August 4, 2006
Domesday Book online
At Christmas 1085 William the Conqueror commissioned a great survey to discover the resources and taxable values of all the boroughs and manors in England. He wanted to discover who owned what, how much it was worth, and how much was owed to him as King.And as of today, the National Archives has placed it online. Check it out here.It was a massive enterprise, and the record of that survey, Domesday Book, was a remarkable achievement.
UPDATE: Didn't realize until I started looking that the service is not only not free, it isn't even reasonably priced. £ 3.50 per .pdf page is pretty steep, and I very much wonder how many takers they will get. Casual browsers won't be buying, and serious researchers will probably go to a library where they can consult a Domesday facsimile or other Domesday reference volumes (more on such resources here).
Posted by David on August 4, 2006 11:11 AM
You can see it for a FEE! 3.5 lb/page
Posted by: Klaus Graf on August 5, 2006 7:05 PM
So far as I can tell from looking it's 3.50 a page if you want a print out WITH TRANSLATION. Now that's a service. overprice, but...
Posted by: Michael Tinkler on August 6, 2006 10:29 PM
As far as I can see, there is no way to view for free, with or without translation. Nothing would please me more than to be proven wrong here . . . .
Posted by: David on August 6, 2006 11:13 PM
It sounds like it's aimed at what a colleague used to call the 'ancestor worshipper' market. It's for people who want the page for where their family comes from or where they currently live - so they can stick it up on the wall. These high profile digitisation projects are often very expensive for anyone trying to do research and sometimes really not designed for it.
Posted by: Flitcraft on August 7, 2006 6:50 AM
One of my ancestors has been traced back to "The Domesday Book" where the Lovecroft listing includes a male ancestor whose name I cannot spell. However, at the price per page quoted on the website, I'll have to let the dead remain buried.
Posted by: Sarah on August 7, 2006 7:25 PM
gmail.com