DomesdayBook, the most ancient official documentamongthe Public Records, is a record of the survey of England ordered by William the Conqueror at Christmas 1085. It consists of two volumes of which the smaller, Little Domesday,contains Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk, while the larger volume deals with the remaining portion of England which was surveyed. Little Domesdaycontains more detail than the larger volume and a full account of the stock and other appurtenances on a manor is normally given. The information collected by those who carried out the survey and recast the material into its present rorm, includes some detail about the rural churches in England in 1086. England only became a feudalized country at the Conquest, hence DomesdayBookmaybe expected to give some indication of the changes which the introduction of feudalism ef'fected in the organization of the church, and to provide a link between the Anglo- Saxon minster and the parish of the thirteenth century. By making use of earlier material to tra~ the beginnings of' rural parishes in England and employing as a background to the Normanidea of a parish the contemporary developments on the continent, an attempt has been made to provide 8. frameworkinto which the Domesdayevidence about churches has been fitted.