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, Sawston was held by Grestain (Sainte-Marie & Saint-Pierre), abbey of.
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Sawston in 1086, they recorded 3 manors held by Grestain (Sainte-Marie & Saint-Pierre), abbey of, Roger, of Sommery and Pirot of Wyboston, under Count Robert of Mortain, Geoffrey de Mandeville and Eudo the steward. Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, the land was held by Ordgar, Sigar, the steward, Aelfric, Kemp and Freemen, three.
The settlement was assessed at 8 hides for tax. There was land for 10 ploughs, with 8 plough teams at work (3 in the lord's demesne and 5 held by the villagers). The recorded population was 38 heads of household: 23 villagers, 13 smallholders and 2 slaves. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included meadow (3 ploughs) and 4 mills. The manors were valued at 19 pounds in 1086, unchanged since 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 →
Sawston 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 Sawston'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.
591 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Sawston, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Sawston 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.