The following pages include domesday placenames and landowners, and beneath some are links to websites containing the local history of that place. This is not an indication that towns were unimportant but rather that they were complex, less easy to reduce to common formulae. Woking was a settlement in domesday book, in the hundred of woking and the county of surrey. It had a recorded population of 71 households in 1086, putting. Sussex and the domesday book history learning site. The national archives is the home of domesday book, the oldest surviving public record. Woking means settlement belonging to the followers of wocc or wocca. Woking borough is at a key point in englands inland waterways, where the. 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.
London was a settlement in domesday book, in the hundred of ossulstone, mentioned in the chapters for devon, essex, leicestershire, middlesex, surrey and worcestershire it had a recorded population of 204. The survey was ordered by king william i of normandy and england in 1085, and substantially completed by the time of his death in. English translation of newton entry 1819 copy for clarification, see latin abbreviations. The town gives its name to the battle of hastings, which took place 8 mi km to the northwest at senlac hill in 1066. Little domesday book ldb, which covers norfolk, suffolk and essex. The domesday book was compiled on the orders of william the conquerer to catalogue the ownership and value of land in the newly conquered territories of england. Here is the entry for cottingham use this to make up your own entry. Broadly speaking it extended from guildown in the north to the border with sussex in the south. Domesday book of 1085 badequella bakewell, derbyshire. 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. You can also access the discover domesday exhibition, explaining why domesday. The majority of these still exist in some form today. By the time of the domesday book it was called sudrie and was subdivided into 14 groups of.
Find out how to search for your town or village, and how to access images of domesday along with an english translation, using our research guide. The national archives is the home of domesday book, the oldest surviving. Though wokings earliest written appearance is in the domesday book, it is mentioned as. While spending the christmas of 1085 in gloucester, william had deep speech.
Part of the surrey entry from an early 20th century encyclopedia. For these three counties the full, unabbreviated return sent in to. Tr introduction the first approach to a modern assessment roll or cataster is the well known domesday book. The domesday book is actually not one book but two. In the 11th century, surnames were still in a state of flux and many people still did not have what we would consider a. The information collected during the survey was written up in a fair copy, later known as domesday book, which in fact comprises two volumes. Domesday book extracts makes available over 8,500 fascinating extracts featuring the actual page entry for your town, a translation and glossary. Within 20 years of the norman conquest, england was dominated by a new class of super rich frenchmen gorging on their success. 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. Domesday book the domesday book was a survey designed to record everything that people owned in england. Woking borough council had been planning this scheme, which was. In the book, woking is obliterated soon after the martians arrive on horsell common.
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 domesday book online contents of the domesday book. The world of domesday exhibition depicts life in 11th century england. The first volume great domesday contains the final summarized record of all the counties surveyed except essex, norfolk, and suffolk. Full text of the domesday boroughs internet archive. Darby, domesday england 1977, provides a lucid introduction to the domesday material on boroughs and the problems it poses. The domesday book is one of medieval englands greatest treasures. The above exon domesday entry for sturminster newton is for convenience as follows.
The surrey heath borough council website is full of history and. The subsequent report showed that each woman had, on average, 1. 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. The domesday book is closely linked with william the conquerors attempt to dominate medieval england. It is principally, therefore, a research tool, but it has been published online in the belief that it will also prove useful to anyone who may be interested in. Pase the prosopography of anglosaxon england, a database of the inhabitants of england from the late 6th to the late 11th century, including information from the domesday book. William needed information about the country he had just conquered so he could administer it. To see full names of counties hold your mouse over the name. Ive just discovered the open domesday site, the first free online copy of domesday book. Recreate the survey carried out in 1086 for the domesday book. In the domesday book it appears as wochinges, being held in 1086 by king william the conqueror, walter fitzother, constable of windsor castle, and ansgot and godfrey from osbern fitzosbern, then bishop of exeter. Though wokings earliest written appearance is in the domesday book, it is. It has even been denied that the term borough had any legal or constitutional status in domesday book.
Domesday is now available online, and you can search for your town or village, and download. It corresponds to the central third of the current borough of waverley and some parts of the current borough of guildford. The survey served two purposes it recorded who owned what land and gave it a value. In king edwards time, it was taxed for twentytwo hides. The domesday book entry for tarentfort dartford provides a snapshot view of dartford in 1086. Er het sich druf bezooge, ass d grundbsitzverheltniss, wo im. Another surrey town to appear in the 1086 domesday book is oxted, although. Domesday book great domesday the national archives.
