The Story of the BBC Domesday Project

In 1986, 900 years after William the Conqueror’s original Domesday Book, the BBC published the Domesday Project. The project was probably the most ambitious attempt ever to capture the essence of life in the . Over a million people contributed to this digital snapshot of the country.

People were asked to record what they thought would be of interest in another 1000 years. The whole of the UK – including the Channel Islands and Isle of Man – was divided into 23,000 4x3km areas called Domesday Squares or “D-Blocks”. Schools and community groups surveyed over 108,000 square km of the UK and submitted more than 147,819 pages of text articles and 23,225 amateur photos, cataloguing what it was like to live, work and play in their community.

This was about documenting everyday life - the ordinary rather than the extraordinary. The project used the cutting-edge technology of the day, and the data was eventually presented on a special type of Laser-Disc, read by a BBC master computer and navigated using an innovative tracker-ball pointing system.

But the technology didn’t catch on and the computers became very expensive for schools and libraries to buy. Very few people ever got to see the fruits of all of their hard work. As time went on there were fears that the discs would become unreadable, as computers capable of reading the format had become rare and drives capable of accessing the discs even rarer.

In our age of the world wide web, digital photography, email and social networking, it’s time to have a look at those entries again, to bring the project up to date, and perhaps to lay down another layer of local history. Here you can rediscover and explore images and articles from the original project to find out how life in Britain has changed... and how some things have stayed the same. In addition, you will be able to update the project by re- photographing the images today and updating text entries.

With the help of The National Archives this unique record will be preserved for future generations.

BBC Domesday 1986 Rampton & Woodbeck

THE SURVEY AREA Our survey area includes the settlements of Rampton, Woodbeck, Treswell and part of South Leverton. The children of Rampton Primary School have compiled the survey information. The children come from the villages mentioned, and also from the settlements of Stokeham and Cottam. Our survey area is very rural and low lying in nature. The main local industry is farming, but Rampton Special Hospital and the Trentside power stations employ many local people. Farming in the area is mainly arable. The region has good road links and the nearest town of Retford is 6 miles away. Historic Lincoln is our nearest city and is about 15 miles from this area.

RAMPTON SPECIAL HOSPITAL Many pupils live on the Woodbeck Estate, and travel about a mile to school. It is a housing estate for people who work at Rampton Hospital. My dad works at the hospital as a male nurse. The hospital is a special hospital for people who are criminally insane or who need protecting from themselves. There are also some Mentally Handicapped patients there. It is a security hospital so the patient areas are fenced off and they cannot leave the hospital unless escorted. Over 1,000 people work at the hospital, some as nurses, others as ancillary workers, office workers, occupational therapists, doctors, social workers and also teachers.

THE WOODBECK ESTATE Every morning I get up at 8.00am, get dressed and walk a mile to school. We do get fed up a bit, me, my brother and my mum. She comes with us every day and collects us each night. The road we have to cross is very dangerous. We live on the estate because my dad works at the hospital. The estate was especially built for hospital workers. When we get home at night we go to the shop. It is a Post Office and a General Store. You can also borrow books and videos there. There are lots of people on the estate. It seems a dirty place at the moment because some of the houses are being demolished and others modernised. It is quite a pleasant place to live.

AN EMPLOYEE AT THE HOSPITAL I am employed at Rampton Special Hospital as an Occupations Assistant. I work with female patients who are mentally handicapped. My work involves teaching and supervising crafts, art and drama therapy, music, and general social skills training. The attitudes of many local people towards the hospital and its inmates tend to be somewhat unsympathetic and fearful. This is probably due to the fact that there is little understanding of the nature of many mental conditions. Facilities for the patients and staff are very good, and the hospital offers secure employment and relatively good salary levels.

