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, Ellesborough was held by Ralph of Ellesborough.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Ellesborough in 1086, they recorded 3 manors held by Ralph of Ellesborough, Otbert and Mainou the Breton, under William son of Ansculf. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, the land was held by Earl Harold, Baldwin (son of Herlewin) and Leofnoth (son of Osmund).
The settlement was assessed at 29.5 hides for tax. There was land for 24 ploughs, with 22 plough teams at work (5 in the lord's demesne and 17 held by the villagers). The recorded population was 45 heads of household: 26 villagers, 13 smallholders and 6 slaves. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included meadow (2 ploughs) and woodland (105 pigs). The manors were valued at 14.25 pounds in 1086, down from 20 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 →
Ellesborough 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 Ellesborough'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 Ellesborough.
1,385 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Ellesborough, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Ellesborough is White Chalk Subgroup (Maastrichtian).
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.