Or the great survey of england of william the conqueror, 1086 1862 9781166036393. John the baptist, founded in the 10th century, was rebuilt in the 19th. In 1941 5000 women were interviewed by british government officials to determine how many bras and corsets they owned. There were 151 places in the county of surrey in domesday book. Surreys largest town and a prominent shopping, office and cultural centre. This amazing document is the record of a survey of land in england, who owned it, who cultivated it, what its tax assessment was and how much it was worth to its owner. Domesday book the critical image kennard, peter on. The delay in assessing his kingdom, was that until 1080, the norman invaders were still subdueing and allocating land to their soldiers, the last of the land allocated was in the early 1080s in northumbria. How surrey towns and villages got their names including guildford. The socalled articles of inquiry do not include questions about boroughs or towns, confirming the testimony of contemporaries and of domesday book itself that the domesday inquest was principally concerned with rural manors and rural society. A page from the domesday book 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. Domesday book and its statistics is a freezeframe snapshot of the process.
Crowthorne wasnt even a speck on the map at that time, but i thought the results for the nearest places might be of interest. 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. Click on a county name on the map to continue, or use the list of links below it. Create a fictional english town name, remember to make it sound anglosaxon with a ton at the end eg. Woking appears in the domesday book of 1086 as wochinges.
Domesday book reveals the rise of a norman abramovich. The domesday book was ordered by william the conqeror to assess the value of his conquered kingdom 20 years after defeating harold at the battle of hastings. 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. 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. How did the domesday book help william keep control of. The record of landownership is far from complete, but it is clear that dartford was a thriving agricultural community in norman times.
The children can survey their classmates with a modern twist. 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. Sussex is extensively reported in the domesday book and many modern day towns and villages can be found in it. But what william the conqueror didnt have in the domesday book was an easy way of searching its reams of data. Godalming was an ancient hundred in the south west of the county of surrey, england. To further extend his grip on england, william i ordered that a. In 1974, woking borough council was formed, replacing the urban district. Sally harvey depicts the domesday book as the written evidence of a potentially insecure conquest successfully transforming itself, by a combination of administrative insight and military might, into a permanent establishment. Though woking s earliest written appearance is in the domesday book, it is mentioned as the site of a monastery in an 8thcentury context, as wochingas. It was the seat of the archbishops of canterbury from the 11th to 19th century and a large medieval market town. Book of judgement provides a unique study of the extraordinary eleventhcentury survey, the domesday book. The existing literature on this remarkable memorial is so extensive, that it has not appeared advisable to quote largely from it. 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 within, english counties.
Historians can use it, amongst other things, to discover the wealth of england at the time, information about the feudal system which existed in society, the social hierarchy from the king down to villagers and slaves, and information. Therefore, the domesday book is a valuable source for historians trying to find out about sussex in the late 11th century after the impact of 1066 and the battle of hastings. The survey was similar to a census by a government of today. Pase domesday forms part of a longterm research initiative which aims in due course to identify all the landholders named in domesday book and to produce a major study of landed society in england in 1066 and 1086.
Domesday book home the domesday book one of the most valuable records of the uks past history. The domesday book provides an invaluable insight into the society and economy of 11th century norman england. Woking looks remarkably different from when the saxon tribal leader was in. Domesday book encompasses two independent works in, originally, two physical volumes. 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. It had a recorded population of 71 households in 1086, putting it in the largest 20% of settlements recorded in domesday, and is listed under 2 owners in domesday book. Surnames mentioned in the domesday book british surnames. It was a thriving community when recorded in the domesday survey of 1086. The first draft was completed in august 1086 and contained records for,418 settlements in the english counties south of the rivers ribble and. Learn more about out why and how domesday was created, and how to interpret it, in discover domesday. Domesday book interpreting domesday the national archives. Along with a string of castles throughout england, the domesday book was to give william huge authority in england. The domesday book was commissioned in december 1085 by william the conqueror, who invaded england in 1066.
622 1077 1324 333 713 1248 508 1304 1118 1499 563 85 535 531 1416 158 55 1430 1342 981 1491 840 1530 708 235 727 1491 269 1454 1096 1083 586 458 1070 568