Domesday Book goes digital

Domesday Book goes digital

Not an ox, nor a cow, nor a swine is there left that is not online

Stephen Moss
Saturday August 5, 2006
The Guardian


I'm a 1086 kind of a guy; 2006 leaves me cold. So the National Archives decision to put the Domesday Book online is something of a mixed blessing. Good to have the info, but how on earth does this bloody internet thing work?
The great snapshot of 11th-century England (and bits of Wales) took just a year to compile; at times I feared accessing the site would take as long.

But with the help of a Guardian technocrat, we cracked it in a couple of hours. Part of the problem is that every page you download has to be paid for by credit card - at £3.50 a pop. The Domesday Book was designed to screw the public - and, nine centuries on, we're still being screwed.

The mighty tome, which made its online debut yesterday, gives details of property holdings in 13,500 places. William I, fearing a Danish invasion, wanted a complete record of who owned what so he could claim his feudal dues.

Considering it was compiled so quickly, it is remarkably detailed. "Not even an ox, nor a cow, nor a swine was there left, that was not set down in [its] writ," says the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle with wonder.

So what do we find? Well, we don't find Newport in south Wales (my birthplace) or Clerkenwell in London (my workplace) because the former didn't exist and the latter was not catalogued for reasons that scholars still can't agree on. Was London too big, too diverse, or so rich that its resources had to be kept secret? Whatever the reason, London and Winchester, then the country's capital, are omitted from Domesday. We do find a reference to Kingston upon Thames (aka Chingestone/Chingestun/Chingestune), which is where I live, and I dutifully parted with £3.50 for what I assume will be a definitive guide to every pig and priory in this significant medieval town. So I'm disappointed when the page details only the holdings of the Church of Chertsey, which includes land in Kingston, alongside large chunks of the rest of Surrey.

"Eadric holds of the abbey itself half a hide which the abbey held for 2 years before the death of King Edward," says the entry. "3 men held it of the king himself previously, but they could not withdraw without the king's prexcept, because they were beadles in Kingston upon Thames. Then, as now, it was assessed at half a hide. There is land for 3 oxen. There are 7 oxen, with one bordar, and 2 acres of meadow. TRE it was worth 7s; now 8s." Domesday was written in what is described as "Latin shorthand", and this is going to take some untangling.

A hide, Adrian Ailes, a Domesday specialist at the National Archives, tells me, is about 120 acres, though as with most measurements c 1086 it wasn't cut and dried. TRE means in the time of King Edward; a bordar is a peasant whose status is somewhere between villan and slave.

I protest that I'd been hoping for a page on the whole of Kingston. "The Domesday Book is arranged by landowner," Ailes explains. "For Kingston you'll need to look at about five pages ... With a bit of digging you can get a comprehensive picture, but it is going to cost you more money."

With Ailes' help, I find the main reference, detailing the holdings of the king, who more or less owned Kingston. "The king holds in demesne Kingston upon Thames. It was [part] of King Edward's farm ... There is land for 32 ploughs. In demesne are 2 ploughs; and 86 villans and 14 bordars with 25 ploughs. There is a church, and 2 slaves, and 5 mills rendering 20s, and 2 fisheries rendering 10s, and a third fishery very good but without rent. There are 40 acres of meadow [and] woodland for 6 pigs. TRE and afterwards, as now, worth 30l."

No nightclubs or burger bars- sounds delightful.

The picture (and the bill) is starting to build. Walter FitzOther, whose interests are detailed in another entry, holds "1 man of the soke of Kingston upon Thames, to whom he has committed the charge of the king's wild mares, but we know not on what terms. This man holds two hides, but he has no right to the land itself ... There is 1 plough in demesne, with 3 slaves, and 1 fishery rendering 125 eels, and 1 acre of meadow."

Another tenner and I should really start to get a feel for late 11th century Kingston. History doesn't come cheap.