Local historian John Medland is publishing a new local historybook- ‘Discovering Domesday Wight’.
“This is the first time the Island entries of the Domesday Book have been published on their own in English” says the author. “The original was written in Latin and completed 927 years ago in 1086. Harking back to 1066 it is like a flashlight photographic exposure of the landholding, population settlement and economic productivity of England almost a thousand years ago”.
‘Discovering Domesday Wight’ explains the IW entries in terms of the Island’s unique geography, its human archaeology and its known Saxon history. This allows us to imagine the Island’s landscape around one thousand years ago. Onto this background the 120 Domesday entries are fitted by local area and landscape region.
The text is illustrated with images from the Bayeux Tapestry and detailed maps showing the likely location of the Domesday place-names. Other maps show the likely coastline and watercourses that would have defined many settlement boundaries. ‘Discovering Domesday Wight’ claims “perhaps 95% accuracy in placing the Domesday entries in the modern landscape”.
This is John Medland’s fourth book on local history the others being Shipwrecks of the Wight (1986) Alum Bay and The Needles (1996) The Making of the Wight: Volume I (2007) and Volume II (2008).
He will be signing and selling copies at the County Press Shop from 10am to noon on Saturday the 28th November and giving a talk on the making of the book at Freshwater Library on Saturday December 5th. The book priced £12.95 and will be available in bookshops or direct by post if you e-mail jcmedland@outlook.com.