Gesta Pontificum Anglorum

[6] It became the basis of a number of later works dealing with ecclesiastical history, including those written at Durham, Bury St Edmunds and Worcester.

The Kingdoms of East Anglia, Essex, Sussex and Wessex: In addition to the bishoprics of London, Norwich, Winchester, Sherborne, Salisbury, Bath, Exeter and Chichester William also details twenty-three religious houses.

William admitted to not knowing a great deal about the monasteries in the north of England and only covered those at Wearmouth and Whitby.

[9] William also touches on other aspects from history such as the well preserved Roman remains at Carlisle, where he mentions a stone vaulted triclinium.

The History of the English Bishops, in the manner of many chroniclers' continuations, begins where Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum left off.

[12] There is also evidence to suggest William travelled to many of the places he mentions and used local manuscripts[13] and he also provides many detailed topographical observations.

At the head of folio 1 is the Malmesbury Abbey impressed mark, and a pagination in Arabic numerals in a 14th-century hand indicates that no pages have been lost since then.

[14] The source manuscript itself was a descendant of British Library Royal 13 D V, itself a copy of Magdalen College, Oxford MS lat.