Domesday Geography of England – serie

The Domesday Book has long been used as a source of information about legal and economic matters, but its bearing upon the geography of medieval England has been comparatively neglected. The extraction of geographical information involves problems of interpretation, since it necessitates an analysis into elements and their subsequent reconstruction on a geographical basis. But when this has been done new materials for making a general picture of the relative prosperity of different areas are available, as well as data for the comparative study of varying geographic and economic factors. The whole work, The Domesday Geography of England, will be in six volumes. In them different experts are to be allotted large distinct districts under Professor Darby's editorship. He will himself draw together all the threads, and write the concluding chapters of each volume and the whole of the concluding volume. The book will be fully illustrated by many maps, all specially drawn under the general editor's supervision. The volumes will be separately available, though the first contains some general introductory matter relevant to the whole work.

This Gazetteer is intended to supplement the other volumes of The Domesday Geography of England by providing an index of place-names together with maps showing their location. The number of separate places named in the Domesday Book amounts to over 13,400. They are often mentioned more than once in different spellings, with the result that the number of entries in the index exceeds 36,000. Both Domesday names and their modern equivalents are given, thus showing how the various Domesday names have been identified. The arrangement is intended to be useful to those who approach the Gazetteer either from the point of view of modern names or from that of Domesday names. The 65 pages of maps show the distribution of Domesday places against a background of relief and rivers. Although designed primarily for readers of The Domesday Geographies, the Gazetteer will also be of use to others who work in the field of English medieval history and geography.

The Domesday Book has long been used as a source of information about legal and economic matters, but its bearing upon the geography of medieval England has been comparatively neglected. The extraction of geographical information involves problems of interpretation, since it necessitates an analysis into elements and their subsequent reconstruction on a geographical basis. But this process makes available new materials for forming a general picture of the relative prosperity of different areas, as well as for data for the comparative study of varying geographic and economic factors. This volume on the northern counties of England contains chapters on Yorkshire by I. S. Maxwell, Nottinghamshire, Cheshire, and Lancashire by I. B. Terrett, Derbyshire by Dr Holly and the Northern Counties by H. C. Darby.

The Domesday Book has long been used as a source of information about legal and economic matters, but its bearing upon the geography of medieval England has been comparatively neglected. The extraction of geographical information involves problems of interpretation, since it necessitates an analysis into elements and their subsequent reconstruction on a geographical basis. But when this has been done, new materials for making a general picture of the relative prosperity of different areas are available as well as data for the comparative study of varying geographic and economic factors. The complete work, The Domesday Geography of England, consists of seven volumes. This volume covers Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire, Leicestershire, Rutland and Northamptonshire. It is the second edition of the second of the Domesday Geographies. First published in 1954, the text has been considerably revised to take account of recent research and new place-name identification. The treatment of statistics for boroughs has been brought into line with that of the other volumes of the series and a large number of maps has been altered.

The Domesday Book has long been used as a source of information about legal and economic matters, but its bearing upon the geography of medieval England has been comparatively neglected. The extraction of geographical information involves problems of interpretation, since it necessitates an analysis into elements and their subsequent reconstruction on a geographical basis. But this process makes available otherwise unobtainable evidence for forming a general picture of the relative prosperity of different areas, as well as data for the comparative study of varying geographic and economic factors. This volume contains chapters on Wiltshire, Dorset, Somerset, Devonshire, Cornwall and a concluding chapter on the south-western counties.

Domesday Book is the most famous English public record, and it is probably the most remarkable statistical document in the history of Europe. It calls itself merely a descriptio and it acquired its name in the following century because its authority seemed comparable to that of the Book by which one day all will be judged (Revelation 20:12). It is not surprising that so many scholars have felt its fascination, and have discussed again and again what it says about economic, social and legal matters. But it also tells us much about the countryside of the eleventh century, and the present volume is the seventh of a series concerned with this geographical information. As the final volume, it seeks to sum up the main features of the Domesday geography of England as a whole, and to reconstruct, as far as the materials allow, the scene which King William's clerks saw as they made their great inquest.