Picture via fromoldbooks.co.uk
It wasn’t called Domesday originally, you know.
It was called The Book of Winchester, though neither Winchester nor London feature in it.
It proved a useful tool for William the Conqueror: he sent his men out the length and breadth of the land to chronicle the state of each settlement as it stood, first in 1066, and then subsequently in 1086. Different scribes had different styles but the overall effect was a snapshot of England at the outset of a millennium. One that we still use today.
So where did the name Domesday come from?
Churchman and bureaucrat for Henry II, Richard of Ely – writing around a century later – says it was named: “for as the sentence of that strict and terrible last account cannot be evaded by any skilful subterfuge, so when this book is appealed to … its sentence cannot be put quashed or set aside with impunity. That is why we have called the book ‘the Book of Judgment’ … because its decisions, like those of the Last Judgment, are unalterable.”*
In other words. William borrowed the gravity of last things. What was written in the Domesday Book was as open to change as God’s final judgement. And it sounds like the locals felt this keenly, because every possession, every aspect of each place seems to have been systematically recorded . How many households, how much ploughland, how many ploughing teams, how many livestock of which kinds, who owns the land.
The original books are still with us. Divided into Great Domesday and Little Domesday – the former is most of England and latter covers Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex – they sit in a great chest, at the National Archives at Kew. They are taken out every hundred years or so and re-bound; first in 1869, and latterly in 1986.
And even today they are incredibly special for people who live here, because like that great wooden chest, they hold secure secrets from our past. Which makes the online version of the Domesday Book even more precious. You can find it here.
Had I been alive then, I would have lived in an area called a Hundred, an administrative division. Mine would have been called Ripplesmere. And many of the names in Ripplesmere are as familiar to me as my own name. But there are some of which I have never heard.
Losfield, for example. It simply faded out of existence, though it had two Lord’s plough teams and two men’s plough teams – ech, if I recall, with eight oxen in it; though it had seven acres of meadow and was under the watchful stewardship of Eudo the Steward.
And now it is gone forever, though the cyberDomesday informs us it can be identified on the ground. Now there’s a project worth following up.
So William’s judgement was not that final, was it?
It is fortunate that what William saw as an event filled with finality of the end times was just the very, very beginning.
Written in response to Side View’s challenge: The End Of The World, which you can find here.
*ed. C. Johnson, Dialogus de Scaccario, the Course of the Exchequer , and Constitutio Domus Regis, the King’s Household, 64. London, 1950.
I really like the video. What a interesting peek into history :-). I thought that I had seen part of the Domesday book at the British Library, but must be mistaken.
I’m thinking this is what you saw, Steven: an ebbrevated version of the Domseday Book, created to make the really important information more readily accessible. You can revisit it here: http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/illmanus/arunmancoll/a/011aru000000153u00042000.html
You amaze me, Kate.
What an interesting link to the on line version. I’ve been browsing for about 20 minutes and have only just remembered to add a comment. Nice post.
I know. Take a look at the names section. I wish I’d had it when I was naming my children. My son might have been called Aelfric Doda, or Tancred of Sutton.
I’m sure that FELIX is delighted that you did NOT have access at the time his moniker was applied. 😆
You’d have been constantly up at school seeing the Head with a name like Tancred. It’s like Bliss or Sunny… 🙂
😀 You are probably right…
Loved this post, Kate, and obviously I had to toddle off and have a look at the Domesday Book site. Fascinating to discover that the county I was born in didn’t exist back then!
It is quite different in so many ways, Tom. I do hanker after the days when England was a thinly populated as this.
Some of my ancestry hailed around Wells and Lincoln. I’m going to enjoy looking at the link and seeing what turns up. 🙂
Whatever its intent, the Domesday Book is such a gift to all of us. We know so little about humanity during the Middle Ages.
It is a treat to read, Andra. Do have a look at the names. Some of them are so funny. (Am I reading them in the right spirit, I wonder?)
The video is priceless, Kate! Too funny.
Here’s my favorite town so far:
http://domesdaymap.co.uk/place/TL1844/biggleswade/
Ah, Biggleswade. Or, in Domesday speak, Pichelesuuade, a ford belonging to a bloke named Biccel.
Five hundred years or so later, Samuel Pepys would stop there to buy a pair of warm woolen stockings. Though he called it Bigglesworth.
Don’t have too many glasses of wine before you attempt to pronounce it 🙂
Just discovered….http://domesdaymap.co.uk/name/104800/beatrix-sister-of-ralph-of-pomeroy-and-william-th/
Oh, my! They must have to make a special tax assessment whenever they need new road signs.
Better William the Goat than William the Ass, eh?
😀 Definitely, Nancy!
how wonderful for a dictator, knowing everything.
he must have been rather narked if anyone died, married or created children to upset his nice records
It does seem like the act of a control freak, doesn’t it, Sidey? Though I’m sure it stopped a lot of quibbling about taxes…
Love this! I just taught about the Domesday Book so this was very apropo.
Ooooh, did you use the online Domesday? Such a colourful subject to teach. And watching how the place has changed since is extremely entertaining.
I did not get into specifics but just touched on the basics while we discussed the Norman conquest.
Grabbed the link – thanks! The last thing I thought the book was named for was the obvious one – that would have been too easy. I thought it was taken from some obscure dialect.
Love the sketch. Wheeljam was a determined chiropodist, was he not?
He was indeed, Col 😀
Such an interesting post.. Had no idea Doomsday was an English thing!!! 😉
Only the book, Lisa 😀
I loved the video, the woman’s gentle – but, deadly firm – manner. I also loved your story. Thank you, Kate.
Pleasure, Judy. That is one of my all-time favourite sketches.
The birth of determined diplomacy, that wench!
I know. You wouldn’t mess with her, would you?
The video is priceless! And I think it’s a wonderful thing when we gain a peek at our past-our histories. I can see why this would delight you. As always, I learned something new also! 🙂
It’s a lovely resource, Debra..
I love learning more about this book. Thanks Kate 🙂
Pleasure, Tandy!