domesday book, our earliest public record, is a unique survey of the value and ownership of lands and resources in late 11th century england. Mar 05, 2015 the domesday book is one of medieval englands greatest treasures. Since the domesday book isnt just about houses, this makes sense. There are actually two separate domesday books, the little domesday and the great domesday book. It was ordered by william the conqueror the winner of the recent battle of hastings so that william could determine how much money in taxes he could raise and to give william a better sense of the territory he had just conquered. In 1086 william made a land register of his territory to know how much money. Domesday book interpreting domesday the national archives. Apparently the decree for the survey was issued at a moot held at gloucester at the midwinter of 108586, and the work was completed in the course of the following year. Oct 17, 2016 domesday book is the name which, at least since the 12th century, has been borne by the record of the great survey of england made by order of william the conqueror. The investigation was carried out by order of william the conqueror. The domesday book early englands most important document. The domesday book is actually not one book but two.
He could collect in terms of taxes and the results of this survey were. To find an entry within it consult the phillimore volume for the relevant county or the composite indexes of persons, subjects and places or the place index in domesday book. Now available in one volume, here is the complete, authoritative translation from the original latin, together with an index of places and a glossary of terms used. The domesday book provides extensive records of landholders, their tenants, the amount of land they owned, how many people occupied the land villagers, smallholders, free men, slaves, etc. It is now forty years since galbraith published the making of domesday book. The abbreviations in the original latin above have been spelt out in. Every entry in domesday book supplies that information. The first volume great domesday contains the final summarized record of all the counties surveyed except essex, norfolk, and suffolk. Domesday survey synonyms, domesday survey pronunciation, domesday survey translation, english dictionary definition of domesday survey. Great domesday and little domesday, which was ironically the longer version. As noted above, individual people and places frequently appear in more than one domesday entry. The stanmore domesday entry for great stanmore and little.
This was because stanmore was in fact made up of two manors. The name means eastern borough or defence and the village was probably named in relation to the major preconquest estate centre of sandbach. Judging from the size of its parish, astbury would appear to have been an important preconquest estate centre. The land was vexed with much violence arising from the collection of royal taxes during the process. One of the main aims of the investigation was to quantify the assets of each individual and the taxes on these assets imposed during the reign of edward the. Click on a county name on the map to continue, or use the list of links below it. Stanmore was lucky enough to get not one, but two mentions in the domesday book. Earl roger of shrewsbury bishop g eoffrey of coutances. For these three counties the full, unabbreviated return sent in to winchester by the commissioners is preserved in the second volume little domesday, which. While spending the christmas time of 1085 in gloucester, william had deep speech with his counsellors and sent men all over england to each shire to find. There are some 418 towns and villages recorded in the domesday book, covering 40 of the old counties of england. As there are lots of different entries on each folio, your search.
Bexley was a settlement in domesday book, in the hundred of helmestrei and the county of kent. Mar 30, 2008 domesday book was a major survey of almost the whole of england it did not include london, winchester and a few other places completed in just a few months in 1086 by order of king william i. The first draft of the domesday book was completed in 1086, twenty years after the defeat of the anglosaxons by the normans. Entry for the royal manor of earley herlei, near reading in berskhire. By studying individual entries it is possible to discover that upmarket hampstead in london had woodland containing.
Domesday book, the original record or summary of william is survey of england. The domesday book compiled in 10856 is one of the few historical. It had a recorded population of 56 households in 1086, putting it in the largest 20% of settlements recorded in domesday. Entry is the term generally used by historians to refer to separate a domesday holding. The page extracts consist of a high quality extract of the settlements entry in the book, a 6 page glossary and a translation into modern english. Little domesday covering norfolk, suffolk, and essex, and great domesday covering much of the remainder of england except for lands in the north that later became westmorland, cumberland, northumberland, and the county palatine of durham and parts of wales bordering, and included within. Also known as the carucate or carrucate, the term plough was a medieval unit of land area approximating the land a plough team of eight oxen could till in a single annual season. Both merton meretone and piddington petintone are mentioned in the domesday book as lands in oxfordshire that were held by the countess judith see translated entry below. Remember that domesday book is actually a 12th century name for william the conquerors survey, not what it was originally called. The abbreviations in the original latin above have been spelt out in full below, but not the roman numerals. Domesday book is a manuscript that collects the results of a large census carried out in england and in wales in 1086. Apr 14, 2015 domesday book gloucestershire entry for lasborough the main unit of measurement used in the domesday book as a whole was the hide. Domesday book is the name given to the record of the great survey of england made by order of william the conqueror in 108586. Domesday book encompasses two independent works in, originally, two physical volumes.
Arable land was recorded in different units, including. The written record of a census and survey of english landowners and their property made by order of william the conqueror in. The saxon hide was a theoretical unit of land required to support a family farmstead, but by the late saxon period, it had become a unit of taxation and hence was a fiscal unit rather than signifying a specific area. It is also the starting point for most local historians researching the history of their area. Its purpose was to maximize the revenues from the land tax and it caused resentment and even riots. The bbc domesday project was a partnership between acorn computers, philips, logica and the bbc with some funding from the european commissions esprit programme to mark the 900th anniversary of the original domesday book, an 11thcentury census of england. The majority of these still exist in some form today. This is an entry for dunwich, suffolk, in the domesday book. By contemporaries the whole operation was known as the description of england, but the popular name domesdayi. The domesday book was commissioned in december 1085 by william the conqueror, who invaded england in 1066. It was rebound in 1984 almost 900 years after its completion into five separate volumes, with the hope that this will improve its. The domesday book is one of medieval englands greatest treasures.
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