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Christmas 1085 and King William was in
Gloucester. No idea why, he didn’t tell me. Opening his cracker he read the riddle saying “how many people live in England”. This got him thinking. Well, not
really, but it was while he was there that he decided to make a record of everyone who lived in England and all their possessions. It was an amazing task to
undertake in a time when the only way to talk to someone was by standing in front of them.
Having had the idea, William acted quickly. He sent his nobles to ride out to every village, town and settlement in the land and make a list of
everyone who lived there, what they did and what they owned. Our story this time is about one such visit.
By August 1086 the initial findings were in. Although it isn’t possible to know exactly how many people lived in England at that time, because only
heads of households were named in the records, it would seem to be about 2 million.
When the findings were all collected together they were put into a massive book of 400 double-sided pages, which became known as the Domesday Book.
You can still see that book today. It is a brilliant record of how people lived in 1086. It was the most complete record of any country at that time and you can
find more about it here.
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