Open Domesday
Open Domesday provides free online access to the complete text and maps of the Domesday Book, the 1086 survey of England ordered by William the Conqueror. The site allows users to search for places and people recorded in the survey, view high-resolution images of the original manuscript, and explore data mapped onto modern and historic boundaries.
Background
- Domesday Book is a manuscript from 1086, ordered by William the Conqueror, that surveyed most of England and parts of Wales — essentially the first national census and land registry in Europe.
- Open Domesday is a digital, freely accessible website that maps the original Domesday data onto modern Google Maps, letting you browse places, landowners, and resources from 1086 alongside present-day locations.
- The site was built by Anna Powell-Smith (a digital humanities researcher and developer) and uses the Latin text and data from the published "Domesday Book" volumes, not the physical manuscript itself.
- It matters because the original book is written in Latin and Medieval abbreviations, locked in archives; this project makes the data explorable by anyone — historians, genealogists, local history enthusiasts — without special training.