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, Ickleton was held by Count Eustace (of Boulogne).
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Ickleton in 1086, they recorded 2 manors held by Count Eustace (of Boulogne) and Durand, under Hardwin of Scales. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, the land was held by Alsi, Sqitrebil and Estred.
The settlement was assessed at 20 hides for tax. There was land for 24.5 ploughs, with 19 plough teams at work (3 in the lord's demesne and 16 held by the villagers). The recorded population was 43 heads of household: 30 villagers, 10 smallholders and 3 slaves. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included meadow (3 ploughs) and 2 mills. The manors were valued at 20.13 pounds in 1086, down from 24.25 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 →
Ickleton 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 Ickleton'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.
698 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Ickleton, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Ickleton 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.