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, Buckingham was held by King William.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Buckingham in 1086, they recorded 13 manors held by King William and Lincoln (St Mary), bishop of. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, the land was held by King Edward, Bishop Wulfwy (of Dorchester), Wulfward son of Edeva, Burghard of Mendlesham, Azur son of Toti, Alric (son of Goding), Edeva wife of Sired, Wiglaf of Preston, Earl Leofwin and Leofwin of Nuneham.
The settlement was assessed at 1 hide for tax. There was land for 12 ploughs, with 5.5 plough teams at work (2 in the lord's demesne and 3.5 held by the villagers). The recorded population was 29 heads of household: 3 villagers, 14 smallholders, 10 cottagers and 2 slaves. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included meadow (8 ploughs) and 2 mills. The manors were valued at 22 pounds in 1086, up from 17 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 →
Buckingham 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 Buckingham'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 Buckingham.
2,242 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Buckingham, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Buckingham is Great Oolite Group (Bathonian).
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.