Check out Michael Wood's story of England

[Mosaic]

It's on BBC iplayer if you've missed it - truly inspiring, get some in.

[123everton]

I watched some of it, I thought it was quite good, thing is though, wasn't he in a show with Moon Cat or some other kids show?

[jno]

just been watching that (part II) - fascinating.

[jake-the-peg]

Watched the second episode last night and had to groan.

Michael wood trying to show the existance of a mott and bailey castle.

Went some thing along the lines of.

This has been much damaged but if you take the outline of this mott and bailey from another village and overlay it on our one - there you have it a Norman mott and bailly castle!

Really Michael? - No kidding!!!

[sigma]

Quite an interesting programme but would a "hobby" genealogist have access to Merton college records. I doubt it.

[jake-the-peg]

Well no and probably not to the Domesday book either!

But that's kind of the point - a document of that age is going to need careful storage and handling and if it was generally available its condition would soon deteriorate.

So letting the BBC make programs like this to let people see and appreciate such documents goes some way to letting people appreciate them without exposing them to too much risk

[Mosaic]

Would yer average Joe have access to the Domesday Book? Try this:
http://www.domesdaybook.co.uk/contents.html
OK it's not in 11th century Latin, but did you want it to be?
As for records such as Merton College, they generally do all they can to accommodate serious researchers who are prepared to make the treck to their repository. ALL genealogical research was like that before the internet - not that long ago.

[jno]

you can have your own Domesday Book for £11.44 plus p&p

http://www.amazon.co....qid=1285948870&sr=1-1