A place in Buckinghamshire 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, Claydon and Claydon was held by Ralph.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Claydon and Claydon in 1086, they recorded 4 manors held by Ralph, Geoffrey de Mandeville, Englishmen, two and Geoffrey of Baldon, under William Peverel and Miles Crispin. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, the land was held by Alwin, a royal thane, man, one, Swein, Esger the constable's man and Englishmen, two.
The settlement was assessed at 20 hides for tax. There was land for 14 ploughs, with 12 plough teams at work (5 in the lord's demesne and 7 held by the villagers). The recorded population was 24 heads of household: 12 villagers, 9 smallholders and 3 slaves. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included meadow (1 ploughs) and woodland (40 woodland for fences). The manors were valued at 11 pounds in 1086, down 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 →
Claydon and Claydon was one of the settlements recorded in Buckinghamshire in the 1086 survey. Buckinghamshire in the Domesday survey →
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 15 strands of Claydon and Claydon'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 Claydon and Claydon.
1,757 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Claydon and Claydon, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Claydon and Claydon is West Walton Formation, Ampthill Clay Formation And Kimmeridge Clay Formation (Undifferentiated) (Kimmeridgian).
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.