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, Milton was held by Miles Crispin.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Milton in 1086, they recorded 6 manors held by Miles Crispin, William Basset, Thorgisl, Reginald, Ivo (of Grandmesnil) and beadle, one, under Hugh of Beauchamp, Nigel of Aubigny, Walter of Flanders and Adeliza wife of Hugh of Grandmesnil. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, the land was held by Freemen, two, Freemen, six, Godwin, Burgred (father of Edwin)'s man and beadle's father.
The settlement was assessed at 10.12 hides for tax. There was land for 14.3 ploughs, with 12.5 plough teams at work (6 in the lord's demesne and 6.5 held by the villagers). The recorded population was 26 heads of household: 15 villagers, 8 smallholders and 3 slaves. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included meadow (2 ploughs), woodland (6 pigs) and 1 mill. The manors were valued at 7.05 pounds in 1086, down from 9.3 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 →
Milton 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 Milton'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 Milton.
The bedrock beneath Milton 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.