County town: Norwich
Norfolk was established as a shire in the 10th century, its name distinguishing the 'north folk' of East Anglia from the 'south folk' of Suffolk. It had been part of the Danelaw and retains strong Scandinavian influences in its settlement patterns.
Norfolk is a county of big skies and flat horizons, its landscape shaped by chalk uplands in the west, the Broads in the east, and a long North Sea coastline. Norwich, medieval England's second city, was a centre of the wool and worsted cloth trade that made East Anglia prosperous from the 11th century onward. The county's numerous fine churches — Norfolk has more medieval churches than any other county — reflect the extraordinary wealth generated by its textile industry. Its coast was historically important for North Sea fishing and herring curing. The Sandringham estate, royal since 1862, lies in its north-west.
Norfolk was surveyed in the Domesday Book of 1086, William the Conqueror's great census of England. The survey recorded 706 settlements in the county, with details of their lords, landholders, population, and resources.
Browse 706 Domesday settlements in NorfolkEngland's 39 historic counties, established between the 9th and 12th centuries, are the framework through which English local history, legal records, and landscape have been organised for a thousand years. Most survive today as ceremonial counties, their boundaries deeply embedded in place identity.
An Aubrey report for a specific location in Norfolk draws on historical maps, archaeological records, Domesday data and landscape history to tell the full story of any site in the county.
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