At over 900 years old, domesday is the earliest surviving public record and the foundation document of the national. It records who held the land and how it was used, and also includes information on how this had changed since the norman conquest in. Domesday book books and articles for which domesday book is the major source or the major concern have been grouped under eleven major headings. The liber exoniensis, or exeter domesday, is usually abbreviated as exon. Of the principle six towns of the city only burslem and fenton are in existence at the time. Essay by david roffe arguing that the production of domesday book was a different enterprise from the domesday inquest. Sussex the following pages include domesday placenames and landowners, and beneath some are links to websites containing the local history of that place. William needed information about the country he had just conquered so he could administer it. In king edwards time, it was taxed for twentytwo hides. Bibliography of domesday book 1986, which can be supplemented by. Domesday book dartmoor manor holiday let plans recommended. It took two years to collect all the information for this survey. Known as the domesday book, this survey contained all the details of the names of places, the number of people, goods, and animals, and the use and the owners of the land. In 1086 the domesday book had this entry for compton.
Exeter domesday section of the work can have been constructed has long been a mystery. The domesday survey of southwest england is an edition, translation, facsimile, description and resource for the study of exeter cathedral library ms 3500 exon domesday, the earliest extant manuscript of the conquerors survey. Issue v page 4 the adding up these costs, we get 266gpyear as minimum subsistence wages. The domesday book was commissioned in december 1085 by william the conqueror, who invaded england in 1066.
Domesday book encompasses two independent works in, originally, two physical volumes. The domesday book is actually not one book but two. William the bastard ordered that the domesday book should be complied at his christmas court in 1085. William needed to raise taxes to pay for his army and so a survey was set in motion to assess the wealth and and assets of his subjects throughout the land. The following is a timeline of the history of the city of plymouth, devon, england. When you read through the records contained in the domesday book, you run across a great many terms which may be confusing, such as bordars, geld, hundreds, and so on. Feb 03, 2020 canonteign manor in christow is mentioned in the domesday book and became a home for king charles i and his troops when the war broke out in 1642.
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. It records the number of households, the economic resources, who owned the land, and the tax paid to the king, for almost every settlement in england. 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. Jims recent exploits have turned up material that goes right to heart of the origin of the name. This project website includes a complete digital facsimile and codicological and palaeographical. There are some 418 towns and villages recorded in the domesday book, covering 40 of the old counties of england. 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.
On this page are an extracts of the 1087 domesday book as far as they are relevant to the stokeontrent area of north staffordshire. Bbc domesday book william the conqueror uk gov domesday anglosaxon chronicle ks3 glossary. 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. The domesday book was compiled somewhere between 1085 and 1086 ad on the command of king william i of england, and is the result of a painstaking economic and social survey that was undertaken at that time. You can help by expanding it with reliably sourced entries. Aug 14, 2010 every entry in domesday book supplies that information. Hotel and spa a plymouth sanctuary hotel guest, hotel spa, doomsday. Resources for scholars, students and anyone interested in domesday book.
Virtually every estate in domesday book was assessed for taxes and other public obligations. Click on a county name on the map to continue, or use the list of links below it. The first draft was completed in august 1086 and contained records for,418 settlements in the english counties south of the rivers ribble and. Introduction to the somerset domesday british history online. For the handwritings of a number of clerks appear and disappear at irregular and apparently illogical intervals. Devonshire index ag the following pages include domesday placenames and landowners, and beneath some are links to websites containing the local history of that place. The domesday book online contents of the domesday book. Domesday book is the name given to the record of the great survey of england made by order of william the conqueror in 108586. The existing literature on this remarkable memorial is so extensive, that it has not appeared advisable to quote largely from it. 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. The modern local government district of craven a much smaller area entirely within north yorkshire was defined in 1974. Domesday book facts, summary, composition, creation. Domesday doomsday, judgment day received its name in the 12th century, for it was regarded as the ultimate authority, the last word on matters of property.
