codes for administrative units

The structure of Domesday Book has been described as a 'sandwich' of feudal and geographical layers. Within each fief, its manors were normally described in a regular geographic sequence. The sequence in any county was determined by its administrative units. In most counties, the only unit between the county and the vill was the Hundredor Wapentake. In a few counties, however, there was an administrative layer above the Hundred: Ridings in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, Lathes in Kent, Rapes in Sussex, and a few other areas were accorded separate sections.

Vills are not coded since there is no administrative hierarchy of vills. Manors, which derive their names from the vills in which they lay, are however coded; since there is a hierarchy of manors. The codes for the remaining administrative divisions are:

ADM: any administrative unit

REF: any administrative unit named without structural significance for the text. These are passing references to Hundreds, Wapentakes, Ridings, etc, which do not affect the location of any place named in the text which follows

100: the lowest level of local government above the vill, normally Hundreds in West Saxon counties and Wapentakes in those of the Danelaw

RID: the administrative layer, if any, between county and Hundred: Lathes in Kent; Rapes in Sussex; Ridings in Yorkshire; and Ridings, Holland, and Kesteven in Lincolnshire. Other areas which were accorded separate treatment in Domesday are also coded at this level: the Isle of Wight and the New Forest in Hampshire; the Welsh sections of the counties of Cheshire, Gloucestershire and Shropshire; and the area of South Lancashire appended to Cheshire

FOR an administrative layer higher than the Ridings but within a county. Normally, these will be manors belonging to one county described within the text of another county, a circumstance which occurs fairly frequently in circuit 4

CTY the highest level of local government, normally the county.

For the use of codes in searching the text, see properties and property searching.