Boldon Book

The Boldon Book (also known as the Boldon Buke) contains the results of a survey of the

King of England. It is the first survey undertaken north of the River Tees, where the king's authority was never more than nominal.^[2]

Like the Domesday Book it is a custumal account listing the labour, money and produce owed by standing custom to the Bishop. The areas of North Durham (

Boldon

was listed early in the survey, and later entries recorded customal dues "as at Boldon", hence the name.

Dues were assessed at the individual level as well as by community. The book attests to the overwhelmingly pastoral economy of the North, and provides a contrast to the better-documented southeast, "in particular the existence of large estates often comprising several villages which sometimes share a single demesne".^[3]

The Boldon Book survives in four manuscript copies, of which the oldest is the 13th-century copy that was among the Temple family manuscripts at Stowe House that are now in the British Library.^[4]

The Boldon Book is discussed by G. T. Lapsley, "Introduction to and Text of the Boldon Book," Victoria County History: Durham vol. 1 (London, 1905) pp. 259–341, with an English translation, pp. 327–51. The Latin text and an English translation are provided in D. Austin, ed., Boldon Book: Northumberland and Durham in Phillimore's edition of Domesday Book, vol. 35 (Chichester, 1982)

Notes

^ W. D. Handcock, English Historical Documents 1833-1874, 1996, sect. 180, brief introduction to the Boldon Book.
^ select surveys were included in Handcock 1996 pp 897ff.
^ Handcock 1996, p 897.
^ BL. Stowe MS 930.

[1] W. D. Handcock, English Historical Documents 1833-1874, 1996, sect. 180, brief introduction to the Boldon Book.

[2] select surveys were included in Handcock 1996 pp 897ff.

[3] Handcock 1996, p 897.

[4] BL. Stowe MS 930.

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