A brief guide to using the domesday book and associated documents to research. The survey was ordered by william the conqueror at christmas 1085 and undertaken the following year. 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. It lies at the head of plymouth sound, stretching westward from the river plym towards the mouth of the tamar, from which it is separated by the township of east stonehouse and the borough of devonport, the two later. Er het sich druf bezooge, ass d grundbsitzverheltniss, wo im. The tenants of the bishop of winchester hold the bishops pleas at taunton.
The first draft was completed in august 1086 and contained records for,418 settlements in the english counties south of the rivers ribble and tees the border with scotland at the time. 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. It is our earliest public record, the foundation document of the. Domesday book the domesday book was a survey designed to record everything that people owned in england. The liber exoniensis or exon domesday is a composite land and tax register associated with the domesday survey of 1086, covering much of southwest england. Plymouth 1911 encyclopedia britannica bible encyclopedia. While spending the christmas of 1085 in gloucester, william had deep speech. Assuming fifty working weeks in a year and six working days a week 300 workdays a year, our erstwhile laborer must earn just under 9sp per. Domesday book extracts makes available over 8,500 fascinating extracts featuring the actual page entry for your town, a translation and glossary. The domesday book of 1086 lists in the following order the tenantsinchief in devonshire of king william the conqueror. Principal holders of devonshire manors in the domesday.
This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. Uploaded by the open domesday project, released under ccbysa by professor john palmer and george slater. The listing is certainly wideranging, but it has only a little in common with the original domesday book, which was ordered by william i in 1085 to assess the wealth of england for possible taxation purposes. If you have a local history site that you would like to be included on these pages please get in touch via the contact page. The world of domesday exhibition depicts life in 11th century england. The above exon domesday entry for sturminster newton is for convenience as follows. The placenames found in the domesday book are township and estate names, and may include other villages and hamlets that receive no specific mention in the text. Domesday book, our oldest and most famous public record, describes the condition of england south of the river tees in 1066 and 1086.
Domesday is now available online, and you can search for your town or village, and download images of domesday along with an english translation of the entry. Create a fictional english town name, remember to make it sound anglosaxon with a ton at the end eg. The domesday story english legal history bbc domesday book buy domesday cdrom. The terminology of taxation therefore overlaps with that for land measurement and is often ambiguous. English translation of newton entry 1819 copy for clarification, see latin abbreviations. There were places in the county of devon in domesday book. Hertford was a settlement in domesday book, in the hundred of hertford, mentioned in the chapters for hertfordshire and essex it had a recorded population of 46.
Ordered to investigate how the country was occupied, and with what sort of people. Included in the description of caverswall is a mention of a church at stoke but no. 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. Domesday book is the oldest government record held in the national archives. Plymouth, a municipal county 1888, extended 1896 and parliamentary borough and seaport of devonshire, england, 231 m. The record was compiled in 10861087, a mere twenty years after the norman conquest, at the order of william the conqueror. In devonshire at this period there were 980 vills containing about 9000 hamlets or farms. The domesday book compiled in 10856 is one of the few historical records whose name is familiar to most people in this country. You can also access the discover domesday exhibition, explaining why domesday. There are 53 entries, including the first entry for the king himself. Most such taxes and obligations were land taxes, the hide, for instance, being both an estimate of area 120 acres and the tax due from that area. In fact there are two domesday books little domesday and great domesday, which together contain a great deal of information about england in the 11th century. Yelverton was a settlement in domesday book, in the hundred of henstead and the county of norfolk it had a recorded population of 27.
Domesday book great domesday the national archives. A complete translation domesday book is one of the most famous documents in english history. Domesday is a most remarkable and valuable record, created in 10851086 by order of william the conqueror, so that he might fully know and understand the nation he. 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. The land was vexed with much violence arising from the collection of royal taxes during the process. Bracken, the obsolete plymouth manors of sutton pyll. It can be incorporated in to a lesson on the domesday book as an opportunity for pupils to see how it may have worked in practice. It contains a variety of administrative materials concerning the counties of cornwall, devon, dorset, somerset and wiltshire. A walk south along the beach brings you to the entrance of the harbour the. The first volume great domesday contains the final summarized record of all the counties surveyed except essex, norfolk, and suffolk. The investigation was carried out by order of william the conqueror.
