YOUNG SURVEYORS

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 102, 4 May 1929, Page 21

YOUNG SURVEYORS

A DOMESDAY BOOK

Children in some of the loneliest Oxfordshire villages have discovered a new delight in life. They arc, with tho encouragement of their teachers, making what are in effect local' Domesday Books. As a starting point tho children took the 6in ordnance survey map for their parish and district. On this work of their elders and predecessors, reinforced by the lin or Jin to a mile maps for more distant study, they proceeded to work. Thus they* traced ironi the 6in map tho outlines of the holds of the parish, and on this diagram they, or somo of the young surveyors, inserted the crops growing in each lie-Id, .say the of an interesting l.ntish Government booklet. On a similar tracing they entered the names of tho fields, collected by much verbal inquiry, comparing these names when possible with those given in early seventeenth century and nineteenth century tithe or enclosure maps vi a number of cases they found the Hold names to be the same as those of over three centuries ago, while of the others they arc trying to find out tho meaning. They drew, and then walked round, tho parish boundaries, trviii" to work out reasons for their shape both ns o the general form and the lagged out.,,™ which moy t0 some oXt l n \B e^plame,] by marsh, wood, or stream • ong l| lc )Or ,, crs . Th rccordo(l like the car y Domesday surveyors, the arm stock (mcluding by their own deV!uuu'\ °"° lnst!lnco ducks «nd lame i.ibbits) or separate farm holdings the outlines of which were inserted t, t c ■';« maps. They tabulated the ma n pupations ,„ (he village, and they lune^so lar, made some small study of They have begun to tackle problems ot communications by road, \,,il lr - i"il (local roads, existing or disused, l>»\e, of course, a wealth of interest Keoogical, historical, administrathe', i on, the green neolithic traekwiv n»>Sl. the periods of statute labour • i id die turnpike trust to those of the County Council and the Ministry. of ■transport); and they have all collected information as to the separate household sulks] ul ks with the outside world ho information so obtained has a good deal more significance than the vuunc surveyors would realise.