Domesday book online

The Domesday Book has embarked on many varied journeys in its 920-year lifetime. Its latest stop is now the web.

The iconic 11th Century document, which has been rebound, copied, facsimiled and even hidden in prisons, has been made available online.

This latest chapter in the history of the survey of England, carried out for William the Conqueror, has been organised by the National Archives in Kew, West London, where the book has its home.

It is the oldest public record at the archives and was voted the nation's finest treasure in 2005. All of its pages are now available to be viewed, along with a translation from the original Latin, to anyone with an internet connection.

Domesday specialist Adrian Ailes, based at the National Archives, said: "It's an historic day for the Domesday Book because it's the first time it's gone on the world wide web.

"It's also historic for the country, because now people can go on the web and discover a snapshot of 11th Century England. There was nothing like this done in the country until the 19th Century census."

The nickname ‘Domesday’ may refer to the Biblical Day of Judgement, or ‘doomsday’ when Christ will return to judge the living and the dead. Just as there will be no appeal on that day against his decisions, so Domesday Book has the final word – there is no appeal beyond it as evidence of legal title to land. For many centuries Domesday was regarded as the authoritative register regarding rightful possession and was used mainly for that purpose. It was called Domesday by 1180. Before that it was known as the Winchester Roll or King’s Roll, and sometimes as the Book of the Treasury.

One of the 13,278 places mentioned in England within the book is Holborn in London. Covering 119 hectares, 48,000 people work and around 7,500 people live in the area.

There are actually two books: the Great Domesday and Little Domesday, compiled between January 1086 and September 1087.

Little Domesday records information covering Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk.

Work stopped on the entire project following William's death, but there were still a few additional entries squeezed in afterwards.

It contains such nuggets as the explanation of how if you killed a man in Chester on a Sunday and Holy days, you would be fined £4 but only 40 shillings (£2) on all other days.

The task of getting it onto the internet was a vast job, the roots of which began some 20 years ago.

Emma Allen, documents online manager for the National Archive, explained how the original images of the pages now available online were first taken in 1985.

"These high-quality facsimile photographs are what we used for the internet site," she said.

"The Latin translation was done by other experts, so our job was to bring both these elements together to place it on the internet."

Searching the site for a place-name is free, but to download the information costs £3.50.

And although it took a small army of historians, IT engineers and experts to get the Domesday Book online, the original document was almost totally written by just one anonymous scribe - in little over a year.

The total value of England in 1086 was a mere £78,000 !!!!!!!!!