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, Toddington was held by Arnulf of Hesdin.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Toddington in 1086, they recorded a manor held by Arnulf of Hesdin. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, it was held by Wulfward White (the noble).
The settlement was assessed at 15.5 hides for tax. There was land for 30 ploughs, with 27 plough teams at work (7 in the lord's demesne and 20 held by the villagers). The recorded population was 80 heads of household: 42 villagers, 19 smallholders and 19 slaves. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included meadow (30 ploughs) and woodland (300 pigs). The manor was valued at 25 pounds in 1086, down from 30 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 →
Toddington 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 Toddington'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 Toddington.
177 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Toddington, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Toddington 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.