A place in Cambridgeshire 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, Bassingbourn was held by Winchester (St Peter & St Swithun), bishop of.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Bassingbourn in 1086, they recorded 3 manors held by Winchester (St Peter & St Swithun), bishop of, Count Alan (of Brittany) and Leofing, under Hardwin of Scales. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, the land was held by Winchester (St Peter & St Swithun), bishop of, Freeman, one, Edeva (the fair), Freemen, eight and Freemen, two.
The settlement was assessed at 9.99 hides for tax. There was land for 22 ploughs, with 18 plough teams at work (6 in the lord's demesne and 12 held by the villagers). The recorded population was 39 heads of household: 9 villagers, 17 smallholders, 10 cottagers 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 4 mills. The manors were valued at 34.5 pounds in 1086, up from 31 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 →
Bassingbourn was one of the settlements recorded in Cambridgeshire in the 1086 survey. Cambridgeshire in the Domesday survey →
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 15 strands of Bassingbourn'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.
659 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Bassingbourn, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Bassingbourn is Grey Chalk Subgroup (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.