William I s conquest of the Isle of Ely in 1071 required constructing a long causeway across the fens to allow his forces to assault the island. The causeway building was an extraordinary feat of military engineering. An initial causeway collapsed under the weight of troops. A second attempt succeeded when monks provided the Normans with a guide across a secret path through the marshes. The dual approach secured the fall of the last English resistance.
Aubrey generates in-depth historical research for any location in Britain — drawing on Domesday records, scheduled monuments, Victorian OS maps, geological data and archaeological archives to tell the full story of a place.
Research a location near Cambridgeshire