RAMPTON VILLAGE Rampton is the largest village of this local area. It has a church which in part dates from Saxon times, a Post Office, a garage and general stores, and a public house. There is a village hall which is used for clubs and local functions. There are a number of small housing developments, but in the main the houses are old and are sited around what was the village green. There is little opportunity for employment in the village so most people have to travel to work. Several mobile shops come into the village including a Fishmonger, Butcher and Fish & Chip Van. The surroundings are flat farmland. One enterprise in the village is Pet's Corner which is a large play area which is very popular with children from all over the county.

THINGS TO DO If you live in this area you really have to have a car. There are lots of good roads but buses do not come into the villages very often. If you live in the survey area you have to travel for your main shopping items and for clothing. Retford is the nearest town. The bus ride is 50p for children and £1 for adults. That's expensive! If you come from the Woodbeck Estate or know someone from there you can use their public swimming pool which is open twice a day. There is a play park at Woodbeck and Rampton, and a Youth Club is run at Woodbeck. Treswell runs activities for children but nothing much goes on at Stokeham or Cottam. It is sometimes a boring place to live.

FARMING The area in the survey region is very rural and is given over to arable farming in the main. Cereal crops are grown as well as sugar beet and peas and beans for animal feed. Local farmers have recently introduced the planting of oil seed rape. The soil in the area is quite fertile as it once formed the flood plain of the River Trent. As it is a flat area, land drainage is an important feature of land management. Numerous dykes criss-cross the fields to eventually drain into the River Trent. The highest point of Rampton Parish is just over a hundred feet above sea level and the lower slopes of this escarpment are on keuper marl. Where the soil is keuper clay, the land is used for fattening cattle.

RAMPTON PRIMARY SCHOOL Our primary school serves Rampton, Stokeham, Treswell and Cottam. The main block was built in 1914 and the new block in 1960. This has two classrooms, one for the infants and the other for the lower juniors. In the old block two classrooms are used by pupils and two are resource rooms. The school has attractive grounds - a large playing field and two playgrounds. The old Headmaster's house is part of the premises and has an attractive orchard garden to it. There are four teachers at the school, Mrs Cade, Miss Lane, Mrs Marsh and Mr Presley. Our school day starts at 9.00am and finishes at 3.45pm. Lunch is from 12.00pm to 1.30pm. Dinners are cooked on the premises, but some children prefer to bring sandwiches.

SCHOOL LIFE The primary school takes children from 5 years of age up to 11 years. At 11 years they transfer to King Edward the Sixth school in Retford. In the primary school the mornings are mainly spent on language subjects, such as reading, creative writing, spelling and grammar, story and drama; also, maths work which is based on a published scheme. The afternoons are spent on topic work which usually includes science, geography, history and environmental studies. Games and sports are played and include football, netball, hockey, fitness training and general games skills. Swimming is taught at the Retford Sports Centre pool and all the children attend swimming sessions on Friday afternoons. A bus is provided to take them to Retford.

A RAMPTON VILLAGE FAMILY Hello! My name is Jaya Naghen and I go to Rampton Primary School. I live on the Pastures Estate in Rampton Village. It is an estate of modern houses and bungalows which was bought off the builders by Rampton Hospital for their employees. We are lucky to own our house. My Dad works at Rampton Hospital as a Tutor Nurse. He comes from a country near Africa called Mauritius. I have been there once but it was when I was a baby. My Mum goes to work and she is a teacher at an Adult Training Centre for the mentally handicapped in Worksop. We own two cars and a caravan which we use to go on holiday in. I have one sister who goes to the secondary school in Retford, and a brother who is younger than me and goes to Rampton School.

OUR THANKS The written material for these pages of text have been compiled mainly by the pupils from Rampton Primary School. They worked very hard during a very wet and dismal Summer Term 1985, to collect the data and prepare it for entry onto the computer disk. We also give credit to others in the community who helped with the data count, particularly in deciding the nature of the land cover. In a rural district this is a very difficult task. We offer our best wishes to all those who take interest in our contribution to the BBC Domesday Survey in the future.