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, Hatley was held by Countess Judith.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Hatley in 1086, they recorded 2 manors held by Countess Judith and Azelina wife of Ralph Tallboys. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, the land was held by Earl Tosti, Freeman, one, Wulfmer (of Eaton Socon) and Freemen, two.
The settlement was assessed at 8.99 hides for tax. There was land for 14.5 ploughs, with 14.5 plough teams at work (4 in the lord's demesne and 10.5 held by the villagers). The recorded population was 29 heads of household: 16 villagers, 12 smallholders and 1 slave. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included meadow (2 ploughs), woodland (4 pigs) and 1 mill. The manors were valued at 12.25 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 →
Hatley 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 Hatley'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.
584 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Hatley, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Hatley is Gault Formation And Upper Greensand Formation (Undifferentiated) (Cenomanian).
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.