Domesday Reloaded

Above: Domesday Project Equipment

Today, the BBC launched the Domesday Reloaded website.

From 1984 to 1986 the BBC ran an ambitious project to record everyday life in the UK. Now, 25 years later you can explore the archive online, see the pictures, update the information and make your mark on this fascinating record of our collective history.

A million people, mostly school children, wrote about life in the their local area and added maps, photos and videos and submitted them to the project. The scheme was called the ‘BBC Domesday Project', in homage to the Domesday Book, one of the earliest UK national surveys, carried out by William I of England in 1085.

The Domesday Project was saved to a pair of 12 inch interactive video laser discs: state of the art technology then but not one that caught on. Very few people ever got to see the fruits of all of their hard work. As time went on concern grew that the discs would become unreadable, as computers capable of accessing them became difficult to find.

Thanks to a new BBC project the archive is now available online. And once again the BBC is encouraging the nation to contribute articles and images to the database. So why don't you and your pupils find out what your local area was like 25 years ago? See how the rural and urban landscape of Britain has changed and maybe even get your pupils to update the information with new articles and images.