European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 14, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                The domesday Book description of England celebrates 900th birthday v. By i. Kin Cruger . Bureau few people have not heard of the f is Day Book for along Wilh the Bible and the Koran it is one of the three most famous books Ever written. However few who have heard of the Book know what it contains. The domesday Book was commissioned at christmastime at Gloucester England in the year 1085 by William the conqueror less than 20 years after he led the Norman invasion. It was completed within the year a remarkable feat by any Standard. By contemporaries the whole operation was known As the description of  in reality it was More Akin to a great inquisition that surveyed the lands of England their extent value ownership and liabilities. The Survey in the scope of its detail and the Speed of its execution was perhaps the most remarkable administrative accomplishment of the Middle Ages. The Book provides a Complete inventory of England during that time and As such forms one of the most important historical social and Legal documents Ever produced. There is no comparable record of a Complete country landowner by landowner Manor by Manor and it draws scholars and historians from All Over the world to the Public record office in London where the original manuscript is kept. Next year will Mark the 900th anniversary of the completion of the Book and major festivals and exhibitions will be taking place in England starting this fall and running throughout next year to Mark the occasion. The Survey was no doubt made for a variety of reasons but the form of domesday proves that the Basic purpose was to ascertain the extent and value of the King s As Well As his chief tenants lands. For the King i officials it was an invaluable record and for the newer Norman landowners it filled the place of title deeds. For the majority of English villages but not unfortunately London and Winchester for which no records survive domesday is the starting Point of their history. There Are More than 12,500 entries in the domesday gazetteer and it is a remarkable tribute to English continuity that almost All the domesday settlements still exist in some form or another. Many churches and Mills stand on or near their 1086 Sites. Domesday is a Middle English spelling of doomsday and he name appears to have derived directly from the Day of the last judgment the Book being the record by which All men would be judged. Scholars say that the name was in general use by the mid-12th Century and that it originated As a popular appellation Given to the Book As being a final and conclusive authority on All matters to which it had to be referred. Domesday was written in 11th-Century clerical latin so stylized and abbreviated that it is beyond the scope of a graduate in latin without special training. English translations did not appear until the last Century and the definitive full translation was finished Only a few years ago. Now a lavishly illustrated Book has just been published the domesday Book England s heritage then and now Century Hutchinson in association with the English tourist boar that gives today s Reader the Opportunity to rediscover domesday England. County by county the Book brings England of the 11th Century to life in fascinating detail. The Book begins with a general introduction to domesday England and explains How the original was compiled. The introduction is followed by 37 county sections. Each has an introduction showing what the county was like in 1086 and then focuses on a selection of places chosen for their special geographical historical or social interest. These main entries contain All sorts of information from domesday and highlight each settlement s history through the centuries to the present Day looking at their development decline famous people houses and Battles. Domesday rovers All the counties of England except Northumberland Durham Westmorland Cumberland and Northern Lancashire. Though invariably called the domesday Book in the singular it actually consists of two volumes that Are quite different from each other. Volume i great domesday contains the final summarized record of All the counties surveyed except Norfolk Suffolk and Essex. For these three counties the full a abbreviated returns sent in by the commissioners Are preserved in volume ii Little domesday which for some reason was never summarized and added to the larger volume. Domesday gives under each county heading a Roll of the holders of land from the King to the humblest tenant in chief. Their fiefs arc described consecutively and consist of Long lists of Manors with the names of their holders in 1066 and 1086, their dimensions and blowing capacity the number of agricultural workers of various sorts their Mills fish Ponds and other amenities and finally their value in pounds. The Book is not a census. It records the head of households but not necessarily the families they supported although slaves arc probably recorded As individuals rather than As Heads of families. Conversely at least 5 percent of the total population such As retainers in castles nuns and monks is missing. To attempt any calculation of the total population of England in 1086, therefore some multiplier must be used. A leading scholar has suggested that a multiplier of four would produce a total figure of around 1,250,000. Other historians believe that 2 million would be More accurate. Surprisingly All of these figures however show a marked Deil Ilse from the population estimates of roman times. The most densely populated areas Wilh More than 10 people to the Square mile were parts of cast Anglia where the majority of . Air  Are located Lincolnshire and East Kent. We learn from the just published Book that in 1086, 80 percent of the area cultivated in 1914 was already under the plough. About 35 percent of the domesday land was arable 25 percent was pasture and Meadow 15 percent was Woodland and the remaining area was occupied by settlements by marginal land such As Heath Moor an Fen. And by divas cd land. One of the curious pleasures of Little domesday is its meticulous count of livestock. Sheep were of great economic importance. Bees extremely important As the producers of Honey and Wax were frequently mentioned As at Methwold not far from Raf Feltwell where there were 27 hives. In some areas the total number of animals is Given in others Only the proportion due to the Manor which was one pig in seven. In Suffolk it records 4,343 goats but Only two lonely donkeys. The ancient Cambridgeshire Village of Isleham near Raf Mildenhall had to Fork Over 1,550 eels annually. In Mildenhall itself domesday records an unusual number of fisheries showing that it was then a coastal settlement. It stood on the shores of the Fenland the shallow sea that covered much of Cambridgeshire and flooded the Northwest Corner of Suffolk. Unfortunately an unneeded bit of political Bias has somehow crept into Century Hutchinson s otherwise Fine Book about the domesday Tome As in its description of modern Day Mildenhall. With the Onset of the cold War in the Early 1950s it began to Bustle no Only with military hardware but also with nuclear weapons. Mildenhall which made a prosperous contribution to 1086 s domesday May thus be contributing less happily to doomsday  an enormous amount of events will be taking place in England to celebrate domesday s 900lh anniversary including domesday week in London july 14-19 jousting in Battersea Park fireworks and a domesday Ball in Gloucester an exhibition from now through Jan. 18, featuring a life size reproduction of the Bayeux tapestry and at Winchester the Norman capital of England special effects exhibition that opens in the magnificent 13th Century great Hall next easter. There in a Forest of Norman tents visitors will walk through the pages of the Book and encounter a Mode Village life size figures of Norman knights displays of arms and Armor and the scriptorium where monks and officials of Winchester Castle transmuted the regional Survey returns into the domesday Book itself. It runs until the end of next october. An enormous exhibition from april 3 until sept. 30, will be mounted in five galleries at the Public record office in London and is expected to attract 250,000 visitors. Models audio visual aids and artefacts will be used to present domesday in an 11th-Century setting. The domesday chronicles will also be on exhibit. Within 20 years of the defeat of the saxons at Hastings King William s men had built dozens of forbidding castles to control the Countryside. Above Rochester in Kent. November 14, ims stripes Magazine