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, Whittlesford was held by Gerard (of Lorraine).
When William the Conqueror's commissioners surveyed Whittlesford in 1086, they recorded 3 manors held by Gerard (of Lorraine), man, one, Hardwin of Scales and Countess Judith, under Count Alan (of Brittany). Before the Conquest, in the time of King Edward, the land was held by Edeva (the fair), man, one and Earl Gyrth.
The settlement was assessed at 12 hides for tax. There was land for 11.3 ploughs, with 11 plough teams at work (2 in the lord's demesne and 9 held by the villagers). The recorded population was 33 heads of household: 13 villagers, 15 smallholders and 5 slaves. These are heads of household, so the settlement's true population was several times larger. Its recorded resources included meadow (11 ploughs) and 3 mills. The manors were valued at 16.23 pounds in 1086, up from 15.23 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 →
Whittlesford 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 Whittlesford'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.
617 recorded finds have been logged within about 5 miles of Whittlesford, reported by members of the public and entered in the national record of archaeological finds. They span these periods:
The bedrock beneath Whittlesford 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.