1086 Domesday Book, Atherstone

Land of Countess Godiva

In Coleshill Hundred
The countess herself held in ADERESTONE 3 hides. Land for 5 ploughs. 11 villagers, 2 smallholders and 1 slave with 4 ploughs. Meadow, 6 acres; woodland 2 leagues long and 2 leagues wide. The value was 40s; now 60s.

Domesday Book (also known as Domesday, or Book of Winchester), was the record of the great survey of England completed in 1086, executed for William the Conqueror. The survey was similar to a census by a government of today. William needed information about the country he had just conquered so he could administer it. While spending the Christmas of 1085 in Gloucester, William “had deep speech with his counsellors and sent men all over England to each shire … to find out … what or how much each landholder had in land and livestock, and what it was worth.” (Saxon Chronicle) One of the main purposes of the survey was to find out who owned what so they could be taxed on it, and the judgment of the assessors was final — whatever the book said about who owned the property, or what it was worth, was the law, and there was no appeal. It was written in Latin, although there were some vernacular words inserted for native terms with no previous Latin equivalent and the text was highly abbreviated. When the book took the name “Domesday” (Middle English spelling of Doomsday) in the 12th century, it was to emphasize its definitiveness and authority (the analogy refers to the Christian belief of a Last Judgment).