The entry relating to the ownership of land in the parish of aston cantlow and the surrounding area is shown below. Camp, my ancestors came with the conqueror london, 1990 this booklet not primarily concerned with domesday book examines evidence about the few men known to have fought on the norman side at hastings, and gives an index to several versions of the spurious battle. Tr introduction the first approach to a modern assessment roll or cataster is the well known domesday book. For these three counties the full, unabbreviated return sent in to winchester by the commissioners is preserved in the second volume little domesday, which. The domesday book offers great insight into life at the time of the norman conquest. Principal holders of devonshire manors in the domesday book. 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. This map shows every place in domesday that can still be located today.
How much was the whole worth in 1066, and how much now 1086 note that not every piece of information is recorded for every entry in domesday. Detail from domesday book, list forming part of first page of kings holdings. 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. The detailed picture of the english landscape it offers has no equal in any country, while it is valuable not only in the picture it allows local historians to construct of their area in the eleventh century but also as the foundation document of the national archives. Domesday book was compiled in ad 1086 for william the conqueror. Domesday book also known as domesday, or book of winchester was the record of the great survey of england completed in 1086, executed for william the conqueror. The record of landownership is far from complete, but it is clear that dartford was a thriving agricultural community in norman times.
The domesday book entry for tarentfort dartford provides a snapshot view of dartford in 1086. Here is the entry for cottingham use this to make up your own entry. The project explores how and why the domesday survey was made. Links and bibliography for domesday book for source material on the internet, click here works useful to the genealogist. Dartmoor manor house that dates back to domesday book could. Eggbuckland was a settlement in domesday book, in the hundred of roborough and the county of devon. The majority of these still exist in some form today. Electronic edition of domesday book uk data service provider. The survey was similar to a census by a government of today. After the norman invasion and conquest of england in 1066, the domesday book was commissioned in december 1085 by order of william the conqueror. The domesday book is the record of the great survey of much of england, and parts of wales, completed in 1086, done for william i of england, or william the conqueror the domesday book also known as domesday, or book of winchester was a record of all taxable land in england, together with such information as would indicate its worth as the scribes went round england, they were protected. Detail from domesday book, list forming part of the first page of kings holdings. Domesday book, the original record or summary of william is survey of england. Usage of craven in the domesday book is, therefore, circumstantial evidence of an extinct, british or anglosaxon kingdom or subnational entity such as a shire or earldom.
The anglosaxon chronicle, e version, 1087, tells us he william i ruled over england, and by his cunning it was so investigated that there was not one hide of land in england that he did not know who owned it, and what it was worth, and. Could be followed by a brief q and a on the experiences of the roleplaya small worksheet to discuss the different conversations and meetings had during the roleplay. Beetor belstone benton bere ferrers berrynarbor berry pomeroy bickford bickham bickleigh nr plymouth bickleigh nr silverton bickleton bicton. In 1085, king william i of england ordered a complete survey of all the land and property in the country.
There are fiftythree entries, including the first entry for the king himself followed. Domesday book is a manuscript that collects the results of a large census carried out in england and in wales in 1086. It is a domesday satellite text for most of circuit 2 the five southwestern counties and the only one of the six circuit returns of great domesday to have survived. Volume one, known as great or exchequer domesday, is an abbreviated version of the returns from 32 counties. The principal land owners in devonshire and their holdings as recorded in the domesday book. The following pages include domesday placenames and landowners, and beneath some are links to websites containing the local history of that place. The national archives is the home of domesday book, the oldest surviving public record. What is known as domesday book is in fact a composite work in two volumes.