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, Crendon was held by Walter Giffard.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Crendon in 1086, they recorded a manor held by Walter Giffard. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, it was held by Saeric son of Aelfeva.
The settlement was assessed at 20 hides for tax. There was land for 25 ploughs, with 25 plough teams at work (5 in the lord's demesne and 20 held by the villagers). The recorded population was 72 heads of household: 52 villagers, 10 smallholders and 10 slaves. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included meadow (10 ploughs), woodland (100 pigs) and 1 mill. The manor was valued at 20 pounds in 1086, up from 15 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 →
Crendon 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 Crendon'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 Crendon.
1,057 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Crendon, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Crendon 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.