Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-pjpqr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-05T01:27:46.941Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter I - THE DOMESDAY INQUEST

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

Get access

Summary

The Norman Conquest in 1066, unlike the Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian invasions, was not a mass movement of people but the work of a small power group. Twenty years after their coming, the Normans instituted the enquiry that resulted in Domesday Book. With hindsight we can say that it came at a fortunate moment for us because it enables us to examine the economic and social foundations of the geography of England after the Anglo-Saxons and Scandinavians had firmly established themselves in their new home.

THE ANGLO-SCANDINAVIAN BACKGROUND

The Anglo-Saxons had arrived in the fifth and sixth centuries, and the Scandinavians in the eighth and ninth – Danes from the east and Norse by way of the western seas. Whatever the continuity between Roman Britain and Anglo-Scandinavian England – and it was certainly much greater than was at one time believed – the fact remains that, Cornwall apart, the villages the Normans encountered bore names that were certainly not Celtic. Where the Englishman Babba had made a ‘stoc’ or settlement in Wiltshire, there stood Babestoche in 1066 which is Baverstock today; and where the Scandinavian Bekki had made a ‘by’ or settlement in Lincolnshire, there stood Bechebi which is Bigby today. The progress of settlement must have been interrupted, time and again, by the mutual struggles of the Anglo-Saxon states, and by the campaigns of the Anglo-Danish conflict; but, even so, large stretches of countryside were colonised and transformed, and the woodland was pierced by ‘dens’ and ‘leans’ and ‘skogrs’ until there were well over 13,000 vills in existence.

Type
Chapter
Information
Domesday England , pp. 1 - 14
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1977

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×