I. What is Doomsday Book?
The Doomsday 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. William died
before it was fully completed.
A line drawing entitled ‘Doomsday Book’ from Andrew
William’s Historic Byways and Highways of old England
II. Historical Context
- In 1066 William Duke of Normandy defeated the AngloSaxon King, Harold II, at the Battle of Hastings. He become
a king of England.
- The social life of England at this time revolved around the
Manor. This was the basic farming unit.
- The Manor was held by a Lord who might farm it himself, or
more likely let it to tenants.
Death of King Harold II at the Battle of Hastings, 1066. Detail of the Bayeux Tapestry
-In 1085 England was again threatened with invasion, this time
from Denmark. William had to pay for the mercenary army he
hired to defend his kingdom.
- At Christmas 1085 he commissioned a survey to discover the
resources and taxable values of all the boroughs and manors in
England. He wanted to discorver who owned what, how much it
was worth and how much was owed to him as King in tax, rents,
and military service.
- The Doomsday Book also records which manors belonged to
which estates and gives the identities of the King’s tenants-inchief who owed him military service in the form of knights to
fight in his army.
( - Recent research has suggested that William only
commissioned the survey (descriptio) in 1085 and never
intended the results to be written up into a book.)
Seal of William Duke of Normandy as King of England
III.The Great and the Little Doomsday
Though invariably called
Doomsday Book, in the singular,
it in fact consists of two volumes
quite different each other.
Volume I  Great
Doomsday
Volume II  Little
Doomsday
IV. Why is it called Doomsday?
May refer to the Biblical Day
of Judgement, or
 when Christ will return to
judge the living and the dead.
It was called Doomsday by
1180. Before that it was
known as the Winchester Roll
or King’s Roll, and sometimes
as the Book of the Treasury.
The Last Judgement
V. What information is in the book?
- Extensive records of landholders, their tenants, the amount
of land they owned, how many people occupied the land, the
amounts of woodland, meadow, animals, fish and ploughs on
the land and other resources, any building present, and the
whole purpose of the survey - the value of the land and its
assets, before the Norman Conquest, after it, and at the
time of Doomsday.
VI. How was the information collected?
-Commissioners were sent to all parts of the country.
- The commissioners were major land owners and included
Bishops and Knights.
In each shire they had to determine:
-The name of the place, who owned it before 1066, and who owned it after.
- The size of the land held. Usually measured in hides, a hide was an area
considered large enough to support one family. The measurement varied from
60 to 120 acres depending on the agricultural worth of the land.
-The number of villagers, cottagers and slaves, how many freeman?
- How much was woodland, meadowland and pasture.
-The number of mills and fishponds.
- The number of plough teams working on the land, 8 oxen usually equalled one
team.
-What the value of the land was before 1066 and what it was after.
VII. When was the book written?
-The collection of information by the commissioners took place
probably in the first few months of 1086.
- The drafts were possibly finished by the end of the summer of
1086, with work on abbreviating the records into the Great
Doomsday probably starting alongside this.
- By the time of King William’s death in September 1087 work
had stopped, and could have ceased before this time.
VIII. Who wrote the Doomsday Book?
It was handwritten by one unnamed official scribe, and
checked by one other. Despite the speed at which the
Book was compiled the text was carefully written in a
short form of Latin.
IX. Why was it made?
There is still some academic debate about the exact purpose of
Doomsday Book. Some beleive it is a land survey and some such as
John Whiting, tax partner Price Waterhouse Coopers, believes it
could have been the first written tax document.
John Whiting examines Domesday Book
X. What materials were used to make it?
The main volume,
Great Doomsday, is
written on sheep-skin
parchment using
black and red ink
only.
XI. How many places are listed in the Doomsday
Book?
There are 13,418 places listed in the Doomsday Book.
XII. How many pages are there in the Doomsday
Book?
There are 413 pages in Great Doomsday and 475 pages in
little Doomsday (which showes how much detail was cut out to
compile Great Doomsday.
Doomsday Book chest
XIII. How many places listed in the Doomsday
Book still exist?
Amazingly almost all of the places mentioned in the Doomsday
Book can be found on a present day map of England (and Wales.)
11th Century Manor House that was
mentioned in the Doomsday Book.
XIV. Where is Doomsday Book now?
Doomsday Book is kept at
the Public Record Office in
Chancery Lane, London,
where it is on view to the
public. A copy of the
document has been made
and can be seen in a special
exhibition area at the
National Archives.
XV. Why is the Doomsday Book still
important today?
•The Doomsday Book provides an invaluable insight into the
economy and society of 11th century Norman England.
•For historians it can be used, amongst other things, to discover
the wealth of England at the time, information about the feudal
system existent in society, and information about the geography
and demographic situation of the country.
•For local historians it can reveal the history of a local
settlement and its population and surroundings.
•For genealogists it provides a useful and fascinating resource
for tracing family lines.
Pages from Little Domesday for Essex showing the lands of Odo Bishop of Bayeux, the halfbrother of William I.
The correcting scribe wrote the entry for Robert Fitzrolf on the final page for Berkshire between
entries written above and below by the main scribe (‘A’). This shows that the two scribes were
working together at the same time.
Second page from Berkshire beginning in the right hand column with the land of the King, Terra
Regis. Place names are scored through in red.
In this example from Wiltshire the scribe has gone back and added information above and
below the initial numbered list of landowners on the left. Because space ran out he has also had
to use the foot margin to get all his information in.
The stamps were issued in 1986 to mark the 900th anniversary of the
Domsday Book. The designs show the lives of the peasants, freemen,
knights and lords. The designs are in the style of the miniatures that
appear in books of that era.