A place in Bedfordshire with a history you can trace through the records: its entry in the 1086 Domesday Book, the archaeological finds and scheduled monuments around it, and the nearest Roman sites and battlefields. Everything below is drawn from the historical record.
In 1086, Clapham was held by Miles Crispin.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Clapham in 1086, they recorded a manor held by Miles Crispin. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, it was held by Brictric of Waddesdon.
The settlement was assessed at 5 hides for tax. There was land for 30 ploughs, with 28 plough teams at work (8 in the lord's demesne and 20 held by the villagers). The recorded population was 37 heads of household: 18 villagers, 15 smallholders and 4 slaves. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included meadow (6 ploughs), woodland (200 pigs) and 1 mill. The manor was valued at 24 pounds in 1086, up from 12 pounds in 1066.
The Domesday Book was the great survey of England ordered by William the Conqueror in 1085 and completed in 1086, the oldest surviving public record in the country. How the survey worked →
Clapham was one of the settlements recorded in Bedfordshire in the 1086 survey. Bedfordshire in the Domesday survey →
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 15 strands of Clapham's history, each drawn from the record and mapped to the exact spot:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
Nationally registered historic battlefields within 25 miles of Clapham.
The bedrock beneath Clapham is Kellaways Formation And Oxford Clay Formation (Undifferentiated) (Oxfordian).
Aubrey's full report for this location includes every Domesday manor, the complete record of medieval lordship, archaeological context, and the story of how this settlement evolved from 1086 to the present day.