Domesday Book

The Domesday Book is actually two volumes: one concerned with East Anglia; the other with the rest of England. It is so called because the evidence it contained could not be disputed; just like the Final Judgment at the Day of Doom. The Anglo-Saxon chronicle records its inception when at Christmas 1085 William had 'important deliberations...about this land (England), how it was peopled and with what sort of men'. Commissioners collected details from every English village of the landowners' taxable wealth and landholdings The details were then sent to Winchester where the final version was compiled.

This article is based on material taken from A Traveller's History of England (© Christopher Daniell), published by The Windrush Press, and is by kind permission of its author Christopher Daniell.

Recommended reading

Domesday
Roffe, David — Hardback £42.50 —