Major Exeter-led study to reveal Henry VIII’s lost ‘Tudor Domesday Book’

A major research project led by the University of Exeter is set to bring to light one of Tudor England’s greatest forgotten surveys, Henry VIII’s Valor Ecclesiasticus, often called the “Tudor Domesday Book.”

The three-year project, Rediscovering the Tudor Domesday, will make this nationwide record of 16th century England and Wales publicly accessible for the first time through a free-to-use digital platform.

Led by Exeter’s Department of Archaeology and History, the project has received almost £1.5 million from UK Research & Innovation’s Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and brings together partners including The National Archives, the University of Nottingham, the University of Reading, and the National Trust.

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Project Lead Professor James Clark, of Exeter's Department of Archaeology and History, said: “Valor Ecclesiasticus is second only to Domesday Book as a three-dimensional snapshot of the realm, even surpassing it in the impression it gives of England’s landscape and the lives and occupations of local society. It reveals the men, women, and children who led, laboured for, or benefited from the great institutions of the day; and it offers us a rare glimpse of what they saw on their own horizons, even a hint of the weather they endured.

“The value of this remarkable survey has been locked away for centuries. By bringing together this large, interdisciplinary team from across the country, we can ensure every detail is mapped for each county, city, town, village and area of countryside.”

A digital team led by Dr Charlotte Tupman, from Exeter’s Department of Classics, Ancient History, Religion and Theology, will transform the 500-year-old Latin manuscripts into modern, searchable records.

Using Geographic Information System (GiS) technology, each location will be linked to current maps so users can visualise Tudor England in detail.

Dr Tupman said: “The incredible quantity and variety of data contained in the Valor Ecclesiasticus presents significant and exciting challenges for us in extracting and making these records available digitally. Exeter’s Digital Humanities Lab and our partners at The National Archives will be working together to create a resource that allows users to explore the data at an unprecedented level of detail.”

The Valor Ecclesiasticus counted 8,000 parish churches, 650 monasteries, 22 cathedrals, and countless chapels, schools and hospitals.

It covered 50 counties, painting a vivid picture of life in Tudor England, from meadows and moorlands to open-cast coal mines.

Despite its scale, the survey has remained largely inaccessible.

The only printed version, released nearly 200 years ago, was an incomplete Latin transcript so difficult to use that it deterred most historians.

Now, with early drafts recently discovered in private libraries and official copies held in The National Archives, researchers will be able to trace the surveyors’ footsteps and reassemble this national picture for the first time.

The National Archives will lead school and community engagement programmes, helping local historians and heritage groups uncover their area’s Tudor past.

Dr Euan Roger, Principal Medieval Records Specialist at The National Archives, said: “The Valor Ecclesiasticus is an incredible resource for local history yet has been inaccessible to all but the most experienced of researchers for years. Providing a new searchable translation and resources to explain its often-complex terminology promises to open this vast survey to a new generation of historians, archivists, heritage professionals, and anyone who wants to uncover their neighbourhood’s past.”

Given its insight into wealth, work and social welfare, the research team also plans to share findings with UK government departments exploring modern policy challenges.

Professor Clark added: “This Tudor Domesday survey was made at a turning-point in history, when Henry VIII had led the kingdom out of Europe. It would be fitting for these data on the state of his nation to inform fresh approaches to the challenges – economic, environmental and social – of today.”