A nationwide survey commissioned by Henry VIII on the property and wealth of 16th century England and Wales is to be made publicly accessible for the first time.

The survey, known as the Valor Ecclesiasticus, set out to discover the financial state of the Church of which the Tudor king had just made himself head in his Break with Rome.

Valor Ecclesiasticus counted 8,000 parish churches, 650 monasteries, 22 cathedrals and numerous chapels, chantries, colleges, schools, hospitals and poor houses. It took note of their buildings and grounds, their farmland and the commercial, industrial and residential property in which they were invested. And it recorded the names of many of the men and women who lived and worked with these great enterprises and even gave attention to the large number of children, elderly and sick who depended on them for their welfare.

The 1535 survey covered 50 counties and captured their landscapes in remarkable detail, describing meadows and orchards, moorland and woods, waterways and a wide variety of working environments from market stalls to open-cast coal mines.