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, Drayton was held by Freemen, two.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Drayton in 1086, they recorded 5 manors held by Freemen, two, Ramsey (St Benedict), abbey of, Freemen, five, Gilbert of Ghent and Roger, under King William, Count Alan (of Brittany) and Picot of Cambridge. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, the land was held by Freemen, two, Ramsey (St Benedict), abbey of, Freemen, five, Ulf, Fenman and Freeman, one.
The settlement was assessed at 10 hides for tax. There was land for 5 ploughs. The recorded population was 19 heads of household: 5 villagers, 8 smallholders, 3 cottagers, 1 freeman and 2 slaves. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included meadow (0.5 just meadow). The manors were valued at 1.9 pounds in 1086, down from 2.85 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 →
Drayton 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 Drayton'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.
673 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Drayton, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Drayton is Kellaways Formation And Oxford Clay Formation (Undifferentiated) (Oxfordian).
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.