Domesday Book is one of the few historical records whose name is familiar to most people in this country. It is our earliest public record, the foundation document of the national archives and a legal document that is still valid as evidence of title to land.
Based on the Domesday survey of 1085-86, which was drawn up on the orders of King William I, it describes, in remarkable detail, the landholdings and resources of late 11th century England, demonstrating the power of the government machine in the first century of the new Millennium and its deep thirst for information. It was an exercise unparalleled in contemporary Europe and not matched in its comprehensive coverage of the country until the Population Censuses of the 19th century, although Domesday itself is not a population census and the names that appear in it are mainly those of land-holders.