Bettany Hughes
This is the Public Record Office in London with its vast 95 miles of archive and these are just two examples of the kinds of things you can find here. They're statements signed by Guy Fawkes. One before and one after he was tortured and seeing the second, he can scarcely write. Documents like these bring us face to face with people from the past and that's what this series is about. We'll be travelling all over the country, seeking out stories of weird taxes, mediaeval land protests, strange church rituals, and the experiences of soldiers and criminals. Human history written down as it happened.

Alan Macfarlane
Kings College Cambridge
England is absolutely fantastic for its records. There's no other country in the world which approaches it. That is to say if you went to great civilisations like China, Japan, Islam, you would never find anything like the English records. Partly, it's because of their continuous length. There are good records back for 500 years and fairly good records back for 1,000 years. In England, because of the general trustfulness and interest in truth and relaxed feeling towards those who keep our records, this meant that they are very trustworthy.

Bettany
With a thousand years of records to choose from, where to start? At the Public Record Office they've got every kind of historical document you can conceive of. Tax accounts, wills, speeches, treaties, charters, seals, and an x-ray of Hitler's skull. But I'm on the trail of something else unique. The first nation-wide census made a generation after the Norman Conquest of 1066, the Domesday Book.

Elizabeth Hallam Smith
Curator at the Public Record Office
It's difficult to believe that this is where it's been kept. This is the great chest in which Domesday was kept at the Palace of Westminster from the 16th to the 19th centuries. As you can see, it's extremely heavy. It was secured by three great locks. Now here is great Domesday itself. The original manuscript.

Bettany
Obviously it's a very, very precious artefact itself, but why is it so significant?

Elizabeth
It's one of England's great national icons. It's a picture of life at the start of this millennium.

Bettany
But I'm right in thinking, aren't I, that there were two books?

Elizabeth
Yes, Great Domesday and Little Domesday, which couple together 37 pre-1974 counties in England and a little bit of North Wales as well. These are the facsimiles here. Now I'm going to move the original because we don't film it open because it is very precious.

Bettany
When was it written?

Elizabeth
Between 1086 and 1090, substantially by one man which is very remarkable.

Bettany
Incredible. And it's not French is it? It was written by the Normans, but that's Latin isn't it?

Elizabeth
That is Latin, yes, that's the language of government and of the church.

Bettany
And what kind of picture does it give of the country both pre- and post-conquest?

Elizabeth
Well, let's go now to Warwickshire. I've got an example here, very small village, lands of William Fitzansculth. This little place is held by Richard Falhide, 120 acres and there are five billings and four bordars who are unfree peasants, and this little place is worth 20 shillings both in 1066 and at the time of Domesday.

Bettany
And what's the name of the village?

Elizabeth
This place is Birmingham.

Bettany
The city?

Elizabeth
Yes, now the City. Very small place at that time.William the Conqueror was an absolutely terrifying figure. He appears as such on the Bayeux Tapestry and the native English was so afraid of him and of the survey that they nicknamed the survey Domesday Book, from the Day of Judgement against which there could be no appeal.

Bettany
Elizabeth then pointed out to me a man called Sasswallow in Warwickshire who had 10 slaves and enough land for 12 ploughs. The interesting thing is Sasswallow survives. The Domesday Book seems so remote now but it's hard to imagine that anyone could have a direct connection with it. But the Shirleys are one of the few families in England can trace their line back to Norman times. Philip Shirley still owns land in the very same Manor of Ettington mentioned in the Domesday Book. But were they Normans or Saxons, winners or losers at the Norman Conquest? That's one question Philip's going to try to answer as he trawls the family records.

Bettany
A beautiful house but it's definitely not dating from Domesday, is it?

Philip Shirley
Certainly not, no. We've only been in this house since last October.

Bettany
But I am right in thinking that your family has an entry in the Domesday Book.

Philip
That's right. We still own the same Manor which we owned in the Domesday in the male line.

Bettany
So what is the description, what does it say about you?

Philip
I think what it says is that we held the land from Henry de Ferris who was the tenant and chief, and the land amounted to 17 hides and was valued then at £30 and then it goes on to say that there was a mill and a church and various other things about the property.

Bettany
And were you Shirleys at that point?

Philip
No, we weren't Shirleys. My original ancestor's name was Sasswallow.

Bettany
Bingo. Looks like I've got the right man.

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Content last updated: 29/03/2006

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