The Domesday Book

The Domesday Book is the earliest land information system. The Domesday Book was created by William the Conqueror in 1086 in an attempt to create a list of all land parcels in England.

The Domesday Book also listed the the land owner, acreage, tenants and livestock for each parcel.

One of the main purposes of this land information system was to determine what taxes were due. Nothing ever changes does it?

It was written in Latin, except for native terms with no Latin equivalent. The text was highly abbreviated.

The book was known by the English as “Domesday” as in the Day of Judgement. Whatever the book said about who held the material wealth or what is was worth, was the law. There was no appeal.

Although the Domesday Book contains a vast amount of information, it does not contain any land surveys.